Ruling — Fire in the Lake

You asked

Describe the initial preparation the board and each player require to start.

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Fire in the Lakebg-144189-en-1e

To start the game, follow these preparation steps: 1. Choose a scenario from the provided pages and select any desired No Non-Player (1.5), Deception/Handicap (7.3), 1-Player difficulty (8.9), or Period Events options [1]. 2. Give each player a Faction foldout and assign Factions to players (1.5) [1]. 3. If using Non-players (8.0), keep the Non-player Operations flowcharts and the Random Spaces foldout nearby [1]. 4. Separate the 6 Coup cards and 4 Pivotal Events, then shuffle the remaining 120 Event cards [1]. 5. Place or remove Coup or Pivotal Event cards as instructed by the chosen scenario [1]. 6. Shuffle and randomly deal a number of Event cards into equal piles as specified in the scenario [1]. 7. Shuffle 1 Coup card into each pile and stack one pile onto another to create a face-down draw deck visible to all players [1]. 8. Set aside any remaining unused Event cards [1]. 9. If using the Victory Deception Option in 3- or 4-player games, each player blindly draws 2 Deception markers at the start and sets the rest aside [2]. 10. If using the Handicap Option, inexperienced players secretly select any 2 markers each (least experienced first), while experienced players blindly draw 2 markers each from the remaining pool [2]. 11. If starting a game with a Non-player US, mark the Scenario's indicated US Policy (either LBJ or JFK) on the US Policy track [3].

[1] RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook · p.26 · General · Deck Preparation · Period Events Option · Short: 1965-1967 · Medium: 1968-1972 · Full: 1964-1972

[2] RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook · p.12 · STOP! · 7.2 During Coup Rounds · 7.3 After Final Coup

[3] RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook · p.21 · 8.8 Non-Player US 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 234 ms · ask 16520 ms · total 32224 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 15462 ms · generation 16762 ms
retrieval refs (raw): [{"page": 13, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "8.1.3 Selecting Spaces. When executing Operations and Special Activities by the priorities on the Non-Player flowcharts (and per 8.4 to 8.8), select spaces for each listed priority in order until there are no more legal candidate spaces or actions for that priority, or until any space limit within t", "headingPath": "8.1 Non-Player Sequence of Play", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "GUIDELINES: Unless otherwise specified, carry out whatever actions apply to the maximum extent (such as in the most spaces or with the most pieces allowed and only as long as needed pieces and Resources are available). Normal Resource costs, requirements, and procedures apply. EXAMPLE: Non-Player VC", "headingPath": "8.1 Non-Player Sequence of Play", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "The Sequence of Play aid sheet summarizes the following rules in gray text. Pivotal Events. If any player Faction is 1st Eligible, all Eligible Non-players immediately execute their playable Pivotal Events (8.4.6) instead of following their normal Non-player instructions. When a Non-player has a cho", "headingPath": "8.1 Non-Player Sequence of Play", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "If several candidate Provinces or Cities have equal priority for a Non-player Operation, Special Activity, or Event, select one using the Random Spaces Map: Roll two dice in succession: the first die thrown indicates the 'tens', the second die the 'ones' (Example: '2' followed by '6' is 26, Quang Tr", "headingPath": "8.2 Random Spaces", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Similarly track with markers on the edge track the following totals that affect victory (7.0). Total Support (1.6.2) plus the number of US Troops and Bases Available (1.4.1). Total Population Controlled by the NVA plus the number of NVA Bases on the map (1.7). Total Population Controlled by the COIN", "headingPath": "1.9 Victory Markers · 2.1 Set Up · 2.2 Start", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "Any Faction that executed an Operation (including a Limited Operation) or Event to the 'Ineligible' box (unless otherwise specified by the Event; see also Free Operations, 3.1.2). PLAY NOTE: Some Events (5.0) will enable the executing Faction to remain Eligible or render other Factions Ineligible th", "headingPath": "2.3.4 Options for Eligible Factions.", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 14, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "This subsection governs actions by the VC Faction as a Non-player, as shown on the 'Non-player VC' flowchart sheet. When the VC are Eligible by the Sequence of Play (2.3) to take an action (and not executing their Pivotal Event, 8.4.6), consult their flowchart-beginning at the upper left-and, as nee", "headingPath": "8.5 Non-Player VC Actions", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 26, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "Choose a scenario from the next two pages and any No Non-Player (1.5), Deception/Handicap (7.3), 1-Player difficulty (8.9), or Period Events (right) options desired. Prepare the deck per the instructions below. Give each player a Faction foldout and assign Factions to players (1.5). If Non-players (", "headingPath": "General · Deck Preparation · Period Events Option · Short: 1965-1967 · Medium: 1968-1972 · Full: 1964-1972", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}]
citations (raw): [{"page": 26, "quote": null, "headingPath": "General · Deck Preparation · Period Events Option · Short: 1965-1967 · Medium: 1968-1972 · Full: 1964-1972", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 12, "quote": null, "headingPath": "STOP! · 7.2 During Coup Rounds · 7.3 After Final Coup", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 21, "quote": null, "headingPath": "8.8 Non-Player US Actions", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 548 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 548 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 7, 2026 08:11

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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	8.1 Non-Player Sequence of Play	p.13	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
#2	RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	8.1 Non-Player Sequence of Play	p.13	0.032258 (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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	8.1 Non-Player Sequence of Play	p.13	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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	8.2 Random Spaces	p.13	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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	1.9 Victory Markers · 2.1 Set Up · 2.2 Start	p.5	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
#6	RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	2.3.4 Options for Eligible Factions.	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
#7	RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	8.5 Non-Player VC Actions	p.14	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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	General · Deck Preparation · Period Events Option · Short: 1965-1967 · Medium: 1968-1972 · Full: 1964-1972	p.26	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

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	General · Deck Preparation · Period Events Option · Short: 1965-1967 · Medium: 1968-1972 · Full: 1964-1972	p.26	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	STOP! · 7.2 During Coup Rounds · 7.3 After Final Coup	p.12	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548)	8.8 Non-Player US Actions	p.21	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 234 ms · first delta 14052 ms · total 32224 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 15462 ms · retrieval 234 ms · ask 16520 ms · gateway work 16762 ms · total 32224 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 4472
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 358
tok/sec: 135.2 tok/sec — 358 output tokens in 2.647 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: NOT_SETUP_SHAPED — no setup-shape pattern matched this question

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 480), 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.