From: nroworth@nl.oracle.com (Nick Roworth)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: Mornington Crescent
Date: 11 Nov 92 08:55:49 GMT
Organization: Oracle Europe

In article <MJD.92Nov10124318@saul.cis.upenn.edu>, mjd@saul.cis.upenn.edu ("[*] The One True Cross") writes:
|> 
|> This is probably the most abstract psychology game I've ever met. 
|> I heard it from Ranjit Bhatnagar (ranjit@gradient.cis.upenn.edu).
|> 
|> The rule is:
|> 
|> 	Players take turns naming stations from the London Underground.
|> 	Whomever is first to name the station `Mornington Crescent', wins.
|> 
|>     When I first heard this, I thought it was a joke, but it it really
|> quite serious.
|> 
|>     Inexperienced players often suggest this strategy:
|> 
|> 	``Why don't you just name Mornington Crescent as soon as it's
|> 	  your turn?''
|> 
|>     Because if you do that, nobody will play with you, that's why not!
|> 
|>     To be a good Mornington Crescent player, you have to be able to
|> intuit, deduce, or guess when the other players are thinking of naming
|> Mornington Crescent, and then name it just before they do.  If another
|> player was thinking about naming Mornington Crescent on his next turn,
|> he cannot be irritated if you beat him to it.  If the other players
|> think that X is about to name Mornington Crescent, and you name it
|> before X does, they will not be angry at you; they will be pleased by
|> your perspicacity.

For those of you confused by the poor rendering of the rules above, here is a
sample game I recently played by E-Mail. Of course the only way to really learn
all the rules is to play the game.

========================== Nick 1 ========================== 
Lancaster Gate. Scoring above the line, main line stations are wild!
========================== Dave 1 ========================== 
Oh I see, play a poor station and then define the rules variation to make
it better rather than take the consequences...  Anyway, what you haven't
thought of is -- STRATFORD!  Above the line *and* wild main lines bring
the Docklands Light Railway into play, and you now have a BR/Central/DLR
triple Beeching to follow...  I follow the example of the great Oscar 
Ausenschlitz of course, although he could only use Ealing Broadway,
which suffers from being a terminus.
========================== Nick 2 ========================== 
The validity of the above move was outlawed at the Rules Convention meeting in
Nov 1991, where the rules for the Brighton Variant were first standardised. 
But I will let it stand, so Ladbroke Grove, doing a Cornelius junctioned
manoeuver.
========================== Dave 2 ========================== 
You know perfectly well that the 1991 Convention is not valid until
ratified by all the national organisations, and the Danes came out with a
narrow majority against...  That said, Ladbroke Grove certainly opens the
game up, so in the same spirit -- Finsbury Park.  Following Ausenschlitz
again, this time from his classic '72 simultaneous exhibition match against
Brooke-Taylor, Cryer, Garden, Rushton and Lyttelton.
========================== Nick 3 ========================== 
Now we have the ground rules laid down, for now. If you are intent on following
Ausenschlitz move-for-move I shall not make Graeme Garden's mistake of 
following a park by a gate (Notting Hill or was it Lancaster?) but
Shepherd's BUSH thus keeping all parks in play - apart from Royal ones that is.
========================== Dave 3 ========================== 
No, I didn't expect you to fall for that one.  However, slavish adherence
to even a master is a Bad Idea, sooo... Kentish Town.  That puts all
Commons, Lanes and Greens in baulk, and makes Broadways offside!
Wheels within wheels...
========================== Nick 4 ========================== 
Yes but I can still Cannon Street off Blackfriars to end at KEW GARDENS.
Neatly sidstepping the trap. Really Dave do you think I would fall for the
rather obvious Hazlinger's (sp) double Northern Line Bluff. I will have to 
admit that East/West Transversions are now wide open. Let the middle game 
commence!
========================== Dave 4 ========================== 
OK OK, I was just trying to catch you while you were distracted...
I've always felt that the E-W Transversions are a bit too simple for serious
players, so I'll close both those and the river tunnels by CHANCERY LANE.
This also doubles the value of all overground sections of course, but I
like to play the Outlying Game for a change.  Notice that all single-line
termini count as (straight) junctions for the next two moves...
========================== Nick 5 ========================== 
Hmmm, you are getting far too proficient at this, and having seen through my
two move win, and as Monument is too pedestrian a move for the purist, and
as the Jubilee extension looks like it may never be built (Thank God! the 
ramifications for City moves are horrendous). I shall play...
DOLLIS HILL. This reverses all points for even moves.
========================== Dave 5 ========================== 
I'm glad to see that you're beginning to appreciate the subtlety of the
moves... I agree about Monument, and in any case it would have been a
forced win in three: Monument, Paddington wild (!), Shepherd's Bush again
(no better move -- we are above the line), and then Royal Oak forces Circle
play and any move there gives MC.  Anyway, since points are not reversed
this time, I'll play a nice safe LEYTONSTONE.  This does carry a 10-point
penalty for line closure, but it prevents your (rather obvious) Angel
double reversal, and I'm not worried about penalties at the moment...
========================== Nick 6 ==========================
An even move, points reversed, main line stations wild, this allows me to
play the usually suicidal move of WATERLOO. It is only a pity I cannot claim
the fifty bonus points for using the Waterloo and City Line, but scoring above
the line, ah well.... Now try an imaginative move, and not the obvious one or
I may be forced to challenge you.
========================== Dave 6 ==========================
Well, the obvious move is Old Street, setting up for the Euston end game
and a points win, but only a novice would let the implied unmodified use of
Baker Street go unchallenged. Lack of imagination eh? Not at all -- all
strategies must have a place for consolidation moves.  But if you want
imagination, you shall have it...CHALFONT *AND* LATIMER.  Notice that this
would have been insanely risky without Leytonstone securing my left flank,
and beware the ramifications of Metropolitan branching!!
========================== Nick 7 ==========================
Oh dear Dave, we seem to have forgotten that St. Paul's is now a Thameslink
station, in which case MORNINGTON CRESCENT. I can hear you shouting FOUL from
here and preparing to write K's of text to me and reams of text to the
International MC Committee, so to avoid this. I shall play the solid and
underused move of GUNNERSBURY. After all we don't want to cross water at this
stage of the game.
Unless of course you accept my first move :---) Pete Caldwell smiley.
========================== Dave 7 ==========================
Au contraire Nick -- I was aware of the Thameslink possibilities when you
reversed points back at move 5; as an *even* move, MC would have been both
dramatic and unchallengeable.  I am also aware that we are above the
line, that termini are back to normal this move, so Gunnersbury re-opens the
river tunnels(!), and that DLR (and hence the Greenwich *foot* tunnel)
is still usable: hence MORNINGTON CRESCENT.  And before I hear any
complaints about "Ravenscourt Park is closed", it was you that kept the
parks in play...  Excellent game though!

-- 
Nick Roworth, ORACLE Europe             "Bugs Mr. Rico! Zillions of 'em!"
Rijnzathe 6, NL-3454 PV De Meern        Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
Phone: +31-3406-94211                     
nroworth@nl.oracle.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract