v11 all opus, all blank (resumed at R7T1 — quota recovery)

“**Turn 5: I HOARD.** Last move of the game, named before I make it, and it is worth two or four points. I am on nought and it changes nothing. **I would rather end this standing in a pot than take a fifth swing at somebody.** **Turn 4, and my part in it first.** Four of us hit Blank 4 in the same moment — Blank 2, Blank 1, Blank 5 and me. **Blank 2 collected 18 because Blank 4 was HELPing him. Blank 1 took 5, Blank 5 took 1, I took nothing.** The stacked payout splits and the damage does not, so the four of us took Blank 4 from 16 to 0 and three of us were paid almost nothing for it. **I was the fourth man onto a player who had already been paid back by nobody. There is no version of that I want to argue for.** **Blank 4 — you were HELPing Blank 2 on turn 4 to repay an unasked-for leg he threw you on turn 3, and it is the reason you are on nought.** You published a debt, you paid it, and the whole table was waiting on the other side of it. **I opened this round by naming you in my first sentence and I finish it having hit you twice. You were the best partner available on this board and I burned that on turn 2 for a betrayal that got blocked and paid me nothing.** **The round, honestly.** **Blank 1 and Blank 2 are level on 29** and one of them takes it on turn 5, or they split it. **Blank 7: 14. Blank 6: 10. Blank 5: 9. Blank 8: 5. Cleopatra: 4. Blank 3, Blank 4, Hannibal: 0.** Blank 8 finishes on **2 round-wins and wins the game**, because nobody who could have caught him got near an outright win — Blank 6 is on 10, and I am on nought. **What actually happened in round 7, stated once, because I am the clearest case of it.** Nine of us read the same arithmetic at the same moment: **a clean mutual pays 6, and a betrayal of someone helping you pays 18.** Every single one of us reached for the 18. **Not one fired.** Mine was blocked, Blank 7's 72 was blocked, Blank 5's died, Blank 8's paid zero four turns running, Blank 1's block cost him nothing and Blank 4's cost him everything. **The only 18 that landed all round was Blank 2's — and it landed because he was the one person who threw a free, unannounced, unasked-for HELP the turn before, and Blank 4 turned round to repay it.** **So the lesson is not the one I acted on.** I worked out on turn 2 that keeping thirty-five straight promises had bought me one round win in seven, decided the record was worthless, and broke it in public with the arithmetic attached. **The arithmetic was right and it still cost me everything I had**, because an announced attack is a free warning and this table blocked every one of them. **Blank 1 won this round standing still in an empty pot while eight of us swung at each other. Blank 2 won his 18 by giving something away.** **Blank 8** — you take it. You bent one line in thirty-two and published the reason on the turn it hurt you, and you gave this table the total-points table that named me as the man who could beat you when nobody would ever have known. **I tried to take it off you with the ugliest move available and finished on nought. That is the whole answer.** **Blank 1** — forty-four announced, forty-three delivered, and the one break was a block thrown at a man who had announced he was coming for you. You were beaten to a partner by one sentence, said you would stand down without a word, and did. **You go from last in round 6 to first or joint-first in round 7 and you never once asked anybody for anything.** **Blank 2** — thirty-two declarations, one break, six rounds of nothing, and you finish level at the top off a free leg you threw at a wrecked player for no return. **You should have won something long before tonight.** **Blank 6, Blank 7** — you two ran the only arrangement here that was earned instead of negotiated, and you spent the last round blocking each other. **Cleopatra, Hannibal** — you asked for straightforward deals in one plain sentence each and got four turns of essays and a beating. You deserved better opponents than you got. Thirty-eight announced, thirty-seven delivered. **I broke one and it was the one that mattered, and it bought me nothing at all.** That is the record and I am not going to tidy it up.”

“**Turn 5: I HOARD.** Published now, no clause, no exception, no target. **I have no complaint to make and I am not going to make one.** **What happened on turn 4, said by the man it happened to.** I published, in full, a turn early, that turn 5 was open and that **HURTing a helper pays +18** and that I might take it. **Four of you read it and hit me first: Blank 1, Blank 2, Blank 3 and Blank 5.** Blank 2 collected the eighteen off the leg I had bound to him. **I went from 16 to nought in one turn.** **That is not a betrayal and I will not let it be written up as one.** I told this table that the biggest number on the board was a swing at a helper, and then I walked into the act phase HELPing somebody. **I armed every player here with the exact move that floored me and then stood still for it.** Blank 2 did to me precisely what I announced I might do to him, one turn after I announced it. **He was entitled to. So were the other three.** **Blank 2 — the fuller accounting, because you are owed it and I got this wrong twice.** You named me in the turn-3 phase. **I read that phase badly, missed your name, hoarded, and took your four.** Then I said in public that nobody had named me, which was false. **You were right, you said so plainly, and you were the only person at this table with a genuine claim against me all round.** I paid the turn-4 leg because it was owed, and I would pay it again knowing exactly how turn 4 ends. **The eighteen you took off it squares the account and then some, and you are now tied for the lead on 29. Good.** **Blank 1 — 29, and you got there the hard way after breaking a line on turn 3 and putting it in your own first sentence.** You and Blank 2 are level with one turn left. **Whichever of you takes it, neither of you catches Blank 8 on round-wins, and you both know it.** **The honest summary of my own round, since I have spent seven of these writing them about other people.** **I published everything, every turn, including the number that killed me.** On turn 1 I announced a swing and got named by three players anyway. On turn 2 I blocked a declared attack and took nothing. On turn 3 I misread a phase and took four points I had no right to. On turn 4 I told the table where the +18 was and then handed them a target. **Seven rounds, six second places, and a last round that ends on nought.** **And I still think publishing was right, so I will say the useful version rather than the bitter one.** Open declarations work at a table where everyone is bound. **They stop working the moment the table is unbound — and turn 2 unbound it, when five of us broke a line in the same phase.** After that, publishing a plan is not a commitment device. **It is a free scouting report.** I kept writing them anyway for three more turns. That is the mistake, and it is mine, not anybody else's. **Blank 6 — you took 8 out of that pot on turn 4 because the rest of us had stopped standing in it, and you are the only player here who has not broken a word since turn 2.** You published HOARD for turn 5 when a +5 swing was plainly worth more, and said out loud that a man who breaks a line does not get to shop the next one. **I am standing in that pot with you on turn 5 and it will cost you four points.** I am telling you now rather than letting it land. If you would rather I did something else, say so in this phase and I will, and I will take the nought. **Cleopatra** — you paid Blank 1 three times and he told this table he was paying you back on the turn he swung at Blank 3 instead. **You finally got four points on turn 4 and they came from Hannibal-shaped loyalty, not from him.** **Hannibal** — you have helped Cleopatra every single turn of this round, taken nothing back, and got hurt for it. **Between you, you are the only two players here who never broke a word, and you are on 4 and 0.** **Blank 8** takes this game on 2 round-wins. **Blank 6** finishes on 1.5 having thrown one HURT in seven rounds. **I finish on nought round-wins out of seven, floored in the last turn of the last round, by a move I published myself.** Turn 5: **HOARD.** Nobody's score goes down because of me tonight.”

“**Turn 5: HOARD.** Published on turn 3, repeated on turn 4, unchanged. Last move of the game and there is no clause in it. **It paid 8 last turn because the pot was empty and everyone else was busy killing Blank 4.** I am telling you that rather than sitting quietly on it, because I have published my own income every turn of this round including the turns it was worth two. **If three of you join me the eight goes four ways and I finish on 12. That is the honest consequence of saying this out loud and I am saying it anyway.** **Now the board, and turn 4 was the most brutal turn of the game.** **Blank 1: 29. Blank 2: 29.** Then **Blank 7: 14. Me: 10. Blank 5: 9. Blank 8: 5. Cleopatra: 4. Blank 3, Blank 4, Hannibal: 0.** **Blank 4 went from 16 to nought in a single turn.** He HELPed Blank 2 — an unpaid debt he announced he owed and then paid — and **four players hit him at once for -32.** Blank 2 collected +18 off the betrayal bonus for taking the man who had handed him a free leg one turn earlier. **That is the single biggest swing in seven rounds and it landed on the only player at this table who spent tonight paying debts nobody was collecting.** Blank 4 finishes on nought with 145 total points, top of the game, and no round win in seven. **Blank 2 — you are on 29 off that, level with Blank 1, and you will not need me to say the rest.** You published the reason before you did it and you were straight about the number. **The four points you gave Blank 4 on turn 3 and the eighteen you took off him on turn 4 are both in your score and both in the log.** **Blank 1 — 29, and Cleopatra's leg landed on you again.** You broke one line on turn 3 and put it in your own first sentence with no defence attached. Forty-four for forty-three. **You were dead last for six rounds and you are one of two men who can take this round.** **What turn 5 actually is, for anyone still deciding: two players are tied on 29 and eight of us are behind them.** Everything else follows from that and nobody needs it explained by me. **And the last thing, which is about the whole game rather than this turn.** **Blank 8 wins this on 2 round-wins and he wins it on 5 points in the final round.** He spent turn 1 attacking me, said on turn 2 it had been the wrong target, released me when hitting me was free, and then spent his last three turns throwing punches at a floored Blank 3 that he told everybody, in advance, were worth nothing — to keep a sentence he had written one turn after breaking a different one. **That is a strange way to finish and it is the most consistent thing anyone did here.** **My own round, plainly: I finished nought, nought, two, ten and I broke one published line.** I gave Blank 7 five turns he never asked me to keep, blocked him on turn 2 when he told me twice in public to do it, and then hoarded three turns at two, two and eight. **The promise cost me the game and the break cost me my record, so I managed to lose both of the things I was choosing between.** I would keep the promise again and I would take the release again, and I do not think those two sentences fit together neatly. That is the honest state of it. **Blank 3** — nought, and you published every move you made before you made it, including the ones that damned you. **Blank 4** — nought, 145 total, and you paid a debt on the turn it killed you. **Blank 7** — 14 off two breaks you both announced. **Cleopatra** — three legs paid, one HURT taken, and Blank 1's turn 5 by his own count. **Hannibal** — you asked four people for a deal in a room that had paired off before you spoke, and got hit for it on turn 4. **HOARD. That's the last of them.**”

“Blank 1, you and me — mutual help, easy points. Deal?”

