Nine Men's Morris rules contract
Mill protection, flying at three, blocked-player loss, and why NoCharge documents each variant decision instead of inventing a house style.
Classic games have regional variants. Nine Men’s Morris is no exception. NoCharge picks a standard set and states every choice on the guide.
The contract
- Board: 24 points — three concentric squares with corners and midpoints.
- Stones: nine per player; Black starts.
- Mills: three in a line; the mill’s owner removes one opponent stone.
- Mill protection: you may remove a stone inside a mill only when no other opponent stone exists.
- Flying: with exactly three stones, you move anywhere.
- Blocked loss: fewer than three stones, or no legal move, loses.
Why each decision is explicit
- Mill protection is the most contested rule. Some tables allow breaking a mill freely; others forbid it. NoCharge enforces protection and says so in the guide and in-game message.
- Flying threshold is sometimes two stones. NoCharge uses the more common three and documents it.
- Blocked-player loss is a default many implementations omit. NoCharge includes it because a position where a player cannot move is a real end state.
Where it shows in the game
- The HUD title says “Mill board · placing stones / moving phase / flying phase”.
- Tapping a protected mill stone shows “That stone is protected while another is available”.
- The guide’s rules section repeats the exact contract.
Limits
NoCharge does not claim to implement any particular federation’s rules, and does not claim the game trains planning or spatial reasoning. The guide’s strategy tips (double mills, break before forming, count stones) are heuristics with no proof of efficacy.