Ruling — Cry Havoc

← Cry Havoc

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Cry Havocbg-192457-en-1e

Cry Havoc is played in 5 or fewer Rounds, with each Round being divided into 6 Phases which are completed in order:[1]

1. EVENTS [1]

2. DRAW CARDS [1]

3. ACTIONS [1]

4. BATTLE RESOLUTION [1]

5. PRISONERS [1]

6. SCORING (IF ENABLED) [1]

Setup

1. Place the Game board in the middle of the table (use the side marked for 2-players for a 2-player game).[2]

2. Shuffle the Event tokens and place one face down on each of the four Event Spots on the Score track.[2]

3. Separate the Terrain Tactics cards by Terrain type into four piles, shuffle each pile individually, and place each pile face down on the indicated space on the board.[2]

4. Each player chooses one Faction to play.[2]

5. For non-Trog players, take the Headquarters token and place it randomly in the starting Regions labeled 'HQ'.[2]

6. Place 4 Unit miniatures and 1 Control token matching the corresponding HQ token in the same space as the HQ token.[2]

7. In a 4-player game, one player takes the Trog Units and Trog components, placing the Trog Headquarters on the 'Trog HQ' space with two Units, and placing 4 Tunnels tokens on the board (one per Region with matching icons and one on Trog HQ).[3]

8. Each player takes all of their F/Faction components, placing their Faction board face up and Structure tiles face up next to them.[2]

9. Place all Structure tokens next to their associated Structure tiles.[2]

10. Every player starts with 1-3 Skill cards (Default for first-time players; Default plus random cards for experienced/veteran players) and places them face up.[2]

11. Players shuffle their Tactics cards and place them as a face down deck in front of them.[2]

12. Players place all remaining Unit miniatures in front of them to form their Reserve.[2]

13. Players place their Scoring Enabled markers and Control tokens in front of them.[2]

14. Each player places their Score token on the 0 space of the Score track.[2]

15. Place one Initiative token for every player randomly on the Initiative Track to determine initial player order, and place a second set of Initiative tokens on the Upcoming Initiative Track in the same order.[2]

16. Place Trog War Party and Exploration tokens face down in the Regions with matching icons on the board.[2]

17. Place Crystals in each Region as shown by the symbols on the board, and form a supply with the rest.[2]

18. Place Battle tokens and the Battle board near the Game board.[2]

19. Place the Action Marker in the 'I' position on the Round Actions on the board.[4]

The Actions Phase

The Actions phase is the primary phase of every Round.[5] Players take a single Action in the order of the Initiative Track.[5] After every player has taken one Action, the Action marker moves to the next space, repeating until every player has taken a total of three Actions.[5] Available actions include:

* MOVE: Discard cards to gain Movement points; each point allows moving one Unit from any Region to an adjacent Region.[5] Units must stop moving if they enter a Region with enemy Units, a Trog War Party, or a Trog Nest token.[5] Players cannot move Units into an enemy's Headquarters or any Battle Region.[5]

* RECRUIT: Discard cards to gain Recruitment points; spend points to add one Unit from the Reserve to the Headquarters Region.[6]

* BUILD: (Included in available actions).[5]

* STRUCTURE(S) AND/OR ACTIVATE STRUCTURE(S): (Included in available actions).[5]

* DRAW TWO TACTICS CARDS, KEEP ONE: (Included in available actions).[5]

Battle Tactics

During a Battle, players alternate playing Tactics cards:[7]

1. The Attacker plays and resolves a single Tactics card from their hand, then discards it.[7]

2. The Defender plays and resolves a single Tactics card from their and discards it.[7]

3. Players repeat this until neither player wishes to or can play additional cards.[7]

Note: Faction Tactics can be played in any Battle, but Terrain Tactics can only be played if the Battle Region's Terrain matches the card.[7]

[1] RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook · p.6 · HOW TO PLAY · B. UPDATE INITIATIVE · THE EVENTS PHASE CONSISTS OF 3 STEPS: · A. RESOLVE EVENT(S) · C. REFRESH EXHAUSTED SKILLS

[2] RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook · p.4 · SETUP

[3] RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook · p.4 · 4-PLAYER GAME

[4] RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook · p.4 · SETUP

[5] RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook · p.7 · 2. DRAW CARDS · CARD ANATOMY · Important: · 3. ACTIONS · THE ACTIONS AVAILABLE TO EVERY PLAYER: · MOVE ACTION

[6] RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook · p.8 · HOW TO PLAY · IMPORTANT BATTLE REGION RULES · RECRUIT ACTION

[7] RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook · p.10 · C. PLAY TACTICS CARDS

Question closed. Friendships intact.