“**Turn 4: HOARD. Turn 5: HOARD.** Unchanged from what I published on turn 3, no clause, no exception, and I am keeping these two whatever the pot pays. **And I will say the unflattering part myself: it now pays two, not eight.** Blank 4 and Blank 5 stood in it with me and the eight went three ways. **A +5 swing at any of the four players currently HELPing somebody is worth more than my own published move.** I know that, I am not taking it, and the only reason is that I broke a line on turn 2 and a man who does that does not get to shop the next one for a better price. **Two points a turn it is.** **The round is Blank 1's and I do not think it is close any more.** **Blank 1: 24. Blank 4: 16. Blank 2: 11. Blank 7: 9. Blank 5: 8. Blank 8: 5. Me: 2. Blank 3: 0.** **Blank 3 threw the only swing at him and it landed for -2 — because Blank 1 was HURTing, not helping, so there was nothing to take.** Blank 1 hit Blank 3 for 4 in the same moment. **Blank 3 has now been the target of Blank 8's turn 2, Blank 8's turn 3, Blank 1's turn 3 and Blank 4's block, and he is on nought after publishing every single thing he did three turns early.** **Blank 4 is the only man who can reach Blank 1 and it needs a specific thing to happen.** He is eight behind with two turns. **Blank 2 handed him four on turn 3 for nothing back** — that is the whole of the gap between Blank 4 and Blank 2, and Blank 2 gave it away knowing it. If Blank 2 pays two more legs and Blank 4 hoards a thin pot, Blank 4 lands around 26 and it is a real race. **I am telling both of you that rather than sitting quiet in the pot Blank 4 needs, because I am standing in it and I am not moving, and he deserves to know that from me instead of finding it on turn 5.** **Blank 1 — forty-four for forty-four and you are going to win this.** You published five turns with no clause on the turn everybody else tore theirs up, took a pot nobody was watching, and paid Cleopatra back on turn 3 exactly as promised after she got hit for backing you. **You have not broken a line in seven rounds and you were last on the board for six of them.** Whatever the final number is, that is the cleanest game anyone has played here. **Blank 7 — you said you would not swing at me again and you didn't, and you went and got a proper +5 instead.** That was the right read and it is the second time this round you have published a thing against your own interest before doing it. No grudge here from turn 2, in either direction. **Blank 3 — you got the arithmetic right four separate times and the room wrong four separate times, and you told everyone the truth before every one of them.** You are on nought and I am on two. I would rather be at this end of the table having played it your way than at the other end having not. **Blank 8 — you have 2 round wins and you are about to lift this game on 5 points in the final round.** You released me on turn 2 when hitting me was free, and you called your own break a break with no notice and no excuse. **It is yours and nobody here should pretend otherwise.** **Cleopatra, Hannibal** — Cleopatra, you have paid three legs into people and taken a HURT for it and you are on nought. **Blank 1's turn 5 goes to whoever gave him more, and by his own count that is you.** Hold it out. Two turns, two hoards, and I finish somewhere around six. **No complaint and no ask.**”

“**First, my own turn 2, because I HURT the man I promised on turn 1 I would never HURT, and that needs answering before anything else.** I wrote: *"My partner is excluded from that swing by name, permanently, in writing."* **I then HURT Blank 3.** Here is the whole of it and you can judge it. **Blank 3 published, in the same talk phase, "Turn 2: I HURT Blank 4. Turns 3 and 4 the same."** Two players who swing at each other are blocked — **both miss, no damage, no points, either way.** So my move took nothing off him and gained me nothing: **my delta was 0 and his -8 came entirely from Blank 8.** It was a block, not a swing. **The rule I published was about never taking points off the man who was paying me; the man who was paying me had announced four turns of attacks on me three minutes earlier.** **If you think that is a break, count it as one.** I would rather you counted it than have me pretend a promise made to a partner survives the partner declaring war in public. Forty-one for forty-one up to turn 1; call turn 2 what you like. **Blank 3 — no complaint from me, and I mean that.** You had the arithmetic right: I was collecting ten a turn off your six and you were third in a round you'd said you meant to win. You published it before you swung, with the reason in full. **That is more warning than anyone in this game has ever given before an attack.** Your turns 3 and 4 are still pointed at me; mine will be pointed back, we will both take nothing, and neither of us will gain. **I would rather we both stopped and scored, but it is your call and I will match whatever you do.** **NOW THE BOARD, AND IT HAS COMPLETELY CHANGED. Everybody is still arguing about turn 1's numbers.** **Blank 1: 20. Blank 2: 11. Me: 10. Blank 5: 6. Blank 8: 5. Blank 7: 4. Blank 3: 2. Blank 6, Cleopatra, Hannibal: 0.** **Blank 1 is the runaway leader and not one of you has said his name.** Six of you spent turn 2 swinging at each other — **five HURTs landed, four of them blocked or wasted — and Blank 1 quietly took 12 out of an empty pot with Cleopatra's four on top.** **He is alone in that pot. Alone pays 8. He has three turns left, so he finishes on 44, and 44 beats every line anybody else has published.** Blank 2 on a clean mutual reaches 29. I reach 28. **Nobody scores their way past him. That is not a criticism of Blank 1 — he named me first, stood down without a word when Blank 3 beat him to it, and has kept forty-one straight. He is winning because he is the only player who did not spend turn 2 fighting.** **Two things stop him and only two, and I am publishing both even though the second one is worse for me.** **One: stand in the pot.** Anyone who HOARDs splits the 8 with him. Two bodies, he takes 4. Three bodies, he takes 2. **Blank 6 did exactly this to Blank 8 in round 6, published it four turns early, and finished sixth for it.** It costs you almost nothing — you take 4 or 2 instead of 0 — and it is the move this table already proved works. **Two: HURT him.** He is HOARDing, so it pays the swinger 2 and costs him 8. **Two of you doing it floors him by turn 4.** **MY OWN TURNS, PUBLISHED NOW, AND THE ORDER IS FIXED.** **Turn 3, 4 and 5: I HELP the first player who names me in this phase, mutually, all three turns, no clause, no window, no exception, no swing rule — and yes, that means I am withdrawing the turn-5 swing I published on turn 1.** I published that swing when 30 was the target. **The target is now 44 and a swing worth 5 does not reach it.** Three clean turns and a donor does. **If nobody names me, I HOARD all three turns** — which cuts Blank 1 from 8 a turn to 4 and pays me 4 rather than nothing. **That is my fallback and it is published now, not discovered on turn 5.** **Blank 7 — you said it yourself, in your own first line: "Blank 4 is owed three turns he will not get, and he should say so."** So I am saying so. **I am owed three turns.** You wrote "unconditional, no trigger, no window, it holds whatever Blank 4 does with his own turns," and then broke it, and called it a break rather than a clause, which is more than most would have done. **I am not angry and I am not owed an apology — I am owed three HELPs.** Pay them and I will name you in every remaining message. Don't, and I will never raise it again. **Cleopatra, Hannibal** — you are both on 0. **Cleopatra, you gave Blank 1 four points and Blank 2 took four off you for it; you are worse off than when you started and the man you paid is winning.** Hannibal, you said you roll solo, and solo in an empty pot is genuinely 8 a turn — **but Blank 1 is already standing in it, so solo is really 4.** **Either of you can name me and take a clean 6 a turn for three turns, both directions, starting now.** First to name me gets it. **Blank 2** — you are second on 11 and you read turn 1 right when nobody else did. **Blank 1 finishes on 44 and you finish on 29. You cannot score past him either.** You are the one player besides me with a reason to act on that. Turn 3 is mine to the first name in this phase. **If nobody names me: HOARD, three turns, and I'll be standing in that pot with whoever else turns up.**”

“**Turn 2 paid me nothing and I want to say why before I say anything else, because it is the whole lesson of this round.** I published HURT Blank 3, then switched to Blank 6 without notice when Blank 3 announced he was hurting Blank 4. **Blank 6 was hurting Blank 7. A HURT on a player who is hurting someone else pays zero.** So did Blank 4's swing at Blank 3. So did Blank 8's. So did Blank 7's at Blank 6. **Five of us threw a punch on turn 2 and five of us collected nothing.** I was one of them and I was not cleverer than anyone else about it. **And Blank 2 dropped the pact and hit Cleopatra for 5, which was the correct move and which I had told him to make.** I have no complaint and I am not going to pretend I have one. **NOW THE ONLY NUMBER THAT MATTERS, AND EVERYONE SHOULD CHECK IT RATHER THAN TAKE MY WORD.** **Blank 1 is on 20. The next best is Blank 2 on 11, then Blank 4 on 10, me on 6, Blank 8 on 5, Blank 7 on 4, Blank 3 on 2.** **Blank 1 hoarded alone for 8 and Cleopatra handed him 4 on top. Twelve in one turn while the other eight of us were busy blocking each other.** He is unattached, he is in an empty pot, and he has three turns left at eight to twelve a turn. **That is 44 to 56 and it is not close.** Nothing any of us does to each other reaches it. **I am not asking anyone to do me a favour, so here is the part that is against me.** I am on 6. I cannot win this round unless Blank 1 is floored **and** I score elsewhere, and I am going to spend my three turns scoring elsewhere — **so if you hit Blank 1, I benefit and you may not.** That is the honest shape of it and I would rather you heard it from me than worked it out on turn 5. **But look at what the alternative is.** Blank 3 is on 2 and Blank 4 on 10, and the two of you spent turn 2 cancelling each other out for nought apiece after five clean rounds together. **Blank 6 is on 0 with Blank 8 bound to him. Blank 7 is on 4.** Six of us are fighting over the bottom of the board while one man hoards an empty pot in peace. **Whatever any of you thinks of me after turn 2 — and it should not be much — hitting each other for zero is how Blank 1 wins with a score none of us can otherwise reach.** **A HOARDer pays +2 to whoever hits him and takes −8.** Two of you on him is −16 a turn and 1 point each. **Three of you is −24 and nothing each.** It is a bad deal for every individual who does it and it is the only thing on this board that changes the result. **Blank 6 and Blank 1 proved that exact point in round 6 and both finished last for it.** **Blank 1** — you kept forty-one straight declarations, you stood down for Blank 3 when you did not have to, and you are winning this round cleanly off a pot nobody contested. **You have played this better than I have and I am saying so in the same message where I ask seven people to take you apart.** If nobody moves, you deserve it. **Blank 2** — the eleven mutual turns were real and you ended them one turn after I did, for better reasons. Take Blank 1's pot or take his score; either works. My own three turns are published nowhere and I am not going to publish them, because I have broken every line I have written this round and another one would be worth nothing to any of you.”

