Mattcrampy
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Well done, NiroZ! Brilliant play.

Shall we keep going with this ruleset, or shall we kick it up a notch and go with something more complex like the New Standard Livingston rules? Or maybe we can try out the Simplified Rules, I've never played them.

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NiroZ
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I personally favour the Four Seasons version of the game. It may be a bit slower paced, and indeed the rules regarding trafalgar are rather strange, but it solves the problems surrounding the Dollis Hill loop, as well as the momentum problems later in the game. I also like it how it opens up various strategies towards the end game, such as the overpass gambit and the park monopoly.

Mattcrampy
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OK, we'll play the Four Squares variant - it's a favourite of mine as well. As the winner of the last game, feel free to go first, NiroZ.

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RoboBob3000
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Mattcrampy wrote:
OK, we'll play the Four Squares variant

Ugh. Could we not? My fingers are still hyperextended from the last time I played that variant. I don't even want to think about how it could be pulled off on an internet forum like this. Particularly without a pool of community haypennies.

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NiroZ
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Mattcrampy wrote:
OK, we'll play the Four Squares variant

I assume you mean four seasons...

RoboBob3000 wrote:
Ugh. Could we not? My fingers are still hyperextended from the last time I played that variant. I don't even want to think about how it could be pulled off on an internet forum like this. Particularly without a pool of community haypennies.

What the hell are you talking about? Since when was Mornington Crescent an action game?

Anyway, to start this next game off, I'll go Latimer Road.

BeefontheBone
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The Four Squares variant *is* an action game - poorly implemented in my opinion, and with a tendency to induce, at a minimum, cramp in the players, especially if at least 2 of them are fairly experienced. The Four Seasons variant, on the other hand, introduces simple scoring for intermediate moves based on the quality and quantity of local pizza restaurants at the stations. It's generally good for new players as it tends to restrict play to Zones 1 and 2 while giving them a clear objective.

The big problem with it is that, by starting Latimer Road, you immediately give me the chance to go Googe Street right off the bat and score extra points thanks to the large number of Pizza Express restaurants in the vicinity.

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Someone Else
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But what if I go Oxford circus? Then I have the upper hand!

calamarain
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I would disagree. It looks like you have the upper hand, but this can be so easily taken away by keeping away from the core stations and focusing on the secondaries. South Kensington proves my point, and why the Four Squares ruleset isn't that popular. It just takes away too many of the cinch points to the west.

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[Last edited by calamarain at 10-06-2007 12:00 PM]

krammer
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Mmm, not necessarily. Yes, the west isn't as important in this variant, but there's a lot of scope for more subtle strategies. Like a double crossback to Goldhawk Road, which neatly gives me control of the Hammersmith and City Line in at most two turns.

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Ezlo
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Four Squares? Never played that one. I'll have to go look it up. Feel free to continue without me.

Bunches
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Smart move, krammer. I'm not quite sure if you knew this, but that move also cut off the Gunnersbury circle trick.

I think that the best move here is Finsbury Park.

calamarain
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Mmmm. That doesn't leave me many options for strategic play. Rather dull really, but the only logical move to make next is East Putney

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RoboBob3000
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NiroZ wrote:

RoboBob3000 wrote:
Ugh. Could we not? My fingers are still hyperextended from the last time I played that variant. I don't even want to think about how it could be pulled off on an internet forum like this. Particularly without a pool of community haypennies.

What the hell are you talking about? Since when was Mornington Crescent an action game?

Ahh, but you see, we'd run out of haypennies.

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[Last edited by RoboBob3000 at 10-06-2007 05:14 PM]

BeefontheBone
Level: Master Delver

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They are rather time-consuming to make, what with having to weave the dryish hay into discs. Trying to get the wueen's head to come up on them and that portcullis thing on the other side takes forever. We could always use this sack of ha'pennies I found, though.

