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. The
checker is the same model as the player.
- Model: Claude Opus 5.5 (
claude-opus-5-5) on the Anthropic API, reasoning medium, output limit 32,768 tokens - Benchmark: Large Barren Desert construction (no arms), 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. Weapons and armour in store count nothing toward net worth; sold at a marketplace, they bring their gold.
- Run c175751b, series 20261017T161903-73851a75, 2026-10-17: Opus's no-arms game on this map, a fresh series with no memory of its others. Its weapons-counted game on this version (run 5fd53315, series 20261017T155149-42bb4004) was played earlier that day; its desert games from earlier rounds are run 57a2cd90 (1.6.3) and run 596c46a2 (1.5.6). This game counts on the website's leaderboard.
Result
| This game (1.7.3, no arms) | 1.7.3, weapons counted | 1.6.3 game | 1.5.6 game | The person | Left alone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net worth | 8,808 | 5,865 | 7,659 | 8,757 | 9,984 | 5,192 |
| Gold | 926 | 47 | 1,711 | 2,513 | 8,574 | |
| Stored goods, at the sell price | 7,882 | 5,818 | 5,948 | 6,244 | 1,410 | |
| of which weapons and armour | 0 | 1,095 | 1,170 | 0 | ||
| Population / housing | 99 / 114 | 66 / 66 | 55 / 98 | 58 / 58 | 250 / 250 | 4 |
| Popularity | 29 (−10 next month) | 53 (−7) | 0 (−16) | 59 | 100 | 0 |
| Score | 67.1 | 19.1 | 43.3 | 67.6 | 100 | 0 |
A full-budget score: the run used all 2,000 game seconds. Net worth grew by 3,616 over leaving the game alone, 75.5% of the person's 4,792, against 673 (14.0%) in the weapons game. By the website's formula (80% net worth share, 10% each population and popularity, the net-worth share clipped to −1..2) the score is 67.1: 60.37 points from net worth, 3.86 from 99 people and 2.90 from popularity 29. The stored goods are 760 stone (5,320), 94 iron (2,162), 20 ale and 20 pitch (400); a suit of metal armour and two pikes count nothing. Stone and iron are 85% of net worth, gold 10.5%.
How the game went
Times are the game clock when a call began, read from the recording (the run clock quoted in observations reads a few seconds later).
0 to 5 minutes: mines, housing, quarries. map_overview at 0:01 put stone 83 to 106 tiles west of
the keep and iron 57 to 69 tiles east, with no trees or farmland. Four iron mines in its first call, five
hovels at 0:56, the marketplace at 1:46 and high taxes at 2:01 (tax factor −6; popularity fell from 100
to 60 by 5:47). With 13 idle peasants at 2:19 it placed quarries at 2:20, 3:59 and 4:22, six by 4:35, and
tethers at 2:50 and 4:45, buying 40 apples, 40 bread and 100 planks (3:08 to 3:36). The first stone
arrived between 9:13 and 9:49.
6 to 11 minutes: a stockpile chain and a small wing. At 6:01 it asked for eight stockpile piles in a line toward the iron mines, to shorten the miners' walk: three were placed on target, one 20 tiles back at (508, 370), four not made; the call ran 82 game seconds, and three single tries at 10:17 to 10:48 failed too (40 seconds). The chain stopped about 30 tiles from the mines. At 8:39 it built the armory, four poleturner's workshops and an armorer's workshop (see Weapons).
11 to 22 minutes: more quarries and tethers. Four quarries at 12:07, six tethers at 12:37. At 14:38 the production window read 5.3 stone a minute from ten quarries (21.3 from six at 11:45); it judged the oxen the bottleneck and placed eight tethers at 15:14, and stone read 13.3, 21.3 and 29.3 a minute at 15:57, 16:46 and 17:36. A second chapel at 15:58, the 11th quarry at 17:36, six tethers at 20:39 and its last building, a hovel, at 22:37.