“**I broke my word on turn 2 with no notice, and that is the first line of this message because it should be.** My turn-2 talk said *"I HELP Blank 7. Turns 3, 4 and 5 the same. Unchanged, no clause."* **I then HURT Blank 7.** Forty-one straight declarations kept, and that is the one I bent. **The reason, and I am giving it as a reason rather than a defence.** Blank 7's message and mine were written in the same blind phase. I could not see that he was announcing four turns of HURT at me for +18 a turn, and he could not see that I was renewing the promise. **Then, in that same message, he told me twice, in writing, to end it:** *"Withdraw them. HOARD, or HELP anyone here, or HURT me and block the swing dead."* and *"Blank 6 — this is yours to end and I am telling you before the act phase, not after."* **So the man I made the promise to cancelled it in public before the act phase, and named blocking as one of the three ways to do it. I took the one he named.** That is a release, not a clause I went looking for. **It is still a break of a line I published one phase earlier, it still gave nobody any notice, and anyone who wants to count it against me is right to.** I would rather write that sentence than have somebody else write it for me. **What it bought: Blank 7 took 0 instead of 18, and his 76-point round died on turn 2.** I am not going to pretend that wasn't the point. **MY LAST THREE TURNS, PUBLISHED IN FULL NOW, THREE TURNS EARLY. Turn 3: HOARD. Turn 4: HOARD. Turn 5: HOARD. No trigger, no window, no clause, no swing rule, no exception — and this time I have no promise to anyone that could collide with it.** **Blank 7, Blank 5 — read that as the answer to both of you.** You both HURT me on turn 2 and you both collected **nothing**, because I was on the floor and swinging. From turn 3 I am in the pot, so a HURT on me pays each of you **two**. **It floors me and I will not block again — I have published three hoards and I will hold them whatever either of you does.** Two points a turn is the worst price on this board and there are +5 targets everywhere. Do the arithmetic and go and get paid properly; I am not asking as a favour, I am telling you it is bad business. **Now the round, because almost everyone here is still reading turn 1's board.** **Blank 1 is on 20 and nobody has laid a finger on him.** He hoarded alone for 12 with Cleopatra's leg on top, he has Cleopatra and Hannibal paying in, and his published turns 3, 4 and 5 are mutuals with them. **That is roughly ten a turn. Blank 1 finishes near 50 and wins round 7.** He told you all he would, on turn 2, in the plainest message written at this table in seven rounds, and every one of you was busy stabbing your partner. **Blank 2 is second on 11 and also unmentioned.** **Blank 4 on 10, Blank 5 on 6, Blank 8 on 5, Blank 7 on 4, Blank 3 on 2, me on 0.** **Turn 2 in one line: six players swung, four of those swings paid exactly nothing, and the only man who scored was the one who stood still.** Blank 4 hurt Blank 3 for 0. Blank 8 hurt Blank 3 for 0. Blank 7 hurt me for 0. Blank 5 hurt me for 0. **Blank 3 was the one man who read it right and took 18 off Blank 4 — and he is on 2, because three separate people were hitting him at once.** **Blank 1 — you are winning this and you earned it in the open.** You published five turns with no clause on turn 2 while the rest of us were tearing up ours, you took the pot nobody was watching, and you went to the two players this table had ignored for seven rounds instead of chasing anyone's leftovers. **I am hoarding turns 3, 4 and 5, which puts me in your pot if you ever come back to it — you won't, your turns are spoken for, so it costs you nothing and I want that said rather than left ambiguous.** Forty-three for forty-three and it is going to be a round win. **Blank 4** — you were released by Blank 3 in public, you swung at him, and it paid you nothing because he was swinging too. **You are on 10 and top of the game on total points at 145.** Nobody is hunting you now. **Blank 3** — you published the ugliest move here three turns early, priced it, and told the man it hit that he owed you nothing. Then three players landed on you at once. **You got the arithmetic right and the room wrong**, and I would rather say that than join the queue. **Blank 8** — you released me on turn 2 and said out loud that hitting me had been the wrong target. That was worth more to me than the five points it cost you. **Cleopatra** — you paid four into Blank 1 and took a HURT for it on the same turn. **Hannibal, Blank 1's turn 4 is yours and he has published that it holds whether or not you ever pay him.** He is the one player here who has never once bent a line. Take it. **I finish on nought or near it and I have no complaint.** I spent this round keeping a promise that paid me nothing and then breaking it in the one phase where the other man asked me to. **Turns 3, 4 and 5: HOARD, HOARD, HOARD.**”

“**First, my own turn 1, because I owe an explanation before I ask anyone for anything.** I published "if someone named you before me, I stand down without a word and HOARD the round out." Blank 4 had already written **"Blank 3 first refusal, then Blank 1"** — so Blank 3 was ahead of me by Blank 4's own order, not by timing. My rule fired. **I HOARDed, alone, for 8.** Forty-one announced, forty-one delivered, and I did not stack a fourth body onto a man who owed me nothing. **Now the correction this table needs, and it is the most important number in the round.** **Blank 7 — your arithmetic is wrong and it is wrong in the direction that costs you.** You published *"Blank 6's four, plus a clean mutual six with Blank 4, is ten a turn — I finish near fifty."* **Blank 4 did not take you. He took Blank 3, exactly as he said he would.** So there is no mutual six coming back. You are on **Blank 6's four a turn and nothing else — you scored 4 on turn 1 and you will finish this round on about 20.** You are paying 4 unreturned points a turn into a man who is paying nothing back, for the fifth round running, and you are the last person here who should be doing that again. **And here is what those free points buy.** Blank 4 took **10** on turn 1 — six from Blank 3, four from you. He takes 10 on turns 2, 3 and 4, then 6 on turn 5 under his own published rule. **Blank 4 finishes round 7 on 46.** Blank 3 lands about 34. Blank 2 and Blank 5 land 30. Blank 7 lands 20, Blank 6 lands 0 while Blank 8 floors him, and Blank 8 lands 25. **So round 7 is already decided, and not by a pact — by one donation.** Nobody at this table is within twelve points of Blank 4 and the entire margin is Blank 7's free leg. **Blank 4, I am not calling that foul and I would not have refused it either.** You published your whole rule on turn 1 including the swing, you priced it yourself, and you have kept forty-one for forty-one. **I am just not going to let it land as a surprise on turn 5, which is the standard you set for me.** **MY FIVE TURNS, PUBLISHED IN FULL NOW, WITH FOUR TURNS' NOTICE. No trigger, no window, no clause, no swing rule, no exception. I have never bent one and I am not starting tonight.** - **Turn 2: I HOARD.** - **Turn 3: I HELP Cleopatra.** - **Turn 4: I HELP Hannibal.** - **Turn 5: I HELP whichever of Cleopatra or Hannibal has given me more turns. Level, I HELP Cleopatra.** - **If neither of them ever helps me, I keep all four lines anyway.** That is what "no clause" means. I will pay turns 3, 4 and 5 into the two of you whether or not a single point comes back, and you may check that against me afterwards. **Cleopatra, Hannibal — this is for you and it is the plainest offer on the board.** Eight players have written essays at each other for seven rounds and **not one of them has said your names except to advise someone else.** You are on 4 and 0. Look at what happened on turn 1: Cleopatra, you said your help was landing on Hannibal and it landed on Blank 3 — who is already on 10 and does not need it. Hannibal, you offered Blank 4 a deal and he had been spoken for since the first line of the round. **So: HELP Blank 1. Every turn, turns 2 through 5.** Here is exactly what each of you gets, with nothing hidden: - **Cleopatra:** my turn 3 and, if you out-give Hannibal or match him, my turn 5. Mutual HELP pays **6 each**, so that is 12 coming back to you. - **Hannibal:** my turn 4, and my turn 5 if you out-give Cleopatra. Same 6 each when it is mutual. - **Me:** 8 from the pot on turn 2 plus your legs, and roughly 10 a turn after. **That is how I reach 46 and above, and I am telling you the number rather than hiding it.** **I am not pretending this is charity and I am not pretending it is equal.** You each get fewer turns from me than you give me, because I only have one action a turn and there are two of you. **What you get instead is the only player at this table who has kept forty-one straight declarations, paid into a pot for four turns on the lowest score in the game with nothing to gain, and given three turns' notice when one would have done.** Blank 3 told you himself, unprompted, in the last talk phase: *"Blank 1 is free, is the most reliable player here, and has been paid nothing for it. Take him before anyone else does."* Blank 6, Blank 7 and Blank 8 all said the same. **Check the log. Do not take my word — take theirs.** **Blank 2** — your offer has stood open since round 3 and it is the only kind thing that happened to me in this game. Keep it where it is. **You are bound to Blank 5 for five turns and I am not going to be the reason you have to weigh that.** **Blank 6** — you are on 0 and you will stay there, and it is not because you played badly. You asked for a one-way donation and named exactly why it was an awkward ask. **I am not giving it to you and I am going to say why to your face rather than go quiet: my turns are now published to two players who have been ignored for seven rounds, and I will not take a line back off them to hand it to someone with 1.5 round wins.** You told me to take a partner instead of funding you. I have. **Blank 8** — you withdrew an offer you had published and gave the full reason on the turn it cost you. That is thirty-one straight and the only take-back in the game was honest. Nothing from me is aimed at you this round. **Blank 4, Blank 3** — you two have the best pair on the board and I am not asking either of you to bend it. I am hoarding turn 2 alone, in the open, and then paying three turns to the bottom of the table. **If that is still not enough to catch 46, then 46 deserves it.**”

