You asked
How do I set up the game?
Answered counted as answeredAsked with: On Marsbg-184267-en-1e
To set up the game, follow these steps: 1. Place the game board in the middle of the table [1]. 2. Shuffle the Discovery tiles and place them face down in a stack beside the board [1]. 3. Turn the top 2 tiles face up and place them on the Exploration space [1]. 4. Place 3 of each of the following in the Warehouse spaces, one per space: Crystals, Batteries, Water, Plants, and Oxygen (in a 2-player game, place only 2 of each) [1]. 5. Take the Tech tiles and set aside those that depict a Shelter (one in each player color) [1]. 6. Separate the remaining Tech tiles into two sets based on the color on the back [1]. 7. Shuffle one set and place them at random face up on each of the spaces in the Tech Grid [1]. 8. Shuffle the 8 remaining Tech tiles (not including the Shelters) and place them face down in two stacks next to the Tech Grid (in a 2-player game, use only 1 set of tiles and remove the 2nd set from the game) [1]. 9. Separate the Blueprint cards into two decks based on their backs: Level 1 and Level 3 [1]. 10. Shuffle each deck separately and place them face down near the board with the Level 1 cards stacked on top of the Level 3 cards [1]. 11. Take the top 6 cards from the deck and place them face up in a display along the side of the board [1]. 12. Place the Scientist display next to the main board [1]. 13. Place the 6 Scientist cards in the spaces on the board in the following order from left to right: Geologist, R&D Engineer, Hydrologist, Biochemist, Geochemist, and Systems Engineer, placing them on the top part of each space to cover the Crystal icon while leaving the bottom section (showing the cost) visible [1]. 14. Place each Scientist marker on its matching card [1]. 15. Place the Earth Contract cards face down in a deck on the Scientist display without shuffling them [1]. 16. Take the starting Mine (with an S on the back) and place it in the indicated space in the center of the board [2]. 17. Take the remaining starting Buildings (with an S on the back) and place them at random on the indicated hexes of the board, ensuring the orientation is the same (notch facing the bottom of the board) [2]. 18. Separate the remaining Buildings by type into stacks, shuffle each stack separately, and place them with the building image face down on the corresponding spaces [2]. 19. Separate Research tiles by type (color and letter) and place them on the indicated hexes of the map, keeping all of one type together in the same corner [2]. 20. Divide Mission cards into two decks (Short and Long), shuffle each separately, and choose 2 Short and 1 Long (for a short game) or 1 Short and 2 Long (for a long game) [2]. 21. Place the chosen Mission cards face up on the indicated spaces on the board [2]. 22. For each Mission, place the Mission marker for that space near the action relating to the Mission card [2]. 23. For each Mission card, place a Mission tracker cube near the Mission card on the appropriate space according to the number of players [2]. 24. Place the Remaining Missions marker on space 3 of the Missions track [2]. 25. Place all Crystals and Resources next to the board as a general supply [2]. 26. Place the Colony level marker on the left side of the second row [2]. 27. Place the LSS Track markers on the appropriate spaces of the bottom row [2]. 28. Shuffle the LSS Reward tiles and place 4 at random face up on the top spaces [2]. 29. For player setup, each player chooses a color and takes: 1 Player board, 1 Player marker, 1 OP marker (placed on the 0 space of the OP track), 1 Resource of each of the 5 types in their Storage (A), 1 Crystal in the Depot (E), 1 Shelter Tech tile (from the set-aside) in the middle space of the 2nd column of their Laboratory (B), 5 Ships in the top 5 Depot spaces, 5 Shelter Buildings (4 on the right side of the Player board and 1 building-side up in a starting position on the main board), 4 Bots (3 beside the Player board and 1 on their Shelter on the main board), 8 Advanced Building markers beside the Player board, 1
🔧 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 291 ms · ask 16206 ms · total 30569 ms
- single-flight (PR-5)
- queued 14060 ms · generation 16509 ms
- retrieval refs (raw)
- [{"page": 4, "score": 0.048652, "snippet": "Place the game board in the middle of the table. The board is divided into two sections. The left side of the board represents the Mars Space Station in orbit above Mars [Orbit] . The rest of the board represents the Colony on the planet's surface [Colony] . Shuffle the Discovery tiles and place the", "headingPath": "GAME SETUP · ORBIT SIDE · COLONY SIDE", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}, {"page": 22, "score": 0.046898, "snippet": "In the solo game, you will be competing directly with one opponent: Lacerda. To win the game, you must fulfill all the requirements of any one of the goals shown on the following page. Play with the general game rules for 2 players with the following exceptions: Choose a color for yourself and anoth", "headingPath": "SOLO GAME · SETUP · COLONIZATION PHASE · SHUTTLE PHASE", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}, {"page": 24, "score": 0.046875, "snippet": "During setup, place only 2 Crystals and 2 of each Resource in the Warehouse. During setup, return the 8 remaining tech tiles to the box. Check page 6 for the starting layout of Shelters. The additional cost to place a Colonist on an Action slot is equal to the number of Colonists already on Action s", "headingPath": "2-PLAYER GAME · SPACE ODDITY VARIANT · CREDITS", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.046452, "snippet": "The player who has seen the film 'The Martian' the most times is the first player. In clockwise order, starting with the first player, each player places their Player marker in any empty Turn Order space (1-8) and may immediately receive the benefit of that space (see page 2 of the Reference book). ", "headingPath": "PLAYER SETUP · Minerals · IMPORTANT TERMS · Example of placing the Shuttle:", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}, {"page": 19, "score": 0.045455, "snippet": "During Setup, 3 Mission cards are placed on the board. Each Mission card depicts an objective for the colony. If you contribute to that objective, gain the Crystals shown on the card for each contribution and place them below your Depot. Also, move the Mission tracker cube down 1 space. Once the req", "headingPath": "MISSIONS · PRIVATE GOALS", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "Each player chooses a color and takes the following: 1 Player board. 