TrailblazingScot
I was kittenOFchaos
When it comes to bull****ting you beat me every time 
Mornington Crescent
- Thread starter stormerne
- Start date
duke o' york
It don't mean a thing....
Ho ho ho.:santa:
Your fanciful notions will only lead more people to think that this game is a hoax and deter potential contestants. Shame on you Kitten.
Congratulations storm!
A clever subterfuge certainly handed you the game and Eddie and I can only shake our heads in disappointment and return to studying the Admiral Nelson's little-known treatise "How I beat Johnny Foreigner at MC and wot I done" in the British Museum library.
Although the temptation to broaden our horizons with a game of Etienne Marcel on the Parisian Metro or have a "quickie" by playing on the Newcastle Metro is strong, I think that this is too optimistic for our nascent MC culture here and shall propose a game using the Ancient Modern rules and beginning with a visit to Borough.......
Your fanciful notions will only lead more people to think that this game is a hoax and deter potential contestants. Shame on you Kitten.
Congratulations storm!
A clever subterfuge certainly handed you the game and Eddie and I can only shake our heads in disappointment and return to studying the Admiral Nelson's little-known treatise "How I beat Johnny Foreigner at MC and wot I done" in the British Museum library.Although the temptation to broaden our horizons with a game of Etienne Marcel on the Parisian Metro or have a "quickie" by playing on the Newcastle Metro is strong, I think that this is too optimistic for our nascent MC culture here and shall propose a game using the Ancient Modern rules and beginning with a visit to Borough.......
Many thanks for your congratulations Duke. 
I'm pleased to see that you have read Nelson's work before. Sad to say that many young players - of whom Kitten is obviously one - don't even know of its existence. I put this down to the increasingly spoonfed modern culture where television documentaries are seen as a substitute for personal research. So in the circumstances, I fear you're right about branching out just yet.
Of course we could demand that Kitten put his money where his mouth is. Perhaps he should play one of us in single combat, with another of us acting as umpire to resolve quibbles. Therefore I will pause without making a reply as yet, and if Kitten should perchance respond to your fine opener, I will honoured to take the place of Humph.
I'm pleased to see that you have read Nelson's work before. Sad to say that many young players - of whom Kitten is obviously one - don't even know of its existence. I put this down to the increasingly spoonfed modern culture where television documentaries are seen as a substitute for personal research. So in the circumstances, I fear you're right about branching out just yet.
Of course we could demand that Kitten put his money where his mouth is. Perhaps he should play one of us in single combat, with another of us acting as umpire to resolve quibbles. Therefore I will pause without making a reply as yet, and if Kitten should perchance respond to your fine opener, I will honoured to take the place of Humph.
Algernon Pondlife
Prince
Stormerne, sorry, I missed your reply. Anyway I think I got you this time.
"refined" is a matter of social goegraphy and, as you probably know "those and such as those" need not concern themselves with the rules that govern the more common sorts.
(you really have to imagine listening to this in Maggie Smith's best Edinburgh accent to really understand).
I hope I'm being far too obscure
"refined" is a matter of social goegraphy and, as you probably know "those and such as those" need not concern themselves with the rules that govern the more common sorts.
(you really have to imagine listening to this in Maggie Smith's best Edinburgh accent to really understand).
I hope I'm being far too obscure
GenghisK
...
Hi everybody. I was away for a while, but obviously i didn't miss lot of things. 
Btw, congrats Storm
a bit off topic but, how was Christmas in Mornington ?
Btw, congrats Storm
a bit off topic but, how was Christmas in Mornington ?
duke o' york
It don't mean a thing....
You'lll be glad to know that everything was as usual this Christmas on Mornington Crescent. The spirit of seasonal goodwill was in abundance as the young ragamuffins and urchins of the area were invited into the parlours of well-to-do houses and offered Christmas treats. The bootblacks gave lusty voice to their favourite carols as a light sprinkling of snow ensured that the Northern Line passengers had pleasant views but were not too badly delayed as they went about their business. Even the local bawdy houses gave in to the festive spirit and invited the gentlemen to partake in their varied delights at a reduced rate, or even just to pop in for a quick game of MC.
I too have been concerned about the relative lack of activity at our virtual tea room here, and suspect that the Kitten is still off frolicking and shall not be returning to take up the challenge offered by Stormerne. In that case, I say that we ought to fill in the time until he tires of rolling in snow and chasing snowflakes with another game of MC! Quite a notion, I think you'll agree, but I believe that we're up to the task. Who would like to respond to my admittedly tentative opening at Borough? Feel free to join in this round our Mongol friend.
