Stacking rejuvenates Morris variant

Kanare Abstract has earned a very solid reputation for putting out small box abstract strategy games which are well worth a look for those who lean toward such games.

In some cases the games available – check out kanare-abstract.com for the full range – are recent designer creations while others such as Morris being reviewed here reaches back a few centuries.

The Kanare website notes, “Morris is a classical game that existed as late as the Roman era and was especially popular in medieval Europe. The players place their pieces on the board one by one, and then move them on the grid. When three pieces are placed in a straight line, one of the opponent's pieces is captured.

Arguably the most famous version is Nine Men's Morris, which uses nine pieces for each of the two players.

“Nine Men's Morris is a very old game that has been played for thousands of years all over the world. It was most popular about five hundred years ago and was played by Monks in churches as well as on village greens throughout England,” details Board Game Geek.

“. . . The first player to reduce their opponent to two pieces wins.

“In the first stage of the game players take turns placing their pieces on the board, attempting to make a line of three. Once all the pieces have been placed, players may slide them, still attempting to make a line of three. Whenever a player makes a line of three, they remove an opponent's piece of his choice. When one player has only three pieces left, he is allowed to move any piece from any point on the board to any other point in order to more effectively block the winning opponent and to make a line of three.”

But as often is the case with Kanare games, there is more offered in the small box. The version also includes Twelve Men's Morris, which uses twelve pieces for each.

Again from BGG, “Twelve Men's Morris is a traditional board game similar to Nine Men's Morris. It was most popular during the Middle Ages when it was played in courts across Europe. It is played on a board with 24 nodes joined by lines; each player has twelve pieces.”

The game proceeds in three phases:

* Players alternately place one piece on a node in each move. If a player makes three in a row, he or she can capture one of the opponent's pieces.

* Once all the pieces are placed, players take turns moving the pieces to adjacent nodes. Again, whenever a player forms three in a row, one of the opponent's pieces may be captured.

* When one player is down to just three pieces, the remaining pieces may ‘fly’ to anywhere on the board (not just adjacent nodes).

So far the Kanare set is just a handy little version of an easily taught classic that offers some historical interest but not much in terms of last challenge.

What makes this version worth a much longer look in that an original variant -- "Stacking Morris" -- using a piece-stacking mechanism included.

In this interesting variant “the player who makes a ‘mill’ during the game chooses one of the opponent's singletons on the board and puts it under one of pieces of the mill to make a stack. The stacks are owned and controlled by the player who has placed the top piece. Whenever you move a stack, you move the entire stack and cannot separate two pieces,” details the Kanare rules.

While other rules follow ultimately “The player who makes a mill that consists of three of their own stacks immediately wins the game. This includes when this is accomplished as a result of using an opponent's stack to make a mill, or when it is accomplished by an opponent's move. Also, this winning condition by a mill made with three stacks takes precedence over all one-level mills,” explains the rules.

It is the stacking version of Morris which intrigues here, a different experience within a well-understood core rule set, which makes this one worth a very long look, and ultimately recommended collection addition.