Ah ha! Thank you MrINBN!

I'll shunt you to Summit to block enembee's move and take your place on 81st street, as precedented by William Wolham in the 1982 Edinburgh Competition, and two tokens besides.

 

I know that in the fourth edition rules, it's probably too far gone for me to join now. However, that doesn't appear thus far to be the case, so I'll throw my hat in the ring!

I start in the Wickersham. Following the rules of honorable declaration (laid out in the Birmingham summit of 2001) I take double the number of standard starting tokens, and announce my intent to perform the Devil's Gambit.

 

Dammit, Aekiel.

I ride the NJ Transit line from Summit to Maplewood, collecting 3 black tokens.

 

Using the Skitching introduced by the most recent revision of the Liverpool rules, I can now carry with INBN to Summit and using the Queen's Lane precedent, reverse my velocity with the Flying Nun card. This done, I can use Summit, Shorthills, Mountain Station and Highland Avenue as a cascade. Remember this doubles my velocity for each high ground station and doubles it again owing to the fact that it's a cascade.

Mindless, I think you can confirm by Rule 1353b, New York Standard that I picked up enough velocity to reach Paris?

 

Yes. You have. But you've also picked up too much. As per the Thraping Coefficient, you've taken the game further than Paris. You've taken it to Berlin. At this point, we are going to require a bit of a rules adjustment.

Firstly, the question of the Berlin Wall divide shall be settled by the Schaubaum Agreement. This is little-known, so I should point out that in your 4th edition rulebook, it is located on page 243.

Secondly, we shall make a formal switch to the Modern Grand Prix Variation of Tudor Court rules. This means that:

• There is no cloistering permitted.
• Second Prohibition has been discarded. Double taps are legal.
• All border shuffles within the Vatican are declared illegal.
• All other rules stand as normal.

Lastly, the map in use will be the Nonstandard Berlin Unterbahn, 1971. This does mean spider plays are legal moves.

I shall begin at Dahlem-Dorf.

 

Hold on a minute, you yourself cited the Einstein-Tchaikovsky Double of 1963. Surely that would lead to the conclusion that there was enough inherent weight in the piece to negate the Thraping Coefficient?

 

Sadly, Zephyrus cited Engleburt, which shifted the aggregate weight East. Otherwise, you would have calculated perfectly and placed us on Paris.

 

But Engleburt was almost certainly before the precedents set by ET established 9/10ths of the game's playable physics? What's more your use of the West India Quay means that you accept Shelia Ondyszeki's postulation that the aggregate weight is only affected when the Bishop's Accords are played.

 

Hold on, Mindless. The Crosshutch Ruling of '73 allows me to add additional weight to enembee, slowing him down just enough to reach Paris, if I play two tokens to go with him. I did.

 

He's right. God damn it, I take Victoria Market, in that case.

 

Clever, Oz. I cascade from Brunswick Road to Victoria Market, and spend three of the 6 greens I get from this to knip Oz on that line, as per the Anderson Gambit of '95.

 

Excellent move. I move to Brunswick, and then spend two red tokens to Double Tap Shunt down through Kensington to North Williamson.

 

Devil's Gambit was a roaring success. I force MrINBN to South Kensington, taking two of his remaining three greens in the process and his place in Victoria Market. All I can say is you were fortunate to have no blues!

Oz, the fact that I've forced you to skip a turn was wholly accidental. No hard feelings, eh?

Edit: Looks like Mindless moved before me. With the 1988 Moscow amendment, do I get to pick up three blues, or are we not playing with that?

 

I knew the moment we opened up Double Taps there'd be blatant abuse.

I'll play on the straight and narrow, unlike most people and make a jailhouse flop from Victoria Market to Park Ville to Royal Park through Parkville and Prince's Park, flopping to the Brunswick cascade then onto the West cascade from West Brunswick to West Airport where I can book a flight to Heathrow.

Two and a half.

 

GPV eliminates the Moscow Agreement of 88 in favor of the more recent Berne Treaty of 1993, in which the original players took precedence over new entries in terms of turns. Long and short, bucko, is that your blues aren't coming.

I'll catch the chromatic shunt enembee has unwittingly engineered with his cascade working in combination with Vlad's Devil's Gambit, which will drag me along to Heathrow, eventually settling me in Hounslow West.

 

Taking a page from Mindless' wonderful book, I employ Gardener's "Cheese" Gambit of '84, placing all of us back in London, on the Ickenham and Amersham lines. Your move.

 

Using the only legal move I have left to me, thanks to your Devil's Gambit Vlad, I shunt Oz into a Four Six Keep Kitch, leaving Mindless open to step into an unstoppable two play win.

Anyone got any last minute reprisals?

 

I'll spend all my remaining tokens to block shunts, and make a Triple Shuffle Power Play to Crossharbour.

 

Well shit - that bit me in the ass. I force the Amsterdam Delay, but it's only postponing the inevitable. Well done Mindless.