About the game

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This is not the place to describe the rules of the game. Most likely, if you are here, you have a fair idea what this is about. If not, Wikipedia has an excellent entry in both English and German, for which I will link to below.

This entry will be more about the larger picture. Where does this game fit into the list of beautiful abstract games we have? Why play Merrills?

Firstly it should be noted that out of all the games that I explored over the years Merrills was the most misunderstood. It is not entirely clear why, but I have some theories.

Of the most confusing aspects of the game is already in its name. In England it is known by several names alone. Nine Men's Morris is probably the most common, but Mill, Mills and Merrills are others. There are more obscure ones including the horrendous Cowboy checkers.

For most people growing up in the UK Nine Men's Morris will be their first port of call, which in itself leads to much misunderstanding because of the closeness not the pastime of Morris dancing. 

Nothing could be further from the truth, as Morris was simply a corruption of merellus which means game piece in Latin.

The second is perhaps more severe. Merrills is often lumped with the trivial game of Tic Tac Toe. The only two things that they share is the concept of having 3 pieces in a row. 

Merrills is not the most complex of abstract games in terms of numbers; it has far less unique positions than chess or backgammon, but it still has far more than the human brain will ever be able to master. 280 Billion unique positions gives it the status of a game that is definitely hard to master. That alone should elevate the game somewhat from its doubters, but there is much more to it and there will be plenty I plan to explore in further posts. 

One of the most notable reasons for playing the game would be that in terms of thinking and strategy, it differs so greatly from other games. For most people, even those advanced in abstract strategy games, it will take them a fair amount of time to fully switch over to a way of thinking that is not there in games such as chess and checkers. At least for me, as an amateur games player, this was the hardest part of learning to play the game even reasonably well. Hardly any of the strategies that served me in other games worked here. Merrills can often be counter intuitive, and very unlike games I had encountered before.




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