Subject: MN: Re: Updates to Week 7 Proposals

From: "Jonathan Ellis" <jonathan@f...>
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 11:42:32 +0100

Proposal 758 - Following the Wet Footprints [Action]

Sorry, but this is still hideously abusable provided that the Circle is
not Electrified (which doesn't, let's face it, happen very often.) In
the following way:

Get a Home Station which is *next to* a Park Station (Queensbury
for preference), place a Token on it for Straddling purposes, and switch
back and forth as follows:

Charing Cross (Collecting Pigeon) - repeat until full of Pigeons.
When Passing (to collect Pigeons), collect a Black Token if you have
less than 3. Otherwise, Blue (to give a chance of de-electrifying the
Circle should someone electrify it.)

[Home] Queensbury [Straddling to Canons Park] [Releasing Pigeons]
Paying a single Black Token for the Straddle.

[Backtracking] Charing Cross (Collecting Pigeon): -2 Black for the
Backtracking, which is permitted as the Player is no longer at Home, but
all Moves are on the same Line and thus eligible for a single Black
Token bonus. Thus, gaining 1 Black Token every Turn, and choosing Black
as the token colour received for a Pass, means the Player will never run
out of Black Tokens (for the Backtracking or the Straddling) and have an
inexhaustible supply of Pigeons and Golds. Thus, as I said, hideously
abusable.
And if Backtracking is changed to be prevented the turn after a
"Home", then a "Wild" to an outer-region Park Station will do instead:
if Backtracking is to be permitted only after a Standard Move, it might
be worthwhile as an escape route after being Shunted while not allowing
the Pigeon abuse as detailed above. But I don't see *anyway* why a
teleport move should allow a cheap teleport back afterwards from no
matter where.

Jonathan.

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From: kevan@d...
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 11:02:16 -0000

> Sorry, but this is still hideously abusable

Tangentially, it still superfluously repeats some of the Special Move definition from Rule 1.5.0...

> provided that the Circle is

Clever stuff, and reasonably argued. Such tactics are all very obvious, though, and should be *fairly* easy to stop once they become apparent; Bulkheading Charing Cross seeming the obvious solution, but old and generic standbys like Knip or Dollis Hill would probably do the trick.

> But I don't see *anyway* why a

This is a good point, really - much of the drawback of the teleport Actions is that they're one-way; if you flee Home because Zone 1 is getting hectic, or Wild to the outer reaches to chisel away at a Gold Stack, you suffer the penalty of having to make your own way back afterwards.

Similarly, one of the reasons for Shunting people is to kick them a fair distance away, so that they'll have to take a couple of Turns getting back to wherever they were; with Backtracking, a Shuntee can immediately return to where e was - both to finish whatever e was doing, and to extract horrible revenge on the Shunter, who'll still be at that Station.

In all, this seems like a nice Action at first glance; a simple and powerful effect that should interact pleasingly with other Rules, but I fear it's going to be a little too unbalancing if it passes.

Backtracking on first impressions,

Kevan

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