Mornington Crescent

[duke o' york]

Here's a game I just played against (the AI version of) Barry Cryer. He was clever, but I bided my time and then struck when he seemed to have it sewn up. Would anyone care to analyse this (more than likely fluky) triumph?

Tudor Court Rules with optional straddling

1 duke o' york - Aldgate East (duke o' york is commencing a pincer movement)
2 Barry Cryer - Chesham (Barry Cryer is playing a Forced Pass)
3 duke o' york - Walthamstow Central (duke o' york is now in spoon)
4 Barry Cryer - Bermondsey
5 duke o' york - Grange Hill
6 Barry Cryer - Hyde Park Corner
7 duke o' york - Elephant & Castle
8 Barry Cryer - Warren Street (Barry Cryer is playing Huguenots Gamble)
9 duke o' york - New Cross Gate
10 Barry Cryer - Dollis Hill
11 duke o' york - Sudbury Town (duke o' york has been placed in croop)
12 Barry Cryer - Lancaster Gate (Barry Cryer has played a strile)
13 duke o' york - Maida Vale (duke o' york has boxed out the F, J, O and W placings)
14 Barry Cryer - Oval (Barry Cryer has played a diagonal knerdle and is now in nidd)
15 duke o' york - Brondesbury Park
16 Barry Cryer - Lambeth North
17 duke o' york - Fulham Broadway (duke o' york has quartered the Central Line)
18 Barry Cryer - Bermondsey
19 duke o' york - Mornington Crescent
duke o' york has won!

You can tell my fondness for out-of-the-way stations from this game, and my reluctance to venture inside the circle line except when necessary. Have to chide myself for some of the moves, but a few were particularly noteworthy. What does anyone else think?

 

[Wolfshanze]

This really must be simply chalked-off as "one of those British things"... as a very American person with a good understanding of "one of those German things"... I simply don't get the point to this "game".

Must be one of those British things...

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Looking at your game duke, I think that AI Cryer's play of Hyde Park Corner to break out of the Grange Hill Loop was a bit suspect - Your following move south of the Thames seems to have put it onto the defensive for the rest of the game. My last game I tried to be too clever and played Brompton Rd, usually a good move to throw players into confusion, but the AI was less easily thrown off balance - he quickly declared MC. Doh! My usual psychological tactics were useless against a lump of doped silicon, of course.

My move? Let's keep the pace slow, then. Passports at the ready - it's Pimlico

 

[duke o' york]

Well I'm afraid that I left my passport at home and so was unable to enter the People's Republic of Pimlico, instead using the time to take in the art at the Tate Gallery. Inspired, but in need of a little change, I invite you to examine something a little more up to date at the new Tate Modern, a short walk from Southwark tube station.

 

[stormerne]

I thought about following Duke's example and playing something needlessly obscure. But perhaps that is his plan, to lull the rest us into a stupor where we play carelessly. Then I thought, "Damn it, no one is going to make me play anything other than my naturally aggressive style." So time for a little gravitas: Westminster

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Hmm, entering Westminster with such a low LV gives few options without being placed in knip.
I'll try to open the game up a bit, so: Baker Street

 

[GenghisK]

I'm following this competition for a while and well, I think I got the goal purpose, although I don't always understand the strategy... but anyway that seems a tough fight eh
PS: how can you switch from westminster to baker street?

 

[duke o' york]

I'm wondering if Eddie hasn't placed himself in croop with that last move, but will press on regardless as we didn't establish a specific rules variant before we began and so I assume we are playing a good old-fashioned MC.
From Baker Street to: Arnos Grove.

 

[stormerne]

Duke: I think it would ungentlemanly to invoke Tottershaft's Law against Eddie. As you say, we didn't agree a variant at the outset so we ought to play the default rules.

Khanh: Eddie's move was a simple reverse shunt along the Jubilee line. He really didn't have much option as his line velocity was so low. His only alternative would have been to "pass", but that would only have reduced his LV further. However, he will have to halve his LV anyway because I have the token power to now declare a "bifurcation" allowing me to split the game into two parallel threads and play Chalk Farm and Cutty Sark simultaneously! All players must now move in both threads every turn and, while bifurcation lasts, the game can only be won by playing Mornington Crescent in both strands simultaneously.

