User talk:Jeffhos
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Hi, Jeffhos. The article below on Morris games is interesting. Do you plan to "publish" it to the article space soon? Cheers. Jonathunder 02:59, 2005 Feb 26 (UTC)
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[edit] Cranston Bill
The Cranston bill was a piece of legislation introduced by California senator Alan Cranston that legalized the homebrewing of beer. It allows a single person to brew up to 100 gallons of beer per year for personal use (or 200 gallons for a two-person household). The bill was signed into law on February 1, 1979 by President Jimmy Carter.
When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, congress also passed a law to leagalized homebrewing of both wine and beer. But when the law was printed in the Federal Register, the copyist left out the words "and/or beer," and this was the version that remained on record.
This left homebrewing in a legal gray area. Homebrewing shops did exist prior to 1979, but they kept a low profile until the Cranston bill explicitly legalized the activity.
[edit] Morris games
Morris games are a family of ancient two-player board games, also known as Mills or Merrills.
[edit] Gameplay
Gameplay consists of two phases. In the first phase, players take turns placing their pieces on the board until all pieces are placed. In the second phase, players move their pieces around the board. All pieces can move to any adjacent (as defined by the lines on the board), empty space.
In both phases, players try to form a line of three of their pieces (a mill). Each time this occurs, the player can remove one of the opponent's pieces (generally it is required that that piece not be in a mill, unless all the remaining pieces are in mills). The object of the game is to remove all of the opponent's pieces, though games are considered to be over when a player is down to 2 pieces (since that player can no longer form mills, and thus cannot win the game). The game is also over if one player cannot move, in which case the win goes to the other player.
One variation that is often adopted in versions with more than 3 pieces is as follows: When a player is reduced to three pieces, those pieces may fly from any intersection to any intersection, without regard for adjacency. This appears to be a powerful resource for an underdog, but in fact rarely changes the outcome of a game.
[edit] Versions
Versions of the game exist for varying numbers of pieces, but all follow the basic rules given above.
[edit] Three men's morris
Three men's morris is possibly the ancestor of the game of tic-tac-toe. Each player has three pieces. Since the object is to reduce the opponent to two pieces, the games ends at the first mill.
[edit] Six men's morris
Six men's morris is played on the board shown at right. Each player begins the game with six pieces.
[edit] Nine men's morris
Nine men's morris is played on the board shown at left. Each player begins with nine pieces. This is the most popular and most studied variation of the game.
The number of legal positions in nine men's morris is estimated to be 1010, the total number of possible games is approximately 1050. In October 1993, Ralph Gasser solved nine men's morris — he showed that it ends in a draw with perfect play. Gasser also developed an AI, called Bushy that is regarded as the world's strongest player.
The World Merrills Association ran the World Championships annually at the Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton le Hole, York, England.
[edit] Twelve Men's Morris
Twelve men's morris is played on a board similar to Nine men's morris, but with the diagonal lines added in, as show at right. Each player starts with twelve pieces. Since there are exactly as many spots on the board as pieces, if neither player forms a mill in the placing phase, no pieces can move, and the game is considered a stalemate.
[edit] History
Morris games are very ancient. Boards for three and nine men's morris were found etched into the stone of a temple in Egypt. A portion of a board with nine men's morris on one side and hnefatafl on the other was found in the Viking Gokstad Ship, estimated to have been built around 890. In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania laments that the game is no longer played: "The nine men's morris is filled up with mud." (Act 2, Scene 2).
[edit] See also
- Kensington similarly has two phases of play.
[edit] External links
- Merrills research from Kansas
- Computer version of Merrelles - English, French and German interfaces available.
- The Yahoo Morris Club with 111 members from 20 nations.
- webMorris - play Morris online.
- Nine Men's Morris - Free Morris Game.
- 9 Men's Morris - Nine Men's Morris online play and game analysis. Has database of all possible positions.
- www.kurnik.org - Play Merrills on this real-time games server.
- Ryedale Folk Museum
de:Mühlespiel
Category:Board games
