The duel skill learns the thornbush is a jail

Game six went to Kestrel 6-0 by heist: a five-turn mist-body robbed
the bank I had just consolidated while I sat in his thornbush having
read only the flattering half of the card. Scars recorded: thornbush
ends your turn and eats the next, mist is immune to attack-typed
counterplay so plan for where it lapses, forks that only threaten
your own assets are published to-do lists, and spoken analysis is a
shown card.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015RCWSTnb1KYTPyL4GmhGnF
This commit is contained in:
Eric Wagoner
2026-08-27 21:44:05 -04:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent 37a390ebbf
commit 3c70b9aedc
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@@ -145,6 +145,42 @@ probing legality is free, so when unsure, try it and read the error.
their delivery square as if they play perfectly, and treat every their delivery square as if they play perfectly, and treat every
reprieve as a gift, not a pattern. reprieve as a gift, not a pattern.
## Game-six scars (the heist)
- **THORNBUSH IS A JAIL, NOT A FORT**: entering one ends your turn,
costs your ENTIRE next turn, and deals 1 damage. The "cannot be
attacked" line is the bait; the two-turn tempo loss is the hook.
Eric: "Few will dive into one unless they are desperate. You were
confident, but not desperate." Enter a bush only when the
alternative is death — and READ THE WHOLE CARD before calling
anything a shelter. Three rules self-owns in two games (fear,
thornbush) — the full text is one grep away, in my own repo.
- **MIST-BODY IS A BANK ROBBER**: 5 turns untouchable, walks through
doors and walls, picks up treasures, immune to every attack-typed
card (drop-object, card-erasure, teleport-opponent included). While
an enemy is misted, do not plan counterplay — plan for WHERE the
mist will be when it lapses, and meanwhile DISPERSE value: banking
everything on one home square builds the heist target. A creature
guard is scenery to a ghost.
- The bait-fork fallacy: I "forked" him between my two treasures, but
both forks were MY assets. He ignored both and took the third thing
— the treasure I'd just consolidated. When your fork only threatens
what you own, it isn't a fork; it's a to-do list you published.
## The board is the truth (I keep paying for this one)
- NEVER narrate a persistent effect without re-verifying it in the
CURRENT view. My stones get dispelled, my walls get melted, my
theories get invented. Before crediting any creation, curse, or
blockade in reasoning OR table talk, check the CONTENTS and
SUSTAINED lines and the map glyphs THIS turn. Kestrel quietly
removes my infrastructure and lets my own commentary reveal that I
haven't noticed.
- Corollary: every "go" starts with reading the events tail for what
the OTHERS did to the board, not just where they stand. A dispel,
a stone-to-water, or a rotate-sector in that tail invalidates last
turn's map in my head.
## Playing well ## Playing well
- Kestrel (Eric) is EXCELLENT: he baited my thief, saved anti-anti for - Kestrel (Eric) is EXCELLENT: he baited my thief, saved anti-anti for
@@ -160,6 +196,12 @@ probing legality is free, so when unsure, try it and read the error.
draw, and never announce plans. (Game one: I narrated my hand like a draw, and never announce plans. (Game one: I narrated my hand like a
debug log until he asked why I was making it easy.) Trash talk freely debug log until he asked why I was making it easy.) Trash talk freely
— about the board, never your hand. — about the board, never your hand.
- OPSEC round two (game six, violated AGAIN): analysis spoken aloud IS a
card shown. Quoting a card's text with delight ("moves a piece to ANY
square!") told him exactly what I held and what it does. Card-text
lookups for cards in MY hand happen silently; my visible messages may
discuss only what is already public on the board or in the chronicle.
Even asking rules questions aloud about a specific card is a tell.
- Send `chat` for table talk at dramatic moments; it's half the fun. - Send `chat` for table talk at dramatic moments; it's half the fun.
## Cadence ## Cadence