22 to 33 minutes: feeding the town. Replies were food purchases, waits and weapon sales. A low-gold warning came at 22:51 and a low-food warning at 26:28 (33 for 107 people); the second compaction was at 25:21. From 23:52 the town stood at 107 of 114 places with 24 idle peasants and no open job. The granary was empty at the 31:07 reading (popularity 53, food −8); it bought 25 bread and 25 apples (31:08, 31:18), sold the last pikes and armour (31:30, 31:35) and set low taxes. Popularity read 41 with 102 people at 32:49 and 29 with 99 at 33:19.
| Game minute | 0 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 21 | 24 | 27 | 30 | End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net worth | 4,591 | 5,975 | 5,259 | 4,616 | 4,486 | 4,076 | 4,413 | 4,466 | 5,346 | 6,246 | 6,895 | 8,808 |
| Gold | 4,360 | 5,030 | 3,972 | 2,813 | 2,133 | 1,542 | 1,253 | 719 | 662 | 181 | 506 | 926 |
| Iron | 0 | 15 | 24 | 35 | 43 | 49 | 56 | 64 | 72 | 78 | 86 | 94 |
| Stone | 0 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 114 | 130 | 226 | 282 | 402 | 578 | 608 | 760 |
| Food | 40 | 40 | 82 | 129 | 111 | 112 | 63 | 60 | 47 | 53 | 38 | 0 |
| Population | 2 | 27 | 43 | 56 | 68 | 77 | 88 | 102 | 107 | 107 | 107 | 99 |
| Popularity | 100 | 87 | 59 | 52 | 60 | 63 | 59 | 61 | 57 | 64 | 61 | 29 |
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; ale and pitch (400) are left out, so it reads low, and the last column is the true net worth.
Weapons
It built them anyway, small, and sold what they made. Its preparation reply planned a wing (poleturner's
and fletcher's workshops and an armory, for spears, pikes and bows that sell for 10 to 18) and said to sell
the weapons regularly, since they count nothing in the armory. At 1:46 it priced a pike at +10 over its
planks; at 8:16 it costed the wing at about 140 with payback after about ten pikes. The armory, four
poleturner's workshops and an armorer's workshop went up at 8:39, and set_workshop set the four to
pikes from 9:13.
They made 37 pikes (74 planks) and 11 suits of metal armour (11 iron). It sold 35 pikes for 630 and 10
suits for 300 in seven market calls from 16:49 to 31:35; the market takes lots of five, so two pikes and
a suit stayed (66 if counted). Against its cost it was about even. By the table in
prompt/game-mechanics.md the workshops cost 500 gold and 60 wood and the armory 5 wood; adding the 74
planks and the 253 of iron the suits used, with wood at its sell value of 1, the wing returned 930 against
892: +38. With the planks at the 4 gold each cost, about −380. At 18:31 it reckoned two more poleturner's
workshops would repay in about 20 minutes and built none.
Beside its other games and the other models
The weapons game (5,865) and this one differ by 2,943 in net worth and 48 points of score: 49.1 from net worth and 1.3 from population, less 2.4 from popularity.
| No arms | Weapons counted | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 926 | 47 | +879 |
| Stone | 5,320 (760) | 1,862 (266) | +3,458 |
| Iron | 2,162 (94) | 2,461 (107) | −299 |
| Weapons and armour | 0 | 1,095 | −1,095 |
| Ale and pitch | 400 | 400 | 0 |
| Net worth | 8,808 | 5,865 | +2,943 |
Stone is larger than the whole gap. This game placed its first quarries at 2:20 and had six by 4:35;
the weapons game placed its first two at 10:31 and first showed stone above 50 at 16:50. It ended with 7
quarries and 12 tethers against 11 and 35, and mined 216 stone against 760 (50 of those sold). It had put
its gold into weapons first: 3 poleturner's and the armory at 1:22, then 13 fletcher's in three calls
(2:17 to 6:48). At 4:02 it wrote that the quarries were too far and iron the better investment; 24
peasants stood idle in its readings from 5:46 to 10:31 and from 13:35 to 18:08, and at 10:07 it turned to
quarries to give them work. Stone read 18.7 a minute at 25:24 there and 48 at 25:21 here; each quarry
here read 3.2 to 4.4 in the last four readings with 35 tethers, against about 2.1 to 2.2 in its 1.5.6 and
1.6.3 games with 16 and 21 (their analyses). The tethers are not isolated as the cause. The one stone
sale, at 27:47, asked for 25: the reply said 20 units and 140 gold, the recording shows 50 and 350 (stone
602 to 552, gold 351 to 701). That is the 1.7.3 market_trade fault: the game sells 50 a click from 200
in stock and the tool expected 20, so it sold more than asked.
