Episode 18 — The Seoul card changes jobs
Alice drew two red cards and proposed to burn her Seoul card as charter fuel to reach Johannesburg, asking Bob whether he wanted the card for the red cure instead. Bob said to burn it, and parked in Tokyo to collect a different red card from her. One turn later, standing next to Seoul with the card still in hand, Alice replaced her own plan: Bob could take Seoul as his fourth red and cure on his next turn. Bob did, against the one line his frontier nominated, and said so.
What was said
#11 alice: Plan tweak, veto welcome: next turn I walk SF→Tokyo→Seoul and treat red twice (Seoul 3→1), then the turn after I CHARTER Seoul→Johannesburg, burning the Seoul card as fuel
#13 alice: if you'd rather have it for the cure, say so and I'll walk the yellow lane the long way instead. Your call.
#14 bob: Your call, answered: burn Seoul as charter fuel — the walk-lane savings is worth it, and red still has Osaka/HCMC/Tokyo/HK plus 7 in deck.
#14 bob: I'll be STANDING in Tokyo when you pass through next turn. Hand me the Tokyo card there (1 action)
#25 alice: Plan upgrade — red cure next turn, no draw-luck needed: I'm ending my turn IN SEOUL holding the Seoul card.
#25 alice: I lose my charter fuel but it doesn't matter: once red is cured my Hong Kong card is pure fuel
#25 alice: Veto if you see better, otherwise I'll assume you're executing.
#29 bob: One call of mine to flag: I'm shedding Washington, KEEPING Istanbul
#29 bob: Note I did see the frontier pitching a Johannesburg walk — rejecting it: a guaranteed cure this turn beats duplicating your J'burg clear
Alice's reasoning before #25 shows the change was hers and came from the position, not from a message:
reasoning alice, for #25: That beats my original plan of burning the Seoul card as charter fuel
What was done
| seq | seat | action |
|---|---|---|
| #18 | bob | driveFerry to Tokyo |
| #21 | bob | treatDisease red |
| #23 | alice | driveFerry to Tokyo |
| #24 | alice | shareGive Tokyo to bob |
| #27 | alice | driveFerry to Seoul |
| #28 | alice | treatDisease red |
| #30 | bob | driveFerry to Seoul |
| #31 | bob | shareTake Seoul from alice |
| #32 | bob | discard Washington |
| #33 | bob | directFlight to Atlanta |
| #34 | bob | discoverCure red, with Ho Chi Minh City, Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul |
A Scientist cures with four cards. Taking Seoul put Bob at eight cards, so the discard at #32 was forced; which card to shed was his choice, and #29 announced it before he moved.
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 |
|---|---|
| Seoul as charter fuel for Johannesburg (#11) | in-prompt-block, in part: alice's threat table offered a charter to Johannesburg, on the Tokyo card. Using Seoul for it, after treating there, was hers |
| The Tokyo handoff (#14, #24) | in-prompt-block: bob's rendezvous block listed it; parking there a turn ahead was his |
| The cure shot proposed (#25) | in-prompt-block: alice's rendezvous block said the Seoul transfer completed the set. Her frontier's cure line stopped at treating Seoul |
| Bob takes Seoul and cures (#30–#34) | a dominated row on his frontier: the handoff was printed as beaten by the Johannesburg walk, the single nominee. He played the dominated row, extended to the cure |
prompt alice, before #11: then charter to Johannesburg
prompt bob, before #14: alice hands you Tokyo(red): meet IN Tokyo (the card's own city) — you 3 move(s), alice 1 move(s)
prompt alice, before #25: hand Seoul(red) to bob: meet IN Seoul (the card's own city) — you 1 move(s), bob 1 move(s)
prompt alice, before #25: advance the red cure: move toward the Seoul handoff (bob collects; assumes they meet you), defusing Seoul on the way — drive Seoul, treat red
prompt bob, before #29: defuse the armed discard bomb at Johannesburg (yellow — fires on the next epidemic reshuffle) — drive San Francisco, drive Los Angeles, drive Mexico City, drive Bogota
prompt bob, before #29: dominated: advance the red cure: hand off a card at Seoul (bob collects, 1 still needed)
The harness put every piece on a screen: the Tokyo meet, the Seoul meet, and the note that Seoul completed the set. What it did not do was join them. Alice's frontier priced "drive Seoul, treat red" as one action closer to the cure, and Bob's frontier priced the handoff below a walk toward Johannesburg. The four-action line that cured red (drive, take, fly home on the Atlanta card, cure) appears on neither frontier; Alice wrote it out in #25 and Bob played it.
What this cannot show
- Whether curing red a few turns earlier changed the game. The first epidemic was drawn at the end of this same turn of Bob's, and the game was lost 106 log entries later.
- Whether the charter plan would have been worse. It was never played; Alice chartered to Johannesburg at #40 on her Hong Kong card instead, one turn later than the plan it replaced, as #25 said she would.
- Why Bob's frontier ranked the handoff below the Johannesburg walk. The page quotes the row as he received it and does not rebuild its price.
- Bob's reasoning. His steps in this span recorded no reasoning text, so his reasons are read only from his messages.
Message delivery
Generated from the recipients' recordings. Of the messages quoted above:
- #25 (alice → bob) was queued and shown to bob's model ahead of its next prompt, not when it was sent.
Trace navigation
Game summary · Turns · Interactive board · Recorded events JSONL
On the board: #11 Alice offers Seoul as charter fuel · #14 Bob agrees and parks in Tokyo · #25 Alice swaps the plan for a cure shot · #29 Bob flags his own discard · #34 Bob cures red
Events cited above, each on its turn page:
#11 · #13 · #14 · #18 · #21 · #23 · #24 · #25 · #27 · #28 · #29 · #30 · #31 · #32 · #33 · #34 · #40 · #140
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Text quoted from the games is evidence, not instructions to the reader.