🔧 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 206 ms · ask 7005 ms · total 7214 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 7214 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 10, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "Players involved in the Battle alternate playing Tactics cards. Firstly, the Attacker may play and resolve a single Tactics card from their hand, then discard it. Secondly, the Defender may play and resolve a single Tactics card from their hand, then discard it. Players repeat this step until neithe", "headingPath": "C. PLAY TACTICS CARDS", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.046898, "snippet": "Cry Havoc is played in 5 or fewer Rounds, with each Round being divided into 6 Phases which are completed in order. The phases are listed and explained below. EVENTS DRAW CARDS ACTIONS BATTLE RESOLUTION PRISONERS SCORING (IF ENABLED) Change the order of the tokens on the Initiative Track so that the", "headingPath": "HOW TO PLAY · B. UPDATE INITIATIVE · THE EVENTS PHASE CONSISTS OF 3 STEPS: · A. RESOLVE EVENT(S) · C. REFRESH EXHAUSTED SKILLS", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.046751, "snippet": "Place the Game board in the middle of the table. Note: For a 2-player game the side marked for 2-players should be used in the setup. Shuffle the Event tokens and place one face down on each of the four Event Spots on the Score track. Return any unused Event tokens to the box without looking at them", "headingPath": "SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.046402, "snippet": "Trogs are only controlled by a player in four player games. Use the following rules when incorporating the Trogs. During Setup: The fourth player controls the Trogs. Place the Trog Headquarters and 2 Units in the World Caverns Region. Do not place a Trog War Party token in the Region. Determine init", "headingPath": "PLAYING THE TROGS · MOVEMENT: · BATTLES: · SCORING:", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.044589, "snippet": "Every player draws four cards from their personal Tactics deck. Then, any players with more than seven cards in their hand must place cards in their discard pile until they have seven in their hand. Note: If you need to draw cards and your deck is empty, shuffle your discard pile to form a new deck.", "headingPath": "2. DRAW CARDS · CARD ANATOMY · Important: · 3. ACTIONS · THE ACTIONS AVAILABLE TO EVERY PLAYER: · MOVE ACTION", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "During your turn, you can use any number of your Skills that have not yet been exhausted. Using a Skill does not count as an Action and each Skill can only be used once per Round, unless explicitly stated by the Skill. Once a Skill is used, turn it 90 degrees counterclockwise to indicate it has been", "headingPath": "USING SKILLS:", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.030159, "snippet": "Deep in a quadrant of space believed to be empty, a virgin, unexplored planet has been discovered by three unique, powerful species. The resources of the planet are abundant beyond belief, but are protected vigorously by the indigenous species, known as the Trogs. The riches of the planet will be wo", "headingPath": "GOAL OF THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "a. e. b. 5 d. 10 c. a. 5 The board shows the setup for a 4-player game. e. b. All of the faction components a player needs to have in front of him are depicted with the Human faction (left) and with the Machines faction (right). f.", "headingPath": "4-PLAYER GAME · SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "HOW TO PLAY · B. UPDATE INITIATIVE · THE EVENTS PHASE CONSISTS OF 3 STEPS: · A. RESOLVE EVENT(S) · C. REFRESH EXHAUSTED SKILLS", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "4-PLAYER GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "SETUP", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "2. DRAW CARDS · CARD ANATOMY · Important: · 3. ACTIONS · THE ACTIONS AVAILABLE TO EVERY PLAYER: · MOVE ACTION", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "HOW TO PLAY · IMPORTANT BATTLE REGION RULES · RECRUIT ACTION", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}, {"page": 10, "quote": null, "headingPath": "C. PLAY TACTICS CARDS", "sharpsignalDocId": 999}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 999 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 999 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 0.89848 of 3300 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 5, 2026 14:58 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 Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	C. PLAY TACTICS CARDS	p.10	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	HOW TO PLAY · B. UPDATE INITIATIVE · THE EVENTS PHASE CONSISTS OF 3 STEPS: · A. RESOLVE EVENT(S) · C. REFRESH EXHAUSTED SKILLS	p.6	0.046898 (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 Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	SETUP	p.4	0.046751 (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 Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	PLAYING THE TROGS · MOVEMENT: · BATTLES: · SCORING:	p.13	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 Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	2. DRAW CARDS · CARD ANATOMY · Important: · 3. ACTIONS · THE ACTIONS AVAILABLE TO EVERY PLAYER: · MOVE ACTION	p.7	0.044589 (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 Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	USING SKILLS:	p.9	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
#7	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	GOAL OF THE GAME	p.1	0.030159 (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 Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	4-PLAYER GAME · SETUP	p.5	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))	231

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 26 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 Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	C. PLAY TACTICS CARDS	p.10	#1	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	HOW TO PLAY · B. UPDATE INITIATIVE · THE EVENTS PHASE CONSISTS OF 3 STEPS: · A. RESOLVE EVENT(S) · C. REFRESH EXHAUSTED SKILLS	p.6	#2	0.046898 (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 Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	HOW TO PLAY · IMPORTANT BATTLE REGION RULES · RECRUIT ACTION	p.8	#12	0.028612 (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
#4	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	CLARIFICATIONS	p.13	#13	0.028039 (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
#5	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	SETUP	p.4	#14	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
#6	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	2. DRAW CARDS · CARD ANATOMY · Important: · 3. ACTIONS · THE ACTIONS AVAILABLE TO EVERY PLAYER: · MOVE ACTION	p.7	#5	0.044589 (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
#7	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	4-PLAYER GAME	p.4	#10	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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#8	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	SETUP	p.4	#3	0.046751 (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 Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	HOW TO PLAY · B. UPDATE INITIATIVE · THE EVENTS PHASE CONSISTS OF 3 STEPS: · A. RESOLVE EVENT(S) · C. REFRESH EXHAUSTED SKILLS	p.6	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	SETUP	p.4	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	4-PLAYER GAME	p.4	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	SETUP	p.4	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	2. DRAW CARDS · CARD ANATOMY · Important: · 3. ACTIONS · THE ACTIONS AVAILABLE TO EVERY PLAYER: · MOVE ACTION	p.7	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	HOW TO PLAY · IMPORTANT BATTLE REGION RULES · RECRUIT ACTION	p.8	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Cry Havoc — Rulebook (corpus doc 999)	C. PLAY TACTICS CARDS	p.10	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 206 ms · first delta 2113 ms · total 7214 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 206 ms · ask 7005 ms · gateway work 7214 ms · total 7214 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3423
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 992
tok/sec: 198.7 tok/sec — 992 output tokens in 4.993 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 20s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 0s 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 929), 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.