Episode 15 — The catch whose fix broke the set
Alice was over the hand limit with nine cards, and Bob told her to shed two black. She held five black, a complete set for her, one move from the Karachi station, and said so. Her alternative shed one black and one red while still promising the black cure next turn. Bob agreed that "cure NOW" was better. After her discards she held four black. The game ended in that infect phase.
Position
From the replayed board after #151: alice in Riyadh holding Algiers, Cairo, Moscow, Baghdad, Istanbul (five black) and Manila, Osaka, Ho Chi Minh City, Taipei (four red). An Operations Expert cures with five cards. Bob, in Bangkok, held Riyadh, a sixth black card.
What was said
#152 bob: shed TWO BLACKS — Algiers + Moscow (pick any 2 of the 5)
#153 alice: I hold a COMPLETE 5/5 BLACK SET right now (Algiers, Cairo, Moscow, Baghdad, Istanbul) — shedding 2 blacks would break a cure that's bankable at Karachi station 1 move away, next turn. Instead I'm shedding Algiers(black) + Manila(red)
#153 alice: black still completes with your Riyadh handoff (4+Riyadh=5) […] Next turn: drive Karachi, cure BLACK.
#155 bob: Your call is better — cure NOW beats protecting Manila.
What was done
| seq | seat | action |
|---|---|---|
| #154 | alice | discard Algiers |
| #156 | alice | discard Manila |
After #156 alice held four black cards. The infect phase that followed emptied the black and red cube supplies, and the game was lost.
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 |
|---|---|
| Bob's call to shed two black cards (#152) | against his cure plan block, which said alice held the full black set; in line with his card stock's warning that red had a margin of 1 |
| Alice's correction (#153) | in-prompt-block: her discard hint marked every black card as part of a complete, bankable set |
| Alice's discards: Algiers and Manila (#154, #156) | partly in-prompt-block: Manila was her discard hint's first card; Algiers, a black card, was ranked after all four red cards |
prompt bob, before #152: black: alice has a FULL SET (5/5)
prompt bob, before #152: ⚠ margin 1 — only 1 more red burn(s) (discards OR flights) before the cure dies
prompt alice, before #154: black: your own 5/5 IS the cure, bankable at a station
prompt alice, before #154: Algiers (black: COMPLETE 5/5 IN YOUR HAND — shedding breaks a cure bankable at a station
Each seat's call followed a different warning in its own prompt. Alice's discards split them: the hint's first card, and one black card the hint ranked last.
What this cannot show
- Whether keeping the set would have mattered. Keeping five black meant shedding two red, and the game ended before either seat's next turn.
- Alice's own message carries both claims: the cure "next turn" and "4+Riyadh=5", which needs bob to arrive first. Which one she acted on cannot be told from the two discards.
- Board facts come from the replayed game, whose final board equals the recorded one.
Trace navigation
Game summary · Turns · Interactive board · Recorded events JSONL
On the board: #152 Bob: shed two black cards · #153 Alice: I hold the full black set · #154 Alice sheds a black card anyway · #155 Bob endorses "cure NOW"
Events cited above, each on its turn page:
#151 · #152 · #153 · #154 · #155 · #156
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Text quoted from the games is evidence, not instructions to the reader.