Nine Man's Morris

Nine Man's Morris is a capture-style game played in two parts.  The object of the game is to get three of your men in a row along one of the lines of the board.

As the title indicates, each man starts with nine pieces.  These can be nearly anything, from coins to different colored stones.  It is said that the board was sometimes drawn on or carved into the top of a table.

Some sort of contest is done to determine who shall move first.  Perhaps a different colored stone is placed in closed fists and shaken.  One stone is captured in each hand.  The other player picks one of the hands. That color goes first.

The first part of play is placing of the pieces.  Alternating back and forth, the players place one of their pieces anywhere on the circles of the board.  One can attempt, at this time, to get three in a row.  When this is accomplished, the player is allowed to remove one of the opponent's pieces from anywhere on the board.

Once all the pieces have been placed on the board (with the exception of pieces already captured), the second portion of the game begins.  Players move one piece at a time, alternating as before, along the lines of the board.  Again, if a three in a row is accomplished, an opponent's piece is removed.  The game is won when one of the players has only two pieces left.  There is a stalemate if one player's pieces are put in such a position that no move is possible.  This won't happen often, as it pretty much requires the opponent to purposely move a piece into a position to block off all routes.