Mornington Crescent

[Raveen]

Shall we play forum Mornington Crescent? NJ brought it up and I thought I'd run with it.

We'll play one of the standard deviations so that the less experienced can join in. I propose the SMF variation for forum rules with telefantasy expansions. In this case cross genre shunting is allowed but cross referencing can land you in nidd. The usual forum huff rules apply and play will be fractally non-sequential.

So pretty standard stuff.

I'll kick off with Kings Cross.

[Idanmel]

If your post can translate into, "I'm starting a game, everyone is welcome", then I'm all up to it!

[notjarvis]

That's quite a daring start there Rav. The Kings Cross opening leaves you open to all sorts of trouble down the line.

I'll play Trafalgar to make it easy on you though

[Andon]

Could go for an explanation on what the hell this is....

[notjarvis]

Surely everyone knows the rules to Mornington Crescent? Especially as Raveen invoked the simple SMF variation.

The Dumbledore-Potter rule set for beginners may have been better IMO, but SMF is quite simple.
I would have suggested buying the complete 2003 book "Morning Crescent Rules and Variations" but it appears to be out of print and I've misplaced my copy....

[Drakon]

The link doesn't work for me mate.

And yeah, no clue what you guys are on about.

[Adept]

Here's the correct link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington ... %28game%29

[Andon]

Ah, it's a British thing. I'm not, so I wouldn't know.

[Raveen]

Whilst I enjoy the Dumbledore-Potter rule set I feel it glosses over a lot of the tactical subtleties of the game.

Trafalgar was a clever move, not an expected response to the Kings Cross opening at all. Also good that you've opened up the board for future moves. I'll continue with that theme and play Knightsbridge.

[LtSpinx]

I'm not too sure on the rules, but I feel Arnos Grove would be a valid move at this point.

[notjarvis]

Arnos Grove is indeed a valid move, as rule 7 is in play, and that allows for these flashier sorts of moves.

However it opens up the option to shunt Raveen using Brompton Road, which is therefore what I shall do.

Brompton Road

[Idanmel]

NJ, I believe the Duff convention clearly states that shunting people so early in the game should be avoided as much as possible.

So, as much as I'd like to Place Rav in Nidd, I think it is better all around that I play Chigwell.

[Wyld Karde]

I'm a little rusty, but my dog-eared copy of Stovald's Fourth has come to my rescue.  I must admit, I'm a little disappointed in Rav, from the strength of play I've seen him produce in our previous games I would've thought he'd have seen a Brompton Shunt coming.  As I've missed the opening rounds I'll take the usual handicap of a pair of red tokens and start with the usual Piccadilly Ploy, as immortalised in the 1978 showdown between Cryer and Garden, where Dr Garden's flamboyant use of the circle line was stopped dead by being unexpectedly placed in Nidd courtesy of Rushden, who was sadly Nidded himself moments later and was effectively out of the match.

Edit: Seems Idan made a move while I was writing that up.  Interesting play on Chigwell, but as there's no immediate effect on my play I'll let my move stand.  Also, jolly sporting of you to avoid placing Rav in Nidd there.  You could get a grand tactical advantage from it, but it would've shut down Rav's play before it could really develop, and at this point in the game that would've sucked out a lot of the fun for him.

[Raveen]

Chigwell - Piccadilly opens up the third axis on the board which allows me to take Kentish Town West

[notjarvis]

Although Kentish Town West opens up many possibilities with the Overground axis coming into play, the risk of using that section is indeed very high.

So I'm going to play it safe and go for the old (but classic) Ripper Evisceration manoeuvre and sneak unseen into Whitechapel