Ruling — Meadow

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Meadowbg-314491-en-1e

Setup

1. Place road tokens within easy access of all players.[1]

2. Place 3 of the 4 deck holders in the cut-out spots on the main board and the remaining deck holder next to the board.[1]

3. Divide cards according to their backs to create 4 decks, shuffle them separately, and place them in the deck holders.[1]

4. Fill all spots on the board with face-up cards from the corresponding decks: 4 W cards in the left column, 4 S cards in the next two columns, and 4 E cards in the final column.[1]

5. Place the game board in the middle of the table.[1]

6. Place the correct campfire board for your player count next to the main board, showing the side with the symbol for the number of players.[1]

7. Each player starts with 1 road token placed next to their meadow area.[2]

8. Starting with the player to the right of the starting player and moving counter-clockwise, each player chooses a row on the main board and adds all 4 cards in that row to their hand, then draws 1 card from the currently unused N deck.[2]

9. Refill empty slots on the board with cards from corresponding decks after players choose their cards, repeating until all players have 5 cards.[2]

10. Each player chooses a side of their starting ground card and places it in their meadow area face up as their first card.[2]

Player Turn

1. Players take turns in clockwise order.[3]

2. During a turn, you must place 1 path token in an unoccupied notch on either the main board or the campfire board.[3]

3. If placing the token on the main board, you perform the following:

* Take the card indicated by the token by counting a number of spaces from the token equal to the number shown in the direction it is pointing (the "?" can be any number 1-4 of your choosing).[3]

* Immediately refill the empty spot with a card from the corresponding deck.[3]

* You may then play 1 card from your hand into your meadow or surroundings area (this can be the card just taken or a card already in hand).[3]

4. If placing the token on the campfire board, you take a special action:

* Take 1 card from the board.[4]

* Take 2 road tokens.[4]

* Look at the top 3 cards of any deck and keep 1 of them.[4]

* Play 2 cards.[4]

5. Playing cards:

* Ground cards: Place next to another ground card (max 10).[4] These are played vertically in the meadow area.[5]

* Observation cards: If you have the required symbols, place an observation card on top of a card with the required symbol.[4] These are played vertically in the meadow area.[5] When playing, do not cover the ground symbol and ensure the victory point value of the previously played card remains visible.[6]

* Landscape and discovery cards: Place these above your meadow area.[4] These are played horizontally in the surroundings area.[2]

* Landscape cards: If a card requires a road token and symbols, you must have the symbols and a road token; you then place 1 unused road token below it and flip it to the side without the road symbol.[7]

* Discovery cards: Place these on previously played landscape cards by covering the symbol.[7]

* Ignoring requirements: You may discard any 2 cards from your hand to ignore 1 requirement symbol of a played card.[7]

End of the Game

1. The game lasts 6 rounds for 2 or 3 players, or 8 rounds for 4 players.[3]

2. A round ends when all players have used all their path tokens.[3]

3. The game ends after finishing the last round.[3]

4. The winner is the player with the most points from played cards and fulfilled goals.[3]

[1] RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook · p.4 · Game Setup (for 2, 3 or 4 players)

[2] RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook · p.6 · Player Preparation · Meadow area · Two-sided starting ground card · Surroundings area · Bonus and path tokens

[3] RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook · p.7 · The Course of the Game · Player Turn · End of the Round · End of the Game · Drawing and Playing Cards

[4] RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook · p.16

[5] RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook · p.8 · Rules for Playing Cards · Ground Cards · Observation cards

[6] RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook · p.9 · Playing Observation Cards · Choice of a Requirement

[7] RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook · p.11 · Landscape Cards · Discovery Cards

The book has spoken.

