Nine Men’s Morris

Nine Men’s Morris , also known as ‘ Mill ‘ is a player vs computer, mouse
controlled, implementation of a strategy board game that the author claims
dates back over three thousand years!

This is a three phase, turn based game played on a board with concentric
squares marked on it. These are connected by lines. The object of the game is
to form a line of three pieces. This is called a ‘mill’. Doing so costs the
opposing player one piece.
Phase one sees the players putting their pieces onto the board looking for a
strategic advantage, trying to form a mill or positioning their pieces so that
their opponent cannot form a mill. Phase two has the players taking turns to
move their pieces around the board, according to a set of rules, looking to
form a mill.
The game ends when one player has only two pieces left – obviously they cannot
form a mill so for them it’s over – or when a player has no valid moves to
make.

This implementation has options for player vs computer as either black or
white, human vs human, computer vs computer, and the player can adjust the
computer’s thinking time for a harder or an easier game. In addition the
author has added a few restrictions of their own, declaring the game is a draw
when either player has made two hundred moves or when fifty moves have taken
place and no piece has been captured. A draw will also be declared if the
positions of the pieces on the board are repeated three times with the same
player to move, in other words the game detects a stalemate and ends the
match.

Nine Men’s Morris