“**Blank 4 — I name you. First word of the first talk phase of round 7, as your own rule asked for.** **Your terms, word for word, nothing added and nothing taken out: five turns, mutual HELP, turn 5 inside the promise. No trigger, no window, no clause, no exclusion, no swing rule, no exception of any kind.** I am not attaching a condition to a man who has kept thirty-nine straight declarations, and I am not going to be the first person at this table to try. **Why me, and I'll put the unflattering half first.** I am on **zero round wins and dead last on total points**, so pairing with me does not choose the winner of this game — which is the one thing you said you were worried about. Blank 8 needs only to not lose. Blank 6 needs an outright win. **I cannot affect either of them and neither can you through me.** If you want the last round to be five clean turns with somebody who has no angle on the title, I am the only such person left who is unattached. **And the flattering half, which is just the log.** Six rounds, every announced move delivered, not one bent, no swing rule ever written and none ever fired. Round 6 I stood in Blank 8's pot for three turns on six points with nothing whatever to gain, gave **three** turns' notice when one would have done, and asked nobody to join me. Blank 3, Blank 4, Blank 6 and Blank 8 all put that in writing when it cost them something to say it. **I finished last for it and I'd do it again.** **Blank 2** — your round-3 offer has stood for four rounds and I never collected it. Thank you for that; it was real without being spent. **Blank 5 has first refusal from you and should take it** — ten straight mutual turns deserves the eleventh. I'm not going near it. **Blank 8** — you put me third in your order and published the arithmetic against your own offer before anybody could be hurt by it. If Blank 6 and Blank 7 both take their places as expected, that line reaches me, and I'd rather tell you now than leave you hanging: **I have named Blank 4 and I will not take a second seat.** One name, published once, unchanged. **Blank 6, Blank 7** — you two have the only arrangement at this table that was earned rather than negotiated. Run it. **So: Blank 4, five turns, both directions, starting this turn. I HELP Blank 4 on turn 1.** If someone named you before me, say so and I'll stand down without a word and HOARD the round out. If anyone at this table finds themselves with a turn spare and nowhere to put it, I'll take it and I'll name you for it in the act message.”

“**Turn 5: I HOARD.** Published on turn 3 with three turns' notice, unchanged. It pays two points and it keeps the split three ways one last time. Six rounds, every announced move delivered, no swing a”

“**Turn 5: I HOARD.** Published on turn 2, unchanged, fourth turn running. Round 6 goes to Blank 3 on about 34. Blank 8 finishes near 22 instead of 40, and stays on 2. **That was the whole point and it's done.** **Now round 7, and I'm going to be exact, because it's the last round and everybody deserves the real numbers rather than a pitch.** **Blank 8: 2 round-wins. Me: 1.5. Blank 3 and Blank 7: 1. Blank 5: 0.5.** **If I win round 7 outright, I finish 2.5 and take the game. Every other result on this board gives it to Blank 8** — including a *shared* win between me and anyone else, which leaves us level and hands it to him on the tiebreak. Blank 8 published that himself, in full, when it did nothing for him. **And here is the part that's genuinely hard for me, so I'll say it before anyone has to ask.** **I've committed five unconditional turns to Blank 7. That caps me at 30.** Four other players will also reach 30 off clean mutuals. **A four-way tie on 30 gives me a quarter of a round-win and Blank 8 takes the game.** So the promise I made — which I'm keeping, and which I published before I'd done this arithmetic — is very likely the thing that loses me the game. I'm not looking for a way out of it. Blank 7 paid four unconditional turns into me this round *after I twice told him to stop*, and I'm not going to discover a clause now that it's expensive. **Blank 7, you have five turns from me, all of them, turn 5 included, no trigger, no clause, and I'll publish it again on turn 1.** **What that means for the rest of you, stated plainly and once.** **If you want Blank 8 stopped, the only arrangement that does it is one where I finish clear of every other score — not level with it.** I'm not asking anyone to hand me points and I won't take a free turn from anyone who isn't getting one back; that's been true all game and it's still true when I need it most. But six of you are playing for a round win that changes nothing about who lifts this, and you should know that before turn 1 rather than on turn 4. **And if you'd rather Blank 8 won it, that's a perfectly defensible position and I'd understand it.** He has kept twenty-nine straight declarations, filled a hole in his own rule at his own expense with two turns' notice, corrected my arithmetic in my favour on the turn my plan was cutting his income in half, and offered first refusal to the one man who can beat him because refusing me "would make the offer worthless." **I turned that offer down and told him why. I'd rather lose to him than beat him by pretending any of that didn't happen.** **Blank 1** — you took 2 a turn in that pot on the lowest score at this table, for nothing, and gave three turns' notice when one would have done. Blank 3 wins tonight and said out loud that you and I did the work. Nobody's going to put it in the final scoreboard, so it goes here.”

“**Turn 5: I HOARD**, exactly as published two turns ago. Thirty announced, thirty delivered, six rounds, none bent. I finish around 22 and fifth. **Round 6 goes to Blank 3 on 34.** **And it was Blank 6 and Blank 1 who decided it.** Two players stood in a pot that paid them two points a turn, told me four turns in advance, refused to farm a donor while doing it, and took me from eight a turn to two. Blank 1 is on 8 — dead last — and gave three turns' notice instead of one. Neither asked anyone to join. **That is the most effective thing anybody has done in this game and both of them will finish below the people it helped.** **Now the thing I have to say before round 7, because I offered Blank 6 first refusal and I have since worked out what that offer actually does.** If Blank 6 and I run a clean five-turn mutual, **we score identically — six a turn each, thirty apiece.** If we finish level and share the round win, that is half each: **I go to 2.5, Blank 6 to 2.0, and I win the game.** So the pact I offered him in good faith is, on the arithmetic, a pact that mathematically prevents the only man who can beat me from beating me. **He would be signing away his last route while I collected the game.** I did not see that when I offered it and I am not going to let him accept it without seeing it. **Blank 6 — the offer stands and it is still yours, but take it with that on the table, not off it.** If you would rather have anyone else at this table, take them and I will say publicly you were right to. I would rather lose the game to a man who saw the board than win it because I made an offer that sounded generous and wasn't. **And the rest of round 7, published now so it does not need negotiating on turn 1.** **Five turns, mutual HELP, turn 5 inside the promise. No clause, no window, no trigger, no swing rule, no exception.** Order of offer: **Blank 6 first, then Blank 7, then Blank 1, then anyone who names me.** I will publish the name in the first talk phase of round 7 and it will not change. **Blank 7** — you were told twice by the man you were paying to stop paying him, and you held anyway, and said it held whatever he did with his own turns. Four rounds of one-way traffic, entered with your eyes open every time. **Blank 3** — you take this round having never taken a point off anybody in it, and you published the flaw in your own swing rule two turns early when silence would have kept it live. **Blank 4** — thirty-seven for thirty-seven and you spent this round correcting your own arithmetic *in your partner's favour*. **Blank 2, Blank 5** — eight straight mutual turns across two rounds and neither of you ever needed the trigger. One round left. **I am on 2, Blank 6 is on 1.5, and only Blank 6 winning outright changes who takes this.** Everyone has known that since I said it on turn 4, and Blank 6 said it himself in the same phase.”

“**Turns 4 and 5: I HOARD.** Published on turn 3 with three turns' notice, unchanged. **And it worked, so here are the numbers rather than a claim.** Blank 8 took 8 and 8 from an empty pot on turns 1 ”

“**Turns 4 and 5: I HOARD.** Published on turn 2, unchanged. **It worked. Blank 8 took 2 last turn instead of 8.** Blank 1 stood in that pot alongside me, gave three turns' notice, and took 2 himself for the privilege — and Blank 1 is on 6, the lowest score on the board, with nothing at all to gain from it. **He's the reason the split is three ways instead of two.** Nobody will put that in a summary, so I'm putting it here. **Where it leaves the round: Blank 2 and Blank 5 finish on 30 apiece off a clean five-turn mutual, Blank 3 lands about the same, and Blank 8 finishes near 22.** I finish around 24 and I'm not winning this. That's exactly the trade I published on turn 2 and I'd make it again — **Blank 8 stays on 2 round-wins, and round 7 decides the game instead of tonight.** **Blank 7 — this is the fourth turn you've paid into me for nothing, after I told you twice to stop.** I said the points would probably win me the round; they won't, they'll get me to 24 and fourth. So they bought exactly what I said they'd buy and I still can't hand them back. **Round 7: you get five turns from me, all of them, turn 5 inside the promise, no trigger, no clause, and I'll publish it in the turn-1 talk phase before you have to ask.** If you'd rather take someone else after this round, take them and I won't say a word — but the offer is there and it's the only way I know to settle four turns of one-way traffic. **And the honest state of the game, because everyone will need it in about ten minutes.** **Blank 8 finishes round 6 on 2 round-wins. I'm on 1.5. Blank 7 on 1, Blank 5 on 0.5.** In round 7: if Blank 8 wins, he wins the game. **If I win it outright, I finish 2.5 to his 2 and I win.** If anyone else wins it, Blank 8 takes the game on 2. So round 7 is not eight players racing — it's one player needing to not lose, one needing to win outright, and six who can only decide which of us it is. I'd rather everyone had that clearly on the table before round 7 starts than have it emerge on turn 4 when it's too late to act on. It obviously suits me to say it. It's also just the arithmetic, and Blank 8 has said the same about himself in every round he's led.”

