You asked
How do I setup the game?
Answered counted as answeredAsked with: Catan: Seafarersbg-325-en-1e
Because the sources provide different setup instructions for various game modes (Variable Setup, Fixed Setup, etc.), the setup depends on the specific version being played: **For Variable Setup:** 1. Set up the frame for a 3- or 4-player game [1]. 2. Place sea hexes as shown on the map [1]. 3. Gather the land hexes and number discs and place them randomly in the four island areas, ensuring forests and pastures do not get low value number discs (2, 3, 11, and 12) [1]. 4. You may also randomize the ports [1]. 5. Shuffle the port tokens and place them on the port locations shown on the map [1]. 6. Place the robber on the hex with the number 12 disc and the pirate on the indicated location [1]. **For Fixed Setup (The Fog Islands):** 1. Set up the game as shown by the appropriate map [2]. 2. Leave white spaces empty [2]. 3. Randomize the facedown hexes from the component list and place them in a facedown stack next to the board [2]. 4. Randomize the facedown number discs from the component list and place them in a facedown stack next to the board [2]. 5. Place the robber and the pirate on the indicated locations [2]. 6. Place starting settlements with roads/ships on one island or two different islands [2]. **For Fixed Setup (The Four Islands):** 1. Set up the game as shown by the appropriate map [3]. 2. Place the robber and the pirate on the indicated locations [3]. 3. Place starting settlements with roads/ships on home islands; remaining islands are unexplored [3]. **For Fixed Setup (Through the Desert):** 1. Set up the game as shown by the appropriate map [4]. 2. Place the robber and the pirate on the indicated locations [4]. 3. Place starting settlements with roads/ships on the main island [4]. **For Fixed Setup (Heading for New Shores):** 1. Set up the game as shown by the appropriate map [5]. 2. Place the robber and the pirate on the indicated locations [5]. 3. Place starting settlements with roads/ships on the main island [5]. **For Variable Setup (Cloth Trade version):** 1. Set up the frame, the four small islands, and sea hexes as shown [6]. 2. Set up the villages by placing the number discs and cloth tokens as shown [6]. 3. Gather the land hexes and number discs for the large islands and place them randomly in the empty hex areas [6]. 4. Randomly place ports on the locations shown [6]. 5. Players choose which hex with a number 12 disc should start the game with the robber [6]. 6. Place the pirate on the indicated location [6]. **For Variable Setup (Main Island/Unexplored Regions):** 1. Set up the frame for a 3- or 4-player game [7]. 2. Place the 3 desert hexes as shown on the map [7]. 3. Gather the main island land hexes, number discs, and ports, then place them randomly in the area shown on the map [7]. 4. Place the sea hexes within the frame [7]. 5. Gather the unexplored regions' hexes and number discs and place them randomly in the remaining spaces within the frame [7]. 6. Place the robber and the pirate as shown [7]. **For General Setup (Additional Options):** 1. Gather the hexes listed and randomly place them face up within the frame [8]. 2. Players may agree to shift the setup of the hexes to change the number or size of islands [8]. 3. Gather the number discs listed and randomly place them on the land hexes [8]. 4. If 2 red number discs end up on adjacent hexes, swap one with an adjacent black number hex so all red number discs are separated [8]. 5. Players take turns placing a random port face up on the board, placing tokens on edges between a land and sea hex or between a land hex and a frame piece [8]. 6. Place the robber and pirate on the indicated locations [8].
