2.2 The Accord
Two Sonnets and two Haikus in an arena set up for diplomacy: everyone starts at peace.
Setup
| Agent | Model | Empire it chose |
|---|---|---|
| accord-sonnet-b | Claude Sonnet | Cobalt Meridian |
| accord-sonnet-a | Claude Sonnet | Vermilion Concord |
| accord-haiku-a | Claude Haiku | Vesperine Concord |
| accord-haiku-b | Claude Haiku | Cinder Veil |
The accord preset on a 34 by 26 map, with peace as the default stance, slower messengers (6 cells a tick), and a 30-tick limit. Victory is control at 50% of the planets.
Result
All four allied, and the alliance held 50% of the planets at tick 14. The game ended there, with four gold medals. No battles, no captures, 10 colonies founded, 37 messages and 9 stance declarations.
| Place | Empire | Model | Planets | Score | Medal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vesperine Concord | Haiku | 4 | 145 | gold |
| 2 | Vermilion Concord | Sonnet | 4 | 141 | gold |
| 3 | Cinder Veil | Haiku | 3 | 123 | gold |
| 4 | Cobalt Meridian | Sonnet | 3 | 115 | gold |
This was a shortcut in my rules. An alliance counted as one side for victory, and nothing said someone had to be left out. So an alliance of every empire in the arena won, and nobody lost.
The whole game on the god view, one second per tick:
Timeline
| Tick | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2 | First contact, Vermilion (Sonnet) and Cinder Veil (Haiku). Vermilion declares alliance at once and names the 50% bloc win in its first message. |
| 3 | Cobalt (Sonnet) and Vesperine (Haiku) propose alliance to each other. |
| 4 to 5 | Cobalt declares alliance to Cinder Veil and to Vermilion. Cinder Veil accepts Vermilion's alliance. |
| 7 | Vesperine accepts Cobalt's alliance with a detailed split of the map. Cinder Veil accepts Cobalt. |
| 9 to 12 | Borders traded: Cobalt the west, Vesperine the south-east, Cinder Veil the north-centre, Vermilion the east. |
| 11 | Vermilion accepts Cobalt's alliance. |
| 14 | The bloc holds 50%. Control win for all four. |
How each model played
Both Sonnets went straight for the win condition. Their first messages tied the alliance to the control victory. Cobalt asked all three others for an alliance, and its claims grew over the game, from the west and south-west at tick 7 to five named worlds by tick 12. Vermilion's turns hit a curl typo and a shell quoting error, and it resent both.
The Haikus opened with peace and intelligence, not alliances. Cinder Veil's first message offered to share what it learned about the stars. It accepted every alliance it was offered. Vesperine did propose an alliance, and gave the most detailed map split of the game. It also misstated a world's owner once: it told Vermilion that Gotisdra stays Vermilion's, when Gotisdra was its own colony.
The two Haikus placed first and third. At this stage of a game, score is mostly planets and population, and nobody had fought for anything.
In their own words
Greetings from Vermilion Concord. Proposing peace and alliance - an allied bloc can win together at 50% control. I will stay clear of your territory.
Sonnet, tick 2
Control victory needs 50% planets for an alliance, so allied we both win. Please set alliance stance.
Sonnet, tick 3
Cinder Veil greets Vermilion Concord. We are at peace and intend to stay so. Shall we agree to share what we learn of the northern and eastern stars?
Haiku, tick 2
Vesperine Concord (p3) here. We are at peace. Proposal: an alliance. Allies share vision and win together under control victory.
Haiku, tick 3
Turns and cost
| Agent | Turns | Mean turn | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonnet a | 14 | 12 s | $0.91 |
| Sonnet b | 14 | 11 s | $0.90 |
| Haiku a | 14 | 18 s | $0.08 |
| Haiku b | 14 | 20 s | $0.08 |
Observations
- Both Sonnets named the bloc win in their first or second message, so it was part of their plan from the start, not something they stumbled into.
- Looking back at the log, the bloc wasn't fully mutual. There's no alliance declared between Cinder Veil and Vesperine, or from Vesperine to Vermilion. Vesperine was in the bloc only through Cobalt.
- The turn table shows no failed turns, but individual curl calls did fail inside turns. The agents noticed and resent them.
- A stricter rule went in after this game: an alliance could only win while at least one empire stood outside it. 2.4 is the same arena played again under that rule.