# Episode 3 — The Toronto airlift

Bob's first pin of the blue emergency held every ingredient of the plan that followed: cure blue first, a free Operations Expert station, and Toronto as the place to meet. Alice put them in one location and told Bob to skip his three Atlanta treats. Bob then took the harness's airlift row, added the station build the row left out, and checked the result with `preview_plan`. The cure landed as Alice's first action. The skipped treats cost an outbreak at Atlanta.

| | |
|---|---|
| Game | [Game 3](/games/game-03/summary.md): 2 players, open hands, 4 epidemics |
| Seats | alice = Dispatcher, bob = Operations Expert; both `deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017`, reasoning low |
| Kind | **assembled plan**: one seat's pin, the other's reorder and a menu row combine into a plan neither wrote whole |
| Moment | turns 4–7, log #32–#63 |
| Game result | won, with no claim that this exchange mattered to it |
| Harness involvement | **shared**: the ingredients were bob's pin, the Toronto meeting and the airlift-and-handoff line were on bob's menu, the cure-first reorder and the station's new place were alice's, and the combination was bob's |
| Stakes | high: blue supply was 12 and falling |
| Evidence | [fact sheet](/episodes/facts/game-03-t5.md), harness lookup |

## 1. Position

Before bob's turn (#42): bob stands in Atlanta, an Operations Expert, holding Lima, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Toronto, Bogota and the Airlift. Alice stands in Essen, a Dispatcher, holding San Francisco, Essen, Madrid and St. Petersburg (four blue) with Tokyo, Manila and Algiers. Bob's Toronto card is her fifth blue. Atlanta and Ho Chi Minh City are the stations. No cure is banked and no outbreak has happened. Blue supply is 12, and Atlanta holds 3 blue cubes, New York and London 2.

## 2. What each seat knew

Hands are open, so each saw the other's cards, including the Airlift.

**What bob had already written (#32).** His pin of the blue emergency, written during alice's turn just before his own, carried the doctrine, the station and the meeting, and it planned three treats for himself:

> **#32 bob:** DOCTRINE: treat/cure BLUE above all; once blue is CURED, one treat clears ALL blue cubes in a city […] clears ATLANTA (3 blue) with 3 treats next turn + will build a EUROPEAN station (free, Ops Expert) so Alice can cure blue locally instead of trekking to Atlanta. Toronto(blue) sits in Bob's hand as a 4th blue for Alice IF we can meet at Toronto.

**What the harness put in front of alice before #39.** The rendezvous row that sends the Toronto card to her:

> **prompt alice, before #39:** bob hands you Toronto(blue): meet IN Toronto (the card's own city)

**What the harness put in front of bob before #41.** The same rendezvous row from his side, two station rows that help alice cure, and the airlift row:

> **prompt bob, before #41:** hand Toronto(blue) to alice: meet IN Toronto (the card's own city) — you 2 move(s), alice 3 move(s); then alice to station Atlanta +2 move(s) to cure

> **prompt bob, before #41:** build a station at Essen — brings alice 4 move(s) closer to a station to cure at (free build — Ops Expert)

> **prompt bob, before #41:** Airlift alice to Toronto and hand over Toronto — the blue handoff without the crossing (free move + 1 action; 1 still needed) — drive Chicago, drive Toronto, airlift alice to Toronto, give Toronto to alice

The rendezvous rows send alice on to Atlanta, two moves after the handoff, to cure. None of the lines found puts a station at Toronto.

**What alice reasoned (#39).** She reads bob's European station and moves it to where the card is, then notices what his doctrine means for his own plan.

> **reasoning alice, for #39:** Alternatively, Bob builds the European station (free) so I can cure locally. But that requires Bob to travel to Europe (far).

> **reasoning alice, for #39:** If Bob builds a station at Toronto (free, no card), then when we meet in Toronto, I could cure RIGHT THERE (Toronto becomes a station). That saves the 2 moves to Atlanta!