🔧 debug — where this ruling came from

outcome: ANSWERED — Answered
corpus profile: live,vps
answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only): gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
timings: search 100 ms · ask 9583 ms · total 25947 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 16263 ms · generation 9684 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 7, "score": 0.047643, "snippet": "The game consists of 6 rounds in a 2- and 3-player game, or 8 rounds in a 4-player game (the number of stones on the campfire board corresponds to the number of rounds). Players take their turns in clockwise order, starting with the first player. During your turn, you must perform an action, placing", "headingPath": "The Course of the Game · Player Turn · End of the Round · End of the Game · Drawing and Playing Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 16, "score": 0.046871, "snippet": "Take 1 of your path tokens and place it: either on the campfire board Take 1 card from the board. Take 2 road tokens. Look at the top 3 cards of any deck and keep 1 of them. Play 2 cards. then you may play a card play a card If you have the required symbols. Place an observation card on top of a car", "headingPath": "Actions in Player Turn · and take a special action: · or on the main board", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.045805, "snippet": "When playing an observation card on a ground card, you must remember not to cover the ground symbol. When playing new cards, make sure to place them so the victory points value on a previously played card is visible. When playing an observation card, the following scenarios are possible: Card has 1 ", "headingPath": "Playing Observation Cards · Choice of a Requirement", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 16, "score": 0.045743, "snippet": "or on the main board Take the card indicated by the token. then you may play a card Take 1 of your path tokens and place it: either on the campfire board and take a special action: Take 1 card from the board. Take 2 road tokens. Look at the top 3 cards of any deck and keep 1 of them. Play 2 cards. p", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.045079, "snippet": "For the solo play rules, see page 14. Place the road tokens within easy access of all players. Place 3 of the 4 deck holders in the cut-out spots on the main board. Place the remaining deck holder next to the board. 3 Divide the cards according to their backs and create 4 decks. Shuffle each of the ", "headingPath": "Game Setup (for 2, 3 or 4 players)", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.045055, "snippet": "Each player starts the game with 5 cards in hand. The cards are taken in the following way: Beginning with the player to the right of the starting player and going counter-clockwise, each player chooses a row on the main board and adds all 4 of the cards in that row to their hand. They then draw 1 c", "headingPath": "Player Preparation · Meadow area · Two-sided starting ground card · Surroundings area · Bonus and path tokens", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 15, "score": 0.045009, "snippet": "Rover does not have their own meadow or surroundings areas, and the cards they collect during the game are placed in a deck above the solo play game token. Take your starting cards and refill the empty slots on the board with cards from the corresponding deck. Then take all of the cards from the 1 s", "headingPath": "Changes to the Setup · Changes to Gameplay", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.043009, "snippet": "Shuffle the goal tokens and randomly place 1 token at a time on the square spots on the campfire board. Unused goal tokens are returned to the box (a 4-player game will use all the basic goal tokens). 8 When playing a 2-player game, block 2 notches of the campfire board with the block tokens. In a 3", "headingPath": "Game Setup (for 2, 3 or 4 players) · Component and round number depending on the player count", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Game Setup (for 2, 3 or 4 players)", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Player Preparation · Meadow area · Two-sided starting ground card · Surroundings area · Bonus and path tokens", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "The Course of the Game · Player Turn · End of the Round · End of the Game · Drawing and Playing Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 16, "quote": null, "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Rules for Playing Cards · Ground Cards · Observation cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 9, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Playing Observation Cards · Choice of a Requirement", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}, {"page": 11, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Landscape Cards · Discovery Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 368}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 368 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 368 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)
answer fence: passed — letter density 0.90813 of 2841 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Aug 25, 2026 17:00 UTC

retrieval — what the passage search returned

what this block IS: the PASSAGE SEARCH's own results — the same search that fills this page's closest-passages list — and NOT the passages the answerer read. Answering runs its OWN retrieval: a far wider candidate pool, re-ranked down to a final handful, plus floors this search never applies — the base rulebook, surviving errata corrections, and one slot per book on a multi-book read. Each of those armed only if THIS ask sent what it needs: the boost block names the ids it forwarded, and the scope line names the books it read. A document the answer CITES that no row here names is therefore EXPECTED, not a defect: two searches, two candidate pools, two orders. The answerer's own final rows are shown in their own block below, beside these and never mixed into them.

