Mill, nine mens morris

Category: 2 Player, Multiplayer Plays: 25 Rating:

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2-players 158 board game 37 boardgame 28 boardgames 24 Multiplayer game 40

How to Play

Game Overview

Mill is one of those old board games that feels like it's been around forever, probably because it basically has. You''ve got three squares nested inside each other, with lines connecting them at the corners and midpoints. The whole thing is just lines and circles on a flat board, maybe a wooden one in real life, but the digital version keeps it clean and simple. No flashy animations or anything, just the bare bones of the game. You and another player each have nine pieces, usually black and white like checkers. The goal is to get three in a row, called a mill, and then remove one of the opponent's pieces. That''s the whole core loop. It starts with placing pieces on empty spots, which is like a careful little war of positioning. Once everything''s down, you slide pieces along the lines to adjacent open circles. No jumping, no diagonal moves, just shuffling around. The tricky part is you can break your own mills and rebuild them to keep stealing pieces. If you get down to three pieces left, you get to fly -- that means you can jump to any empty circle, which is a huge power swing. The game ends when someone has only two pieces left or can''t move at all. It''s tense and quiet, like chess but faster and weirder. There''s a lot of planning ahead and watching your opponent''s patterns. I''d say it hooks people who like abstract strategy, maybe fans of checkers or go who want something with a different rhythm. The vibe is calm but sharp, like sitting in a library and squinting at a puzzle.

About Mill, nine mens morris

So you''re staring at a board made of three squares connected by lines -- 24 little circles total. Each player gets nine chips, black or white. The first phase is placement: you and the other person take turns dropping chips onto empty circles. No strategy guide needed at the start -- just pick a spot. But here''s where it gets mean. The core mechanic is the mill: three of your chips in a straight line on any of the squares'' edges or the connecting lines. The second you complete a mill, you get to remove any one of your opponent''s chips from the board. That''s the satisfying moment -- the "gotcha" snap as you pluck their piece away, potentially breaking a mill they were building.

Once all eighteen chips are down, the game shifts into movement mode. Now you''re sliding one chip per turn to an adjacent empty circle along the lines. No diagonal hops, no jumping over other chips. This is the part where the brain starts sweating. You''re trying to set up mills while blocking theirs, and every move has to double as defense because they''ll punish you fast. The difficulty ramps up naturally -- early matches feel like a gentle puzzle, but after a few rounds against the AI on "Troy" or "Indus" difficulty, you realize every open circle is a trap.

Then the desperation phase hits. When a player is down to three chips left, they get flying moves -- meaning that player can now place any of those three chips onto any empty circle, not just adjacent ones. This changes everything. Suddenly the losing player becomes a gremlin, zipping around the board to form a mill out of nowhere. It''s the most tense part of the game, because one flying move can flip the whole match.

The game ends when someone is down to two chips -- that''s a loss, since you can''t make a mill with two. Or if all your moves are blocked, you lose too. There''s no timer, no flashy animations -- just pure positional warfare. The controls are dead simple: tap to place, tap to select a piece, tap a destination. No menus to memorize. The AI has three levels, from "Novice" (makes obvious mistakes) to "Master" (grinds you into paste), and the online mode lets you queue against randoms. No upgrades, no levels -- just you, your opponent, and those 24 circles. It''s brutal and it''s been the same for 4,500 years.

Tips & Tricks

Early mills are tempting but risky. I learned this the hard way: rushing to form a mill on your first three moves often leaves your other pieces isolated, giving your opponent easy targets later. Instead, focus on controlling the center square and the corners first -- those are the key positions for blocking your rival's moves. Another mistake I made repeatedly was ignoring the double-threat setup. Place your pieces so that moving one can create two possible mills at once; this forces your opponent into a losing choice every time. When you're down to three pieces and get the flying move, don't just jump anywhere. Use that freedom to land on a spot that disrupts your opponent's potential mills while setting up your own -- it's a huge swing moment. The biggest trick that clicked for me was watching the shared spaces between squares. A single piece on a corner can block two different mill lines simultaneously, which is way more powerful than it looks. Also, never forget that blocking is often better than attacking. If your opponent has two pieces in a row, plug that third spot immediately, even if it means delaying your own plans. Finally, count pieces. Once you both have pieces placed, the player with more mills usually wins, so trade pieces aggressively when you can.