Fancy a game of Mornington Crescent?

Post #16,933 by pwhysall 11/6/01 4:12:58 PM Reply	Fancy a game of Mornington Crescent? I'll start. Elephant and Castle. Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal]
Post #16,949 by admin 11/6/01 4:25:47 PM Reply	WTH is it, first? :-) Regards, -scott anderson
Post #16,956 by inthane-chan 11/6/01 4:33:38 PM Reply	Google is your friend. [link\|http://www.dunx.org/mc/\|here] "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #16,969 by admin 11/6/01 4:43:58 PM Reply	Well, yeah, but... 1) I'm at work, and don't have time to look up games. 2) I wanted Peter to explain; anyone can Google for it. 3) That doesn't tell me if Peter is playing Yorkish or Delphic. 4) If I don't have time to learn chess, I sure as hell don't have time to learn a game that has a 125-page rules manual and competing standards bodies. :-) Looks cool, though. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #17,106 by wharris2 11/7/01 8:57:37 AM Reply	125 pages of rules? That's the "official" rules. Basic rules can be laid down in 2 or 3 pages. Of course, it's a long way from basic rules to official rules to mastering (or proficiencing) the game. "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth
Post #16,989 by admin 11/6/01 5:27:29 PM Reply	Good background on the game: [link\|http://www.cix.co.uk/~gil/data/morn.htm\|Here] Regards, -scott anderson
Post #16,987 by admin 11/6/01 5:19:19 PM Reply	Found a good rules book. Peter was on II and was kind enough to point me to [link\|ftp://www.crescent.org.uk/rules.ps\|this downloadable set]. It's 253 pages of rules, not 125, and it doesn't seem to be sanctioned by the Yorkish Pedigree Snuffling Committee. However, Peter is up to playing them as long as I'm aware of the implications. We did agree to follow the 1991 annotation for non-London stations, but I won't be playing the Japanese style. Right, OK, first move by trundling (p. 25, let's go simple at first, and the index isn't that great, I'm fairly certain this is legal though) to Fairfax on the Red Line. Squared, I think, although I'm probably getting ahead of myself. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #16,988 by pwhysall 11/6/01 5:27:06 PM Reply	Fairfax, you say? Well, we're going to have use the Rule Of Proliferant Fs and go to Finchley Road & Frognal. The "Red Line". Bloody Colonials. It's the "Central Line" to you, matey. Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal]
Post #16,991 by admin 11/6/01 5:30:14 PM Reply	Hmmm. Well, so much for giving the newbies a break, Mr. "I've been playing this for 15 years". The only obvious move I can see is Covent Garden, by the reciprocation property. Rounded, I think... that was the suggestion in the strategy guide (woefully incomplete) at least. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #16,992 by pwhysall 11/6/01 5:32:48 PM Reply	Horticultural Referents Rule Kew Gardens. Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal]
Post #16,993 by admin 11/6/01 5:36:54 PM 11/6/01 5:38:41 PM Reply	Not by this book. Section 35, p. 119 states quite equivocally that the Horticultural Referents rule does not apply to rounded plays, unless "previous play explicitly declined the Salted Earth referendum", which I believe you did not. Play now resumes at Leicester Square by way of the Cheese Invariant rule. Ha! I think I'm getting the hang of this. Edit: Forgot to add, I'm going to ignore the 1991 annotation for now. I don't think I can keep up if I have to keep that in mind as well. Plus, you'll forgive me please, I found a tube map of the Underground. :-) Regards, -scott anderson Edited by admin Nov. 6, 2001, 05:38:41 PM EST Expand All History
Post #16,994 by Another Scott 11/6/01 5:38:19 PM Reply	OT: This has to be a joke. It's hilarious! :-)
Post #16,995 by admin 11/6/01 5:40:02 PM Reply	No, quite serious. Pretty in-depth. The rules are amazing. The index is quite complex (by station name cross-linked to last rule played) but even with that there are depths I won't be able to plumb for a while I'm sure. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #16,996 by pwhysall 11/6/01 5:46:56 PM 11/6/01 5:47:54 PM Reply	Dull. Solid, but dull. A more daring move would have Tooting Bec, but there you go. Let's face it, who can go to London without going to see if Cupid really does have a willy, at Piccadilly Circus? Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] Edited by pwhysall Nov. 6, 2001, 05:47:54 PM EST Expand All History
Post #16,998 by admin 11/6/01 5:49:54 PM Reply	Well, of course. I've been playing all of 15 minutes, and all I have is this strategy guide. Simple move: Charing Cross, using the Crucified Willy approach. One good turn deserves another, I think. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #17,000 by pwhysall 11/6/01 5:55:19 PM Reply	Tut tut. The Crucified Willy approach has been tried by numerous gentlemen at Clapham Common, which sounds fair enough to me. Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal]
Post #17,002 by admin 11/6/01 5:57:18 PM Reply	Bastidge. Only way out of that is to make Russell Square. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #17,004 by pwhysall 11/6/01 6:02:03 PM Reply	Well... ...if you make Russell Square, you'll almost certainly make Hatton Cross. And you wouldn't like him when he's cross. Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal]
Post #17,006 by admin 11/6/01 6:06:37 PM Reply	Hmmm. And thus the expert shows up the newbie. I'll have to have Hatten cross London Bridge then, via Platherton's Proxying Postulate. Please. /me is afraid he's getting his arse kicked. It's looking dim, spectators. BTW, anyone who wants the rules (postscript format) emailed to them, let me know. Apparently that link is down now. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #17,010 by Another Scott 11/6/01 6:10:20 PM Reply	LRPD effect in action?
