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You play in phases: placing your men, then sliding them along the lines to adjacent points. The exact number of men depends on which small variant you're playing.

The mill is the shared heart of every morris game:

• Forming a mill means lining up three of your men along a marked line. Each mill you complete lets you remove one of your opponent's men from the board.
• Tight movement defines these small boards. With few points and few men, every move is significant, and a single misstep can immediately lose you a man or a position.

On the smallest boards, forming a mill can be quick, so both attack and defense happen fast.

You win by reducing your opponent below three men or freezing their movement. The computer sharpens across eight levels.

Tips

• Treat every point as important. On these small boards there are few intersections, so each one is part of a mill or a key move, meaning careless placement is punished immediately.
• Watch for mill threats every turn. Because the boards are tiny, mills form and break quickly, so check on each move whether your opponent is one step from completing a line.
• Control the center where it exists. On boards with a central hub point, that spot usually belongs to several lines, so holding it gives you more mill threats and better mobility.
• Don't get frozen. With so few points, it's easy to have your men blocked, and losing all moves loses the game, so keep an empty point available to slide into.
• Set up a repeating mill if you can. Even on small boards, a position that lets you break and re-form a mill each turn removes an enemy man every move, which quickly wins.
• Think a move ahead. The games are short but not shallow, so picturing your opponent's reply before you move keeps you from walking into a mill or a trap on the cramped board.

Frequently asked questions