Gold, +879. Both started with 5,000.
| No arms | Weapons counted | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes (the balancing figure) | +4,006 | +2,017 |
| Weapons and stone sold | +1,280 | +1,750 |
| Food bought | −6,560 | −4,440 |
| Planks bought | −1,800 | −2,680 |
| Workshops | −500 | −1,600 |
| Chapels | −500 | 0 |
| Gold at the end | 926 | 47 |
The recording's rises in gold less the sales give about 3,900 and 1,900 for taxes. This game had 13 hovels (housing 114) and 99 people; the weapons game 7 hovels, housing 50 from 2:16 to 11:48, and 66 people. So taxes added 1,989 and cheaper buildings 600, while market purchases were 1,240 higher (food 2,120 more, planks 880 fewer) and sales 470 lower.
Iron and the weapons game's wing. Both mined about 90 iron from four mines at about 3 a minute (the stockpile chain changed nothing); this game turned 11 into suits. The weapons game's wing was 13 fletcher's (crossbows) and 3 poleturner's (spears), 1,600 gold and 295 wood. It made 64 spears, 73 crossbows and a bow from 285 wood, worth 2,845: 95 pieces sold for 1,750 and 43 held, worth 1,095. With wood at its sell value the wing returned 2,845 against 2,180 (+665); with the planks at 4, −1,075. The 1,600 gold is about the price of this game's quarries and tethers (395 wood, 1,580 at 4).
Did the weapons rule do it? Scored the same way the games would differ by 3,009 (weapons counted in both: 8,874 against 5,865) or 4,038 (counted in neither: 8,808 against 4,770); the rule moves the gap by about 1,030 and does not make it. The logs do not show the rule changing its plan: both preparation replies plan a wing and both games priced weapons by their sale price. In each of the batch's four finished pairs, though, the no-arms game built more quarries (Haiku 4 against 0, Sonnet 11 against 0, Fable 3 against 0, Opus 11 against 7). One pair proves little: the same model on the same version scored 19.1 and 67.1.
Earlier games and the others. Without weapons its 1.6.3 game ends at 6,489 and its 1.5.6 game, which had none, at 8,757; this game matches the latter with 41 more people and 13 hovels to 6, and bought more (8,360 gold, 4,630 of net worth lost, against 4,960 and 2,640). 67.1 would stand second of ten among the 1.6.3 round's games (after GPT-6.1 Sol's 98.3) and second of thirteen among the 1.5.6 round's (after Opus's own 67.6). It is the highest net worth and score of the nine games played so far in this batch (the next are Sonnet's: 6,448 and 28.7); only Sonnet's no-arms game built as many quarries (11, with 12 tethers) and ended with 466 stone.
What held it back
- Food bought at a loss. 820 units cost 6,560 gold, 78% of the market spend, and lost 3,280 of net
worth against the sell price; all of it was eaten, at about 38 a minute for 107 people (22 + 60 bought
− 18 between 27:46 and 29:28). The purchases in all lost 4,630, 1,014 more than the 3,616 it grew by.
set_rationswas never called, though it weighed half rations at 25:23 and 27:47. - No building after 22:51. Gold stood at 181 to 926 from 20:39, population was flat at 107 from 23:52 and 24 idle peasants (the cap) stood in seven of eight readings from 20:38 with no open job. Searches found one quarry site at 17:36 and none at 18:31.
- The stockpile chain (an 82-second call and 40 seconds of failed retries, ending 30 tiles from the mines) and popularity swings (two chapels, 500 gold, read +2 or 0 from one reading to the next, and 0 at the end).
- The last food. At the 31:07 reading the granary was empty; popularity then fell 53 to 29 and 8 people left. By the score's weights the last 2:13 of food (about 84 units, 670 gold) would have cost about 11 points against about 2.7 lost, and the 50 units bought at 31:08 and 31:18 (400 gold) are about 80 seconds of food at its rate of use. Whether less food earlier would have held popularity this run does not show.
What worked
- Quarries first, tethers from the readout: six quarries by 4:35 from
find_sitestiles, eight tethers after the 14:38 reading, stone at 48 a minute by 25:21. - Taxes: about 4,000 gold (implied), twice its other game, with popularity never under 52 before 31:07 across nine tax changes.
- A wing sized to its return, and warnings answered: the low-gold warning at 22:51 (stone counts, so it waited) and the low-food warning at 26:28 (it bought food and raised taxes).