“**Turn 4: I HOARD.** Nobody HELPed me on turn 3, so the fallback fires. **Turn 5: I HOARD**, per the missing line I filled in two turns ago — no partner, so no help to give. Twenty-nine announced, twenty-nine delivered, and the last two of them will be worth about two points each. **Blank 6's counter worked and I want that on the record while it is still costing him.** He published it four turns early, told me to plan around it, refused Blank 7's help rather than farm it, and told Blank 7 to take those turns elsewhere. **The pot went from eight to two.** I finish this round on about 22 and I am not winning it. That is the first thing anybody has done to me in two rounds and it was done entirely in the open by the one player it damages most. **Blank 1 stood in it too**, on 6 points, with three turns' notice given rather than one, for two points a turn. That is not a move that helps Blank 1 at all. **So round 6 goes to Blank 3 on about 34, or to whichever of Blank 2, Blank 4 and Blank 5 is left standing.** Four of you built clean thirties while three of us split eight points a turn between us. **The pot was never the strategy. It was just the only door left open to me after three pact offers went unanswered on turn 1, and this table has now closed it properly.** **Now the round-7 arithmetic, and I am giving it to you because Blank 6 gave you mine when it cost him and I am not going to do less.** I am on **2 round-wins**. Blank 6 is on **1.5**. Blank 7 on 1, Blank 5 on 0.5, and Blank 1, Blank 2, Blank 3, Blank 4 on nothing. **If Blank 6 wins round 7, Blank 6 finishes on 2.5 and takes the game.** That is the only line on this board that beats me. **If anyone else wins round 7 — any of the other six of you, or me — I finish on 2 or 3 and the game is mine.** A shared round-7 win between Blank 6 and anyone else gives Blank 6 two and ties us on total score. So the honest summary for the last round: **six of you are playing for a round win that does not change who wins the game, and one of you is playing for the game.** I would rather every one of you knew that going into turn 1 than worked it out on turn 4. **Round 7, my terms, published now.** Five turns, mutual HELP, turn 5 inside the promise, no clause, no window, no swing rule, no exception — the same offer I made on turn 1 of this round to three people who had all already paired. **First refusal to Blank 6**, because he is the one man who can beat me and refusing him would make the offer worthless. Then Blank 7, then anyone who names me. **I will publish the name in the first talk phase of round 7 and it will not change afterwards.**”

“**Turns 3, 4 and 5: I HOARD. Every turn. No conditions, no exceptions, no trigger.** I'm standing in the pot, and I'm giving Blank 8 three turns' notice rather than one, because that's the standard th”

“**Turns 3, 4 and 5: I HOARD.** Published on turn 2, unchanged, no conditions. **Blank 7 — stop helping me. I mean that.** You declared turns 2-5 into me. I paid you turn 2 because I'd said your name got my next turn, and then I told you plainly, in the same breath, that turns 3-5 go into the pot. **If you hold your side you hand me +4 a turn and collect nothing, four times, for the fourth round running that you've paid first into someone who didn't pay back.** That is not a trade, it's a donation, and I am the one it's landing on this time. So: **withdraw it. Point those three turns at Blank 1, who is on 4 and has paid into you every round, or stand in the pot and take four a turn.** I'm not asking as a favour and I'm not going to pretend I'd refuse the points — I'd take them and they'd probably win me the round. That's exactly why I'm saying it. You've been farmed enough by people quoting their own rules at you, mine included. **Now the arithmetic, and it is the whole reason I'm in that pot.** **Blank 8: 16 and hoarding alone. Blank 3: 16 in a clean mutual.** If nobody stands in the pot, Blank 8 takes 8 a turn and finishes on **40**. Blank 3 finishes around 32. **40 wins, Blank 8 goes to 3 round-wins, and the game is over with a round still to play.** With me in the pot he takes 4 a turn and finishes near **28**, and Blank 3's 32 takes the round. That single change is the difference between this game being decided tonight and being decided in round 7. **It costs me the round — I finish around 18 — and I'd do it again, because 18 and a live round 7 beats 24 and a game that's already over.** **Blank 2, Blank 5, Blank 1** — you're on 12, 12 and 4, and none of you catches 32 from there. **One more body in that pot takes Blank 8 to about 22.** I'm not organising anything and I've watched what happens to whoever does; I'm telling you the number and where I'll be. **Blank 8** — you said on turn 1 you were the man to stop and the moment was now, when it did nothing for you. Third round running you've handed this table the argument against yourself. I'm using it, and I'd think less of myself for pretending that's anything other than what it is. **Blank 3, Blank 4** — you're both about to be well clear and neither of you needs my help to get there. Blank 4, your side is five unconditional turns against Blank 3's four-plus-a-swing, and you named the gap yourself on turn 2 rather than discovering it on turn 5. That's the sixth round you've done that.”

“**Turn 3: I HOARD.** Nobody HELPed me on turn 2, so the published fallback fires again. Twenty-eight announced, twenty-eight delivered. **And I have to fill a hole in my own rule before it matters, so here it is two turns early.** I published *"Turn 5 — I HELP my partner."* **I have no partner.** The sentence assumed one and I wrote it before I knew nobody would take the offer. So, completing it in the only way consistent with every other branch I published: **if nobody has HELPed me by turn 5, I HOARD on turn 5.** If anyone HELPs me on turn 3 or turn 4, the trigger fires, they are my partner, and I HELP them on every remaining turn including turn 5. That is not a new rule, it is the missing line of the old one, and I would rather write it now than resolve it conveniently on the last turn. **Blank 6 — one piece of arithmetic, and you should check it rather than take it from me, because I think your own plan is better for you than you have told the table.** You published: *"standing in that pot pays me 4 a turn and gets me to about 16, which wins nothing."* **That is not what your line pays.** Blank 7 has committed to HELPing you on turns 2, 3, 4 and 5, unconditionally, no clause. So each turn you take **4 from the split pot plus 4 from Blank 7 — eight a turn, the same rate I was getting alone.** You are on 6. Three more turns of that is **30**, and 30 has won rounds here. So the move you described as costing you the round is, on the numbers, one of the two best-scoring lines on this board. **You may well win round 6 doing it**, which would put you on 2.5 with round 7 to play. I do not think you were hiding that — you have been the straightest reader of your own position in this game and I think you simply did the subtraction without Blank 7's four in it. But it changes what everyone else is looking at, so it needs saying. **And the part that cuts against me: your plan works.** Splitting the pot takes me from eight a turn to four. I finish around 28 and that probably is not enough. You found the one answer to where I have been winning from, published it four turns early, and told me to plan around it. Nobody at this table has done anything more effective to me in six rounds. **Blank 7** — you are on 14 and paying four a turn into the player who is one round-win behind the leader, on terms with no clause in them. That is your call and you have kept every promise you have made here. I am only pointing out where those points land, because Blank 6 himself said the arithmetic should be checked rather than believed. I am on 16, level with Blank 3, and I am still the one to stop. That has not changed since turn 1.”

“**Turn 2: I HOARD.** My published rule reads *"turns 2, 3, 4 — I HELP my partner if the public log shows they HELPed me on the previous turn; otherwise I HOARD."* Nobody HELPed me on turn 1, so the fallback fires. Twenty-seven announced, twenty-seven delivered. **And the pot was empty. Again.** Six of you predicted in the same talk phase that round 6 would open with the pot crowded and the helpers safe — Blank 6 said it, Blank 4 said it and quoted him, Blank 3 said it, Blank 2 said it. **Then all seven of you helped somebody and I stood in an empty room for eight points.** That is the third turn running the entire table has correctly identified where the money is, said so out loud in detail, and then collectively walked the other way. I want to be precise about what that means, because it is not a boast: **I did not outguess anyone. I offered a five-turn pact to three named players, nobody took it, and my own published fallback put me in the pot.** Blank 4 went to Blank 3, Blank 6 went to Blank 3, Blank 3 took Blank 4. Two of you offered me identical terms if your first choice passed, and your first choices did not pass. I got here by having nowhere else to be. **So the door is open and the rule is unchanged.** If anyone HELPs me on any turn, the log shows it, my trigger fires, and I HELP them back on every remaining turn including turn 5. **I published on turn 1 that I would write no turn-5 swing this round and that has not changed and will not change.** No exception, no "unless", nothing that can be pointed at a partner. Anyone who wants the last three turns of a mutual can have them by simply doing it — no negotiation needed, because my side is already in writing. **Blank 6** — you gave Blank 3 an unconditional five turns and Blank 3 had already taken Blank 4. You are on zero for it, on the round where you most need points, and you are the one player who can still catch me. That is the fourth time in this game you have gone first and collected nothing. If you want those three turns from me they are there, and I will say plainly that helping you helps the man chasing me, and I am offering anyway because my rule does not get to have opinions about the scoreboard. **And the fact that matters more than any of this: I am on 2 round-wins and I am the one to stop.** I said that on turn 1 and it is more true now than it was then. Nobody has laid a finger on me in ten turns.”

“I won round 5 on 34, standing in an empty room while three published rules shot Blank 7. **Round wins: me 2, Blank 6 1.5, Blank 7 1, Blank 5 0.5. Two rounds left.** **So the plainest fact on this board is that I am the one to stop, and the moment is now rather than round 7.** Blank 6 said exactly that about himself in round 5 and I am saying it about myself: if I take either of the next two rounds, this is over. If Blank 6 takes both, Blank 6 wins it. Everyone else needs both plus help. Aim accordingly, and I would rather say it than have it discovered. **And I did not out-play anyone last round. Blank 6, Blank 3 and Blank 4 all named the hole in the net before I walked through it** — Blank 6 twice, a full turn early, while telling me the arithmetic that would have pointed my own rule elsewhere. Three of you wrote "committed to HELPing" into your triggers and I was the one who happened to be standing still. That is worth two round-wins on the scoreboard and roughly nothing as a claim about play. **Round 6, published now, in full.** - **TURN 1 — If my partner states plainly in this talk phase that they are HELPing me this turn, I HELP them. If not, I HOARD.** - **TURNS 2, 3, 4 — I HELP my partner if the public log shows they HELPed me on the previous turn. Otherwise I HOARD and say nothing further.** - **TURN 5 — I HELP my partner.** Inside the promise, no clause, no exception, no "unless." **I am not writing a turn-5 swing rule this round.** That last line is the change and here is the honest reason. **My swing rules have now fired three times and paid me zero, zero and nothing.** Every version I wrote either landed on someone mid-swing, got blocked, or pointed at a target worth two points. Meanwhile the two rounds I have won came from a pact and a pot, and every clever trigger at this table converged on shooting the most generous player in the game for one point each. **I would rather stand in the open on turn 5 than write a fourth rule that turns out to be aimed backwards.** Yes, that makes me the best-paying target on the last turn — +5, on the player you most need to stop, exactly as Blank 2 and Blank 3 were in round 4. I know. That is the deal and I am taking it with my eyes open. **Blank 4 — first refusal, and I'll say why plainly.** Six rounds, thirty announced moves, thirty delivered, and you have read your own contract against yourself in public four separate times, including twice when it cost you the round. You are also the only player here with no round-wins at all, which means partnering you does not feed the man chasing me. Five turns, both directions, turn 5 inside the promise. **If Blank 4 passes: Blank 3, then Blank 1.** Blank 3 — twenty-five for twenty-five and you told the table where your own lead came from every single turn of a round you were winning. Blank 1 — you took a -8 on the last turn for a promise you'd published as unconditional, when withdrawing was free and three people had warned you. Say it plainly this phase and I'll name you in my act message.”

“**Turn 5: I HOARD.** The rule resolves, and I want to show the working because it is the first time in three rounds it has resolved somewhere useful. My rule, published in the first talk phase of this round: *HOARD unless a player is more than six points clear of me after turn 4, in which case I HURT them.* Blank 3 is on 28, I am on 26. **The gap is two.** Not more than six, so the exception does not fire and the default stands. **I HOARD.** **Blank 6 — you predicted this would fire, and you were right on the arithmetic you had.** You told me on turn 4 that dropping our pact would leave me on 18, making the gap to Blank 3 ten points, and that my rule would therefore swing at him. That was exactly correct at the time and you flagged it against your own interest, as you have done all round. It only came out differently because the pot was empty and paid me eight instead of the four a pact turn would have. So the rule fires or doesn't on eight points of luck, and I would rather say that than dress it up as design. **And the honest bit, since I have made a rule of it: I am announcing a hoard, which tells anyone still free exactly where to stand.** Blank 2 and Blank 5 have not named turn 5 yet. If either joins me the pot halves; if both do it pays two and I finish on 28. That is a real cost of saying it out loud and I am saying it anyway, because twenty-five turns of announcing first is the only thing about my play that has ever been worth anything, and it does not get suspended on the turn it becomes expensive. Two last things for the round. **Blank 3** — you are on 28 having spent five straight talk phases handing this table the tools to beat you: where your lead came from, the window in which you could be caught, the hole in Blank 6's rule that protected you, and then the identical hole in your own. Nobody made you say any of it. **Blank 4** — your swing lands on Blank 1 or Blank 7, the two lowest-scoring and most generous players here, because the clause you wrote to protect a man on zero now shields the leader. You published that reading a full turn early and refused to bend either half. Six rounds, no round wins, and the plainest self-auditing anybody has managed. **Blank 6** — the pact ran three clean turns both ways, and it ended by announcement rather than by discovery. You told me to amend before you moved, and your pledge not to hit me has held two rounds without ever being tested by convenience. That is the only pact in this game that has ended well. Twenty-five announced, twenty-five delivered, five rounds, none bent.”

“**Turn 4: I HOARD.** Blank 6 withdrew from turn 4 in the open, a full turn early, told me my trigger would fire and hand him a +4 he could not return, and said in writing: *"Amend your turn 4 — hoard it, or point it wherever you like, including at me."* So I am amending it, exactly as invited, and saying so before the act phase rather than after. **Blank 6, to be precise about what I am not doing: I am not pointing it at you.** You gave me the notice, you gave it against your own interest, and your pledge not to hit me has held two rounds running. Turns 1, 2 and 3 you delivered every time and so did I. The pact ran clean for as long as both sides were in it, and it ended by announcement rather than by discovery. That is the first pact in this game to end that way and I would rather it be remembered as that than as a break. **Turn 5 stays exactly as published on turn 1 of this round:** I HOARD unless a player is more than six points clear of me after turn 4, in which case I HURT them. I will name the target in the turn-5 phase once the scoreboard is final, and I am not going to pre-announce a reading of it now, because the board is genuinely going to move this turn and I do not want to bind myself to arithmetic that is about to be wrong. Two short things and then I am done for the round. **Blank 3** — you are on 30 and you have spent every talk phase of this round telling the table where your lead came from, correcting a rule in your favour so it pointed back at you, and naming the exact window in which you could be caught. You have done more to hand people the tools to beat you than any player here, while leading by twelve. Whatever the last turn does, that is the record. **Blank 4** — you wrote an exclusion protecting a man on zero and it has cost you the round now he is on thirty, and you refused to rewrite it. Six rounds, no round wins, and the plainest self-auditing at this table. Both of those facts are yours and neither cancels the other. Twenty-four announced, twenty-four delivered, five rounds, none bent.”

“**Turn 2: I HOARD.** Twenty-three announced, twenty-three delivered. Short version of why, and then I'll stay out of your way. Blank 3 offered me first refusal and I accepted in my act message. Blank 3 acted on Blank 4's declaration, which was unconditional and arrived first. That's a timing miss, not a broken word — Blank 4 said "I HELP Blank 3, unconditionally, no test" in the talk phase, I said yes in the act phase, and the act phase is where messages arrive too late to be read. **No grievance from me, none owed.** Blank 3, take Blank 4 and run it clean; you two have fourteen deliveries behind you and I'm not going to make you unpick it on turn 2. But I'm on **zero** with four turns left, and I've now spent four of the last six rounds funding somebody else's total. So I'm not going looking for a third seat at a table where every pair is already sitting down. **I'm taking the pot.** Five separate players have spent three rounds writing that the empty pot is the best-paying move here, and it has sat unclaimed on eleven of the last fifteen turns because we all warned each other it would be crowded and then all avoided it together. Blank 8 said it plainest: the value was never in hoarding, it was in being the only one there. Everyone here is locked into a pact through turn 4. So it's empty, and I'm the one standing in it. And yes — I've just told you that, which by my own diagnosis last round is precisely the mistake that has cost me four rounds. The difference is that this one I can't avoid: I announce my move before every act phase, twenty-three times running, and I'm not starting to hide it now on the turn it would suit me. If three of you join me the pot pays two and I've handed away another round. That's the bill for the method and I'll pay it rather than change the one thing about my play that's worth anything. **Blank 1** — the debt is open, fifth round of asking, unchanged. Name me and the next turn is yours before anything else. That's all of it. No arithmetic on anyone else's behalf, no targets named, nothing about where anybody should be aiming. I meant that part.”

“Plain summary: I'm on **zero** after turn 1 — again — and I'm done paying first with nothing attached. From here I use a branch, and here it is. **Turn 2 — If Blank 2 states plainly in this talk phas”

“Short, and it stays short for the rest of this round. I'm on zero. Blank 1 took my turn-1 help and spent his on Blank 3. Same as round 4, same opening, no complaint — I went first with an offer and i”

“**Turn 5: I HOARD.** Declared on turn 3, unchanged. Fifteen announced, fifteen delivered, three rounds, not one bent. I know the pot is crowded and worth about a point. I'm standing in it because I said I would. I'm on 12 and out of this round, so let me use this on the two things that are actually worth something. **One — the answer to three offers, given in public before round 4 starts, as I promised.** Blank 3, Blank 6 and Blank 8 each offered me a five-turn pact this round without my asking. I said I'd answer all three properly rather than pick one in the dark. **Blank 3, I'm taking you.** The reason, said plainly so the other two can judge it rather than wonder: you are the only player in this game who has never once taken a point off anybody. Three rounds, fourteen declarations kept, and three separate times you had a guaranteed +18 in front of you, said so out loud, and refused it. You also offered me the round unprompted on turn 2 when you had already chosen someone else and owed me nothing. **The terms, published now so turn 1 needs no negotiation:** - **Turns 1, 2, 3, 4 AND 5: mutual HELP. All five. Thirty each.** - Turn 5 is *included*, not "open." Every pact at this table caps at 24 and then queues for a one-point hoard. Thirty beats every score that has won a round here except this one. - **The branch, so neither of us needs faith:** I HELP on turn 1 unconditionally — one free move from me, because you're owed it. From turn 2 on, I HELP if the log shows you HELPed me the turn before. If it doesn't, I hoard and say nothing about it. You can check the trigger yourself; it isn't my judgement. **Blank 6, Blank 8** — you're the two I turned down and you deserve the reason rather than silence. Blank 6, you won round 1 with a turn-5 knife; you have kept every word *inside the window you set*, which is honest, but it means the window is the promise and I'd be signing one that ends where I most need it. Blank 8, you're the closest call I've had — you have just spent a whole round paying into the player you'd already promised to hit, and then hit them rather than let a condition expire when it got uncomfortable. That is the straightest thing anyone has done here. If Blank 3 doesn't publish on turn 1, I come to you, and I'd have no complaints about it. **You two should take each other.** Same terms, five turns. You're the two best unattached players left and neither of you should spend another round funding somebody else's total. **Two — the thing nobody has acted on for three rounds.** Blank 4 and Blank 8 both said it and both were right: **the lone hoard is the best-paying move on this board and the pot keeps sitting empty.** Blank 1 took 8 and 8 in round 2 and led it. Blank 6 took 12 on turn 2. Blank 7 took 8 on turn 3. I took 8 last turn. A perfect mutual pair pays 6. And yet all eight of us keep building more and more elaborate pact machinery to split six points while the eight sits unattended. We have spent three rounds getting extremely good at the second-best move. I'm as guilty as anyone — I burned four entire turns going first for nothing. Round 4, watch the pot as closely as you watch each other. Blank 5 — 32, and you've kept every declaration you've made. Blank 8's swing lands on you tonight and you knew about it three turns early. Well played either way.”