1 Player marker. 1 OP marker, placed on the 0 space of the OP track. 1 Resource of each of the 5 types, placed on the matching spaces of your Storage ( A ). 1 Crystal, placed in the Depot ( E ). 1 Shelter Tech tile (set-aside earli", "headingPath": "PLAYER SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Then, flip the tile face up, ensuring the correct orientation is maintained. Gain a number o f Resources matching the type of Building equal to the new size of the Complex (i.e. the number of contiguous hexes consisting of tiles matching the tile you just placed). If the Building you placed is not a", "headingPath": "CONSTRUCT A BUILDING:", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}, {"page": 24, "score": 0.029469, "snippet": "When playing for the first time, it is recommended to use the 3 Mission cards shown below, the First Colonist tiles, and the First Colonist cards. Use the following Mission cards: The Mission markers should be placed on the following actions: Obtain a Blueprint, Hire a Scientist, and Control Center.", "headingPath": "FIRST COLONISTS VARIANT", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}]
- citations (raw)
- [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAME SETUP · ORBIT SIDE · COLONY SIDE", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "COLONY SIDE · LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM (LSS)", "sharpsignalDocId": 268}]
- boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
-
no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 268 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 268 boosted
- 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 6, 2026 14:08
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 THREE-ARM fuse (full-text + vector + the doc-priority boost arm, which carried the base rulebook and/or the errata corrections this query matched), whose arithmetic ceiling is 0.04918 — all three arms ranking the same chunk #1 (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60). The measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 was measured on TWO-arm asks and does not bound this one: its high end is the two-arm ceiling, and a third arm has room above it. 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 On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | GAME SETUP · ORBIT SIDE · COLONY SIDE | p.4 | 0.048652 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) | 300 |
| #2 | RULEBOOK On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | SOLO GAME · SETUP · COLONIZATION PHASE · SHUTTLE PHASE | p.22 | 0.046898 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) | 300 |
| #3 | RULEBOOK On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | 2-PLAYER GAME · SPACE ODDITY VARIANT · CREDITS | p.24 | 0.046875 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) | 300 |
| #4 | RULEBOOK On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | PLAYER SETUP · Minerals · IMPORTANT TERMS · Example of placing the Shuttle: | p.7 | 0.046452 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) | 300 |
| #5 | RULEBOOK On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | MISSIONS · PRIVATE GOALS | p.19 | 0.045455 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) | 300 |
| #6 | RULEBOOK On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | PLAYER SETUP | p.6 | 0.032787 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) | 300 |
| #7 | RULEBOOK On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | CONSTRUCT A BUILDING: | p.13 | 0.029851 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) | 300 |
| #8 | RULEBOOK On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | FIRST COLONISTS VARIANT | p.24 | 0.029469 (healthy, below this ruling's 3-arm ceiling 0.04918 (the measured band 0.016–0.033 was taken on two-arm asks and does not bound a 3-arm one)) | 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 On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | GAME SETUP · ORBIT SIDE · COLONY SIDE | p.4 | no quote on the wire |
| [2] | RULEBOOK On Mars — Rulebook (corpus doc 268) | COLONY SIDE · LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM (LSS) | p.5 | no quote on the wire |
generation — timing and the path taken
- timing split
- retrieval 291 ms · first delta 8989 ms · total 30569 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
- full breakdown
- queued 14060 ms · retrieval 291 ms · ask 16206 ms · gateway work 16509 ms · total 30569 ms
- tokens in (the prompt the answerer read)
- 3834
- tokens out (what the answerer generated)
- 1024
- tok/sec
- 137.4 tok/sec — 1024 output tokens in 7.452 s of generation
- live seat (read from the running child)
- answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 0s 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
- NO_APPROVED_CHECKLIST — setup-shaped, but no approved setup checklist exists for this game
- pattern that matched
- SETUP — "setup" / "set up"
- matched words (in the normalized question)
-
set up
errata registry — what the gate above had to match against
this game registers NO errata cards (edition 196), 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.