You asked
How do I set up the game?
Answered counted as answeredAsked with: Gaia Projectbg-220308-en-1e
For your first game, follow these steps: 1. Determine a first player using the method of your choice; that player takes the first player marker [1]. 2. Choose factions based on player count: 1 player (Hadsch Hallas or Taklons), 2 players (Hadsch Hallas or Xenos), 3 players (Terrans, Taklons, or Geodens), or 4 players (Terrans, Hadsch Hallas, Xenos, or Taklons) [2]. 3. The first player chooses one of the available factions and takes the matching faction board; continuing in clockwise order, each other player chooses one of the remaining factions [2]. 4. Place your faction board in front of you with the chosen faction faceup [2]. 5. Take all structures and Gaiaformers of your color and place the structures on their corresponding spaces of your faction board [2]. 6. Place your three Gaiaformors near your faction board [2]. 7. Take one ore, one knowledge, and two credit markers and place them on the starting positions of your resource track; return any unused markers to the box [2]. 8. If your faction board shows at least one Q.I.C. below your name, take that many Q.I.C. from the supply and place them on your faction board [2]. 9. For each area of the power cycle on your faction board, take the number of power tokens shown from the supply and place them in that area [2]. 10. Assemble the game board by taking all 10 sector tiles and placing them as shown (for 3 and 4 players) or using sector tiles 01 to 07 (for 1 and 2 players), ensuring that tiles 05, 06, and 07 are solid-side up for the former or outlined-side up for the latter [1][3]. 11. Place the research board next to the game board [1]. 12. Randomly place nine standard tech tiles (with green marks on the back) faceup on different tech spaces of the research board, then stack the remaining standard tech tiles on these to create nine piles of four identical tiles [1]. 13. Randomly place one advanced tech tile faceup on each space between level 4 and 5 of the six research areas; return unused advanced tech tiles to the box [1]. 14. Set aside the Gleens faction's federation token, then randomly take one remaining federation token and place it on level 5 of the 'Terraforming' research area [1]. 15. Sort and stack the remaining federation tokens by type and place these six piles next to the game board with their green sides faceup (except for 12 VP tokens, which have two gray sides) [1]. 16. Place the scoring board next to the game board [4]. 17. Randomly place one round scoring tile faceup on each numbered tile space of the scoring board; return unused tiles to the box [4][5]. 18. Randomly place one final scoring tile faceup on each tile space to the right of the green ranking tracks; return unused tiles to the box [4][5]. 19. Randomly select as many round boosters as there are players plus three and place them next to the game board; return unused boosters to the box [4]. 20. For your first game, place your mines as shown (taking them from left to right on your faction board) [6]. 21. Starting with the last player and continuing in counterclockwise order, choose an available round booster and place it faceup in front of you; unchosen boosters remain next to the board [6]. 22. If playing with 1 or 2 players, add a neutral player by taking two satellites of an unused color and placing one on each ranking track next to the final scoring tiles (the number on the tile determines position); return unused satellites to the box [6]. In a 2-player game, place a neutral satellite on space 8 of the ranking track next to this tile [6]. 23. Place all action tokens, Gaia Planet tokens, the Lost Planet token, power tokens, Q.I.C., and record tokens near the game board as a general supply [4]. 24. Take six player tokens of your color and place one on level 0 of each research area on the research board (if playing with Taklons, they start on level 0) [2]. 25. If your faction board shows level 1 of a research area, advance your token one level in that area; if that level shows a resource marked with a star and white outline, gain that resource immediately as a one-time bonus [2].