I too have been concerned about the relative lack of activity at our virtual tea room here, and suspect that the Kitten is still off frolicking and shall not be returning to take up the challenge offered by Stormerne. In that case, I say that we ought to fill in the time until he tires of rolling in snow and chasing snowflakes with another game of MC! Quite a notion, I think you'll agree, but I believe that we're up to the task. Who would like to respond to my admittedly tentative opening at Borough? Feel free to join in this round our Mongol friend.
GenghisK
...
Well what a nice invitation.
But I fear I'll spoil that round more than play it.
I'll kindly decline but I'll keep on lurking and wait for another Stormerne's victory
Yes, this sentence was totally provocative
But I fear I'll spoil that round more than play it.
I'll kindly decline but I'll keep on lurking and wait for another Stormerne's victory
Yes, this sentence was totally provocative
As always, Khanh, you are too modest. We shall make allowances like the gentlemen we are. Come: don't be shy.
While you reconsider, and since I'm in a fairly relaxed mood after the seasonal break, I shall respond to Duke's opener by playing West Ham.
While you reconsider, and since I'm in a fairly relaxed mood after the seasonal break, I shall respond to Duke's opener by playing West Ham.
duke o' york
It don't mean a thing....
Hmm... A bit disappointed that no-one else has responded to Storm's ham acting yet, and so I shall break convention and take the next turn in a no doubt vain effort to inspire some more players by increasing the line velocity and promising a fast-moving action-packed game.
To slingshot us back into the fast lane and hopefully attract new contenders, I shall play the Parson's gambit, and double our line velocity with a double strile to Ongar. Widely acknowledged as a risky tactic, particularly in the opening exchanges, and played without the safety net of a declared home station, this brave or foolhardy move may just inject the required LV into the game and prevent it becoming one of the slow-paced tactical struggles so beloved of purists and so detested by newbies. Will someone pick up the Ongar gauntlet?
To slingshot us back into the fast lane and hopefully attract new contenders, I shall play the Parson's gambit, and double our line velocity with a double strile to Ongar. Widely acknowledged as a risky tactic, particularly in the opening exchanges, and played without the safety net of a declared home station, this brave or foolhardy move may just inject the required LV into the game and prevent it becoming one of the slow-paced tactical struggles so beloved of purists and so detested by newbies. Will someone pick up the Ongar gauntlet?
Ah... a ghost station, and so early in the game too.
Should I continue in my ebullient mood? Should I tread the leafy lanes around Ongar and, despite my being heathen, visit one of my two very favourite churches (the Saxon one at Greensted; the other is at Thaxted), maintain my magnanimous smile and play something uncharacteristically gentle such as Upminster? Truly a benign response and, after all, in total keeping with the Parson. Or should I play true to form after the manner of my childhood hero Eamon Ruttsborough?
It will have to be Ruttsborough. Even the mention of his name fires me with imagination (albeit dark imagination). And with Line Velocity suddenly to the fore, how could I help but expose the waywardness of your last move except to force Victoria. OK, it's playing to the gallery, but mine is the showmanship of the gladiator.
Should I continue in my ebullient mood? Should I tread the leafy lanes around Ongar and, despite my being heathen, visit one of my two very favourite churches (the Saxon one at Greensted; the other is at Thaxted), maintain my magnanimous smile and play something uncharacteristically gentle such as Upminster? Truly a benign response and, after all, in total keeping with the Parson. Or should I play true to form after the manner of my childhood hero Eamon Ruttsborough?
It will have to be Ruttsborough. Even the mention of his name fires me with imagination (albeit dark imagination). And with Line Velocity suddenly to the fore, how could I help but expose the waywardness of your last move except to force Victoria. OK, it's playing to the gallery, but mine is the showmanship of the gladiator.
duke o' york
It don't mean a thing....
A splendid riposte! I made no secret that mine was a risky play, but I thought that something a little flashy was required to spark interest in the watching lurkers. I should have realised that it is never a good idea to showboat against an opponent as accomplished as yourself Storm, especially so early in the game, but I managed to bag a couple of black tokens to help me through the difficulty my hotheadedness has placed me in. I shall therefore return to more measured tactics, albeit typecasting myself again as one who just loves to go "south of the river, down Mexico way!" (getting a bit carried away there, but I might remember that and employ a twinkly Sinatra shuffle later in the game if I find myself in trouble) with a trip to Colliers Wood. I realise that this places me in nidd for the next turn so I hope that another (more worthy) opponent rises to the MC challenge or else you will be having the next two turns to yourself and I will be left in a sticky mess indeed. If no-one shows their face then I suppose that I could expend my tokens to get out of nidd next go, but I would prefer to save them for later, no doubt to save my own skin.
