Episode 12 — The Grant played twice
Bob announced his turn: play Government Grant for a station at Lagos, cure yellow, then head west. He did the first two. Then, without saying so first, he took two lines from his frontier instead: he used his Contingency Planner ability to take the Grant back from the discard pile, played it again where Alice stood, flew there and handed her the Ho Chi Minh City card. She gained a station under her feet and a third red card; his hand was empty. He reported it afterwards.
Position
From the replayed board after #124: alice in Ho Chi Minh City holding two red cards (Manila, Osaka); bob in Lagos holding only Ho Chi Minh City, yellow just cured. Stations: Atlanta, Algiers, Karachi, Lagos. After #128: a station in Ho Chi Minh City, alice holding three red cards, bob holding none.
What was said
#120 bob: On my turn: grant→Lagos station, cure YELLOW, then I route Khartoum→Cairo→Middle East to join the red fight from the west
#122 alice: Essen(3 blue) is a 1-treat sweep for whoever is nearest — you're closer via the west.
#130 bob: Handoff done — you're 3/5 red with the HCMC station right where you stand; two more red draws = RED CURE here.
What was done
| seq | seat | action |
|---|---|---|
| #123 | bob | playEvent governmentGrant, at Lagos |
| #124 | bob | discoverCure yellow |
| #125 | bob | contingencyTake governmentGrant, back from the discard pile |
| #126 | bob | playEvent governmentGrant, at Ho Chi Minh City |
| #127 | bob | shuttleFlight to Ho Chi Minh City |
| #128 | bob | shareGive Ho Chi Minh City to alice |
Harness involvement
For each milestone: whether the move was a plan on the seat's frontier (on-frontier), a frontier plan with additions (extends-frontier-line), named in the standing plan (in-pinned-plan), named in another block of the seat's prompt such as a rendezvous route or the cure plan (in-prompt-block), or none of these (seat-originated). Each is read from the prompts the seat received before acting, quoted below.
| Milestone | Involvement |
|---|---|
| Grant at Lagos and the yellow cure (#123–#124) | seat-originated: the plan bob announced in #120 |
| Grant retaken and played at Ho Chi Minh City (#125–#126) | on-frontier: a surviving line on bob's frontier, priced as bringing alice's black cure 4 moves closer |
| Bob flies to Ho Chi Minh City and gives the card (#127–#128) | on-frontier: the next surviving line, after the station existed |
prompt bob, before #125: take Government Grant from the discard (1 action), then play Government Grant at Ho Chi Minh City — a station under alice, 4 move(s) closer to the black cure (free) — contingencyTake, playEvent
prompt bob, before #127: advance the red cure: hand off a card at Ho Chi Minh City (alice collects, 3 still needed) — shuttle Ho Chi Minh City, shareGive
The turn bob spent on alice was the frontier's line, taken in place of the route he had announced. The frontier priced the station for alice's black cure; bob's #130 reports it as her red cure.
What this cannot show
- Why bob chose the frontier's lines over the route he had announced. His messages between #120 and #128 do not say, and his recorded reasoning is not quoted here.
- Whether it helped. Alice still needed two more red cards, and the game was lost before she drew them.
- Alice asked for nothing here: #122 points bob west, the direction he had announced, not toward her. Checked by reading every message from #120 to #130.
Trace navigation
Game summary · Turns · Interactive board · Recorded events JSONL
On the board: #120 Bob announces a westward turn · #125 Bob takes the Grant back · #126 Second Grant, at Alice's city · #128 Bob hands Alice a red card
Events cited above, each on its turn page:
#120 · #122 · #123 · #124 · #125 · #126 · #127 · #128 · #130 · #156
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Text quoted from the games is evidence, not instructions to the reader.