🔧 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 235 ms · ask 14672 ms · total 57511 ms
- single-flight (PR-5)
- queued 42593 ms · generation 14918 ms
- retrieval refs (raw)
- [{"page": 4, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "For your first game, play with the following game board setup and factions. For future games, also use the Advanced Setup on page 18, which features a variable game board and all factions. For a solo game, also see the Automa rulebook. With two or more players, return the Automa cards and Automa pla", "headingPath": "GAME SETUP · Setup for 3 and 4 players · Setup for 1 and 2 players · Research Board and Federation Tokens", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 19, "score": 0.048387, "snippet": "When you are familiar with the basic rules, you can play with a more variable game setup. Instead of choosing a faction from the list, the first player chooses any one of the seven faction boards, then chooses either of the factions on it and places the board on the table with that side faceup. Cont", "headingPath": "ADVANCED SETUP: BEYOND THE FIRST GAME · Choosing Your Faction · Placing Your First Structures · Variable Turn Order · Variable Game Board", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 19, "score": 0.047131, "snippet": "Use all 10 space sector tiles and place sectors 05, 06, and 07 solid-side up . Method 1: Place space sector tiles 01 through 04 as described in the basic setup, then randomly place tiles 05 through 10 to create the same board shape as the basic setup. Rotate each tile as you choose. Method 2: Random", "headingPath": "3 or 4 Players · 1 or 2 Players · Even More Possibilities", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.045928, "snippet": "At the end of the game, the player with the most VP wins. You will gain VP during the game as well as at the end of the game. Track your VP using your marker on the VP track. The various ways to gain VP are detailed below. By uniting planets to form federations during the game, you gain federation t", "headingPath": "GOAL AND GAMEPLAY", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.045743, "snippet": "For your first game, choose one of the following factions: 1 player: Hadsch Hallas ( Human ), Taklons ( Automa ) 2 players: Hadsch Hallas, Xenos The first player chooses one of the above factions and takes the matching faction board . Continuing in clockwise order, each other player chooses one of t", "headingPath": "The First Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.045002, "snippet": "token from the supply and place it on your faction board. To gain a Gaiaformer, take one of your set-aside Gaiaformers and place it on your faction board. Note: The level 1 bonuses of the 'Economy' and 'Science' research areas are income bonuses and are not gained during setup. The Terrans' faction ", "headingPath": "The First Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "For your first game, place your mines as shown below. Always take your mines from left to right on your faction board. By placing your first structures, you colonize your first planets, and you reveal spaces on your faction board. This is important for your income, which is explained on page 10. Sta", "headingPath": "The First Game · Choosing Your First Round Booster · Neutral Player (1-2 Players) · Return Player Components", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "Place the scoring board next to the game board. Randomly place one round scoring tile faceup on each numbered tile space of the scoring board. Return the unused round scoring tiles to the box. Randomly place one fi nal scoring tile faceup on each tile space to the right of the green ranking tracks. ", "headingPath": "Scoring Board · Round Boosters and General Supply", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}]
- citations (raw)
- [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAME SETUP · Setup for 3 and 4 players · Setup for 1 and 2 players · Research Board and Federation Tokens", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "The First Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 19, "quote": null, "headingPath": "3 or 4 Players · 1 or 2 Players · Even More Possibilities", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Scoring Board · Round Boosters and General Supply", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GOAL AND GAMEPLAY", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "The First Game · Choosing Your First Round Booster · Neutral Player (1-2 Players) · Return Player Components", "sharpsignalDocId": 252}]
- boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
-
no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 252 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 252 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 Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | GAME SETUP · Setup for 3 and 4 players · Setup for 1 and 2 players · Research Board and Federation Tokens | p.4 | 0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1) | 300 |
| #2 | RULEBOOK Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | ADVANCED SETUP: BEYOND THE FIRST GAME · Choosing Your Faction · Placing Your First Structures · Variable Turn Order · Variable Game Board | p.19 | 0.048387 (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 Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | 3 or 4 Players · 1 or 2 Players · Even More Possibilities | p.19 | 0.047131 (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 Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | GOAL AND GAMEPLAY | p.8 | 0.045928 (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 Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | The First Game | p.6 | 0.045743 (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 Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | The First Game | p.6 | 0.045002 (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 Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | The First Game · Choosing Your First Round Booster · Neutral Player (1-2 Players) · Return Player Components | p.7 | 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 |
| #8 | RULEBOOK Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | Scoring Board · Round Boosters and General Supply | p.5 | 0.029412 (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 Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | GAME SETUP · Setup for 3 and 4 players · Setup for 1 and 2 players · Research Board and Federation Tokens | p.4 | no quote on the wire |
| [2] | RULEBOOK Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | The First Game | p.6 | no quote on the wire |
| [3] | RULEBOOK Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | 3 or 4 Players · 1 or 2 Players · Even More Possibilities | p.19 | no quote on the wire |
| [4] | RULEBOOK Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | Scoring Board · Round Boosters and General Supply | p.5 | no quote on the wire |
| [5] | RULEBOOK Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | GOAL AND GAMEPLAY | p.8 | no quote on the wire |
| [6] | RULEBOOK Gaia Project — Rulebook (corpus doc 252) | The First Game · Choosing Your First Round Booster · Neutral Player (1-2 Players) · Return Player Components | p.7 | no quote on the wire |
generation — timing and the path taken
- timing split
- retrieval 235 ms · first delta 7420 ms · total 57511 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
- full breakdown
- queued 42593 ms · retrieval 235 ms · ask 14672 ms · gateway work 14918 ms · total 57511 ms
- tokens in (the prompt the answerer read)
- 3500
- tokens out (what the answerer generated)
- 1019
- tok/sec
- 137.0 tok/sec — 1019 output tokens in 7.436 s of generation
- live seat (read from the running child)
- answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 2s 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 178), 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.