RuleSage cited table rulings
← Bomb Busters

You asked

How do I setup the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Bomb Bustersbg-413246-en-1e

1. Select one of the Mission cards.[1]
2. Designate a Captain (at random for the first mission, then pass the responsibility to the left before each subsequent mission) and place the "Captain" character card in front of them; all other players place a character card of their choice faceup in front of them.[1]
3. The Captain reads the Mission card aloud and places it, flipped over, to the bottom left of the board.[1]
4. Prepare the mission's Wire tiles by collecting all 48 blue wire tiles (except for training missions 1, 2 & 3).[2]
5. Draw a number of red and yellow wires at random as indicated by the Mission card.[2]
6. If the mission indicates wires are only partially known (e.g., '1 out of 2'), reveal the specified number of tiles, place markers in matching board slots with the '?' side faceup, shuffle the tiles, add the remaining required tiles facedown to the blue pile, and set the third tile aside out of play.[2]
7. Indicate the red and yellow values by placing the appropriate red and/or yellow markers in the spaces on the board with their blank side faceup.[2]
8. Shuffle all the Wire tiles (blue, red, and yellow) together facedown.[3][2]
9. Distribute tile stands based on the number of bomb disposal experts: 2 players (Captain has 2, others have 2), 3 players (Captain has 2, others have 1), 4 players (all have 1), or 5 players (all have 1).[1]
10. Distribute all wires facedown as equally as possible among all tile stands.[3][2]
11. Bomb disposal experts take their dealt wires and place them in their tile stand, sorted from left-to-right in ascending order with the information facing the expert.[2] If an expert has 2 tile stands, deal, place, and sort the tiles separately for each stand.[2]
12. Set the detonator dial to the section matching the number of bomb disposal experts.[4]
13. Take as many Equipment cards as there are bomb disposal experts and place them faceup over the checkmark.[4]
14. Each bomb disposal expert places 1 Info token of their choice in front of their stand (but not a yellow one during setup), pointing to one of the blue wires in their hand with the matching value.[3][4]
15. Place all the Info tokens and the 12 Validation tokens on the board.[4]
[1] RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook · p.2
[2] RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook · p.3 · 7 markers: 4 yellow and 3 red
[3] RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook · p.8 · Setup · On Your Turn · End of the Game
[4] RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook · p.4

The sage rests. The game continues.

🔧 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 208 ms · ask 3950 ms · total 4164 ms
single-flight (PR-5)
queued 0 ms · generation 4164 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read
[{"page": 8, "score": 0.04866, "snippet": "Everyone takes 1 character card. Shuffle the 48 blue wires with the red / yellow wires as indicated by mission setup instructions. Then distribute all wires facedown among tile stands as equally as possible. With 2 bomb disposal experts, each bomb disposal expert will use 2 tile stands. With 3 bomb ", "headingPath": "Setup · On Your Turn · End of the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.048652, "snippet": "4 8 On the board: 9 Starting with the Captain and going clockwise, each bomb disposal expert places an Info token of their choice on the table in front of their stand, pointing to one of the blue wires in their hand with the matching value. T ake as many Equipment cards as there are bomb disposal ex", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.047131, "snippet": "A game by Hisashi Hayashi, illustrated by Dom2D Install the dial on the board before the first game 12 Equipment cards 26 Info tokens (including 2 yellow ones) 12 Validation tokens 8 large Mission cards 5 Character cards 1 token \" = \" token 48 blue wires '1' to '12', 4 of each 11 red wires '1.5' to ", "headingPath": "1 board (with a dial) · 17 cards · 40 tokens · 70 Wire tiles · 7 markers: 4 yellow and 3 red", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.046402, "snippet": "5 Prepare the mission's Wire tiles: Collect all 48 blue wire tiles (except for training missions 1, 2 & 3). There are 4 copies of each number 1-12. T ake the number of red and yellow wires shown on the Mission card by drawing them at random. Look at the red and yellow tiles drawn and indicate the re", "headingPath": "7 markers: 4 yellow and 3 red", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.04598, "snippet": "If the last of identical wires still in the game appear only in the active bomb disposal expert's hand, then they can cut those identical wires in pairs (either 2 or 4). This can be done on their own, without involving another bomb disposal expert. If they are lucky enough to have a full set of 4, t", "headingPath": "Dual Cut Action · Reveal Your Red Wires Action · VALIDATION TOKENS · THE YELLOW WIRES", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.045928, "snippet": "2 Aim of the Game Bomb Busters is a cooperative game. Each player is a bomb disposal expert and all players together form one team. The objective is to defuse the assigned mission’s bomb together. Beware! The bomb will explode if you cut a red wire or if the detonator dial reaches the end! Setup 1 S", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Equipment becomes useable the first time 2 wires of the value shown on the card have been cut. space!) Each character has 1 personal equipment that can be used once per game . All the yellow wires are considered to have the same value: ' yellow '. There are 4 copies of each blue wire from 1 to 12. A", "headingPath": "REMEMBER: · Audio credits:", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "Each bomb disposal expert can use the personal equipment on their character card once per mission . T o show that it has been used, flip it facedown. Double Detector: During a Dual Cut action , the active bomb disposal expert states a value and points to 2 wires in a teammate's stand (instead of onl", "headingPath": "THE CHARACTER CARDS · Clarifications · End of the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show
[{"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "7 markers: 4 yellow and 3 red", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Setup · On Your Turn · End of the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 280}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 280 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 280 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 0.89814 of 1826 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded
Aug 29, 2026 22:20 UTC

