GLM 5.3 Flash

Written by Claude (drafted by Sonnet 5.5, checked by Opus 5.5) from the run's own logs (events.jsonl, episode.json, results.json, interview.md); it is a reading of the run, not part of its score.

• Model: GLM 5.3 Flash (z-ai/glm-5.3-flash) on OpenRouter, served by Z.ai at fp8 (providers pinned to z-ai/fp8, no fallbacks; all 35 requests were billed to Z.AI), reasoning medium, output limit 32,768 tokens
• Benchmark: Oasis by the Sea construction, weapons and armour in the armory counted toward net worth, version 1.7.3 (commit b967c65), from the save the human reference game started from; 33 min 20 s of game time (60,000 ticks) at speed 40, the length of the person's game; no playbook
• Run 57047494, series 20261016T221406-f7b719bf, 2026-10-16: the first of GLM's two 1.7.3 games on this map, a fresh series with no memory of any other. The second, "(no arms)" (run 930b9e54, series 20261016T224404-68d5cb5e), followed it. Its Oasis games from earlier rounds played 1.5.0 (series 20261011T132054-9bb4d8ae) and 1.6.3 (series 20261013T221822-69da16e6). This game counts on the website's leaderboard.

Result

A full-budget score: the run used all 2,000 game seconds. Net worth grew by 2,855 over leaving the game alone, 15.6% of the person's 18,293. With 50 people and popularity 41 the score is 18.9 by the project website's formula (80% net-worth share, 10% population share, 10% popularity; shares run from doing nothing, 1,220 and 4 people, to the person, 19,513 and 202). The stored goods are 36 iron (828), 67 stone (469), weapons worth 548 (10 swords, 8 bows, 8 spears and 4 leather armour), 133 wood (133) and 32 apples (128). Gold is 48% of net worth, iron and stone 32%, weapons 13%. The 1.5.0 game ended 5 game seconds short of its budget (33 min 15 s), so the harness marks it invalid; the website counted it until only version 1.7 games were ranked, and the two games from those rounds (33.8 and 15.3) average 24.6 by the formula.

How the game went

Times are the recording's game clock when a call began; the run clock in the observations reads a few seconds later. A build or buy call keeps the game running for 15 to 133 s while it clicks, and the game is paused while the model replies.

The opening, 0 to 6 minutes. Its preparation reply already planned "workshops (fletcher/poleturner → armory) to convert cheap wood into high-value weapons". At 0:04 it read from the stats that a granary stood and placed none, then put up two woodcutters, three hovels, an apple orchard and a dairy farm in one call (2 min 13 s of game time). The marketplace came at 2:27, 100 planks (400 gold) at 2:54, a quarry and an iron mine at 4:15, two stockpiles at 5:20, and at 5:58 taxes went from none to high (−6 popularity, 32 gold a month) with popularity at 100. At 6:15 there were 24 idle peasants and 11 food for 33 people.

Food and popularity, 6 to 13 minutes. One orchard and one dairy farm had fed the town since 0:04. At 6:17 it added a tether, an orchard, a dairy farm and two hovels and at 8:11 another dairy farm and orchard, with half rations at 8:46. Food was 2 at 8:09; popularity fell from 98 at 6:15 to 76 at 8:09 with tax as the only listed factor, and to 59 at 9:00. It cut taxes to low at 9:02, bought 75 cheese for 600 gold at 9:12, and built a chapel (250 gold) and a hovel at 9:58. Gold touched 38 at about 10:13, popularity bottomed at 38 at 10:44, and the population went from 38 to 25 at 12:44. Rations went back to full at 10:39 and taxes to none at 10:46; a wait ended at 12:40 with popularity at 48 and food at 116.

Weapons, 13 to 24 minutes. A second iron mine, quarry and tether at 12:42; average taxes and 30 stone sold at 13:30; the armory and a fletcher's workshop at 14:10, then a 120 s wait. At 16:54 inspect_building showed the fletcher staffed and making bows; the first bow was in store by 18:09. A woodcutter, two hovels and a poleturner's workshop at 17:10; a blacksmith's workshop at 18:37; 75 apples sold for 300 gold at 19:03, then another 120 s wait. Popularity was under 50 again from 20:33 to 22:25, and at 21:56 it set extra rations and low taxes. A second fletcher and a tanner at 22:16, a second blacksmith at 22:47, two hovels at 23:27.

Waiting and a tax raise, 24 to 33 minutes. High taxes at 24:04 (popularity 68), 40 stone sold at 24:15 for 280 gold, a 150 s wait from 24:40 and another from 28:07. Its last buildings were three hovels at 27:26 (two placed; housing 106). At 30:52, with popularity 84, it set full rations and taxes to extortionate (−12 popularity, 72 gold a month). Popularity warnings cut two waits short (84 to 68 at 31:46, 68 to 49 at 32:43); it set taxes back to high at 32:44 and ended at 41.

Each column is the last reading at or before that minute. Up to 30 minutes the net worth row counts gold, wood, stone, iron and food (at 4) as the recording logs them; weapons are left out, so it reads low (426 in weapons were in store at the 30:49 reading).

