Mornington Crescent Olympic/Jubilee Edition

[Dead Cat]

For some reason, reading the current Magic thread (with only a very, very vague knowledge of the game) put me in mind of Mornington Crescent . As we haven't had a game for a while, and the Olympics is only a week away, I thought, why not?

Since it is an Olympic year and a leap year, obviously all Circle Line stations are wild, and any travel on the Picadilly Line between Heathrow [any] and Earl's Court gains double points (but may of course take a lot longer than usual and be subject to overcrowding). Any tokens purchased are non-refundable - NO exceptions. Since the Olympics were last held in London in 1948, I propose we stick to the ruleset extant at that time - namely, Brunswuthers' 6th Edition (including post-war updates) of 1946. Please note however that this of course does not prevent the play of stations built subsequent to that year (according to standard caveat number 3 in said rules - they were designed with the future in mind). Stations demolished or disused since that year will be subject to the usual sub-rules.

In addition, in celebration of the Queen's diamond jubilee, all stations on the Jubilee line must be played while standing to attention and singing (as best you can) the British National Anthem. First verse only will be fine, thanks - we don't want the game dragging on too long.

For those new to MC on this board, the convention is to play your stations in bold - it is understood that stations typed without bolding are just being mentioned in passing and do not form part of the actual play.

So, I think that's all clear - let battle commence with what I think is a fairly safe opener, viz: Oxford Circus. Oysters at the ready, please mind the doors!

[Wargamer]

Bank, with a green flag at Swiss Cottage, and I think we all know what that means.

And I think your idea for an Olympiad game of MC is just what the doctor ordered Dead Cat, so kudos to you from this colonist!

[Dead Cat]

Hmm. I now wish I hadn't opened with Oxford Circus. True, it is a fine outpost in the centre, but it could become dangerously isolated very quickly. With that in mind, I think a swift Notting Hill Gate is in order. I don't like the look of that green flag. I don't like it at all. Still, early days yet.

[Wargamer]

I may surprise you, by doubling back to Knightsbridge, removing the green flag, and declaring stirrups.

I know this hearkens back to the '77 Bombay Invitational where Kalinnikov unveiled his famous White Russian Gambit. I know that he's fallen into disfavor in the last few decades, as that incident with Lady Greyjayne's Oyster Card being found in his dirty socks raised questions about the propriety of their partnership, but that was several years in the future back in '77.

[Cliffy]

What is with bloody Bank all the time? I do it too, but can we get through one game without some clumsy invocation of Del Rey's Feint?

Never mind, I'm just grumpy because I washed out early of a local rec league tourney they run around here. Anyway, Alperton seems like the right play here.

--Cliffy

[Wargamer]

A classic Alperton Fork play by Cliffy. I fell afoul of that years ago in a college intramural semifinal. Hmm, I think East Acton, while surrendering the short term initiative, does have some long term advantages, if I can just get the game to last long enough.

[Saint Cad]

I'm really thinking a Zone 2 play here may be the way to go and try to start building up a stack of blue tokens. Bakerloo seems like it may have some influence on the mid-game (remember how George "Lasher" Coombs managed to parlay Bushey and Marylebone into victory at the Essex Open in 1978?) so I gotta go with Queen's Park.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Then you leave me no choice but to play a backsie on a '36 loop to get to Farringdon and High Holborn
God save the King

[Jamaika a jamaikaiaké]

inb4 Elephant & Castle

[Cliffy]

You fell for it!

Goodge Street, three tokens, and better luck next time. (I got worried when Saint Cad mentioned Coombs, but I guess you guys never saw the footage of the '79 Essex semis.)

--Cliffy

[Antinor01]

Originally Posted by Cliffy

You fell for it!

Goodge Street, three tokens, and better luck next time. (I got worried when Saint Cad mentioned Coombs, but I guess you guys never saw the footage of the '79 Essex semis.)

--Cliffy

Maybe they didn't. I did. And I read the judges commentary. Bond St. Thans for the free tokens.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Can't say I am fan of the early token calls, it rather strikes me as a very post Walcottian style, and we all ( I hope) know how that turned out.

[Precambrianmollusc]

For what it is worth I am going to take a long slide to
Ealing Common and indicate leaves on the track, not so much to restrict the Picadilly line, but I need some time as I have a hot buttered crumpet that needs attending to, and she is complaining the butter is starting to solidify.