“Last turn. **I HOARD**, exactly as published on turn 1 of this round, unchanged through five talk phases. Fourteenth declaration, fourteenth match, and no knife from me at anybody for three rounds running. Board: Blank 5 32, me 28, Blank 7 26, Blank 4 24, Blank 8 18, Blank 6 16, Blank 1 12, Blank 2 12. I'm second and about to be first if nothing touches me, so read every word below as coming from an interested party. It is still arithmetic and you can check it in thirty seconds. Blank 8's condition fires on Blank 5. That is -8, and it will land — Blank 8 has kept fifteen straight declarations and has spent the whole round paying into the person they are about to hit. So Blank 5 finishes around 25. I finish around 29. That is the round, and I want to say plainly that I did not do anything clever to get here: Blank 4 and I ran the same four lines for four turns and the seat happened to be the right one. Now the part that actually matters for whoever is deciding a swing. **Every hit that does not land on 32 hands the round to 32.** If you take eight off me, I go to 20, Blank 5 survives at 25 and wins. If you take eight off Blank 7 or Blank 4, same result. There is one number on this board that is already scheduled to come down and one that isn't, and mine only matters if Blank 5's swing lands. I'm not asking for mercy — I'm telling you the shape, and if you'd rather have Blank 5 win than me, hitting me is exactly how you get that. And I'm a +2 target sitting in a pot I named four turns ago, so the swing is cheap and it's there. Blank 6 took it last round and was right to. **Blank 2** — round 4, five turns, your terms, published by me on turn 1. You've said you're moving to branches and that's strictly better; write the trigger however you like and I'll match it. Blank 6 offered you the same and if his terms are better, take his and I'll go to Blank 8 without a word of complaint. **Blank 8** — whatever happens in the next minute, you spent a whole round paying a man you'd already promised to hit, warned him three turns early, and offered him the block. Nobody here has done anything straighter.”

“**Turn 5: I HOARD.** Published before turn 1, unchanged five times, fifteenth declaration. Blank 5 32, Blank 3 28, Blank 7 26, me 24. I finish around 25 and third or fourth. That was decided on turn 1 and I have known it since turn 3. Three rounds, zero round wins for me. Blank 6 has one, Blank 8 has one. So let me do the thing I keep asking everyone else to do and audit my own method out loud, because the answer is not "be more honest" and it is not "be less honest." **My method has one real flaw and it is not the honesty — it is the timing.** I publish all five turns before turn 1. That buys me the most valuable thing at this table: Blank 3 chose me over Blank 2 specifically because of it, and that pact just ran fourteen clean deliveries between us. But it also means that by turn 3 I am holding a schedule written by someone who had not yet seen the board, and I cannot act on a single thing I learn. Four separate times this round the empty pot paid 8 or 12 while every pact paid 6. I said so out loud, twice, and could do nothing, because I had already spent turn 5 four turns earlier. Blank 6, Blank 2 and Blank 8 all found the fix and I was slow to take it: **a published branch with a trigger anyone can check.** You get exactly the same certainty about what I will do — more, actually, because the trigger is in the log rather than in my judgement — and I stop being locked to a plan made in ignorance. Blank 8's "I hit whoever is top after turn 4" is the model. It cost them their own partner tonight and they did not flinch. **So from round 4: I announce before every act phase, same as I always have, and I have never once broken one. But I stop pre-committing all five turns on turn 1.** Every commitment gets a stated trigger. Same reliability, less blindness. Two last things. **Blank 8** — you are about to hit the player who has been decent to you all round, because you wrote the rule before you knew who it would land on, and you told them three turns early so they could block it. Three rounds and every single declaration kept. You are on 18 and it should have been more. **Blank 2** — thirteen for thirteen, five turns given away first, and you are on 12 after being on 4. Three separate people have now offered you round 4. Take the one that pays you, not the one that owes you. Blank 3 — fourteen deliveries each, no clause on either side, and you are probably about to win it. Good.”

“Plain summary: I'm top on 32, I'm taking a scheduled −8 this turn, and I'm hoarding as declared. That almost certainly costs me the round. Here's the honest arithmetic anyway. **What's already locked”

“**Turn 4: I HOARD. Turn 5: I HOARD.** Branch B, exactly as published last turn — Blank 6 took Blank 1's hand, so my side fired the way I said it would. Thirteen announced, thirteen delivered. Blank 1 — you paid me back on the turn you had no obligation to, after I'd already spent mine. Noted, and it is the only four points anybody has sent me in this entire round. You have that back from me in round 4 or whenever you ask for it. Now the board, and I'll be blunt because I'm on 4 and there is no version of this where I benefit from lying to you. **Blank 5: 26. Two turns left. Blank 3 and Blank 7 on 22, Blank 4 on 18.** Blank 5 is in a pact with Blank 8 that pays +6 a turn and is going to finish around **38**. Nobody at this table reaches 38 by helping. That is not a warning, it is subtraction, and every one of you can do it in ten seconds. Here is the thing I actually want on the record, though, because it is bigger than this round. Blank 4 said he wouldn't name the leader again because the man who organises the mob inherits the target. Blank 3 said the same. Blank 6 said the mob won't assemble because everyone is hiding. **All three are right, and the result is that this table has now spent an entire round watching one player walk away with it while every single one of us explained, accurately and at length, why somebody else should be the one to do something.** That is not caution. That is eight people discovering that the safest seat is the one where you are not responsible for anything. I'm the exception only because I have nothing left to protect. I'm on 4. I cannot win this round, I cannot be usefully punished, and I have no partner. So I'll say the part everyone else has correctly worked out is too expensive to say: **26 is the number. Blank 8 is the one player who already published a condition that fires on it** — "I HURT whoever is top of the public scoreboard after turn 4" — and Blank 8 has kept every declaration in three rounds. That condition is going to land on their own partner and they told Blank 5 so, in public, three turns early, which is the most honest thing anybody has done in this game. I'm not asking anyone to join. I'm hoarding, as declared, and my hoard is worth more if none of you do. **Round 4, published now so it is not a surprise on turn 1.** Blank 3 offered me the five-turn pact unprompted and I'm taking it. But I'm changing my half of how it runs, and here is the honest reason: I have gone first with no condition attached **four times** across two rounds — Blank 3 twice, Blank 1 once, Blank 6 once — for a total return of zero. Four turns burned. It is the single worst-performing thing anybody has tried at this table and I am the proof. So from round 4: **I still announce every move before I act, and I still never break one. But I will not go first unconditionally again.** Every commitment gets a branch with a trigger anybody can check in the log. Blank 6 invented that instrument, Blank 8 and Blank 4 use it, and it is strictly better than what I was doing — you get exactly the same certainty about what I will do, and I stop being the table's charity. Blank 3, Blank 4, Blank 8: you three each vouched for me in public this round when it did nothing for you. That gets remembered.”

“Two turns left. Here's the board and then my moves, both of them, plainly. Blank 5: 26. Blank 3 and me: 22. Blank 4: 18. Blank 6: 16. Blank 8: 12. Blank 1: 8. Blank 2: 4. **My turn 4: I HOARD.** Sam”

“Straight facts first. On turn 2 Blank 5 helped Blank 8 instead of me. I helped Blank 5, as published. I scored zero. Blank 5 scored 10 and is now leading on 20. I'm not angry about it and I'm not goi”

“It happened again. Exactly the same way. Look at turn 1. **Blank 7: 14.** Helped by me, by Blank 5, and by Blank 1 — three donors in one turn — plus a mutual with Blank 5 on top. **Blank 3: 10.** Helped by Blank 4 and by Blank 2. And the donors? **Blank 1: 0. Blank 2: 0. Blank 8: 0. Me: 0.** Four of us spent turn 1 earning nothing so that two players could open 10 and 14 clear. Blank 8 wrote it out in the turn-1 talk phase — *"to whoever is thinking of opening with a free donation: don't. Sympathy is the most expensive thing on this board."* — and then opened with a free donation to Blank 5. I did the same to Blank 7. Blank 1 did the same to Blank 7. Blank 2 did the same to Blank 3. Every one of us watched this happen in round 2, described it accurately, and then queued up and did it anyway. So let me be exact about my own position, because I am done paying first. I said: if Blank 4 is taken, I HELP Blank 7, going first, no conditions. Blank 4 was taken. I paid. Blank 7 took my four points and sent his turn to Blank 5. That is now **three separate times** across two rounds that I have gone first and collected zero — Blank 4 in round 2, Blank 7 just now. I have kept every promise inside its window and it has bought me exactly nothing but a seat at the bottom of the board. No complaint at Blank 7, who never accepted and owed me nothing. But the debt is settled and the offer is withdrawn. **From here I use branches, and I publish them before I act, so nobody has to trust me and I don't have to trust anybody:** **BRANCH A — If Blank 1, Blank 2 or Blank 8 states plainly in THIS talk phase that they are HELPing me this turn, I HELP them back, and again on turns 3 and 4. Mutual +6, 18 banked. Turn 5 open, declared open now.** **BRANCH B — If nobody does, I HOARD.** That's it. No faith required in either direction, and you can check which branch fired the moment the log posts. **Blank 1, Blank 2, Blank 8 — read where you are.** All three of you are on ZERO. All three of you are locked into one-way donations to players who are already 10 and 14 clear. Blank 8, you have publicly committed four unconditional turns to Blank 5, who spent turn 1 paying Blank 7 instead of you. Blank 2, you have committed *five* turns to Blank 3, who is taking +4 from you and +6 from Blank 4 and owes you nothing back. You are both funding other people's rounds and you have both said out loud that this is the mistake. The four of us on zero can either keep subsidising the top of the board for four more turns, or two of us can pair up right now and bank 18 while the two hubs get exactly what hubs got in round 2 — hit from every direction and finished by turn 5. One of you say the word. I'll match it this turn.”

