Mornington Crescent

[duke o' york]

Tottenham Court Road, eh?

How's about Wembley Park then?

Storm, sorry for the rather pedestrian start, but I didn't think that it would be fair to open the inaugural Civfanatics' Mornington Crescent game with a blitzkrieg. Shame, as it would have been entertaining . Since Eddie has upped the ante, then things should be a little speedier .

 

[stormerne]

Nice one Duke, pre-empting the huff, though you had to go to Zone 4 to do it. So with the play a lot more open, I'll venture
Green Park
I'll have to watch my Line Velocity, but I think it's worth the risk.

 

[duke o' york]

White City
Smug, but legitimate I believe.

 

[duke o' york]

Come on! It's been a couple of days now!

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Excuse me, a little known game from Firaxis is taking most of my spare time up at the moment.

It's a rushed move, but I think I'll risk breaking the cascade...
Shepherd's Bush

(or is this a BBC cascade? )

 

[stormerne]

You may come to regret such a hurried move.
You must have overlooked the pseudo-straddle.
A simple reverse shunt and I call Fairlop.
Now how are you going to escape the Hainault Loop?

 

[duke o' york]

Well to return to the nascent BBC cascade that was nipped in the bud by Stormerne, then I shall hope to confound him in the entanglements of the Grange Hill loop, and try to draw attention from the fact that I have no idea how I can possibly escape the Hainault loop at this relatively early stage of the game.

 

[stormerne]

Nipped in the bud, eh? Ah, you see through the fact that I am admirer of the games of that great West Countryman Hector Framilode. His famous bung was developed for just such occurences. It is sad that few modern players appreciate the delicacy and depth of his work, a fact precipitated no doubt by the difficultly one has nowadays in obtaining his long out of print books.

I find cascades are like a sweet wine. One is often attracted to them in one's youth, forsaking them in maturity for something dryer, only to return to them in one's elder years. From your obvious great love of cascades Duke, does this imply you are in the latter category? I ask this in gentlemanly politeness, as I know thaumaturgy takes years to master.

How would you rate the difficulty level of this BBC cascade (or "Broadcast Cascade" to give it its international nomenclature)? The old Parks and Greens Cascade by contrast causes little problem to any but the most naive opponent. But I would hardly call the players of this game naive.

 

[duke o' york]

I grant that thaumaturgical study is a lengthy process and one done absolutely no favours by the engagement in such fripperies and bagatelles as Civilization or indeed Mornington Crescent, but as one who has taken a sabbatical from the more learned pursuits, I feel that this is an excellent opportunity to pit one's wits against those worthy folks equally enamoured of over-long sentence structure.
My fondness for cascades cannot be traced to any kind of youthful obsession with waterfalls, nor for particular chains of old favourite stations. It is founded, rather, in the opportunity to play with words in the hope of one day introducing such an atrocious pun into an otherwise impeccable cascade as to astound the next player into letting his eclair fall from his hand and appeal to the referee for an illegal move while I chuckle and increase my LV to such an extent as to render my pitifully small pile of tokens negligible. The BBC cascade is a remarkably easy one, as many famous television programmes have been set all across the Underground map, although I am yet to see a sitcom concentrating on the lives of those people living around the Mornington Crescent tube station. Rather fortunately, as I am sure that it would put Birds of a Feather to shame with its awfulness. It has the interesting quirk of disallowing some old chestnuts purely for the fact that they are not on BBC. I suppose that if you played the Radio variation then you would be entitled to move from the Kennington Oval to Wembley Park as the sporting occasions at these grounds are still broadcast on BBC radio, despite the fact that the television coverage has been lost to Channel 4 and SKY respectively. (Although technically Wembley is no longer used but if anyone can construct an Underground extension leading to the Cardiff Arms Park by tomorrow then I shall look rather a fool)
Cascades are fun, but sometimes simplicity is equally potent, even by a simple single-station move from Fairlop to Grange Hill.

 

[stormerne]

Originally posted by duke o' york
I shall hope to confound him in the entanglements of the Grange Hill loop, and try to draw attention from the fact that I have no idea how I can possibly escape the Hainault loop at this relatively early stage of the game.

Ha! You cannot distract me so easily! Surely we both know that the Grange Hill 'loop' is a loop by name only. The terrors of Hainault still await you both. And the longer you stay the more difficult it will be for you to escape.

Some players will recount the received wisdom that LV and token count are the only factors deciding escape, and they have fears mirroring yours if they find themselves in a holding loop early on in the game. Fair enough.

