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.