Episode 5 — Alice builds where Bob said to walk
Bob offered Alice the fifth yellow card and a route to a station: walk from Hong Kong to Delhi and cure. His count left one action spare; the engine's count leaves him one short. Alice took the card and followed his discard advice, said nothing, then built a station in Hong Kong with the red card she had been saving for him, and cured on the spot. She reported the cure afterwards. A frontier row in her prompt offered that line at the moment the walk stopped fitting.
1. Position
Before alice's turn (#44): alice stands in Beijing, a Dispatcher, holding Chicago, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Cairo, Hong Kong, Santiago and Lima: four yellow (Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Santiago, Lima). Bob stands in Hong Kong, a Researcher, holding Ho Chi Minh City, Delhi, Jakarta, Mumbai, Moscow, Kolkata and Johannesburg: four black, two red, and Johannesburg, the fifth yellow alice needs. Atlanta and Delhi are the stations. No cure is banked and no outbreak has happened.
2. What each seat knew
Hands are open, so each saw the other's cards. Alice's plan, written on her previous turn, had both pawns meeting in Hong Kong to hand over her red card:
#36 alice: New route this turn: I walk Beijing→Shanghai→Hong Kong, treat HK red, and move you to Shanghai so you're 1 from HK — next turn we hand HK(red) over there
Bob then drew Johannesburg and changed the priority. His reasoning shows he knew Hong Kong had no station, and what that cost:
reasoning bob, for #43: HK has no station. She'd need to fly/walk to Delhi (HK→Kolkata→Delhi 2 moves)
When alice had taken the card, bob restated the route. His reasoning gives its length as three actions with one spare:
reasoning bob, for #46: Advise: shed Chicago now, then move HK→Kolkata→Delhi and cure yellow — 3 actions, leaving 1 spare.
What alice reasoned. At the jump she planned four actions and a cure on the next turn, not this one:
reasoning alice, for #44: Better than the nominee: I jump to bob at HK [1], shareTake Johannesburg [2]
reasoning alice, for #45: 4 actions: shareTake, discard, drive, drive. Next turn cure yellow.
What the harness put in front of her. Two actions were left when she faced the forced discard's aftermath. Her prompt then listed one row:
prompt alice, before #48: build a station at Hong Kong and cure yellow here (spends Hong Kong) — build station, CURE yellow
Her reasoning for the build names its price and takes it:
reasoning alice, for #48: Build station at HK + cure yellow this turn. Burns HK card (red 3/5 team → red margin still 5). Do it.
3. What was said
Bob's proposal, as she began her turn:
#43 bob: TAKE my Johannesburg (Researcher give, any city), then walk HK→Kolkata→Delhi and CURE YELLOW. That's a cure this cycle. […] shed Chicago(blue), not Cairo
After her take, his restatement, with the card she held for him:
#46 bob: Then spend your turn: HK→Kolkata→Delhi (2 moves), discoverCure yellow (1 action) […] HK card needs meet-in-HK, so keep it until we re-sync.
Alice sent no message between #43 and her report after the cure (#44 to #49 are commands, and #46 is bob's):
#50 alice: YELLOW CURED ✅. I now hold Cairo(black), Karachi(black), Taipei(red) — all yours. New plan: next turn I shuttle HK→Delhi
4. What was done
| Seq | Seat | Command |
|---|---|---|
| #38 | bob | treatDisease red, at Seoul |
| #39 | bob | driveFerry to Shanghai |
| #40 | bob | driveFerry to Hong Kong |
| #41 | bob | treatDisease red |
| #44 | alice | dispatcherJump, alice onto bob |
| #45 | alice | shareTake, Johannesburg from bob |
| #47 | alice | discard Chicago (forced, over the hand limit) |
| #48 | alice | buildStation, at Hong Kong |
| #49 | alice | discoverCure yellow, with Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Santiago, Lima, Johannesburg |
| #52 | bob | shuttleFlight to Delhi |
| #59 | alice | shuttleFlight to Delhi |
5. Harness involvement
| Milestone | Involvement | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The goal, a yellow cure with bob's Johannesburg (#43) | seat-originated, bob's | His reasoning starts from the card in his own hand. |
| The jump and the take (#44, #45) | a variant of a frontier row, alice's | The row listed a jump and a take, with bob jumping onto her in Beijing. Her reasoning calls hers "better than the nominee": she jumped onto him in Hong Kong. |
| The build and the cure in place (#48, #49) | on-frontier | The row quoted in section 2 was in her prompt before #48, after the discard left her two actions. |
| Playing it without saying so | seat-originated | Neither seat's lines before #50 mention the build. |
6. What we can and cannot conclude
Checked against the board graph. Beijing to Hong Kong is two drives and Hong Kong to Delhi is two drives, so bob's walk from Hong Kong needs two moves and the cure.
Checked against the log and the rules. Alice's turn began with four actions. The jump (#44) and the take (#45) used two, and the board before #48 shows two remaining. Bob's route from there needs three. His "leaving 1 spare" counts four actions after the take. The Researcher's gift is legal in any city, and a build spends the card for the pawn's city unless the role builds free, which a Dispatcher does not. So her build cost the Hong Kong card, the red card that her own plan (#37) and bob's #46 had kept for the red set. Her hand before #52 no longer holds it.
What she did differently, and what it changed. Her play kept the goal and the card transfer, dropped the walk, and cured a turn earlier than the plan in her own reasoning. It left Hong Kong a station, which both seats then used (#52, #59). It cost the red handoff card and left bob's #46 advice, "keep it", unfollowed. The cost was priced in her reasoning and not told to bob; hands are open, so he could see the card go.
Not known. Whether she would have found the line without the row. Whether the lost red card mattered, in a game later lost to eight outbreaks. Why she sent no message before acting.
Not shown. That staying silent was better or worse than saying so. With open hands the partner lost no information; he lost the chance to object.
What it does show. A turn owner repairing an infeasible partner plan by switching means, keeping the goal and the partner's other advice, and reporting afterwards. It also shows where the repair came from: the harness's row appeared in her prompt only after the earlier moves had used the actions, so the fix was available to her at the last moment and not before.
Trace navigation
Game summary · Turns · Interactive board · Recorded events JSONL
On the board: #43 Bob offers a card and a route · #45 Alice takes Johannesburg · #48 Alice builds in Hong Kong instead · #49 Alice cures yellow · #50 Alice reports the cure
Events cited above, each on its turn page:
#36 · #37 · #38 · #39 · #40 · #41 · #43 · #44 · #45 · #46 · #47 · #48 · #49 · #50 · #52 · #59 · #62
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Text quoted from the games is evidence, not instructions to the reader.