h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sorry to interrupt. I've been pondering this for a while: it's gotta be either Ruislip or Kensal Green, but I didn't want to take the plunge. But I'm going to have to.

Kensal Green.

I disagree, Ruslip would have been better. But, since that is not the way the game moved I shall have to acceed (how do you spell that?) and go to
Perivale
So there.

Sorry to interupt the game just wanted to extend a big thank you for trying to simplify things! Im sitting here with map and coloured pens and am determined to reward my imagination by figuring out how to play!

Dead easy, just follow the three rules "Originality" "Non-consecutiveness except in special conditions" and "Learn some really obscure moves to throw spanners in overgrown machine" I'd move myself now to demonstrate, but mine was in fact the last move, so I cannot. Sigh.

Acton Town would be singularly inappropriate as it would cause a Circle line inversion. I attach a brief definition

Originally an unforeseen consequence of the complexities of the Crescent '31 ruleset, but later adopted as a standard (if rare) play, a Circle Line Inversion occurs when a player successfully completes a circuit of the Circle Line, stoppping at each station, without being shunted, placed in knip or spoon or making a pass (forced or otherwise).

When this happens, a mass pickering sets in as an automatic consequence (though, as mentioned, no one realised this when Crescent '31 was drawn up). All stations inside the Circle Line are mapped to locations outside it, and vice versa. This has a very destabilising effect on the game, since farflung token stacks in the outer zones are brought close together, with unpredictable results, and Beck's coefficient tends asymptotically to infinity. In the 1970's Trellis National League Long Game, a Circle Line Inversion lasted so long that real versions of foetal ghost stations quantum tunnelled in from parallel universes, and there was no play for the whole of 1976 while an extremely hazardous exorcism was carried out by a special team from the Vatican.

The first player to recognise that such an event could occur was the great Hugo, who famously used it to win victory in the final of the World Championships in 1935. Ruttsborough, in the audience for that amazing game, immediately began using this tactic in games against opponents who had not yet heard of it and its provenance was, for a time, falsely attributed to him; a mistake he made no attempt to rectify in his 1937 classic "Invert This, You Piccadilly Piccanilly!"

Debates raged for many years over whether the Circle Line Inversion was a dazzlingly bold manouevre that should be celebrated or a hideous anomaly that the rules should be altered to avoid. These went unresolved throughout the '40s, with the various rulesets drawn up at that time alternating between one and the other (Praed Street '41 in particular is notable for its drastic policy of putting all termini in permanent spoon to prevent such an occurrence). After various incidents of chair throwing at meetings by Ruttsborough supporters, Circle Line Inversions eventually became a permanent feature of the game starting with Marble Arch '54.

The only safe place to be during a Circle Line Inversion is at a non-interchange Circle Line station. The effect can be reversed by a circuit of the Circle Line in the opposite sense to that which caused the inversion in the first place. In general, all players cooperate in such an effort, though the more aggressive may welcome the chaos unleashed.

A more appropriate move might be

Baker Street

It could be, but it isnt. Heh.

So you invoke "Stannards Posture" then?

Sadly no, my gameplay usally takes a turn for the "Braithwaites Dolance", rules permitting. Depends on whether the initial few moves indicate the other players are versed in the standard diagonal rulings to whether subsequent moves on my part allow a lesser or greater freedom of movement. For instance a move of Angel at this point in the above game would lose me a counter or two, but would be looked upon as 'friendly' by the other players who would have the range of the playing area to move in. But, if at least one player is capable of putting someone in 'Nid' in three moves minimum (which they luckily dont seem to here) I would probably go Dagenham or similar in accordance to "Ganpools Reverse Gambit". As it is at the moment I cannot move till someone else does, or that would just be rude

I must say that I admire your observation of common etiquette, this being a beginners game, an introduction (as it were) to the "Great Game". One tends to find players leaping all over the place as if it were merely another game of Baker Street (or god forbid, Ramsey Street). I am reminded of Pillingtons response to the rather underhand tactics of Pope Pius IX (In 1869 at the Rome Grandmasters Pope Pius IX declared himself to be infallible and thus incapable of losing (he was a weak player never fully understanding a widdershinns Crossmead spiral)) where he refused to don the velvet gloves of the defeated competitor merely stating that he had "mislaid" them. I shall of course be following this game with great interest.

Ahoy-hoy, I wasn't going to join the game half way through but I've never had a chance to apply the Bank Holiday Exception so I couldn't resist.

Marble Arch

Well it would be a good move 'twere it a bank holiday, alas however it is not.

I realise that. That is why it is the Bank Holiday 'Exception'.

However your cunning delaying tactics means that Cyclists' Prerogative can be invoked.

Which means that I lose a turn doesn't it? Or is that only valid when playing by Transport Union rules?

Nah, Cyclists usually can only be invoked in a novice game and above. This is still 'beginner' so you are brobably better served missing a turn and going to one of the Actons.
As it is I move Green Park, and wait expectantly.

Nah, Cyclists usually can only be invoked in a novice game and above. This is still 'beginner' so you are probably better served missing a turn and going to one of the Actons.
As it is I move Green Park, and wait expectantly.

An extremely newcommer invoking the internation ruling of 1915 from Australia to Britain.
I make the very shrewd move to
Ravenscourt Park

Whoo-ee, for a beginners move that astounds me. Sadly I cannot do mine just yet...

Yes I thought it might, its that international ruling, gets you every time if your not looking out for it..

I can scarcely wait for the next move, for a beginners game this is shaping up nicely. Reminds me of the game between the (then) young Harold MacMillan and some German (I forget his name, it'll come to me), littered with inelegant play, but reminicent of a babys first steps, up down up down, fall over. Any prospective players new to the game could learn a lot (if not much) from the nuances displayed.

I can hardly wait either, this is like sitting on the edge of my chair.
I will be interesting to see who makes the next move.
Cheers
Agent

This is just nailbiting, I can hardly wait for the next move.