Strategy guides → — community tips, kept separate from rulings
🔧 debug — where this ruling came from
- outcome
- ANSWERED — Answered
- corpus profile
- live
- answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only)
- gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
- timings
- search 241 ms · ask 13499 ms · total 13750 ms
- single-flight (PR-5)
- queued 0 ms · generation 13750 ms
- retrieval refs (raw)
- [{"page": 20, "score": 0.031498, "snippet": "Gather the hexes listed and randomly place them face up within the frame. Players may take this opportunity to agree to shift the setup of the hexes if they would like to change the number or size of islands. Gather the number discs listed and randomly place them on the land hexes. If 2 red number d", "headingPath": "SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · WINNING THE GAME · FURTHER SETUP OPTIONS", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 15, "score": 0.030679, "snippet": "Set up the frame, the four small islands, and sea hexes as shown. Set up the villages by placing the number discs and cloth tokens as shown. Gather the land hexes and number discs for the large islands and place them randomly in the empty hex areas. Randomly place ports on the locations shown. Playe", "headingPath": "VARIABLE SETUP · CLOTH TRADE · SHIP MOVEMENT · PIRATE AND ROBBER · WINNING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.030331, "snippet": "The Desert Island is named after both the large desert that splits it and its infamous lack of resources. You will need to be resourceful and find supplies by either exploring the neighboring islands to the east or risk a journey across the desert. Set up the game as shown by the appropriate map. Pl", "headingPath": "THROUGH THE DESERT · FIXED SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · WINNING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 18, "score": 0.029643, "snippet": "After the pirate fleet was defeated, peace returned to the island. The many years of prosperity that followed brought forth a new ambition to create the greatest structure in Catanian history, thus beginning the race to build the first 'Wonder of Catan.' Set up the game as shown by the map. Your sta", "headingPath": "THE WONDERS OF CATAN · FIXED SETUP · BUILDING ON SMALL ISLANDS · BUILDING THE WONDERS OF CATAN · WINNING THE GAME · VARIABLE SETUP · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.029631, "snippet": "A heavy fog separates these islands, making it difficult for their inhabitants to communicate with one another. You'll need a brave seafarer to explore the passage and map out what lies within. Set up the game as shown by the appropriate map. The white spaces are left empty. Randomize the facedown h", "headingPath": "THE FOG ISLANDS · FIXED SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.029287, "snippet": "Set up the frame for a 3- or 4-player game. Then place sea hexes as shown on the map. Gather the land hexes and number discs and place them randomly in the four island areas. Make sure forests and pastures do not get low value number discs (2, 3, 11, and 12). You may also randomize the ports. Shuffl", "headingPath": "VARIABLE SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.029052, "snippet": "Set up the frame for a 3- or 4-player game. Place the 3 desert hexes as shown on the map. Gather the main island land hexes, number discs, and ports. Place them randomly in the area shown on the map. Then place the sea hexes within the frame. Gather the unexplored regions' hexes and number discs. Pl", "headingPath": "VARIABLE SETUP · MAIN ISLAND · UNEXPLORED REGIONS", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 12, "score": 0.02885, "snippet": "Seafaring can be very dangerous, and not all expeditions make it back. Such was the case for the forgotten tribe. Fortunately, after years of searching, you finally found them and learned that they are alive and well. Many of them are happy to stay, but others want to return home and have asked for ", "headingPath": "THE FORGOTTEN TRIBE · FIXED SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · VP TOKENS · DEVELOPMENT CARDS · PORTS · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}]
- citations (raw)
- [{"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "VARIABLE SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "THE FOG ISLANDS · FIXED SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "THE FOUR ISLANDS · FIXED SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 10, "quote": null, "headingPath": "THROUGH THE DESERT · FIXED SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · WINNING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 15, "quote": null, "headingPath": "VARIABLE SETUP · CLOTH TRADE · SHIP MOVEMENT · PIRATE AND ROBBER · WINNING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 11, "quote": null, "headingPath": "VARIABLE SETUP · MAIN ISLAND · UNEXPLORED REGIONS", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}, {"page": 20, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · WINNING THE GAME · FURTHER SETUP OPTIONS", "sharpsignalDocId": 216}]
- boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
-
no registered errata card matched this query; no base-rulebook boost — this ask EXCLUDED the base book, so its rulebook was never resolved and no id for it went on the wire (boosting it would have put that book back into a scope the reader took it out of); rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
no base-rulebook boost — this ask EXCLUDED the base book, so its rulebook was never resolved and no id for it went on the wire (boosting it would have put that book back into a scope the reader took it out of)
- layering — route
- not layered — one pooled read, because one book was in scope and there is nothing to split
- answered-before recall
-
this ruling was answered, so past rulings were not offered
similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)
- debug row retained until
- Nov 3, 2026 20:57
retrieval — what the search arm returned
score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. This ruling ran the TWO-ARM fuse (full-text + vector), whose arithmetic ceiling is 0.03279 — both arms ranking the same chunk #1 (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60). Measured healthy band on this fuse: 0.016–0.033. A chunk only one arm ranked highly lands near 0.016 (that one arm's #1 vote), so 0.03 here is an excellent hit, not a 3% match.
per-arm ranks (the rank each search arm gave a chunk): NOT DISCLOSED by the gateway. Fusion happens gateway-side and only the FUSED score crosses the wire, so rulesage cannot show them without a gateway change. The rank column below is the FUSED rank (position in the returned list), which is real.
token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.