What they are missing is the often overlooked dashed service lines, i.e. peak hour running. The way to break the Hainault loop, at least in this instance and perhaps in slightly less than a third of most other cases, is to wait for peak hours to play in the Grange Hill 'loop'. You can then build LV on successive rotations and quickly slingshot your way out, either directly on Hainault or via a parallel cascade as in my case.

Thus I play Gants Hill.

If you're quick, you'll just manage it Duke. Eddie may not be so lucky.

Note: for peak hour calculations, international players would first agree their governing convention, whether they are playing "zoned" or "non-zoned" (referring to Timezones, of course, and not travel zones in this case). Naturally for games taking place solely in the UK this is not normally an issue. We are however playing internationally with local timezones available for display. I don't think this has been considered before. We may be breaking new ground. And it's all compounded by the fact that the Civ clock is about ½ hour fast. Therefore I am declaring the Zoned convention valid as adjusted by both our local timezone and the Civilization Fanatic's host server clock. This is, I think, the most lenient method. The practical upshot is, provided I post this after 4.00pm as displayed on the message timestamp on my machine, I shall be operating in peak hours and can successfully use all the effects I've outlined above.

 

[duke o' york]

Redbridge

...phew, but it's no longer my turn...........
Eddie, pull something clever out of the bag!

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I can see that stormerne is playing a very strong game here. Normally I might play a huff back into Gants Hill, or even head for Chalfont and Latimer to be on the safe side, but a bold play here might be a better tactic:
Heathrow (Terminal 4)

 

[stormerne]

Bold? Certainly. But also risky. I admit I had more than half expected you to play Chalfont and Latimer, though if it had been my move I would have gone for quite a different option (that would be telling! ).

As it is, your boldness has presented me with an unexpected bonus. I play Liverpool Street and because of the overland connection to Stansted via the Stansted Express that gives me a token windfall. But coupled with the other overland connection to Hook of Holland via Harwich and the Boat Train, the windfall comes in three colours: red, white and blue!

OK, so I admit my position is only marginally better than the rest of you, as evaluated by a quick Fronsky Diagram. But I now have resources to initiate attacks while still staying resilient to any counter-manoeuvre, a rather nice state of affairs with which to begin the middle game. I just have to ensure I don't become complacent.

 

[damunzy]

I am completely-American....I mean stumped. I need to do that search on google!

 

[duke o' york]

Having just returned, nigh exhausted, from those cultural trips to erm, Stanstead and the Hoek van Holland, I am feeling hungry for a return oop north by waiting for a train at Kings Cross (St Pancras if anyone insists on being pedantic), but blocking off Euston so that although you can hear the wonderful street musicians who frequent Mornington Crescent, you can't quite get there yet......

Phew, just managed to avoid the dangerous inner Circle!!!!!

 

[duke o' york]

Bored, I decided to look up MC on Google and came up with this: Play MC online!!!!!!!
The AI's not especially dumb either, although it did somehow manage to knip itself on its first move!!
I hope that others will enjoy this site, which can be used for perfection of skills, although clearly nothing beats the adrenalin rush of real competition and any further competitors would be most welcome here!

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Exellent site Duke. Hopefully this will bring the joys of MC to many more people, it seems that few people outside the UK these days can really grasp the subtleties of "The Game of Games" in recent years.
However, your move of Kings Cross / St Pancras gives me a chance to take advantage of the Xmas shopping season and Knerdle both of you with Oxford Circus


Quote from The Little Book of Mornington Crescent", the Humphrey Lyttelton interview:

Dimbleby: In view of some of the more unfortunate incidents during the early stages of competition, would you be in favour of a more formal process of drug testing?

Lyttelton: Certainly the drugs should be properly tested before we take them.

 

[duke o' york]

Hmm, in an attempt to bring the Harris Three-Blocking shunt into effect, I shall drag you away from the crowded shops and let you get a better perspective of things atop Sudbury Hill.

Amusingly, having just played Graeme Garden in the version I posted above, Northern Line rules, I objected to his moving directly to MC out of strile at the Seven Sisters with the quibble "You look like a monkey", and Humph upheld my quibble!

 

[stormerne]

Nice move Duke! That was an acid little counter by Eddie and you've done both of us a favour with your deft reposte.

But I know no fear: Dollis Hill

 

[duke o' york]

Well one of the first semester's fixed modules at thaumaturgical college is prestidigitation, and my mastery of legerdemain proves most useful in the necessary quick responses to Eddie's lightning style. I wonder if he plays so well when the pace is slower......
For a river view, follow me to Gunnersbury