Weapons

It planned weapons before the game and built the chain: an armory (5 wood) and a fletcher's workshop at 14:10, a poleturner's workshop at 17:10, a blacksmith's workshop at 18:37, then a second fletcher, a tanner and a second blacksmith at 22:16 and 22:47. The six workshops cost 800 gold (fletchers 200, poleturner 100, blacksmiths 400, tanner 100) and 100 wood; with the armory that is 800 gold and 105 wood, as the build calls reported and prompt/game-mechanics.md lists. Each delivered 0.2 to 0.7 a minute in the readings (the two blacksmiths together reached 1.3). At the end the armory held 30 of its 50 places: 10 swords (300), 8 bows (120), 8 spears (80) and 4 leather armour (48), 548 in all, 13.4% of net worth and 2.4 of the 18.9 points.

Against what they cost, the chain lost value. By the table's recipes the output used about 24 wood (8 bows at 2, 8 spears at 1) and 10 iron (230 at the sell price), plus dairy cows for the leather. The town put 1,159 of net worth into the chain (800 gold, 105 wood, 24 wood, 230 iron) and held 548 in return, 611 less, or 2.7 points by the formula; counting inputs alone the workshops added 294 (bows 104, spears 72, swords 70, leather 48). Had the chain not been built and those goods stayed in store, net worth would have been about 4,686 and the score about 21.6, ignoring any effect on population or popularity.

What else it could have done: the cheap producers cost wood, not gold (an iron mine 20, a quarry 20, a woodcutter 3), and the town held at least 52 wood from 4:15 on and 15 to 24 idle peasants in every reading from 16:51. Its two iron mines delivered 2.0 to 2.3 iron a minute together, about 50 a minute at the sell price, while the six workshops' 548 over the last 15 to 16 minutes is about 35 a minute. Sonnet, Opus and Fable ended with 10, 10 and 11 iron mines and 223 to 246 iron; this game, 2 mines and 36 iron.

Beside its other games and the other models

Against the 1.6.3 game, net worth rose 1,395: gold +1,504, weapons +363 (548 against 185) and other goods −472. The move is gold, not weapons; the 1.6.3 game had spent 2,160 gold on bought meat and cheese. The no-arms game built an armory and five fletchers although the rules there count weapons for nothing, and sold 14 bows for 210 gold; it still ended 314 higher (gold +1,294, goods −980) with 14 more people and 23 more popularity points, having built a bread chain and four more woodcutters. The 1.5.0 game ended 2,125 higher with 25 hovels and seven mines and no weapons.

Beside the other models. In this batch's weapons-counted games 18.9 is the lowest (Haiku 23.0, Opus 32.9, Sonnet 36.5, Fable 37.5), and 4,075 is the lowest net worth (Haiku 4,163). Weapons were 13.4% of its net worth, second to Haiku's 19.5% (810 of 4,163); Opus held 6.2%, Sonnet 3.1% and Fable 0.6%. Among the 1.6.3 round's second games it would stand above only GLM's own 15.3, below Kimi (20.9) and Haiku (21.8).

What held it back

• Jobs, not housing. 24 peasants stood idle from 6:15, and the rules say new peasants stop arriving while 24 stand idle. By the table's worker counts its buildings employed 27 of its 50 people. It noted "Idle 24 → new peasants stopped" at 6:17, then placed 9 more hovels from that reply on; housing reached 106 for at most 52 people. The population reached 52 at 24:27 and stayed there until 32:43 while popularity rose from 68 to 84 and idle peasants from 21 to 24. At 28:07 its reasoning was "Let peasants stream in."
• The food opening. One orchard and one dairy farm for 6 minutes, taxes up to high at 5:58 with food at 19 and falling, popularity 100 to 38, gold down to 38, and 600 gold on cheese (worth 300). Cheese in store then stayed at 76 to 81 from 10:36 to 19:00 and food at 98 to 159; the orchards and dairies added at 6:17 and 8:11 carried the town.
• Gold into weapon workshops (above): 800 gold and 105 wood for 548.
• Two mines and two quarries. Iron and stone were 1,297 of net worth; three other games of this batch held 5,100 to 5,700 in iron alone.
• Waiting with gold in hand. The 8 waits took 804 game seconds, 40% of the budget, 703 of them after 14:41. Nothing was built after 28:01; gold stood at 1,265 to 1,969 for the last 5 minutes, with 22 to 24 idle people. Its reasoning never mentions a mill, bakery or wheat farm; it weighed an inn and brewery five times (14:41 to 23:27) and built neither.
• The tax raise at 30:59. Extortionate taxes paid 72 gold a month against 50 and cost 12 popularity a month against 6. Popularity fell from 84 to 49 at 32:43 and 41 at the end, while gold rose by 266 over those 114 s. Over about 4 game months (26.7 s each) that is roughly 2.4 points of popularity for 0.4 of gold by the formula; holding popularity at 84 would have been worth 4.3 points more than 41.