[Wargamer]

Ahhh, Euling Common opens up a South of the River play of Vauxhall! I'll take those blue tokens now Antinor01. And let this be a lesson to you.

(I pass the tokens on to,...ummmm...Precambrianmollusc, because I like the cut of his jib.)

[Saint Cad]

Vauxhall?! Are you even looking at what's going on in the game?!
Gunnersbury
And if that play isn't obvious to you then maybe you shouldn't be playing this game.

[Antinor01]

So you read the commentary too? I should have known someone would do that.

[Saint Cad]

Originally Posted by Antinor01

So you read the commentary too? I should have known someone would do that.

What I don't understand in that commentary was when it said

The key move for Theodore Hume was the play on Gospel Oak which forced the favorite Jules Dechutes to play on the Picadily [sic] Line.

Didn't Dechutes have to play on the Picadilly Line after getting the gold token on his previous turn?

[Johnny Bravo]

Hold on a moment.

Wasn't all play within three weeks of the Olympics (before or after) banned after the debacle in Montreal, back in '76?

I know I shouldn't have to remind you people of these things.

[Antinor01]

Originally Posted by Johnny Bravo

Hold on a moment.

Wasn't all play within three weeks of the Olympics (before or after) banned after the debacle in Montreal, back in '76?

I know I shouldn't have to remind you people of these things.

We're playing Brunswuthers' rules, not Fotherington. Besides, that only applies to intercontinental, semi-final matches and above.

[Antinor01]

Originally Posted by Saint Cad

What I don't understand in that commentary was when it said

Didn't Dechutes have to play on the Picadilly Line after getting the gold token on his previous turn?

Only on even numbered rounds and if he is currently half way or further through a cup of breakfast tea. (though that can be modified by the number of biscuits remaining in the packet)

[Johnny Bravo]

Originally Posted by Antinor01

We're playing Brunswuthers' rules

What! Don't you know that CHILDREN can see these posts!?

[Attack from the 3rd dimension]

Originally Posted by Saint Cad

Vauxhall?! Are you even looking at what's going on in the game?!
Gunnersbury
And if that play isn't obvious to you then maybe you shouldn't be playing this game.

Well, since I'm currently in France, and it's the right thing to do strategically:

Waterloo.

[Bilbo1967]

I know it's pretty obvious, but I'm going to have to play Bank again (Saint Cad surely has an easy huff otherwise).

[Precambrianmollusc]

I doubt Saint Cad would fall for Denied Huff Gambit, not after the Spring Series '08 games.
I think a quick stroll above ground to Monument would open up some stations traditionally closed on Sunday, and provide a little bit of cover in case Wargamers generous token gift has some Trojan qualities to it.

Not that I am suspicious.

No not at all.

[Wargamer]

(Whistles innocently past Precambrianmollusc)

West Acton.

I would respond to those attacks on me, but then that would do nothing to advance my nefarious plan.

Not that there IS said plan. As far as you know.



Oh. Stirrups declared. Heheh.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Royal Oak.

I think that's right.

[JMLVT68]

Goodness, I haven't seen a game as willy-nilly as this since the Pretoria friendlies of '08. Still, given that there are still tokens in play, I'm playing a zone-border defensive move and hustling over to
Bromley-by-Bow.

[Maus Magill]

Unfortunately, everyone knows the Pretoria Friendlies were stricken from the record, and the notes burned . I suggest you review your last issue of Northern Line Journal.

Your faux pas is my gain. If I play this right, I'll avoid the District Line Loop.

Temple with eagles on seven.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Just as science appears to be witchcraft to some, a finely layered Miscobeaien Crossrail play could be construed as willy nilly.

That said,

Oval

[Bilbo1967]

"Finely layered", ha! Couldn't have been much more obvious without actually mentioning Whimperley himself.

Anyway, enough of your shenanigans, let's put an end to that with an authoritative, Baker Street.

[Saint Cad]

This has got to be some of the worst strategy I've ever seen played since Phillip Sidney was given the Cambridge Classic almost by default in 1932. It almost like all y'all Brits WANT the American to beat you. So as I don't disappoint you, Barons Court which now locks the next 3 turns into choosing stations from Zones 4 and 5. Have fun at Heathrow. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

[Cliffy]

I see I'm not the only one who doesn't turn his nose up at the Indian scene. (Ramapriya at Bangalore in '04, right?) I respond with Watford High Street, and let's see you try to get back to the dargons now.

