https://www.wargamer.com/ancient-board-game-nine-mens-morris-castle-ruins
A board for the ancient board game “Nine Men’s Morris” was found buried in the ruins of Ćmielów castle, carved into a cracked sandstone tile.
The first time I learned to play Nine Men's Morris was at a handmade board game stall at a renaissance festival. I remember the owner/worker telling me the game could be traced back to ancient Rome, and being surprised at how fun it was.
Yeah I remember learning it when I was young - kind of like a much better version of noughts and crosses!
Have any modern games try to use a similar mechanism? Kinda like how Trajan uses Mancala for action selection, Challengers and Tea for 2 are a bit like War and Nanga Parbat vs Tic-Tac-Toe.
Micro Dojo 's action selection is vaguely similar to the second half of Nine Men's Morris in the way the moves are constrained but it uses shared pieces and a 3x3 board rather than the grid.