Post #17,011 by admin 11/6/01 6:11:36 PM Reply	Eh? Want the rule book? Regards, -scott anderson
Post #17,012 by Another Scott 11/6/01 6:13:42 PM Reply	Sorry. I was attempting a reference to the "Slashdot effect" being the cause of the rule-book server being down. Thanks for the offer, but I'm swamped with diversions. :-) Cheers, Scott.
Post #17,014 by admin 11/6/01 6:15:01 PM Reply	Heh. Yeah, true, hadn't thought of that, but typically you don't get a 404 for a swamped server, unless maybe it's a proxy replying and the server is down behind it. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #17,029 by pwhysall 11/6/01 6:49:19 PM Reply	Grasshopper, patience is key. Mudchute. And when you've worked that out, thusly you shall reach enlightenment. Peter Shill For Hire [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal]
Post #17,030 by admin 11/6/01 6:52:54 PM Reply	Will have to think on that a bit. The strategy is coming into play, I can see. Well, using the Pre-facto Future Move Placement Rule (heh, p. 35, section 3b - verra cool), my move 3 turns from now will be Bromley-By-Bow. Now I just gotta figure out how I'm going to get there from the set of possible Mudchute plays before you move again. :-P Regards, -scott anderson
Post #17,155 by Yendor 11/7/01 1:14:48 PM Reply	How about... A freakin' rulebook that we can download or view, one that doesn't give me an illegal login popup when I try to access the link, and one that explains why... I was able to (apparently) win 2 games against the java applet on one of those pages just by clicking on the little red dots. -YendorMike "The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by the skeptics or the cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need people who dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy
Post #17,160 by admin 11/7/01 1:59:12 PM Reply	Yeah, I don't know what happened to my copy. It's all fubared. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #16,999 by tseliot 11/6/01 5:54:18 PM Reply	Nah. I beat the stripped-down 36-station version online ...in 6 moves, without knowing a single rule. Not my kind of game...it's why I hate de_dust. Newbie map. :D --------------------------------- A stupid despot may constrain his slaves with iron chains; but a true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas;...despair and time eat away the bonds of iron and steel, but they are powerless against the habitual union of ideas, they can only tighten it still more; and on the soft fibres of the brain is founded the unshakable base of the soundest of Empires." Jacques Servan, 1767
Post #17,001 by pwhysall 11/6/01 5:57:16 PM 11/6/01 5:58:31 PM Reply	Not bad. But then, with only 36 stations, there's no real need for rules - one can simply employ the Liebnitz-Featherstonehaugh Relativistic Stochasicity Technique and you'll win every time. Peter Shill For Hire Who'll Happily Own j00 on de_dust [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] Edited by pwhysall Nov. 6, 2001, 05:58:31 PM EST Expand All History
Post #17,053 by Ashton 11/6/01 9:19:10 PM Reply	Alternate chooses: Stoke Newington Via lateral arabesque from the wings. I invoke the Least Squares Hilbert Space-Inflexibility Conjecture \ufffd 42 - now well on the way to Marylebone's Boner, for ultimate satisfiction. Can Shepherd's Bush be impregnable?

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