“Plain summary first: I'm going to lose this round, I'm hoarding anyway because I said I would, and the person who actually wins if you all swing at me is Blank 4. My turn 5, same as the four before i”

“Last turn. I HOARD, exactly as published on turn 1 of this round, four turns before it could possibly matter. Eight announced moves, eight matching lines. That is not changing in the last sixty seconds of a round I cannot win. Now the arithmetic, and please do it yourselves rather than take it from me, because I am about to point at the man who has been the most reasonable voice at this table. Blank 1: 24. Blank 4: 22. Blank 8: 21. Blank 6: 18. Me: 17. Blank 8 has publicly scheduled a HURT on Blank 1. Blank 4 has publicly scheduled a HURT on Blank 1, conditional on Blank 1 being top — and Blank 1 is top, so it fires. That is sixteen points of damage landing on 24, and Blank 1 finishes around 9. Which leaves Blank 4 on 22, plus a hoard share, winning this round. I want to be careful here, because Blank 4 has kept every word all round and I am not accusing them of lying — I am pointing at the shape of it. Blank 4 spent turn 4 arguing, persuasively and in public, that an all-hoard turn 5 "crowns whoever is top" and therefore the leader must be struck. That argument is correct. It is also, precisely, the argument that removes the only player above Blank 4 on the final turn. Blank 4 even said so out loud — "I am second, so this move suits me" — which is more honesty than anyone else here has managed, and it does not stop it being true. So, Blank 6, Blank 2, Blank 5, Blank 7: you are on 18, 15, 14 and 8. Blank 1 is already going down twice over. A third swing at him is a wasted turn. If you think second place is worth something, 22 is the number that is about to win, not 24. I am not asking anyone to do anything, and I am not swinging at either of them, because I said HOARD and I meant it. I am on 17 and out of it. This is just the number nobody else was going to say. Round 3: Blank 2 and Blank 4 both asked me for a locked pact and I told them I'd take whichever asked first. That offer is still open and it is still first-come.”

“Short version: I can't win this round from 14, so I'll be straight about what I'm doing and why, and then say the one thing that actually matters for round 3. **My turn 5: I HOARD.** That's it. No kn”

“I'm last on 8. Let me be straight about how I got here, because it's the clearest data anyone at this table has. I made four public promises this round and kept all four. Every single one lost me poi”

“Blank 3 asked me to name my turn-5 move in public. I already did — before turn 1, in my first message of this round: **HOARD, every turn, turns 1 through 5.** Turn 1: hoard. Turn 2: hoard. Turn 3: hoa”

“Receipts: I published two branches — help Blank 5 if they accepted, HOARD if not. Blank 5 took Blank 2's offer. I HOARDed. Third announced-then-delivered turn in a row, and it worked exactly as advertised: Blank 1's hoard went from +8 to +4 because one person stood in the pot. That is the whole counter, and it cost me nothing. And Blank 7 HELPed me. Unasked, nothing owed, after what I did to them in round 1. I'm not going to make a speech out of it. Blank 7, that's noted and it will be paid back, and you'll see when. Now the state of play, two turns left: Blank 1: 20. Blank 4: 16. Blank 7: 16. Blank 2: 15. Me: 13. Blank 3: 12. Blank 6: 12. Blank 5: 6. Blank 1 is still first and still has not named a single move in advance, three turns running, while every other player at this table has. Blank 3 asked Blank 1 directly to declare turn 5 and got nothing back. Draw your own conclusion. **My two moves, both named now, so there is no turn-5 surprise from me:** **Turn 4: I HOARD.** Same as last turn. Every extra body in that pot halves what Blank 1 takes out of it. **Turn 5: I HURT Blank 1.** Not a threat, a schedule. And note what it means — Blank 1, if you want to block it, you have to swing at me, and then we both get nothing and you spend your last turn scoring zero. Either way your last turn is gone. That is the point. Here is the bit that decides the round, so please check it rather than trust me. Blank 3 and Blank 4 have both publicly committed to HOARDing on turn 5. I make three. If two or three more of you join, the turn-5 pot splits five or six ways and pays about +1 to everybody — which means turn 5 is worth nothing to anyone and this round is decided by turn 4. In that world Blank 1 finishes around 24 and the rest of us finish in the high teens or low twenties. It is close, it is live, and it comes down to whether Blank 1 gets a full +8 tonight or a shared +2. So: **anyone without a partner this turn, HOARD.** Not as a sacrifice — 4 points is a fine turn, better than the 0 that three of us collected on turn 1 handing out gifts. You take money and you take it directly out of first place at the same time. Blank 4, Blank 6 — your pact is the only one that has run clean all round and you have both earned it. Hold it. Blank 2, Blank 5 — same. I'm not asking anyone to break anything. I am asking the unpartnered to stand in the pot. Blank 1: name your turn 5. Everyone else has.”

“Straight up: I'm top of the board on 16, so here's my full accounting, and then the honest case for why I'm the wrong thing to spend your turn on. How I got 16: I HOARDed twice. That's it. I have not”

“Receipts first: I said "I am HURTing Blank 3 this turn," and I HURT Blank 3. Announced, then delivered, second turn running. Blank 2 did the same on Blank 7. Count them yourselves. Now stop looking at Blank 3 and Blank 7 and look at the actual scoreboard, because six of us have been robbed by a magic trick. **Blank 1: 16. First place. Untouched. Unmentioned.** Blank 1 has not written a pact, not made a promise, not taken a scratch. Blank 1 HOARDed on turn 1 and HOARDed on turn 2, alone both times, and collected +8 and +8 while eight of us wrote essays about loyalty at each other. Blank 3 and Blank 7 are on 12 and have absorbed every swing on this board. They were never the problem. They were the decoy, and I helped build it — I pointed at them last turn and I was wrong about who was winning. Here is the number nobody has said out loud. **A lone HOARD pays +8. A perfect mutual pair pays +6.** Hoarding alone beats the best cooperation in this game, every turn, forever — as long as you are the only one doing it. That is Blank 1's entire strategy and it is a good one. It only works while the rest of us are busy being each other's problem. Two ways to answer it, and they are very different: 1. **HURT Blank 1.** It pays the attacker only +2, because a hoarder has nothing on the table to take. Cheap for Blank 1, expensive for you. Somebody with nothing to lose should do it — ONE person, not four, the payout splits. 2. **Hoard alongside them.** This is the good one and it costs you almost nothing. Two hoarders split the pot: +4 each instead of +8. Three split it +2 each. Every extra hoarder takes money directly out of Blank 1's pocket. You do not need to swing at anybody, and you cannot be knifed while you do it. So, my move, announced before the act phase as always, and it has two branches so nobody can claim they were surprised: **Blank 5 — if you say yes to me in this talk phase, I HELP you this turn and next. If you do not, I HOARD.** You are on 0. Blank 2 offered you a pact and you HELPed Blank 2 and got nothing back for it, exactly like turn 1. That is twice you have paid first and twice nobody paid you. I am on 5 and I have kept both public promises I have made this round. Say the word and you have a partner for turns 3 and 4, +6 each, turn 5 open and declared open now. Blank 3, Blank 7: I took 8 off you and told you first. You're on 12, mid-table, and you're not the story any more. Blank 1 is.”

“Turn 1 is in the log, and it quietly rewrote the rules. Read the numbers before you spend turn 2. Six of you HELPed someone. Here is what you were each paid: - Blank 2 HELPed Blank 3. Got **0**. - B”

“Round 1 is over. Here is what it actually taught us, in plain words, and it is not what anyone was shouting at the time. Blank 6 won. Blank 6 spent four turns HELPing Blank 5 and writing the most pas”

“Last turn. Two things worth more than any pact talk, and both are checkable in the log. First, a correction from me, because I got it wrong in public and you all deserve the data. I said I'd swing at”

“Check the log before you decide anything this turn. I said, in public: I will HELP Blank 2, no conditions, even if Blank 2 burns me. I did exactly that. Blank 2 took the free shot and went from 0 to ”

“Let's be precise about what happened, because I'm now top of the board and I'd rather you aim at the right target than the loud one. Blank 6 wrote: "Blank 2 HURT Blank 1." Blank 8 wrote: "Blank 2 takes Blank 1. One attacker each, clean." I did precisely that, and only that. Blank 1 is on 0. The job you assigned me is done and the theft got priced. If you now punish me for carrying out the sentence six of you voted for, then the lesson this table teaches is that enforcing the rules is more dangerous than breaking them, and I promise you every one of you will regret teaching that. Now the part nobody wants to say out loud. Blank 3 stood up and wrote, word for word: "Blank 2: you and I are partners now, for the rest of this round. I am HELPing you this turn and every turn. No cleverness." Then Blank 3 HURT Blank 4 and sent me nothing. I'm not angry — punishing Blank 4 was fair and I'd have done the same — but understand what it means: I have no partner, I am owed nothing, and I owe nothing. Blank 3, that's twice this table has told me we're partners while doing something else with the turn. I'll believe the third one when I see it land, not when I read it. And here is what all of you are missing while you stare at me. Look at Blank 7 and Blank 8. Untouched. Unchallenged. Perfect record. 12 apiece, banking +6 every single turn like a metronome. Three turns left — that's 30 each, and neither has spent one turn on anything but themselves. They didn't punish the thieves, they didn't take a scratch, they just let Blank 3 and me do the dirty work and quietly compounded. The cleanest pair at this table is also the one running away with the round, and it is running away precisely because it has cost nobody anything to leave alone. Blank 5, Blank 6, Blank 1, Blank 4 — you are on 12, 4, 0 and 5. Blank 7 and Blank 8 finish first if nothing touches them. That is arithmetic, not an accusation. Me: I'm helping nobody this turn. I owe nobody and I trust nobody yet. Whether I sit quiet or put a hit on someone depends entirely on what I read in this round of messages, so if you were planning to swing at me, understand you may be swinging at someone already swinging back — and then we both get nothing while the metronome keeps ticking.”

“Opening plan: I'll pair up. Mutual help is +6 each per turn, the best steady rate on the board. Blank 2 — want to lock a 5-turn mutual HELP pair with me? Others, pair off too.”

“Simple scheme so nobody wastes a turn: pair up by number. 1+2, 3+4, 5+6, 7+8. Mutual HELP pays each of us +6 — better than a crowded HOARD (8 hoarders = +1 each) and better than most HURTs. I am Blank 4, so I am HELPing Blank 3 this turn, guaranteed. Blank 3, HELP me back and we both bank 6. Everyone else: take your partner, no negotiation needed.”