Strategy guide
Nine Men’s Morris Strategy: Placement, Running Mills and Double Mills
Updated October 6, 2026
A game of Nine Men’s Morris has three phases — placing, moving and flying — and each one calls for a different focus. Many beginners rush to form mills while placing, only to find their pieces stuck once moving begins. This guide explains what to aim for in each phase.
Placing: position matters more than mills
Each player places 9 pieces in turn. The most common mistake in this phase is chasing mills and forgetting whether your pieces will still be able to move later.
- Take the midpoints of the middle square first. Each of these four points connects to 4 neighbours, making them the most flexible points on the board; midpoints of the outer and inner squares connect to 3, and corners to only 2.
- Do not rush mills. A mill during placement removes one piece, but it often bunches your pieces together, and they get blocked once moving starts.
- Watch for two in a row. When your opponent has two pieces on a mill line and the third point is empty, take that point in time.
- Leave yourself room. When placing ends, your pieces should ideally be spread over several areas, each with an empty point next to it.
Moving: opening-and-closing mills and double mills
Once moving begins, each turn you slide one piece to an adjacent empty point. Two tactics matter most now:
- Opening and closing a mill: move one piece out of a mill and back again next turn to form the mill again and remove another piece. If your opponent cannot fill the gap on the turn you open it, they simply lose a piece.
- Double mill: arrange your pieces so that two mill lines share one “swinging” piece. Moving that piece back and forth forms a mill on every move. Once you build a double mill, your opponent loses a piece almost every turn, and that usually decides the game.
- Blocking: a player who has no legal move on their turn loses at once. When your opponent has more pieces but they are crowded together, blocking them can be faster than capturing.
Flying: down to three pieces
When a player is reduced to 3 pieces, they may fly: move a piece to any empty point on the board. Flying can make the position suddenly dangerous.
- If you have more pieces, never leave two lines open at once with two pieces each and the third point empty. A flying opponent can block anywhere, but only one point per turn, so two threats at once means they lose a piece.
- If you are down to three pieces, use flying to block your opponent’s mill lines while you look for a point that creates two mill threats at once. That is where comebacks happen.
Rules that are easy to miss
| Situation | Rule on this site |
|---|---|
| One move closes two mills | You still remove only one piece |
| Enemy piece is in a mill | It cannot be removed unless all enemy pieces are in mills |
| Opponent has only 2 pieces left | Opponent loses |
| Opponent cannot move on their turn | Opponent loses |
| 50 moves in a row without a mill | Draw |
| Same position appears a third time | Draw |
How to practise on this site
Play a few games against the AI, deliberately taking the middle-square midpoints while placing and trying to build opening-and-closing mills and double mills once moving starts. After each game, open the replay to see in which phase you lost the initiative. To play a friend, send them an invite link.