Ruling — Viscounts of the West Kingdom

You asked

How do I set up the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Viscounts of the West Kingdombg-296151-en-1e

To set up the game, follow these steps: 1. Turn the 5 Main Board Segments faceup to the correct side, depending on the number of players in the game [1]. 2. Mix up the Segments and place them in a random order so that the inside edges form a circle [1]. 3. Place the Castle in the middle of the Main Board so that it clicks into place and locks all Segments together, with its orientation being random [1]. 4. Shuffle all Neutral Townsfolk Cards and separate them into 5 roughly-equal piles, then place 1 pile faceup onto each of the indicated spaces of the Main Board [1]. 5. Place the 5 grey-backed Manuscripts facedown on the table to form 5 piles [1]. 6. Mix up all black-backed Manuscripts and place 6 facedown on top of each pile so there are 7 in each pile [1]. 7. Place 1 pile faceup onto each of the indicated spaces of the Main Board, ensuring all grey-backed Manuscripts are visible on the top of each pile [1]. 8. Place all Silver, Ink Wells, Gold, Stone and Multiplier Cards in a Main Supply near the Main Board [2]. 9. Place the 4 Cleric Bonus Cards and Castle Leader Card nearby [2]. 10. Give each player 1 Player Board (faceup) and the following components in their chosen player colour: [2] * A randomly decided start player is given the Start Player Marker, which remains with them for the rest of the game [2]. 11. Shuffle the Player Cards and lay out a number of cards in a line equal to the number of players plus 1 [3]. 12. Shuffle the Hero Townsfolk Cards and place 1 below each Player Card to form pairs [3]. 13. In reverse turn order (starting with the player to the right of the Start Player Marker and moving counter-clockwise), each player selects 1 pair of cards and: [3] * Places their Viscount on the matching numbered space of the Main Board based on the number at the top of their chosen Player Card [3]. * Gains all resources, Silver, Debts and Deeds listed on their Player Card [3]. * Takes any additional steps indicated at the bottom of their Player Card (such as flipping Deeds or gaining Virtue) [3]. * Flips over their Player Card and places it alongside the top left side of their Player Board as a reference [3]. * Shuffles their Hero Townsfolk Card with their 8 Starting Townsfolk Cards and any other Neutral Townsfolk Cards gained during Setup to form a facedown Draw Pile to the left of their Player Board [3]. 14. Each player draws a starting hand of 3 cards from the top of their Draw Piles [3]. 15. On top of the Poverty Card, place a number of Debt Cards (unpaid-side faceup) based on the player count [3]. 16. Place all remaining Debt Cards below the Poverty Card [3]. 17. On top of the Prosperity Card, place a number of Deed Cards (acquired-side faceup) based on the player count [3]. 18. Place all remaining Deed Cards below the Prosperity Card [3]. **To set up an AI player:** [4] 1. Choose 1 of the Player Boards and flip it over to the AI Player Board side [4]. 2. Place the 9 Buildings onto the AI Player Board (note that the positions of Trading Posts and Guildhalls are reversed) [4]. 3. Give the AI opponent their 20 Workers, Virtue and Corruption Markers, Viscount and AI Reference Card [4]. 4. Give yourself the Start Player Marker [4]. 5. Separate the Starting Schemes (Brown Headers) from the Future Schemes (Black Headers) [4]. 6. Check the left card space of the AI Player Board to see which Scheme Cards need to be removed, then return those to the box [4]. 7. Shuffle the Starting Schemes and place them in a facedown pile to the left of the AI Player Board [4]. 8. Shuffle the Future Schemes and place them somewhere off to the side of the AI Player's Board [4]. 9. During Step 8 of standard Setup rules, reveal 1 less pair of Player Cards and Hero Townsfolk Cards (2 pairs for a standard solo game) [4]. 10. You choose first, then place the AI's Viscount on the indicated space on the Main Board of the unselected Player Card, then return that Player Card and Hero Townsfolk Card to the box [4].