OK, I'll take you up on your double-blind, if only to give you a bit of a shunt.....presumably at this advanced level we are allowed sidings?.....to Saxmundham! Of course this journey is 'Pullman', since it is 'to the country'.
I think you were wise to retain the tokens, o'york!
I think you were wise to retain the tokens, o'york!
Ouch! Welcome, polymath, to the mêlée! Your intervention has caught me somewhat by surprise, having girded myself for an in-city match only and having reconciled myself to a single if capable opponent.
Saxmundham eh? You know you will confuse the audience with that wild swipe. Just when they were beginning to feel comfortable with the old city rules, you come and introduce the arcane Anglian Rollback. You deserve to be cooked in Sizewell 'B'.
OK, I suppose I can rise to the bait. Your own evil designs will be used against you. I will simultaneously block and straddle at Stratford - and get a token windfall into the bargain. Hoist by your own petard!
Saxmundham eh? You know you will confuse the audience with that wild swipe. Just when they were beginning to feel comfortable with the old city rules, you come and introduce the arcane Anglian Rollback. You deserve to be cooked in Sizewell 'B'.
OK, I suppose I can rise to the bait. Your own evil designs will be used against you. I will simultaneously block and straddle at Stratford - and get a token windfall into the bargain. Hoist by your own petard!
duke o' york
It don't mean a thing....
Well things are certainly getting "a bit tasty" now, as Storm's legions of Millwall fans would have it.
I think that the necessary injection of pace into the game has brought unexpected bonuses, especially in the form of polymath, evidently already an accomplished player. I shall have to be more careful this time then, and avoid the potential traps that Stormerne has already begun to set. His moves so far seem to follow the classic Cartesian treble block, so woe betide those who venture to Seven Sisters in the next few turns, but this could also be a front for another potential Gordon's gin trap at Green Park. I shall have to avoid those two stations until Storm has made a few more moves and I have a better idea of what he is planning.
Thanks to polymath's very gracious shunt, I still hold the tokens from the round before, but from Stratford no ideal opportunities to use them would present themselves and so I shall have to play the holding game once again. With a reverse helix I can drag the play away from its southward tendence and by employing the Gant's Hill transition, I bag another handful of orange tokens at South Woodford. While taking the turn after Stormerne's denies me the chance to place him in nidd, I will do all I can to ensure that another player can register a victory and be catapulted into the CFC MC Hall of Fame by leaving polymath with a prime opportunity to knerdle our Saxon opponent. Whether he takes it remains to be seen, but if too many such opportunities are ignored then we shall surely remain as we have just been placed, on the back foot.
I think that the necessary injection of pace into the game has brought unexpected bonuses, especially in the form of polymath, evidently already an accomplished player. I shall have to be more careful this time then, and avoid the potential traps that Stormerne has already begun to set. His moves so far seem to follow the classic Cartesian treble block, so woe betide those who venture to Seven Sisters in the next few turns, but this could also be a front for another potential Gordon's gin trap at Green Park. I shall have to avoid those two stations until Storm has made a few more moves and I have a better idea of what he is planning.
Thanks to polymath's very gracious shunt, I still hold the tokens from the round before, but from Stratford no ideal opportunities to use them would present themselves and so I shall have to play the holding game once again. With a reverse helix I can drag the play away from its southward tendence and by employing the Gant's Hill transition, I bag another handful of orange tokens at South Woodford. While taking the turn after Stormerne's denies me the chance to place him in nidd, I will do all I can to ensure that another player can register a victory and be catapulted into the CFC MC Hall of Fame by leaving polymath with a prime opportunity to knerdle our Saxon opponent. Whether he takes it remains to be seen, but if too many such opportunities are ignored then we shall surely remain as we have just been placed, on the back foot.
OK, I admit the "Stratford Staddle" (or "Bard's Gambit" as it is known in the South) was unexpected, as experts in the historical aspects of the game are rare nowadays. And Duke O'York's reverse helix was an elegant manoeuvre, but it does allow me to use one of my Compass Cards as a joker.