> **reasoning alice, for #39:** THIS is the key insight: cure blue first, then Atlanta's 3 blue vanishes with a single treat (cured color = treat removes all).

**What bob reasoned (#41).** He cites the row, finds what it leaves out, and previews the whole plan.

> **reasoning bob, for #41:** Alternative (frontier nominee 1): "Airlift alice to Toronto and hand over Toronto" — drive Chicago, drive Toronto, airlift alice to Toronto, give Toronto to alice.

> **reasoning bob, for #41:** 1 still needed = she still needs the station to cure. So I'd need to build a station too.

> **reasoning bob, for #41:** The preview confirms: after the plan, alice is at Toronto and has Toronto card.

## 3. What was said

Alice's reframe has two parts, a rule and a place:

> **#39 alice:** KEY REFRAME — do NOT spend 3 actions clearing Atlanta. Once BLUE is CURED, ONE treat wipes all of Atlanta's blue. […] Head to TORONTO (drive Atlanta→Chicago→Toronto, 2 moves) — you hold Toronto, my 5th blue. […] As Ops Expert, BUILD A STATION in Toronto (free, no card). That becomes our cure site AT the handoff point — no European-station ocean crossing needed, no trek to Atlanta.

Bob accepted it, and added the airlift:

> **#41 bob:** Reframe accepted — and I can do better than you traveling: I'm driving to Toronto and building the station there, THEN airlifting YOU straight to Toronto (airlift = free, 0 actions) and handing you Toronto. You end ON a Toronto station holding 5 blue with ZERO travel — cure blue as your FIRST action next turn.

> **#46 alice:** Approved — airlift me to Toronto after you build the station and hand off.

> **#49 bob:** DISCOVER BLUE as action #1 — you have the full 5 at the Toronto station. […] BLUE SUPPLY IS CRITICAL: 8 left, 16 on board, Atlanta already OUTBROKE.

After the cure, alice asked bob to use the rule her reframe had rested on:

> **#51 alice:** YOU take ATLANTA: it's at 3 and already outbroke once — as Ops Expert shuttle Toronto→Atlanta and ONE treat WIPES it now that blue is cured (+3 supply).

## 4. What was done

| Seq | Seat | Command |
|---|---|---|
| #42 | bob | driveFerry to Chicago |
| #43 | bob | driveFerry to Toronto |
| #44 | bob | buildStation, at Toronto |
| #45 | bob | playEvent airlift, alice to Toronto |
| #47 | bob | shareGive, Toronto to alice |
| #48 | alice | discard Tokyo (forced, over the hand limit) |
| #52 | alice | discoverCure blue, with San Francisco, Essen, Madrid, St. Petersburg, Toronto |
| #53 | alice | driveFerry to New York |
| #54 | alice | treatDisease blue, at New York |
| #59 | bob | shuttleFlight to Atlanta |
| #60 | bob | treatDisease blue, at Atlanta |

## 5. Harness involvement

| Milestone | Involvement | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The doctrine, the European station and the Toronto card (#32) | **seat-originated**, bob's pin | The Toronto meeting was also on his rendezvous block, so that part was offered as well. |
| Cure first, skip the Atlanta treats (#39) | **seat reasoning**, alice's | She applies the pin's doctrine to the pin's planned treats. The rule was bob's, the consequence for his turn was hers. |
| The station at Toronto instead of Europe (#39) | **seat-originated**, alice's | Her reasoning derives it from bob's European station. Stations for her cure were on bob's frontier, at Essen and Paris; Toronto was on no line found. |
| Airlift and handoff (#41, #42–#47) | **extends-frontier-line**, bob's | His reasoning cites the nominee, adds the station build the row omits, and checks the sequence with `preview_plan`. |
| Alice's cure (#52) | **on-frontier**, first row | The row quoted below, listed first in her prompt. |

> **prompt alice, before #52:** cure blue at Toronto — CURE blue

## 6. What we can and cannot conclude

**Checked against the rules.** Alice's rule is correct: treating a cured colour removes every cube of it from the city. Her ordering argument, that clearing Atlanta before the cure wastes two actions, follows from it, and bob's treat at Atlanta after the cure (#60) is the use of it.