You may reasonably enquire why I have played a bifurcation. It is simply to thwart Duke! The best way to beat him is actually to continue to play aggressively. But then I would have to do all the work, and it's the end of the week and I'm feeling lazy! If I bifurcate, Duke's strategy of obfuscation will work against him and he'll end up obsfuscating himself into oblivion unless he breaks out of the pattern and hands me the advantage. In other words, he does all the work and I still end up ahead.

It's a very English twist to this very English game, Khanh, that I'm openly telling him all this.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Well at least the peculiarities of the quadrant 5 "Docklands Triangle" allow me to boost my LV a bit (although with some degree of curvature), but I'm still struggling on the Northern Line.

Camden Town and Gallions Reach then.

 

[duke o' york]

This split could make things a lot more interesting from a tactical standpoint, but for the moment I shall continue my slow drift away from the Circle line, in the, admittedly vain, hope of luring you into a false sense of security and then striking with serpentine swiftness. As Clive of India once watched dumbfounded when the Raj followed Camden Town with Perivale, so I hope shall you. I do also hope, however, that your reaction does not lead you to the extreme lengths that did Clive's. From Gallions Reach to Totteridge and Whetstone may seem foolhardy, but I'm sure that such seasoned competitors as yourselves will not rush to judgement, especially in a game such as our beloved MC.

 

[stormerne]

Perivale / Totteridge and Whetstone ? Hmmm...

Russell Square which I declare as my Home Station on that thread, and
Mornington Crescent on the other thread.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Mornington Crescent ? ah you taunt me Stormerne. I'll refrain from declaring a home station even with my low LV, I'm still out to grab as many tokens as I can.
There's a nice move I can make here - Paddington (Circle & District) and Paddington (Hammersmith & City)
When play is bifurcated I just love to play moves like this.

 

[duke o' york]

In a cunning plan to debifurcate this game and to try to lessen any further complications our esteemed occasional French visitor may be having in understanding the game, I shall propose a cunning ploy to try and bring the game back to a unilinear motion.
So from the depths of Mr Gruber's shop, having bumped into Paddington, I find myself en route(s?) to Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, 3 respectively. If you can get out of this particular one-way system and still manage to keep the bifurcation going then I doff my hat to you.


In case of any doubt, I meant that Genghis is an occasional spectator on our game, not occasionally French.

 

[GenghisK]

Thanks a lot for your help duke, it's true I got lost with the ending of the game though... had to look at the London map often:crazyeyes
Anyway, yeah I'm spying and lurking over this bloody battlefield thread quite a lot
sigh, missing the good old time spent in London...

 

[duke o' york]

But it's not over yet Genghis!
Stormerne may have played Mornington Crescent, but under the split route system, bifurcation, it is necessary to reach MC simultaneously on both lines. And so the game goes on!

 

[GenghisK]

yum, lot of blood in perspective....

 

[stormerne]

Originally posted by duke o' york
If you can get out of this particular one-way system and still manage to keep the bifurcation going then I doff my hat to you.

We'll see. I'm no newcomer to bifurcation, both in attack and in defence, and once upon a time I would myself have played as you have just played. But years of bitter experience have taken their toll and the Heathrow ploy is simply not good enough nowadays.

So straight in with the killer stroke... I'm not going to beat about the bush. Or maybe I am, for here is my eponymous move, Stormerne's Rebuttal:
Shepherd's Bush (Central line) and Shepherd's Bush (Hammersmith and City line).

Well?

 

[duke o' york]

Well..... I shan't be too concerned for Genghis this time and shall continue to push ahead with the bifurcated (but never truncated) game: Amersham and Lewisham spreads the play quite nicely, with Eddie needing something rather special to avoid placing himself in croop.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Indeed there is something special
With play still bifurcated I have a very powerful reply ready. Playing simultaniously "Crusher" Hall's favorite response and the "Engelbert Maneouvre" -
Aldgate East and (using one of my hoarded tokens) Bank
A cunning plan, I think you will agree.