Mornington Crescent

[Balesk Baj, Timeburner]

Well played, SlyReaper. I guess I have to go with the flow for now if I want my strategy to work.

Moorgate it is, taking all lanes near it in temporary parallel block for 2 turns and making St. John's Wood absolutely impassable.

[Mumpy]

Ahem. I would like to point out that since I was at Moorgate to begin with, and what with slyreaper having brought water into play, I am immune to your blocks, even if only in the lateral sense. I must take advantage of this with a nicely placed Kentish town.

[SlyReaper]

I take a whiffling frogman over the haddocks, and with a triumphant grolly, numble a toff-boing all over Mornington Crescent.

[Mishrak]

Classic Fungible Pincer.

Who let Felstaff in? Holy crap I haven't seen a pincer like that in a very long time. So long, in fact, that I had forgotten about pincers altogether. But after dusting off my copy of Peter Piper's Pickled Pincers with Pinash and Mornintgon Crescent written by the overly zealous and pompous Sir Walsh Herrington, of which there were only 93 printed copies (hardbacks included), I will unleash a devestating Grannysmith Apple and Loo Pincer on Camden Town.

That divides the regions up evenly amongst all players, it shuts down all transit via international and domestic routes, the cats are caged, the dogs are caged and that gives me the blacks and the reds. I'm out of shunts now, but that shouldn't matter too much. Flags are back to full mast and are changed to be wine and gold colors.

MC in 0.64

[JonR]

is that your opening move then?
Did you notice that Slyreaper had won?

if it is your opening move, that's pretty audacious of you. It leaves all sorts of train doors open for all sorts of skullduggery....
flags at full mast, that's typical of a pincer move, not much I can do about that.
the colouring works to my advantage, as I have wine, and gold tokens.
you've taken the blacks, and the reds, which only leaves green 0 and green 00. not much interest to me I'm afraid, as my trip Queens are looking for pair for a full house.

only a few moves I can see that really make sense, but I'll open up the board a bit with a triple Salko to Amersham.

[Mishrak]

Woops, I missed that Sly's triumphant grolly. How silly of me.

Oh well, it makes for a hilarious opening move I guess. Not usually my style of play but, I may try it again in the future. I have to skip a turn, so still MC in 0.64.

[SlyReaper]

Burly thropp and a tankish drop, carry down the willows. A gnarly wookar lurks ahead, so be sure to juggle pillows. Dollis Hill.

[JonR]

CRACKERJACK!

Highbury and Islington

[podbaydoor]

That's quite a gaping hole you've left there, lads. I'll just have to bring up the cross-purposes with me. Kensington. *whistles*

[Mishrak]

A reverse slawling countdown, right after engaging in a fisticuffs with the neon muppets.

MC in 0.72

[Whelan]

There's no such thing as 0.72 of a neutron. No charge, Hammersmith.

[JonR]

all blue players change at Bond St for the Bakerloo line.

[BurningLed]

I enter at purple, and claim the North fall line and above, setting all of the controlled signals to Green and destroying all impediments between tiles.

[JonR]

Hey look, from here we can see the CN Tower - Bloor - Yonge

[SlyReaper]

Gumper lumper and his froony jolls open a drully in the fenter. Bank.

[podbaydoor]

I'll take "spoony bard" for two, please. Swiss Cottage.

[Mishrak]

I'll see your "spoony bard" for two, PBD, and raise it to four, AND I'll include a baker's loo and a pair of orange batons. Lets see how long you can hold Swiss Cottage with that

[podbaydoor]

Aha, but you left a lateral scuttle shunt opening over here on my left. I don't need to hold Swiss Cottage. Burnt Oak.

[Mishrak]

A louvre on the left to the left to the right upside down all around in the town, down and out? Darnit, how did I forget that.

Oh well. Swiss Cottage it is then.

[podbaydoor]

Ha! Let's see how the rest of you brave lads do against the overlapping circles I'm running all around the board.

[Mishrak]

Come on chaps! We can't let a girl beat us here now can we? Put your thinking caps on and use those tokens.

[Whelan]

London Lions Love Lepers.
Loogabarooga.

[JonR]

Spadina

[JonR]

Whitechapel

[podbaydoor]

Wait, we're playing with Double Jeopardy rules this round? When did that happen? Dollis Hill.

[Jumble]

As a new entrant to this round I call Thud, claim an Oppenheimer morality paradox and move to Finsbury Park. Victoria line is currently suspended following a passenger incident.