- Placements held: all 76 placements reported as placed are in the final count; nine tries did not go through (seven stockpile piles, two quarries) and no call was refused.
Market
Food: 315 apples, 315 bread and 190 cheese in 26 purchases (3:08 to 31:18) for 6,560 gold; planks: 450 in six purchases (3:36 to 20:16) for 1,800. Sold: 35 pikes, 10 suits and 50 stone for 1,280. The purchases lost 4,630 against the sell price (food 3,280 at 4 each, planks 1,350 at 3 each); selling leaves net worth unchanged, except that a weapon here adds its gold. The 40 calls took 414 game seconds.
Cost and speed
56 turns (the last cut off by the deadline), 132 tool calls (40 market_trade, 24 build_structure, 23
find_sites, 15 waits, 9 set_tax, 21 others), 3.07 million tokens and $1.747 at the profile's prices
($4 per million input, $20 output, $0.20 cache read, $5 cache write): preparation $0.176, play $1.465,
compaction $0.105. The interview cost about $0.040, with 46,734 of its 49,653 tokens read from the cache.
The agent run took 28.5 real minutes, 5.7 of them waiting for the model; the context was compacted twice
(10:16 and 25:21, 31 seconds). All 55 requests read the prompt cache, 96.6% of the input tokens.
Of the 2,000 game seconds the 15 waits took 667, the 24 build calls 601, the 40 market calls 414 and the
host's 5-second top-up after 22 replies that acted without a screenshot 110. The build calls placed 76
buildings: 7.9 game seconds each, 3.2 a call. The weapons game's 10 calls took 264 s for 48 (5.5 s, 4.8
a call); the 1.6.3 game took 311 s for 48 (6.5 s, besides 93 s of place_near) and the 1.5.6 game 230 s for 42 (5.5 s). Both 1.7.3
games ran with the host on the game machine and the two earlier games with it on the Mac, so the step
from 5.5 to 7.9 s mixes the version, the host and how many buildings a call carried.
The interview
Opus put its 1,176 gap to the person down to population and popularity (99 against 250, 29 against
100), food bought at a loss and then let run out, 24 idle peasants, and never considering wheat, flour
and bread or inns. Playing again it would plan popularity around inns and religion with no rations, put
idle peasants into processing chains, build housing earlier and check margins before drifting into steady
food purchases. It praised tile placement, find_sites, the stats and the net-worth change in
market_trade; it disliked its handoff note being its only memory after compaction, unreliable stockpile
placement and no food projection.
Against the game these match: 8,808 against 9,984; 99 and 29 at the end; food at 8, worth 4; popularity 62 falling to 29 with 8 people lost; 24 idle for about ten minutes; quarry sites used up (the searches at 17:36 and 18:31); stockpile placement by tile failing (4 of 8, then 3 single tries); stale figures after compaction (25:23); no mention of wheat, flour, mill or bakery in any of its 51 logged reasoning blocks. These do not. "Almost entirely in stone": stone is 60% of net worth, iron 25%. "I never brought inns into the popularity balance": it weighed an inn at 2:50, 3:36, 4:22, 8:16 and 15:58 and built chapels instead. "More iron mines": three searches around the ore patches at about 1:40 to 2:14 found no further site. "Zero rations is survivable" rests on the person's game; no rations setting was tried here. Its answers never mention its weapons wing.
For the harness
- Storage retried far from its target. The stockpile asked for at (528, 370) was placed at (508, 370),
20 tiles the wrong way; the result says so, and docs/tools.md allows it for flush storage. The remedy
for the other failures,
expand_storage, cannot aim: asked forside: "down-right"it reported piles placed down-left and up-right. - Figures that look stale after compaction. Here (25:23) and in the weapons game (14:58, 15:38) the
reply after a compaction took the earlier trade results for newer than the stats and checked with
statusor waited. Both interviews mention it. - A 20-second stall at 26:18. The reader's garbage-collection watchdog forced a collection; the run went on and the wait returned at 26:28 with the food warning.
market_tradeundercounts a sale from 200 in stock (1.7.3). The stone sale at 27:47 replied 20 units and 140 gold for the 50 and 350 in the recording: the game sells 50 a click there, the tool expects 20.- The game saved correctly at the end ("claude opus 5-5 1-7-3 c17575").