[1] RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook · p.6 · 4 Player Boards

[2] RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook · p.7 · 4 Player Boards

[3] RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook · p.8 · 4 Player Boards

[4] RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook · p.26 · scoring example

🔧 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 254 ms · ask 14875 ms · total 855614 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 840474 ms · generation 15140 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 26, "score": 0.04866, "snippet": "Setup for you remains mostly the same. To set up the AI player, follow these steps: Choose 1 of the Player Boards and flip it over to the AI Player Board side. The top-left of AI Player Boards give you an idea on what they will focus on strategically (placing Workers, constructing Buildings, etc). W", "headingPath": "scoring example", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.047183, "snippet": "Shuffle the Player Cards and lay out a number of cards in a line, equal to the number of players in the game, plus 1. Then shuffle the Hero Townsfolk Cards and place 1 below each of the Player Cards, forming pairs of cards (1 Hero Townsfolk Card for each Player Card). This image shows how it might l", "headingPath": "4 Player Boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "Turn the 5 Main Board Segments faceup to the correct side, depending on the number of players in the game (see the numbers printed on the inside edge of each Main Board Segment). Mix up the Segments and place them in a random order (ignore the numbers in red for now), so that the inside edges form a", "headingPath": "4 Player Boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "Place all Silver, Ink Wells, Gold, Stone and Multiplier Cards in a Main Supply near the Main Board. Also place the 4 Cleric Bonus Cards and Castle Leader Card nearby. Give each player 1 Player Board (with the side shown below, faceup) and the following components in their chosen player colour: Rando", "headingPath": "4 Player Boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "components 3 24 Gold 35 Manuscripts 1 Start Player Marker 5 Main Board Segments 4 Player Boards 24 Ink Wells 24 Stone 1 Castle For the first game, punch out the cardboard pieces and place them in the positions pictured here. 72 Resources in 3 types:", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 30, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "At the start of the AI's turn, shift all cards on their Player Board 1 space to the right (just like the standard game). Next, turn over the top card from their Scheme Card Draw Pile, placing it into the left space of their Player Board. After doing so, simply carry out all the effects listed on the", "headingPath": "solo play rules: ai turns", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 21, "score": 0.030018, "snippet": "Transcribing Manuscripts can only be done on the inside path of the Main Board. To fund this action, players may count Cleric Icons and Criminal Icons on their Player Board, spend Ink Wells (1 per extra Cleric Icon) or spend Silver to dismiss the Townsfolk Card adjacent to their Viscount. To transcr", "headingPath": "Phase 3: Primary Action", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "35 Manuscripts For the first game, punch out the cardboard pieces and place them in the positions pictured here. 1 Start Player Marker 5 Main Board Segments", "headingPath": "72 Resources in 3 types: · 1 Castle · 4 Player Boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "4 Player Boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "4 Player Boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "4 Player Boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}, {"page": 26, "quote": null, "headingPath": "scoring example", "sharpsignalDocId": 333}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 333 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 333 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 14:22

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 Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	scoring example	p.26	0.04866 (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 Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	4 Player Boards	p.8	0.047183 (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 Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	4 Player Boards	p.6	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
#4	RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	4 Player Boards	p.7	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
#5	RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)		p.3	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))	249
#6	RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	solo play rules: ai turns	p.30	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
#7	RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	Phase 3: Primary Action	p.21	0.030018 (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 Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	72 Resources in 3 types: · 1 Castle · 4 Player Boards	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))	156

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	4 Player Boards	p.6	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	4 Player Boards	p.7	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	4 Player Boards	p.8	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Viscounts of the West Kingdom — Rulebook (corpus doc 333)	scoring example	p.26	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 254 ms · first delta 7727 ms · total 855614 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 840474 ms · retrieval 254 ms · ask 14875 ms · gateway work 15140 ms · total 855614 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3344
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 1002
tok/sec: 137.0 tok/sec — 1002 output tokens in 7.316 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 11s 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 261), 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.