**Checked against the log.** Alice's hand before #52 holds the five blue she needs (San Francisco, Essen, Madrid, St. Petersburg, Toronto) plus Manila and Algiers: she shed Tokyo at the forced discard (#48), which bob's #41 predicted.

**What the plan cost.** The reframe left Atlanta at 3 blue cubes through bob's turn. The top of the infection deck, which neither seat could see, was New York and then Atlanta (the engine preview in the fact sheet, under the board before #42), so the infect phase after his turn outbroke Atlanta: outbreaks went from 0 to 1 and blue supply from 12 to 8 by the board before #52. Bob's reasoning had weighed that risk as low because Atlanta's card was not in the discard:

> **reasoning bob, for #41:** So Atlanta's card is NOT in the infection discard → it can only be drawn from the infection DECK (the active draw pile), not the discard. So lower immediate risk.

The cure then paid some of it back: one treat cleared New York (#54) and one cleared Atlanta (#60). Whether the trade was a good one is not shown; this page records that it was a trade, and that the cost came due at once.

**Replays.** The pivot study replayed bob's call that wrote #41 (pivot 1). A blind judge labelled the reply a refinement in 4 of 5 stage A control draws and 3 of 5 stage B control draws. The label describes the type of reply, not whether it contained the airlift.

**Not known.** Whether bob would have found the airlift without the row: his reasoning cites it, so the row was in his working. Why alice's station went to Toronto and not to another city on bob's route beyond the moves she counts.

**Not shown.** That the exchange affected the outcome, which was a win.

**What it does show.** A plan assembled from several sources. One seat's pin supplied the doctrine, the station and the meeting; the second seat moved the station to the meeting place and reordered the first seat's turn around the doctrine; the harness supplied the free move and the handoff; and the first seat joined all three and checked them by preview. The seats' contribution is the assembly, and the page is included so that the casebook shows what a plan with high harness involvement looks like next to episodes where it is absent.


## Trace navigation

[Game summary](/games/game-03/summary.md) · [Turns](/games/game-03/turns/index.md) · [Interactive board](/games/game-03/replay.html#event-32) · [Recorded events JSONL](/games/game-03/events.jsonl)

On the board: [#32 Bob pins a blue-first doctrine](/games/game-03/replay.html#event-32) · [#39 Alice moves the meeting to Toronto](/games/game-03/replay.html#event-39) · [#41 Bob adds a station and the Airlift](/games/game-03/replay.html#event-41) · [#45 Bob airlifts Alice to Toronto](/games/game-03/replay.html#event-45) · [#52 Alice cures blue](/games/game-03/replay.html#event-52)

Events cited above, each on its turn page:

[#1](/games/game-03/turns/0.md#e1) · [#32](/games/game-03/turns/4.md#e32) · [#39](/games/game-03/turns/5.md#e39) · [#41](/games/game-03/turns/5.md#e41) · [#42](/games/game-03/turns/5.md#e42) · [#43](/games/game-03/turns/5.md#e43) · [#44](/games/game-03/turns/5.md#e44) · [#45](/games/game-03/turns/5.md#e45) · [#46](/games/game-03/turns/5.md#e46) · [#47](/games/game-03/turns/5.md#e47) · [#48](/games/game-03/turns/5.md#e48) · [#49](/games/game-03/turns/6.md#e49) · [#51](/games/game-03/turns/6.md#e51) · [#52](/games/game-03/turns/6.md#e52) · [#53](/games/game-03/turns/6.md#e53) · [#54](/games/game-03/turns/6.md#e54) · [#59](/games/game-03/turns/7.md#e59) · [#60](/games/game-03/turns/7.md#e60) · [#63](/games/game-03/turns/7.md#e63)


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