Dear Hannah,

Nine Men's Morris is an ancient board game combining the speed of checkers, the strategy of chess and the simplicity of tic-tac-toe.

It is easy to play, but difficult to master.

Opponents each start the game with 9 playing pieces.

The object ... is to either trap your opponent so he or she can no longer move or to capture all their playing pieces except for two.

The rules ... first person to play puts a piece over any of the white circles on your game board.

Then the second person does the same.

Your objective is to get three of your pieces in a row (which is called a "mill").

All the pieces in a "mill" must be on circles connected by lines.

In other words, diagonal mills don't count.

When you get a mill, you may remove and keep one of your opponent's pieces from the board.

The only time a piece can be removed from an opponent's mill is when there are no other pieces available except those in a mill.

Once both players have put down all their pieces (this is called the "placement" phase), they take turns moving their pieces along the lines in an effort to form a mill (this is called the "movement" phase).

You can only move one space at a time, and you can't move diagonally.

Also, you may only move to adjacent open circles.

You may not bump or jump an opponent's piece.

Remember, the forming of a mill allows for the removal of an opponent's piece.

If you plan well, it is possible to play a piece that forms two mills. If this occurs, you can remove two of your opponent’s pieces.

Play continues until a player can no longer move or is left with only two playing pieces on the board. Whichever outcome, this person loses the game.

I can show you better than I can tell you.

Let's see how it is done.

Roll the demo ...


Love,

Daddy