Mornington Crescent

Very nice Eddie. I see you have recovered all your position and done it with not a little elegance and even some panache. I have a new respect for you.

In which case, I need to take special measures myself. Let's see you both get out of this loop:
Dollis Hill and Dollis Hill.
 
:eek: Extremely nasty stormerne.
Duke, we could be in trouble here. :sad:
 
Hmmm.....
Stormerne has a very peculiar fondness for Dollis Hill, and although I am sure it is a very pleasant area and have no intention of causing the inhabitants of Willesden any offence, it does not seem to have any better charms than its neighbours Willesden Green and Neasden. Or Elephant and Castle or Brixton even. So there is something at Dollis Hill that irresistibly draws Stormerne there. It'd be tempting to declare it my home station to stick a sneaky spanner into the works, but I don't think that it would be a tactically sound manoeuvre at this stage of the game. Maybe for the next game though......
From Dollis Hill we can go to Ravenscourt Park, by grace of a neat lateral strile, and from er, Dollis Hill again, the Arbuthnot riposte dictates another visit to Mornington Crescent.
 
A neat move Duke, but difficult for me to find a move that Stormerne won't be able to take advantage of.
As it would be dangerous for me to declare Squonk at this point, I'll play a waiting move here - From Ravenscourt Park & Mornington Crescent to:
Mornington Crescent & Ravenscourt Park
 
Hmmm... you beat me to it Eddie. I was going quibble the legality of Duke's last move but ended up going to a party instead. There really was enough gravitational attraction to force everyone into the Dollis Hill loop - and I think you guessed that. I would like to have seen Duke do the maths publically which showed that he could simply ride roughshod over such basic rules. But I lost my opportunity with the delay.

However, it's a gentlemanly game isn't it? :mad: All this will do is make me move up a gear. I am beginning to suspect that Duke is a closet Trellisite. How very twee. But I have not forgotten the patient mentoring of my childhood hero Eamon Ruttsborough. So far, you have seen the gentle and forgiving side of my play. Now you will see Stormerne uncloaked. Prepare - if you can - to savour the darker side of Mornington Crescent...

But first a little preparation. Some weaponry from Arsenal, and I need to stop by the British Museum to pick up some "other items", so I'll return to my Home station of Russell Square.
 
It's a fair cop guv :blush:
As I could see a quick way out of the Dollis Hill Loop - even if the rules were "bent" a little in the process - I went for it.
 
Well from the position at Arsenal, any kind of lateral shift would put me in nidd, so this will require a token pay-off to avoid my LV being reduced to a negligible rate. By moving to Gloucester Road, and placing a yellow token there, I effectively claim the circle line as my own and manage to escape the peril of nidd for another turn at least. The momentum change caused by that diagonal sweep means that, whereas my triple Helsinki from Russell Square would ordinarily take a natural progression toward Lambeth North, it now turns with the reverse spin of an Anil Kumble googly and we are catapulted instead to Ladbroke Grove. :eek:
 
I'll take a leaf out of Stormerne's book and get ready for a stiff fight. First stop, Lancaster Gate, for some airpower, then to the ghost station of Down Street, and Winston Churchill's war room. :soldier:
 
Ho ho - that's more like it! A fight at last...

But I didn't say I was going to play fair anymore. Having acquired weapons from Arsenal, I now return to Surrey Quays and visit the Millwall ground. The fans are fearsome at the best of times, but heavily armed they are unstoppable. (I don't toy with my prey - I prefer direct action, short and brutal...)

And how very appropriate, Eddie, that you are employing a "ghost" station. My call at the British Museum :egypt: furnished me with a number of allies of spectral origin :vampire: which I have sent to the outer termini. If you find yourself blocked in the suburbs you'll know why. They have a tendency to burrow inward towards their home in the museum, and the blocking loop gets smaller and smaller until you are caught in its net... And of course the British Museum is the home of the Podume of Ultimate Evil. Or rather was its home until the weekend. Mwahahaha! Now I can unleash my ultimate weapon - the Septimus Divergence - as I "possess" Seven Sisters.

A note for the audience - well, Khanh at least - by way of explanation:
"Rumoured to have its origins in the arcane playing style of Aleister Crowley, the Septimus Divergence is a seven-way line bifurcation centred upon Seven Sisters, with underlinks made automatically to the next seven moves made by any of the players. Initialised at the right time, this can prove devastating - the underlinks effectively put Seven Sisters a level below the other stations, and with careful choice of targets this can lead to an almost incredible token buildup. Being one of the Underground's three Holding Stations, it is possible to gather every game token at Seven Sisters, and strile unimpeded to Mornington Crescent with several dozen bonus points." - Encyclopaedia Morningtonia
Fortunately this kind of bifurcation is one of time not space. We still keep our two threads.
 
Well if there's going to be a ruck then I'll need to equip myself properly. Where better to start than Cannon Street, to allow me a greater range of attack and to defend my position, dug in at Tower Hill? Stormerne's spectral legions may have siezed control of suburbia, but woe betide those who try to make headway in range of my cannons within the Circle Line. Let battle commence!!
 