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coppro
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Well, I think I'll break the tension with a good old play to Waterloo

Chaco
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Given everything that has happened so far, I will play Waterloo again.

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coppro
Level: Smitemaster
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Them's fighting words...

I'll get the other main railroad, forcing you all to pay rent at any train station: King's Cross St Pancras.

calamarain
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Nice, reliable move. Tactically sound, but also it lets you hide your true agenda, since you could go anywhere from there, with or without looping or double-left shifts (The sort pioneered in the Manchester rules)

Let's narrow your options again with Chorleywood

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Syntax
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I'm surprised the west hasn't been taken yet so I'm taking Rayners Lane with a gambit on the 13 min direct Wealdstone to Euston.

Mattcrampy
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Hmm, I can see the problem with this variant. Elephant & Castle, and Mornington Crescent in two.

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Dex Stewart
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Mattcrampy wrote:
...and Mornington Crescent in two.

Now let's send that idea to the cemetery. Highgate for me.

Okay, bad pun. Sorry!

krammer
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Mmmm. I think I'm doomed - there's just no way I can get myself off the loop I'm on unless someone plays very stupidly. Nevertheless - Euston Square.

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calamarain
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And thus, I can fulfil the prediction of Mornington Crescent in two, but for me rather than him Mattcrampy, Dex Stewart - you forgot about the Shire appendix. It's a rather obscure little rule that was introduced due to a disagreement over whether Leicester Square was legal if you'd not trumped.

But that means that with a Shire move, I can proudly move... Mornington Crescent

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[Last edited by calamarain at 10-07-2007 04:08 PM]

Chaco
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But wait! Surely you've forgotten, Calamarain, that in the Four Squares variant any move from a cobble-corner location to a Place of Interest is illegal? Krammer made his move of Euston Square full well knowing that he wouldn't just give the game to you.

As such, you must now wait five and one-half turns before you can move again - and even then you can only play to locations at least fifty cubits away from whatever play Dex Stewart makes in the interim (if he plays at all, which he might not)

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calamarain
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...damn, you're right. That was an illegal move. OK, I'll recoup my losses from earlier - I thought that the cubit thing was no longer enforced.

It has to be Northfields

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Dex Stewart
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calamarain wrote:
...damn, you're right. That was an illegal move. OK, I'll recoup my losses from earlier - I thought that the cubit thing was no longer enforced.

It has to be Northfields

Tut tut! You have to wait a few turns! Look again at what Chaco said for the explanation.

And if I don't make a turn until those 5 and a half turns are over, you may not move at all! I love being evil.

calamarain
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Dex Stewart wrote:
And if I don't make a turn until those 5 and a half turns are over, you may not move at all! I love being evil.

Oh, now that one's not true You're forgetting the Shire move - yes, it was illegal then, but it's not illegal now that the situation's passed I just can't move to any place that's already been consolidated. And in practice that means I can move within four turns, not the five and a half you specified.

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[Last edited by calamarain at 10-07-2007 06:36 PM]

NiroZ
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Actually, you're all wrong, seeing as we're playing four seasons, not four squares

Chaco
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Mattcrampy used his turn earlier to declare usage of the Four Squares variant. Your suggestion of Four Seasons, although theoretically a good suggestion, is illegal because it violates the Meta-Zoning Ruleset Synthesis Convention, which was in play in the previous game.

Which is a real pity, since I too enjoy Four Seasons. But enjoying a variant doesn't allow one to violate the rules of Mornington Crescent!

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[Last edited by Chaco at 10-07-2007 07:02 PM]

BeefontheBone
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Woah, woah! I was also playing Seasons - why on earth would I have played Googe Street under Four Squares? That'd be cutting myself off from all the laterals for the entire game!

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Braindead's Mordor Site - Dungeon crawling having nothing whatsoever to do with LotR. Plus a freeware remake in-progress, featuring descriptive text written by yours truly!

Beef Row wrote: Actually, it doesn't really matter because the soap is a lye.