Holy shit, I can’t believe y’all left this open… with the Foggy Morning Third I’m sliding right into Blackfriars!
Now there is a tip for any newbies watching or even playing along. Beware the bonhomie of the battle-scarred warriors. Beware the iron fist in the velvet glove approach.
All this discussion of playing the freewheeling, bohemian “New Revised” or “Advanced” rules is merely a pretext to draw you into a rookie error allowing them mercilessly skewer you with a pre-Great War rail spike. They might well craft the outward impression of being some Great Uncle Bulgaria, but they are assassins in anoraks.
Play defensively is the sage advice. Count your tokens … and your fingers.
Methinks that with its encumbrance of having “no step free access to Jubilee until autumn 2025” that Green Park is my best reflection of that strategy, whichever rule set is currently in vogue.
For the first deuce: (x2)
West Acton
Holy Shit !! I wasn’t expecting that !
I was hoping to play Blackfriars, but instead I’ll go with …
Temple
Pjd, I would remind you, you’re still under enidment for that reverse skip. Maybe that was very much on your mind, or perhaps you were simply in a generous mood. Either way, I’m willing to spend a token and ‘seize control of the center’ as it were…Piccadilly Circus.
I’m invoking the Right of Turley’s Wood, with the 2nd Maneuver variation.
Becontree
Well isn’t that just egregious? Necessary? Maybe.
Methinks I’ll need to exploit the opportunity pick up some legal advice, and a handful of blue tokens by consulting Rumpole and defraying to Gloucester Road.
I’m going to exercise my first terminus option: Wimbledon. (presents blue badge)
Please do try to keep up. The 2nd Maneuver of Turley’s Wood was ruled illegal in last year’s Bishop Sutton conference (§ III B iv a), wiping away these recent gains. This opens the Thames Link to play.
Maze Hill
That forces me to switch from the Camden Town I had planned to the adjacent Camden Road. Which is pretty close to our ultimate goal but on a different line.
A completely different line, you say? You mean like, Kew Gardens
According to google AI, ..
No, Mercury is not in retrograde right now. According to astrology sites, the current retrograde period ended on August 11, 2025.
Cite.
..so the enidment is invalid - or at least not valid.
Anyway …
Stamford Brook
I know AI is pretty futuristic, but I wonder what day they think they are living through, the poor things. For me I am still stuck in Juli 2025.
Anyway: Poplar
I can’t believe y’all left open the Fifth Barron’s Sweep…
Morning to Crescent
Bravo! Well done, sir! we have a dark horse champion
Yeah, right !
MC in only 25 moves is one for the record books.
Thank you. It was as much luck as anything else.
Holy shit, I just realized that autocorrect screwed up my play. What do the rules say? My move might be invalid!
This recalls the 1978 St. Pancras Misstep, where the panel ruled a garbled call invalid not because of unclear intent, but because the malformed phrase accidentally introduced a nonexistent node (“Morn’ton”), effectively creating a phantom station and breaking the chain of play. Likewise, “Morning to Crescent” invents an intermediate junction (“Morning”) and thus cannot be recognized under the Fifth Barron’s Sweep. Capitalizing on the void, the next legal move would be Chalk Farm, forcing a northern loop and cutting off any direct return to the Circle Line.
A shame, really, as it otherwise would have been one of the most brilliant moves I’d ever seen, claims of luck notwithstanding.