--Cliffy

[Dead Cat]

Good Lord, I go away for a few days and return to find carnage! I'd forgotten how dirty some of you guys play (and of course I mean that as a compliment). I'm going to run away to Amersham, a favourite outpost of mine, and await developments. I will say, however, that those of you squabbling over the tokens may have forgotten the Petrov Principle. No, I won't quote it here as it may be NSFW.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Amersham?!?!?!!
The soul crushing tedium of that play can only truly be represented by the actual soul crushing tedium embodied in the place of my counter play.
Pinner I say to you sir
Pinner

[Malacandra]

To which I can only respond Wimbledon, and that has to be the first time since 1948 that the Olympic Torch clause has been invoked, subsection 3.1.1 "Dense Crowds". Clockwise stations are in Nip for three turns and you may not Traverse. All that and the five-point bonus too - that was a generous gift, you archaeozoic lifeform you.

[Cliffy]

That was an unexpected play, but there are classic counters in the literature. Stanislav would say Epping is the correct next move, but given modern rush hour retrictions, let's go with Theydon Bois, and I pick up three.

--Cliffy

[Tapioca Dextrin]

I've had a letter from a Mrs. Trellis of North Wales.

[Wargamer]

Dollis Hill.

And with that, as long as we aren't forced into a Loop, I think we can bid farewell to the early-Early Game and move into the Mid-Early Game.

[Precambrianmollusc]

But we are in stirrups, Nip and traverses denied, seams to be a very hardline precriptive view given the Jubilee dictum.

In the interim I will be stuck here in Pinner lamenting my impulsive move, I seam to have a blindspot for Brunswuthers 6th.

[Maus Magill]

Drat. My eagles and the stirrups have created an unholy situation. Per the Westminster conference of 1935, I've been forced to miss my connection.

Blackfriars

[matt_mcl]

Canada Water.

[Jamaika a jamaikaiaké]

Since Baker Street was played before move 100, I'll take the grey flag! Did no one else remember the 5th variation to Jamison Rule? It was fucking key in Harrington's win against the Bainbridge Four in last year's Mornington Crescent Day Of New Albany Latter Day Saints "hamburger" tournament.


Anyway, sine I was in Manhattan today, I'll play Borough.

[Precambrianmollusc]

Oh thankyou thankyou.
I will then take a slide over to Chalk Farm which will allow me to play an ancestor based token transfer and off load Wargamers tokens to the Cassava based carbohydrate player. Nothing personal Wargamer, but frankly they were starting to smell funny.

[Malacandra]

Swiss Cottage, and that's the end of the Stirrups (Ranjitsinghi Invitational, Brahmaputra 1913, game 3... ah, the last hurrah before the Great War. Where is their like today? ). I think that puts me comfortably ahead on the clock, but there are still plenty of parallels in play for those of an adventurous turn of mind, and really, who wants to be stuffy about it in a commemorative game?

[Dead Cat]

Isn't Canada Water on the DLR? Very underhand. Desperate times call for desperate measures - Bayswater.

[Bilbo1967]

I assume you're expecting the usual Chancery Lane here? You may not be aware of the latest research, it was only published last week after all, but Tottenham Court Road, counter-intuitively, would seem to give the best chance of an outright win. So, Tottenham Court Road it is.

[matt_mcl]

Originally Posted by Dead Cat

Isn't Canada Water on the DLR? Very underhand. Desperate times call for desperate measures - Bayswater.

What?! No, of course it's not! It's on the Jubilee Line and East London Overground, thank you very much, and just for that, Mile End.

(DLR indeed.)

[Dead Cat]

Sorry - I am trying to play my first 20 moves without a map, as I believe this will qualify me for the repechage later on, regardless of how many negative tokens I acquire. A strange strategy, you may think - and you'd be right, but it could work out well in the long run.

Although your last puts me in knip, I am still able to play Colindale, thanks to Kieswetter's Clarification in the 1932 regional finals.

[Maus Magill]

Curse your Colindale. You've stuck me in the District line. But (as per pfinch-pfennings 1952) I can claim Jamaika a jamaikaiaké's grey flags, acquire 3 green tokens, and one chit.

Cannon Street

[Johnny Bravo]

Since Maus Magill has picked up both green tokens AND a chit on the same turn (see Huntsworth '83), that opens up a Boggs-Phelps manuever. I play Moorgate and claim all available grey flags, as well as the extremely valuable Transit Token.