The game of Nine Men's Morris is well documented on several websites and we've provided some links on this page. Ninepenny Marl is a variant from Warwickshire, but most of the sites you visit indicate that while some general rules apply to the game, the players should agree the particular rules prior to play. There is also a computer version of the game.

The game is played on a board similar to the design at the top that forms part of Ninepenny Marl's logo. This could be scratched out in the ground and pieces made out of different coloured stones or clay marbles, in fact anything that is easily to hand that can make up the number of pieces for each player.

The basics of the game are that each player has nine pieces. They decide who should take the first go and then place their pieces on the board alternately. The object is to get a line of three, a mill, along one of the lines. Once all of the players pieces are on the board players can move in their turn one piece to an adjacent vacant position on the board. Once a player has a line of three (a mill) he can remove one of his opponents pieces, but he may not remove a piece that is part of a mill. The game can result in a draw when the players agree that neither are in a position to take advantage, but generally comes to an end when one player is no longer able to produce a mill because they only have two pieces left, or a player finds all his pieces are blocked from moving by the opponents pieces. A variation of the rules is that when a player has only three pieces left they can be moved to any vacant space on the board in their turn.

Variants of the game are Seven Men's Morris which is played on a board that has only two squares, but which a row of three is still required to remove an opponents piece, or Eleven and Twelve Men's Morris which is played on a board which has the diagonals filled in from the outer square corners to the inner square corners and allow for mill to be created along these.

http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Nine-Mens-Morris.htm Has a link to an on-line game.

http://members.aol.com/farisles/guilds/merels.htm  This is a particularly good site for a description of board variations and for the rules.