Ruling — Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization

← Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization

You asked

How do I set up the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilizationbg-182028-en-1e

To set up the game, follow these steps: 1. Place the game boards in the center of the table, in any suitable configuration [1]. 2. If playing a 3-player game, remove all cards with the "republic" marking from Civil decks I, II, and III [1]. 3. If playing a 2-player game, remove all cards with the "republic" marking from Civil decks I, II, and III [1]. 4. In a 2- or 3-player game, remove all pact cards from military decks II and III [1]. 5. Shuffle the Age A military deck [1]. 6. Take a number of cards equal to the number of players plus 2 and place them face down on the military board as the current events deck [1]. 7. Return the rest of the Age A military cards to the box without looking at them [1]. 8. Choose the starting player however you like; you may mark this by sliding one unused Age A military card face down under the starting player's board [1]. 9. For the starting player, place one white token on their Despotism card to indicate they have 1 unspent civil action on their first turn [1]. 10. In clockwise order, assign each player one more civil action than the previous player by placing 2, 3, or 4 white tokens on their Despotism cards [1]. 11. Ensure all red tokens remain beside the player boards [1]. 12. Shuffle the Age A civil deck [1]. 13. Deal 13 cards face up to the spaces of the card row [1]. 14. Put the rest of the Age A civil deck on the light half of the current age board [1]. 15. Keep the other decks nearby, but out of the way [1].

[1] RULEBOOK Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook · p.2 · Game Boards · deCk setup · in the Box · preparinG the event deCk · startinG pLayer · initiaL aCtions · …

🔧 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 245 ms · ask 9645 ms · total 43231 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 33330 ms · generation 9901 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 2, "score": 0.048916, "snippet": "Place the game boards in the center of the table, in any suitable configuration. Ages A, I, II, and III each have their own civil and military decks. So there are 8 separate decks, each with a different back. military decks In a 2- or 3-player game, you must remove certain cards. These cards will no", "headingPath": "Game Boards · deCk setup · in the Box · preparinG the event deCk · startinG pLayer · initiaL aCtions · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 242}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.048652, "snippet": "This rulebook presents all the rules for Through the Ages in a point-by-point format. It is especially useful for players who need to find a rule quickly. Players who are learning the game should not start with this rulebook. Instead, they should learn from the Handbook , which provides thematic bac", "headingPath": "Code of Laws", "sharpsignalDocId": 242}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.045285, "snippet": "You may use your political action to resign. Your civilization immediately leaves play. You have lost. Discard your hand and remove all cards in your play area from play. If you are party to any pact in someone else's play area, remove that pact from play. If there are any wars declared against you,", "headingPath": "resiGn", "sharpsignalDocId": 242}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "Each player chooses a color and takes the components in that color: The player board depicts 6 initial technologies: Warriors , Agriculture , Bronze , Philosophy , Religion , and Despotism . These count as technology cards. Put a blue token on each of the 16 squares in the blue bank. Put a yellow to", "headingPath": "pLayer Components · pLayer Board · ratinG markers · points Counters · taCtiCs standard", "sharpsignalDocId": 242}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "For every available military action you have left, draw one military card from the current age military deck. -Limitation: You may draw at most 3 cards this way. -In Age IV, there is no military deck and you draw no cards. -Note: On the first round, players have no available military actions and thu", "headingPath": "draw miLitary Cards · reset your aCtions · disBand a miLitary unit · pLay a taCtiC · Copy a taCtiC", "sharpsignalDocId": 242}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Pay the lower science cost depicted on the government card. Put the government into play. Replace your previous government by removing it from the game or covering it with the new card. Apply all effects of the new government. -Update your statistics , if necessary. -But if you increased your civil ", "headingPath": "deCLare a revoLution · pLay an aCtion Card · ... your turn · BuiLd a miLitary unit · upGrade a miLitary unit", "sharpsignalDocId": 242}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "You can do this only if you already have an unfinished wonder in play. Pay 1 civil action. Pay resources indicated by the leftmost uncovered cost depicted on the wonder. Cover that cost with a blue token from your blue bank. -If there are no tokens in your blue bank, use one from your technology car", "headingPath": "BuiLd a staGe of a wonder · deveLop a teChnoLoGy · deCLare a revoLution", "sharpsignalDocId": 242}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Your turn consists of these phases and steps: Start-of-Turn Sequence: -Replenish the card row. -Resolve a war, if necessary. -Make exclusive tactics available, if necessary. Politics Phase Action Phase End-of-Turn Sequence: -Discard excess military cards. -Production Phase. (Skip during an uprising.", "headingPath": "Course of the turn · first turn · repLenish the Card row", "sharpsignalDocId": 242}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Game Boards · deCk setup · in the Box · preparinG the event deCk · startinG pLayer · initiaL aCtions · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 242}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 242 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 242 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 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook (corpus doc 242)	Game Boards · deCk setup · in the Box · preparinG the event deCk · startinG pLayer · initiaL aCtions · …	p.2	0.048916 (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 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook (corpus doc 242)	Code of Laws	p.1	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
#3	RULEBOOK Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook (corpus doc 242)	resiGn	p.4	0.045285 (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 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook (corpus doc 242)	pLayer Components · pLayer Board · ratinG markers · points Counters · taCtiCs standard	p.2	0.031746 (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 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook (corpus doc 242)	draw miLitary Cards · reset your aCtions · disBand a miLitary unit · pLay a taCtiC · Copy a taCtiC	p.6	0.03125 (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 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook (corpus doc 242)	deCLare a revoLution · pLay an aCtion Card · ... your turn · BuiLd a miLitary unit · upGrade a miLitary unit	p.6	0.030769 (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 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook (corpus doc 242)	BuiLd a staGe of a wonder · deveLop a teChnoLoGy · deCLare a revoLution	p.5	0.030303 (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 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook (corpus doc 242)	Course of the turn · first turn · repLenish the Card row	p.3	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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization — Rulebook (corpus doc 242)	Game Boards · deCk setup · in the Box · preparinG the event deCk · startinG pLayer · initiaL aCtions · …	p.2	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 245 ms · first delta 7103 ms · total 43231 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 33330 ms · retrieval 245 ms · ask 9645 ms · gateway work 9901 ms · total 43231 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 5252
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 400
tok/sec: 145.9 tok/sec — 400 output tokens in 2.742 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 57s 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 168), 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.