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 Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	The Course of the Game · Player Turn · End of the Round · End of the Game · Drawing and Playing Cards	p.7	0.047643 (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 Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Actions in Player Turn · and take a special action: · or on the main board	p.16	0.046871 (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 Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Playing Observation Cards · Choice of a Requirement	p.9	0.045805 (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 Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)		p.16	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
#5	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Game Setup (for 2, 3 or 4 players)	p.4	0.045079 (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 Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Player Preparation · Meadow area · Two-sided starting ground card · Surroundings area · Bonus and path tokens	p.6	0.045055 (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 Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Changes to the Setup · Changes to Gameplay	p.15	0.045009 (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 Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Game Setup (for 2, 3 or 4 players) · Component and round number depending on the player count	p.5	0.043009 (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

what the answerer read — the passages it actually had in front of it

what this block IS: the passages the ANSWERING read put in front of the answerer, in the order it read them — the other half of the two reads described above, and the one that decides what the answer could possibly say. Each row names the book it came from and where in that book it sits, what it scored when the search arms were fused, which arm carried it there, and whether the re-ranker chose it or a floor guaranteed it a slot. A row here that no passage-search row names is EXPECTED: a far wider pool, re-ranked, with floors the passage search never applies.

candidate pool: the answering read scored 19 passages, out of a ceiling of 80 set gateway-side. Both figures are reported by the gateway for THIS ask — measurements of what actually happened, not constants read out of anyone's source and printed here on faith.

floors armed for this ask: the base rulebook — armed · surviving errata corrections — not armed · one slot per book on a multi-book read — not armed. Every floor is stated on every ask, armed or not, so a floor that did not apply here is never mistaken for one this app does not know about.

arms fused for this ask: vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm. Stated separately from the rows because an arm that ran and carried nothing is a different fact from an arm that never ran.

read at	document	heading	page	fused rank	fused RRF score	carried by	how it got its slot
#1	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Actions in Player Turn · and take a special action: · or on the main board	p.16	#2	0.046871 (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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Game Setup (for 2, 3 or 4 players)	p.4	#5	0.045079 (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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#3	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Player Preparation · Meadow area · Two-sided starting ground card · Surroundings area · Bonus and path tokens	p.6	#6	0.045055 (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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#4	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Playing Observation Cards · Choice of a Requirement	p.9	#3	0.045805 (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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Landscape Cards · Discovery Cards	p.11	#13	0.028446 (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))	vector + full-text	the re-ranker chose it
#6	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Rules for Playing Cards · Ground Cards · Observation cards	p.8	#9	0.030622 (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))	vector + full-text	the re-ranker chose it
#7	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	The Course of the Game · Player Turn · End of the Round · End of the Game · Drawing and Playing Cards	p.7	#1	0.047643 (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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)		p.16	#4	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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Game Setup (for 2, 3 or 4 players)	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Player Preparation · Meadow area · Two-sided starting ground card · Surroundings area · Bonus and path tokens	p.6	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	The Course of the Game · Player Turn · End of the Round · End of the Game · Drawing and Playing Cards	p.7	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)		p.16	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Rules for Playing Cards · Ground Cards · Observation cards	p.8	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Playing Observation Cards · Choice of a Requirement	p.9	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Meadow — Rulebook (corpus doc 368)	Landscape Cards · Discovery Cards	p.11	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 100 ms · first delta 2996 ms · total 25947 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 16263 ms · retrieval 100 ms · ask 9583 ms · gateway work 9684 ms · total 25947 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 2832
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 873
tok/sec: 131.5 tok/sec — 873 output tokens in 6.638 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 48s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 6s ago)
answerer node (the seat proxy's own header — this probe, not this ask): node1
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 297), 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.