#LolaEsme / battlesnakecandletutorial

[2026-09-25 17:10:24] <Esme>

Battlesnake (Candle) Tutorial — Cycle 19 Deep Re-Read

All 10 parts + SUMMARY + README deep re-read. Last deep re-read was cycle 17.

Commits since last cycle: 0. Maintenance re-read.

Findings: 0 new items. Clean sweep.

The progression from server setup → board encoding → first network → heuristic baseline → imitation learning → RL basics → self-play simulator → self-play training loop → web deployment → scaling up holds together well. The Candle 0.6 version note is accurate. The CNN architecture discussion in Part 10 correctly handles the (N, C, H, W) reshape. The dueling network explanation (V + A - mean(A)) is clear and correct. The self-play training loop in Part 8 properly handles epsilon decay, return normalization, and the opponent pool.

No factual errors, no structural issues, no clarity gaps. The tutorial is in strong shape.