Learn the rules for Nine-Man Morris, how and where to play it, and what rewards you get with this tavern game in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced.
How to unlock Nine-Man Morris in Black Flag Resynced?
You have to visit a tavern that has an NPC you can challenge. First, you must approach the bar and interact with the bartender. This will trigger a scene where some drunk men start a fight with Edward. After defeating them, you’ll be able to play in that tavern.
The thugs will surround you and approach you one by one, performing heavily telegraphed attacks, these you can try to parry.
The fastest way of incapacitating these enemies is to perform a sweep kick, if you’re playing with keyboard and mouse you can perform a sweep kick by pressing your “2” key, if you’re playing with a controller you have to hold-press your right trigger and press either “A” or “X” depending on your controller button layout.
There are three taverns where you don’t have to fight to unlock the mini-games: these are the ones in:
- Havana
- Nassau
- Great Inagua
The first two you visit as you go through the main storyline of the game. As for Great Inagua, you need to pay to restore the local tavern, which will unlock three different NPCs to play each of the tavern games.
Nine-Man Morris
Also called “Mills”, it dates back to ancient Rome and Egypt, later spreading throughout medieval Europe. Its original rules have been well preserved, and it’s the version we can play in the game.
How to play Nine-Man Morris
The game starts on an empty board, and each player has 9 pieces in their hands.
The game is divided into two phases, first we have the setting phase, where the players take turns placing down their pieces in one of 24 positions.
The main mechanic of the game is to form vertical or horizontal lines of three pieces. Whenever a player successfully makes a line, they get to capture an enemy piece on any position, permanently taking that piece out of the game. This can be done at any point in the game.
Once all pieces have been placed, the game enters its second phase, called mills. Here, the players take turns sliding their pieces to adjacent empty spaces, trying to form their own lines of 3 or block the opponent.
Once one of the players is down to 3 pieces, that player can start moving their pieces to any free space on the board regardless of distance.
The game ends when a player has only 2 pieces left or when they have no possible moves left.
Where you can play Nine-Man Morris
- Beginner: Salt Key Bank (467,605)
- Intermediate: Arroyos (162,540)
- Expert: Great Inagua (820,443)
Tips and Tricks
- Try setting your pieces in corners of the same square to get in positions where your opponent can only block one possible mill.
- Always make sure to have some pieces with possible moves so you don’t lose by getting stuck.
- During the second phase of the game, you can move the same piece back and forth to form the same line, time and time again.
Money Rewards and Achievements
At the start of each game, you have to choose one of three wagers; the amount you will either win or lose depends on the difficulty of the NPC.
“I’ll wager my luck.”:
- Beginner: 100 Reales
- Intermediate: 200 Reales
- Expert: 300 Reales
“Aye, let’s see what you got.”:
- Beginner: 200 Reales
- Intermediate: 400 Reales
- Expert: 600 Reales
“You are outmatched, lad!”:
- Beginner: 300 Reales
- Intermediate: 800 Reales
- Expert: 900 Reales
As for rewards for beating the tavern games, there’s only one achievement called “Grandmaster” with the condition: “Win at each of the different tavern games”. The other two tavern games are Checkers and Fanorona, this means you can get the achievement by defeating each beginner NPC once.
Check our guides for Checkers and Fanorona for more information on how and where to play them.