[podbaydoor]

Ah, but it doesn't cut off the Eastern board. Chalk Farm.

[Jumble]

In that case I'll pass the Ferrero Roche and alight at Aldgate East. Err, where is everyone and why are all the gates locked?

Can someone find the dried frog tablets for SlyReaper?

[podbaydoor]

We could all hallucinate a little sane around here. In any case, I'm closing the scuttle move, taking Monument and inversely re-straddling the Piccadilly Line.

[AJR]

I'm still trying to work out how the Ferrero Roche rule works with the newly extended East London Line, but I think a quick hop to Hackney Central is in order...

[JonR]

nice move there.

Bethnal Green

which opens the door, and turns the spindle, and more purple tokens for me! hurrah!

[existential_elevator]

Gentlemen [and women]; this is a very interesting game and rule-set, but I have to say, there have been some pretty amateur mistakes.

Playing Hackney Central after Monument, for instance, put all of zone 2 in spoon, leaving zone 1 wide open to invasion from zone 4. The incident on the Victoria line should have blocked all movement to the Circle Line, and caused a signal failure on the Picadilly Line. Attention, please, people! Especially when that scamp Jumble is locking Aldgate East without the least bit of your attention! [S]He is clearly hoping to trap [him/her]self in zone 1 and lock the rest of you out, meaning that once they leylines are centralised, they can easily make it to MC. Don't think I didn't see through your manoeuvre, it was the talk of the Hillyfields '08 convention, and I've been seeing copycats ever since!

Although this is far too late in the game for me to be able to make any significant plays, I am going to pass Go and move directly to London Bridge, which will at least stabilise the capacitator at a positive value, making it possible to remove the zone 2 spoon.

[Felstaff]

I hope you're ready for the 2012 ruleset changes. With the extension of the East London Line, analysts predict that whoever takes Dulwich Hamlet, Denmark Hill or Peckham Rye will be able to win all too easily. So they're going to implement some serious nerfing (no blue cards, no whistle-stop chilters, and certainly no Uncle Gavins). Of course, the new handbook won't be in the shops until mid-2011, but it's just something to keep in mind (the gap!!!!).

[podbaydoor]

Let's not worry about ruleset changes mid-game. I'm sure serious discussion can take place afterwards.

...which may not be that far away, because E_E missed the ablative case on the circle line caused by Aldgate East and London Bridge both being occupied, and more than one zone in spoon. Therefore, Highgate ought to put me at MC in 2.

[Mishrak]

I've already got some cronies in the book stores, because I heard they're only printing 3,022 copies of the new rulebook. I'm prepared to buy at least 3 of them.

I can't believe theyr'e taking away the Uncle Gavins. When I heard that, I almost thought about retiring from tournament play. But as long as there's a reverse oscillating shunt allowed, I think I'll still continue to play.

Also, @ mr. elevator. No one likes a 20-20 visioner who's always looking hindways. What happened happened and what happens will happen and what won't might used to happen, will'n't mighten used to happenist. Capice?

[existential_elevator]

That's Ms. Elevator, thank-you kindly. Frankly I'm more upset about the blue cards, but so long as there are still optional rules for Community Chest cards, then I'm pretty much happy. I always preferred playing the older rulesets anyway, but a bit of variation is nice. And don't y'all go hogging all of the new books!

And podbaydoor, you are quite right that I missed that ablative, but you've got to admit, I was trying to make explicit a complete mess of a game. However, I'm not sure that it puts your MC rate up quite so high, because there's still a mis-alignment on zone 2, which is affecting the Nortern Line. I'd say you're at MC in 4, perhaps 3 if that signal failure sorts itself out. But otherwise, good play.

For the time being, I'm going to move to Cockfosters, which will activate the optional double-entendre clauses.

[JonR]

are you related to broken_elevator?

anyway, with cockfosters, you started a fowl play manouver (maneouvre? I never can spell that one) - and it'd be rude not to, so I'm going to say Canary Warf, for a double bird.

[Whelan]

I've already got my copy of the new sets.

Anyway, BoJo's party is hogging the kegs, and cutting budgets, so I can take Prague an have MC in 1

[podbaydoor]

Fast and furious, eh? E_E, you've got something there, but I'd say that the misalignment actually works out in my favor if I retake Monument and cash in one of the purple tokens, thus raising bridges high again. MC in 2.

[JonR]

I'm not sure we can stop Whelan - even if I take out a schilling stopper, and consficate his tokens, and go to Ealing Broadway he's still got options!