Nine Men's Morris Strategy

[Inquorate]

I've been playing Nine Men's Morris for the last decade, give or take a few years and I decided to write a book on strategy. As part of my research, I came across some interesting links to Christianity and Zoroastrianism, which could have some significance or could just mean that people with the mindset enjoyed the game.
Despite the boardgame enjoying widespread popularity during the Middle Ages and travelling all over Europe and Asia, there doesn't seem to be any strategy guides since a compendium of game puzzles was put together in the 12th century.
I'm still having the book read by testers, but will be self publishing it on Amazon and later Kobo.

Does anyone here play the game?

 

[nicklebleu]

I used to play it as a kid - we called it mill in German.

What I didn’t know is that NMM was a solved game - that is, a game whose optimal strategy has been calculated. It has been shown that with perfect play from both players, the game results in a draw (acc. to Wikipedia).

I also found it interesting, that there is Ten-Morris variation introduced by Lasker, a chess player at the beginning of the 20th century, making the game more complex and avoiding frequent draws (also from Wikipedia).

 

[Inquorate]

The fun thing is nobody seems to know what this solved game is. As soon as a player deviates from it, they can potentially lose, if the opponent keeps playing the new ideal game, without making a mistake.
So the reality is it may as well not be a solved game for most people.
It can be played online on an Android or iPhone app, (best one is from Donkey at) and every time I work out a new approach inevitably someone shows me how to overcome it.

Fantastic game, I love it.