1. Six Men’s Morris is played on a board consisting of 2 nested squares with points at the corners and in the middle on each side of the squares. Lines indicate permitted moves.

2. Each player selects 6 BEADs the colour of their choice. All BEADs start off the board.

3. Players decide who begins the game by rolling a die.

1. In the first phase of the game, players take turns to place 1 BEAD onto an empty space, trying to form mills; 3 of their BEADs in a horizontal or vertical line.

2. When a player forms a mill, they can remove any one of their opponent's BEADs from the game, except a BEAD in a mill. If the opponent only has BEADs in mills, these can be captured.

3. Once a BEAD has been removed, from the board, it cannot be replayed.

4. The second phase begins when all the BEADs have been placed on the board, and players take turns to move their BEADs to an adjacent empty play space, along the play lines indicated trying to form mills.

To win the game a player must reduce their opponent to 2 BEADs.

1. This is a smaller counterpart to the well-known Nine men's morris. Six men's morris was quite popular in mediaeval Europe. It is mentioned in a French source from 1412, and a 16th century Italian player made a doodle of the board in a manuscript. It was played in England, where a triangular version was also invented.

2. The game had become obsolete in Europe by the 17th century, although a version of it was played in Ghana in the 20th century. The African version features a development, in which mills can be formed by two pieces along the lines which connect the inner and outer square together - the European version allows mills only on a row of three connected points.