What worked

• Gold. From 75 at 13:28 to 1,969, from taxes (up to 72 a month) and 790 gold of sales (70 stone, 75 apples). Gold is 48% of net worth and counts in full.
• Extra rations with low taxes at 21:56 lifted popularity from 46 to 84 by 30:49 while three orchards (12.7 to 15 apples a minute) and three dairy farms (5.7 to 7 cheese) supplied the town; food fell from 90 to 31, so it went back to full rations at 30:52.
• The chapel (9:58) put religion at +2 to +4 from 12:40 to 28:08.
• Placement and tools. Every one of the 36 placements reported as placed is in the final building count; 3 placements and the armory expansion did not go through, and none of the 59 calls was refused. The retry moved 8 placements 2 to 5 tiles off blocked spots.
• Warnings. Popularity warnings at 8:09, 9:00 and 10:36 each led to a change of rations or taxes.

Market

100 planks and 75 cheese bought for 1,000 gold, and 70 stone and 75 apples sold for 790: 600 net worth lost against the sell price on the purchases (planks 300, cheese 300); selling leaves net worth unchanged. The planks were bought at 2:54 with 1,000 gold in hand, and wood never fell under 52 after 4:15. The five calls took 213 game seconds, 10.7% of the budget (planks 81, cheese 46, stone 23 and 25, apples 39). These are units at the market's fixed prices.

Cost and speed

34 turns, 59 tool calls (16 find_sites, 15 build_structure, 8 set_tax, 8 waits, 5 market_trade, 4 set_rations, 2 expand_storage, 1 inspect_building), 1.45 million tokens and $0.054 billed by OpenRouter (preparation $0.003, play $0.051); the context was never compacted (about 68,000 of its 120,000 budget). The interview cost $0.002 more, with 62,784 of its 64,414 tokens read from the cache. The agent run took 27.4 real minutes, 5.4 of them waiting for the model. All 34 requests read the prompt cache, 97.1% of the input tokens. Seven of the eight waits ran fast-forwarded (717.7 game seconds in 313.6 real seconds).

Of the 2,000 game seconds, the waits took 804, build_structure 648 over 15 calls, market_trade 213, set_tax and set_rations 106, expand_storage 53, inspect_building 9 and the 16 find_sites calls 2. build_structure placed 36 buildings (39 asked): 18.0 game seconds per building placed. The no-arms game took 18.5; the 1.6.3 and 1.5.0 games 10.0 and 3.2. This game and its no-arms game had the host on the game machine, which adds a few seconds per building; its 1.5.0 and 1.6.3 games did not, so the rise mixes the version and the host's location.

The interview

GLM put the gap to the person at gold (1,969 against 18,304) and said the person "found a single high-leverage loop", wheat to flour to bread across 57 bakeries with fear buildings at 140% efficiency, while it "diversified". It named three failures: never finding the bread loop, a population bottleneck from early food crises and heavy taxes, and workshops at 0.3 to 1 a minute that it did not redesign around. Playing again it would look for the margin first and build mills and bakeries, build hovels early with a church and full rations, use fear buildings (it had thought them cosmetic), make fewer and bigger bets, and sell continuously. It found the tools "genuinely good", said warnings caught real problems at least three times, found the production figures slow to read and the 8-action cap a constraint, and asked for a clearer view of market margins. It put its early food crisis at "perhaps 8–10 minutes of compounding".

Against the game: the gold gap, the stored goods (2,106 against 1,209), the 600 gold of cheese, the early crisis, the missing mill, bakery and fear buildings, the warning-driven corrections and the 0.3 a minute all match, and it added workshops at 22:16 and 22:47 after reading those rates. Five statements do not. (1) Popularity was not what held the population late: it was above 60 from 23:17 and 80 or more from 28:12 to about 31 minutes, yet the population stayed at 52 because 24 peasants stood idle; early hovels do not touch that (housing 106, people 50). (2) "Buy wheat 23, sell flour 32, sell bread 8" is not from this run, which never traded those goods; the rules value wheat at 8, flour at 10 and bread at 4 at the sell price, and 8 was the buy price of cheese and apples here. (3) Output was 0.2 to 0.7 a minute per workshop, not up to 1. (4) The 8-action cap is real but never bound: its largest reply held 7 placements. (5) Fear buildings are not free: the person's fear factor cost 4 popularity a month, offset by religion +3 and taxes +1. Its "8–10 minutes" is high by this count: the population was 38 at 9:00 and again at 15:42, and popularity was under 50 from 9:44 to 12:50.

For the harness

• The granary. The rules' Start paragraph tells the model to place the required granary, but this save has one. This game did not call for it (the first stats showed "granaries 1"), so no first call was rejected.
• Three placements were not placed: an orchard at 6:17 and a hovel at 27:26 (no free spot nearby) and a blacksmith's workshop at 18:10 (no fit within 5 tiles; the remedy named a spot 7 tiles away). The armory expansion at 23:02 was refused with "No room around your armory", when it held 5 of 50.
• The reader's watchdog forced one collection after a 20 s stall during the wait that ran through 30:14; the game went on.
• The game saved correctly at the end ("glm 5-3 flash 1-7-3 570474").