I hope you're learning from me as well Genghis. (even if only how to make rash and unconsidered moves ;) )

A special move for each of you:
First to counter Stormerne's Millwall fans, I'll stop at West Ham The fans there will be only too ready for a scrap with the Millwall lads. And to pound Duke into submission I'll move to Tower Bridge, just along the river from HMS Belfast and her 12 6" guns - just the thing to breach the walls of the Tower.

The forward turrets are apparently aimed at the Gateway Motorway services on the M1, so I might as well give them a salvo as a complaint about motorway services in general. :D
 
West Ham??? You really know how to put a torrent of Millwall fans in a good humour don't you Eddie. As a result, there seems to be an air of defiant incredulity in their ranks, and mutterings of "with one hand tied behind our backs". News reports suggest that they've gone to Tottenham Court Road to pillage the many electronics shops there for consumer goods. On the other hand they're also chanting "Come on, if you think you're hard enough" as a taunt to your fans Eddie.

And while you two sort it out by the River, I'm simply raking in the tokens as a result of my last move to Seven Sisters - but that was expected. There's still a few more tokens to squeeze out, and the wraiths are tightening the noose, so I will simply pass on this move.
 
Things seem to be heating up in our capital's stadia, although the atrocious quality of football at both Upton Park and the New Den may have something to do with this. I am tempted to bring my own team's fans into play, but can't face trawling round the underground system in search of Newcastle fans still celebrating the victory over Arsenal and so will let them return to the eminently less confusing Newcastle Metro system (ideal for quick MC games!). Instead, I shall pop into New Scotland Yard by the St James' Park tube to get some riot gear for dealing with the hordes of frustrated football purists of West Ham and Millwall. I can always create some kind of warp gate here linked to St James' station on the Metro system and use it to transport some Geordie fans if necessary.:enlighten
In order to fend off the threat of Stormerne's spectral legions, I shall be visiting St Paul's to fill my water pistol with holy water and thereby reopen the suburban stations.

Merry Christmas to my fellow players and to our guest Genghis. I shall be off work, and therefore without CFC access until Thursday and then between Saturday and Thursday over New Year. I do hope you don't let the LV of our game drop in this time, and I shall return to take my turns on Thursday. I was tempted to knerdle myself so that I could pass the next two turns and not have to worry about taking a MC break, but war is on the horizon and I would have been surely vanquished if I tried to "do a Switzerland".
 
While the football hooligans and Duke's riot police fight it out I'll nip to Charing Cross and arrange some ambulances.
Meanwhile, I'm off to Barbican to book a ticket for Koyaanisqatsi which is showing there on the 11th Jan. :goodjob:

Merry Xmas Duke! :santa:
though if your offline until thurs maybe it's too late to say that now...
 
Don't blame you Eddie. But take your time... you have plenty (see below).

Duke: In all the times I have played Crowley's Invocation and sent my ghastly minions abroad, no one has ever before come up with the simple counterthreat of holy water before. That is an inspired riposte Sir, though I fear your dramatic inspiration will lead to nought.

Gentlemen, this aggressive stance of mine has all been a ruse, a diversion, to draw your gaze away from my real intention. It is difficult, I admit, to ignore the ragings of 20,000 Millwall supporters. And it is probably unwise to ignore the insidious chill of vampiric shades which have their own interpretation of what "terminal" means. But the idea was to distract you both with these highly militant manoevres and leave the way open for simple endgame play.

Thus, while you are busy with entrenching and otherwise preparing for a scrap around the City, it is my duty to inform you that the scrap will not materialise. For in thread 1, while your attention is elsewhere, a simple reverse shunt now takes me unopposed to Mornington Crescent. And in thread 2, I can cash in the massive token fall that came from my Septimus Divergence at Seven Sisters, translate this to Line Velocity, and - in the words of Encyclopaedia Morningtonia - "strile unimpeded to Mornington Crescent with several dozen bonus points".

Since I thus reach Mornington Crescent on both threads simultaneously, the game is mine gentlemen. But I must say you have both been worthy opponents and in particular I am recommending Duke for a citation in MC Monthly for his ploy at St. Pauls - a stunning move utterly belied by his earlier stodgy play.
 
Well, I didn't see that coming... :eek:
 
How long do you plan to deceive foreigners for???

Mornington Crescent as played on "I'm sorry I haven't a clue" isn't for real...it has all the trappings of a game without actually being one.

If some people have gone away and devised rules I think that is very sad and certainly would have ruined my "gaming" many a time when "playing" this game in "Bar24" at Durham.

In which other game would people continuously make comments about each others styles, the sublety of their moves etc? None but a fraud!

It is a typically English/British joke and like Pantomine the rest of the world look on amazed and confused! (Americans and other foreigners don't do pantomine ;) )
 
Wolfshanze

Chieftain


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...
 
You're a very sad and cynical person Kitten. I will not allow you to detract from the brilliance of my win with your hysterical comments. If you were truly a connaisseur of this game, wouldn't your efforts have been better spent in joining in the play rather than in spreading vicious rumours?

Or do I detect a note of envy in your post? Could it be that the real reason for your scandalous remarks is that you'd simply find yourself outclassed and out of your depth in such exalted and experienced company if you risked playing with us?
 
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