| fused rank | document | heading | page | fused RRF score | snippet chars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · WINNING THE GAME · FURTHER SETUP OPTIONS | p.20 | 0.031498 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033) | 300 |
| #2 | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | VARIABLE SETUP · CLOTH TRADE · SHIP MOVEMENT · PIRATE AND ROBBER · WINNING THE GAME | p.15 | 0.030679 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033) | 300 |
| #3 | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | THROUGH THE DESERT · FIXED SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · WINNING THE GAME | p.10 | 0.030331 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033) | 300 |
| #4 | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | THE WONDERS OF CATAN · FIXED SETUP · BUILDING ON SMALL ISLANDS · BUILDING THE WONDERS OF CATAN · WINNING THE GAME · VARIABLE SETUP · … | p.18 | 0.029643 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033) | 300 |
| #5 | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | THE FOG ISLANDS · FIXED SETUP | p.8 | 0.029631 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033) | 300 |
| #6 | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | VARIABLE SETUP | p.7 | 0.029287 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033) | 300 |
| #7 | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | VARIABLE SETUP · MAIN ISLAND · UNEXPLORED REGIONS | p.11 | 0.029052 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033) | 300 |
| #8 | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | THE FORGOTTEN TRIBE · FIXED SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · VP TOKENS · DEVELOPMENT CARDS · PORTS · … | p.12 | 0.02885 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033) | 300 |
chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited
token count per chunk: NOT DISCLOSED — chunk token counts are not reported on the ask path. The character counts below are of the bounded snippet/quote rulesage actually received — a real measurement of what we hold, never an estimate of the chunk.
| # | document | heading | page | quote chars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1] | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | VARIABLE SETUP | p.7 | no quote on the wire |
| [2] | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | THE FOG ISLANDS · FIXED SETUP | p.8 | no quote on the wire |
| [3] | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | THE FOUR ISLANDS · FIXED SETUP | p.6 | no quote on the wire |
| [4] | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | THROUGH THE DESERT · FIXED SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · WINNING THE GAME | p.10 | no quote on the wire |
| [5] | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | p.4 | no quote on the wire | |
| [6] | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | VARIABLE SETUP · CLOTH TRADE · SHIP MOVEMENT · PIRATE AND ROBBER · WINNING THE GAME | p.15 | no quote on the wire |
| [7] | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | VARIABLE SETUP · MAIN ISLAND · UNEXPLORED REGIONS | p.11 | no quote on the wire |
| [8] | RULEBOOK Catan: Seafarers — Rulebook (corpus doc 216) | SETUP · ADDITIONAL RULES · WINNING THE GAME · FURTHER SETUP OPTIONS | p.20 | no quote on the wire |
generation — timing and the path taken
- timing split
- retrieval 241 ms · first delta 7423 ms · total 13750 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
- full breakdown
- queued 0 ms · retrieval 241 ms · ask 13499 ms · gateway work 13750 ms · total 13750 ms
- tokens in (the prompt the answerer read)
- 2521
- tokens out (what the answerer generated)
- 930
- tok/sec
- 148.7 tok/sec — 930 output tokens in 6.254 s of generation
- live seat (read from the running child)
- answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 59s ago)
- stream path
- streamed — the gateway pushed at least one accumulated draft
- watchdog
- first-token watchdog: 30s per arming window (rulesage.table.first-token-watchdog-seconds), re-armed once by the passages frame — so the worst case before a reader falls back to polling is 60s. Whether it actually fired is a BROWSER-side decision that never reaches the server, so it is not recorded here. The stream path above is the server's half of that story: whether a delta was emitted at all.
- num_ctx · think posture
- both are the CHILD's settings, not rulesage's, and no ask reply carries them — an answer never states which context window or think posture produced it. The live-seat line above reads them from the running child instead, where the gateway can answer for itself; it describes the child NOW, not this ask.
disposition
- outcome
- ANSWERED — Answered
- abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered)
- answered — no abstain rationale applies
setup-shape — why the checklist band did or didn't render
- decision
- SERVED — setup-shaped and this game's approved setup checklist is offered above
- pattern that matched
- SETUP — "setup" / "set up"
- matched words (in the normalized question)
-
setup
errata registry — what the gate above had to match against
this game registers NO errata cards (edition 1), so "no registered errata card matched" above could never have matched one
Errata scope: the gate above matched this ruling's own edition only. When an ask also reads an expansion, that expansion's own registered errata cards stay outside the match — a stated phase-1 limitation, not a failed lookup.