I'll make a blind draw, the card pulled is West, which takes me to Hereford. It still leaves the 'knerdle' operative but avoidable. You must think think me naive, given that a 'knerdle' can easily be doubled leaving Duke O'York with the win. Well sir, I am not so naive. And don't forget that we still haven't seen the Ticket Inspector. Yet.
I'll make a blind draw, the card pulled is West, which takes me to Hereford. It still leaves the 'knerdle' operative but avoidable. You must think think me naive, given that a 'knerdle' can easily be doubled leaving Duke O'York with the win. Well sir, I am not so naive. And don't forget that we still haven't seen the Ticket Inspector. Yet.
Ohwell
Deity
Ok, I have been looking at this thread for quite a while now, and I still don't get one bit of this games object! I see you have to name a place in London, but what, how do you play? What is the object? Is there a winner or loser? It sounds interesting. I hope I don't have to know anything about London...
"Don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to"
Ohwell, welcome nonetheless. Before polymath's intervention, I would have said that all you needed to follow this game was a map of London's underground railway system and your wits. (Actually you would have needed a whole suite of maps from different eras because we were allowing reverse transit moves via ghost stations. But you get the picture I'm sure.) All I can say is "Watch and Learn". Mornington Crescent is too deep a game to be taught in a few short paragraphs in a public forum. Trust me when I say it is better to learn by osmosis. You will need to be patient and alert. But rest assured that winners there are.
For future reference please consult the Online version of The Encyclopaedia Morningtonia. Also you can use a map of the London Underground or "Tube" map as it is affectionately called. There you will find, arrayed in black on the Northern Line, the Mornington Crescent of which we speak.
Having said all that, those maps will help you little in the face of polymath's open play. His advanced tactics are likely to leave newcomers like yourself more confused than ever. I did elliptically reprimand about this but he continues unabated. And, I fear, I cannot play woodenly and transparently in response. So I suspect that my own moves will leave you puzzled for a while until we regain Mornington Proximity.
To return to the game in hand...
polymath, you cannot lull me into a stupor by engaging the wily ways of the world's best cider country. I have the measure of you and I am beginning to suspect your true identity. I can play you at your own game: take Gilberdyke sir!
Ohwell, welcome nonetheless. Before polymath's intervention, I would have said that all you needed to follow this game was a map of London's underground railway system and your wits. (Actually you would have needed a whole suite of maps from different eras because we were allowing reverse transit moves via ghost stations. But you get the picture I'm sure.) All I can say is "Watch and Learn". Mornington Crescent is too deep a game to be taught in a few short paragraphs in a public forum. Trust me when I say it is better to learn by osmosis. You will need to be patient and alert. But rest assured that winners there are.
For future reference please consult the Online version of The Encyclopaedia Morningtonia. Also you can use a map of the London Underground or "Tube" map as it is affectionately called. There you will find, arrayed in black on the Northern Line, the Mornington Crescent of which we speak.
Having said all that, those maps will help you little in the face of polymath's open play. His advanced tactics are likely to leave newcomers like yourself more confused than ever. I did elliptically reprimand about this but he continues unabated. And, I fear, I cannot play woodenly and transparently in response. So I suspect that my own moves will leave you puzzled for a while until we regain Mornington Proximity.
To return to the game in hand...
polymath, you cannot lull me into a stupor by engaging the wily ways of the world's best cider country. I have the measure of you and I am beginning to suspect your true identity. I can play you at your own game: take Gilberdyke sir!
GenghisK
...
That's why I'm not taking part at the feast yet
Hehe, the little scarab still has a long way to go before becoming a Mornington Jedi Stormerne, as you pointed out my manoeuvres were not standard, and since there are beginners present it is best to return to a straightforward tube system. I feel, for the benefit of those beginners, and not least because of your thorough understanding of the rules which I was hoping would not stretch this far, I should quote the following from the rule book:
"Mornington Crescent is still, technically, a gentleman's game. Therefore, it is automatically assumed that all moves are legal unless an opposing player takes the trouble to question the legality of the move, in which case the rules are consulted."
But by continuing "to the country" you have given me leeway, so I can at least move back without penalty, for which my thanks.
So, my move is thus:
To Barnet, and orthodoxy.
"Mornington Crescent is still, technically, a gentleman's game. Therefore, it is automatically assumed that all moves are legal unless an opposing player takes the trouble to question the legality of the move, in which case the rules are consulted."
But by continuing "to the country" you have given me leeway, so I can at least move back without penalty, for which my thanks.
So, my move is thus:
To Barnet, and orthodoxy.
Similar threads
