Pirate Mills - Game Rules

To play this variant of Nine Men's Morris, you can use the print-&-play form you'll find at the end of this post or use any standard Nine Men's board and pieces. As in the classic game, the goal is simply to reduce your opponent to two pieces, at which point the game is over and the winner declared. There is no 'placement phase' in Pirate Mills, so just set up the board in this fixed starting position (photo below). This is a carefully curated and play-tested opening setup to optimize strategy for two players.

T H E - R U L E S - F O R - P I R A T E - M I L L S

1. Black moves first, a privilege of pirates! Any black piece can be moved along a marked line to an adjacent spot. Then White moves one piece to an open spot. Players alternate moves in this manner. Any unoccupied point (formed by a line intersection) is a legal spot for a move. This is the 'movement phase' of the game.

2. If Black makes three-in-a-row along a line segment (this is called 'closing a mill') then Black removes any white piece from the board. If White 'closes a mill' then a black piece is removed.

3. When players are reduced to only three pieces, they switch to the 'jumpers phase' of the game and can then choose to leap to any open spot on the board. If they are reduced to two pieces, they lose and the other player is the winner.

4. Black Pirate special move: On any turn during 'movement phase', Black can choose to invoke a 'pirate jump' and leap to any open spot on the board. This can only be used once in a game.

Pirate Mills features asymmetric yet balanced play and a re-imagined theme for this classic game. It's a fresh new take on an ancient pastime-- Nine Men's Morris has been played for over 3000 years. Read the post that follows this one for additional Strategy information, or simply click and download this LETTER-SIZE PRINTABLE FILE to enjoy it.

Pirate Mills - Strategy

Here's a little back-story on this interesting variant of 9 Men's Morris which goes by the name Pirate Mills. In it, the traditional 'placement phase' of 9MM is not played, but the design of the opening board setup follows a rationale that it had. Therefore, because White has a mill along M-N-O, it reasons that Black lost a stone and has only 8 pieces in the starting configuration.

In the illustration below, you see not only this starting config. (from which players begin, in lieu of placing stones by their own choice) but also the board notation system using alphabetized positions: A-to-X, left-to-right, top-down. The opening setup can also be expressed as Black: A, B, I, K, L, P, Q, S; and White: C, F, H, J, M, N, O, R, V.

A study of this opening shows that Black can 'close a mill' (form a three-in-a-row along a marked line) in just two turns by first moving B›E or L›G. White would find the same circumstance by moving N›U or V›W or O›X. Assuming that both players 'close a mill' on their respective second turns, the stone count would then be 7 vs. 8 and there would be ample room on the board for movement, with a bounty of strategic options.

This fixed setup differs from ones that players build out of self-interest in the 'placement phase' of Nine Men's Morris. For instance, it would be unlikely that Black would allow White to place stones at F-M-N-O-C without trying to block them in, to effectively clog the lanes or trap pieces, which does have strategic value even though it impedes movement options and is a reason often cited by detractors of 9MM who feel frustrated by how this aspect of the game traditionally unfolds.

Players invariably use more mill-defenses in Nine Men's Morris (during 'placement phase') than occurs in this designed arrangement for Pirate Mills. This setup creates a new game experience with more groupings and less constricted byways. And it balances the game in interesting ways: Black may be down by a piece at the start, but has the option to use its 'pirate jump': on any one turn, Black may jump a stone anywhere.