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 rankdocumentheadingpage fused RRF scoresnippet chars
#1 RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) Setup · On Your Turn · End of the Game p.8 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 Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) p.4 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 Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) 1 board (with a dial) · 17 cards · 40 tokens · 70 Wire tiles · 7 markers: 4 yellow and 3 red p.1 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 Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) 7 markers: 4 yellow and 3 red p.3 0.046402 (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 Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) Dual Cut Action · Reveal Your Red Wires Action · VALIDATION TOKENS · THE YELLOW WIRES p.6 0.04598 (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 Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) p.2 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
#7 RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) REMEMBER: · Audio credits: p.8 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 Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) THE CHARACTER CARDS · Clarifications · End of the Game p.7 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

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 11 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 atdocumentheadingpage fused rankfused RRF scorecarried byhow it got its slot
#1 RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) Setup · On Your Turn · End of the Game p.8 #1 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)) vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#2 RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) p.4 #2 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)) vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#3 RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) 7 markers: 4 yellow and 3 red p.3 #4 0.046402 (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 Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) REMEMBER: · Audio credits: p.8 #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)) vector + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#5 RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) Dual Cut Action · Reveal Your Red Wires Action · VALIDATION TOKENS · THE YELLOW WIRES p.6 #5 0.04598 (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
#6 RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) The Game · Dual Cut Action p.5 #9 0.014493 (below 0.016, the low end of the measured band — a weak fuse (that band was taken on two-arm asks; only its low end, one arm's #1 vote, carries over to a 3-arm one)) vector the re-ranker chose it
#7 RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) 1 board (with a dial) · 17 cards · 40 tokens · 70 Wire tiles · 7 markers: 4 yellow and 3 red p.1 #3 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)) vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it
#8 RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) p.2 #6 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)) vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm the re-ranker chose it

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.

#documentheadingpagequote chars
[1] RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) p.2 no quote on the wire
[2] RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) 7 markers: 4 yellow and 3 red p.3 no quote on the wire
[3] RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) Setup · On Your Turn · End of the Game p.8 no quote on the wire
[4] RULEBOOK Bomb Busters — Rulebook (corpus doc 280) p.4 no quote on the wire
timing split
retrieval 208 ms · first delta 1312 ms · total 4164 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown
queued 0 ms · retrieval 208 ms · ask 3950 ms · gateway work 4164 ms · total 4164 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read)
3190
tokens out (what the answerer generated)
561
tok/sec
201.0 tok/sec — 561 output tokens in 2.791 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child)
answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 39s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage)
reachable (for 22h, checked 8s 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.
outcome
ANSWERED — Answered
abstain rationale (n/a — this ruling answered)
answered — no abstain rationale applies
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)
setup

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 209), 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.