Mornington Crescent

[elShoggotho]

We all remember the great game of April 2008, which was in honour of the great (late and lamented) Humph. Let's try to capture some of the glory of that old game with another game of

MORNINGTON CRESCENT

which follows the standard ruleset used for the honorary game. Remember:

Play is to follow the "Ancient & Modern Rules" - the 1904 revision - so as to keep the game "on topic" as it were.

Therefore, (for those without a copy of the rulebook handy), a quick run down of the changes versus the current standard ruleset.

• No player may be declared to be in "Nip" unless the minimum 5 tokens have been paid.
• The Northern Line begins the game set with a 1/2 speed modifier. The line may advance to full speed after the first player has been declared to be in "Mopsy" or after 13 turns (whichever comes sooner).
• St. Pancras is automatically "Wild" and remains so throughout the game.
• All orange tokens have the same value as puce for the purposes of scoring.
• Hats and gloves must be removed.
• Starting moves may NOT be made within the 3rd Quadrant
• The "Pemberton Maneuver" is NOT valid unless it immediately follows a two-phase shift by another team.
• Play moves clockwise

And so we are ready to begin...

Oh, and it's a free for all game, without teams.

[Alain Raethorne]

Ah, this is grand! Another game!

Very well then, I do believe I shall start off at:

Tower Hill!

[Dusza Beben]

Are we playing 'Tudor Court Rules' ?

DB

[helios]

May I ask, What is this game, and how is played?

[Alain Raethorne]

Yes, you may ask.

 

[BaronAdhemar]

Very well then, I do believe I shall start off at:
Tower Hill!

Aldgate East

[David Godfrey Esq.]

Turnpike Lane

[Alain Raethorne]

Aldgate East you say? Hmm, a clever move.

However, as cunning as it may be, I don't believe it will work. Consider first the 1901 Leon-Constance game wherein Monsieur Leon attempted to gain an early foothold by claiming Aldgate East and then discreetly moving to Liverpool Street and right on to Moorgate. This caused quite a controversy at the time and the game had to be delayed for about a month before the chairpersons could decide whether he could do that without first gaining a two mauve tokens, or give up his lead and get pushed back to St. Paul's.

Leon covers this game quite thoroughly in his book, Mornington Crescent: What it is, Why I played it, and More Importantly, When is Tea?

Now, I do believe that the chairpersons' rulings were added into the 1904 revision of the "Ancient & Modern" rule set. If they were, such a move is right out.

However, if we are playing with "Tudor Court Rules", that's a different story.

We'll have to wait for Shoggo's answer, since I assume he is acting chaircreature for this game.

[Seaton Begg]

I invoke the 1974 hop, skip & jump rule (which introduced the triple quaver for District Line moves as a legal variation of the Tudor Court Rules). My move is;

Victoria > St James Park > Mansion House

[elShoggotho]

Hold it! You forgot that we're playing the 1904 revision of the Ancient & Modern ruleset, which renders that specific variant invalid. The hop, skip & jump rule was introduced in 1974 to counter a specific problem in the 1972 Columbian ruleset, which renders it inoperable under the 1904 revision.

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

Mansion House, you say? That's a risky manoeuver, especially since we're playing by the 1904 Ancient and Modern rules. Consider the precedent set by Kalamar in 1907, when he played Mansion House against Dravitzki's Double Holborn inversion technique. The game was concluded in only six days after that.

Mixy, in his 1967 analysis of this event managed to pinpoint this single move as leading to Kalamar's inevitable defeat and, shortly afterwards, his suicide.

In the interests of dragging this out for as long as possible though, I'm not going to employ the Double Holborn Inversion, but rather the Hyde Park Corner shuffle, first used in 1889.

Let's see where you go from there.

[Von Gast]

I think I'll play the LCC Kingsway Underpass diversionary route, which brings us to Holborn.

[Zwack]

I believe that the Diversionary route to Holborn is a valid move under the 1904 rules thus allowing me to invoke the 1902 Battenburg addendum and ignore the intervening illegal moves.

Thus...

Barons Court

And for the person asking for the rules, they're rather straightforward.  However rather than wasting space here detailing them yet again I would suggest that you go and read them.  There is a very informative web site at http://www.mornington-crescent-rule.fsnet.co.uk/mornington-crescent-rule.htm

[BaronAdhemar]

Barons Court

Hmmm. Baron's Court you say... that means the the court cards rules apply, so the natural next move would of course be Earl's Court. But BUT I say the Stingingham Convention (1922 edition, of course...) allows the social conversions, so I'm going to say...

Clapham Common.

And really, you don't get much more common than that.

[JingleJoe]

Oh fhtagn, it's happening again!
I play the "fly away on my zeppelin" card

[David Godfrey Esq.]

Oh fhtagn, it's happening again!
I play the "fly away on my zeppelin" card

Have you got enough puce tokens for that yet?

[Alain Raethorne]

Oh fhtagn, it's happening again!
I play the "fly away on my zeppelin" card

Have you got enough puce tokens for that yet?

I was going to say.

It's way to early in the game for that to be possible.

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

That's an illegal move at this stage, I'm afraid. You'd have to traverse the Bakerloo line 3 times, in rewverse no less, before you could even qualify for a zeppelin, and I'm sure Chairthing Shoggy would agree.

[Mrs. Sullivan]

I should like to join in on the fun, but since I am a complete novice -

Tottenham Court Road

[JingleJoe]

Oh fhtagn, it's happening again!
I play the "fly away on my zeppelin" card

Have you got enough puce tokens for that yet?

*turns out pocketfulls of puce tokens from my bag o' tricks* I saved them for just such an occasion. When some of my privateers returned with chests, thier content unkown, some turned out to be full of these ghastly things ... anyway I shall no more be a part of this game which riddles my brain to swiss cheese!

[BaronAdhemar]

Tottenham Court Road

Err. Two courts within three moves invokes Royal Promotion...  so.. Kings Cross

NOT St. Pancras

[Dr cornelius quack]

Decisions, decisions.

Monument.

[BaronAdhemar]

Monument. Monument? Seriously?

Well, then I'm going to have to say...

Canary Wharf

Ha! Take that!   

[OldProfessorBear]

Marble Arch

[elShoggotho]

HOLD IT! Baron Adhemar, I hereby declare you *frumple* for violating the timeline. You know quite well that the Stingingham Convention is not in power. The 1904 revision of the Ancient & Modern ruleset allows for temporal shifts though, so I'll let it slip for now, but remember your status and its ramifications.