Nine Men's Morris

Nine Men's Morris

Nine Men's Morris's name comes from the word merellus, a Latin word meaning the corruption of counters Considered one of the oldest games in history, it ha made its way around the world many times over. It has many names, including Mill, Merelles, and Morris.

Rules

Each player receives nine pieces. the board itself has twenty-four different intersections along which the pieces move along. the goal of the game is to either get the opposing player down to two pieces or block any possible move for them. The game begins by each of the players putting their pieces on the board in turn. once all of the pieces are on the board, players continue taking turns by moving a pieces to an empty point adjacent to it.

In order for a player to take an opponent's piece, a player has make a line out of three of their pieces. once they have have made this "string" they are allowed to take one of the enemy pieces. The exception to this rule is that they cannot take a piece out of an opponent's string, unless there is no other piece available.

"Flying" is an optional rule of Nine Men's Morris. Whenever a player is reduced to only three pieces, on their turn they are allowed to move anyone of their pieces to any place on the board.

History

the earliest example of Nine Men's Morris was found in an Egyptian temple at Kurna, Egypt, dating around 1440 BCE. Since then boards have been discovered all over the world in places as far from its earliest resting place as Ireland or the Southwestern United States. Morris found its peak of popularity in 14th and 15th century Britain, and is even mentioned in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Game Design elements

Nine Men's Morris is a game based on strategic placement. Its victory conditions rely on either placing pieces in places that restrict the movement of an opponent or placing pieces in a fashion that allows a player to create many "strings" quickly with minimal loss.

Art

Any art related to the game is purely functional. the board consists of 24 holes in which to place the game pieces. these holes are arranged on three squares that are drawn inside each other. the innermost square is connected to the other two by four perpendicular lines coming from the sides. the lines show the directions in which strings can be made.

References

"Gamecrafters." Gamecrafters. 24 May 2008. UC Berkeley, Web. 2 Feb 2010. <http://gamescrafters.berkeley.edu/games.php?game=ninemensmorris>.

Gasser, Ralph (1996). "Solving Nine Men's Morris" . Computational Intelligence 12: 24–41

Sackson, Sid. The Book of Classic Board Games. Palo Alto, California: Klutz Press, 1990. 34. Print.