Ruling — Louis XIV

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Louis XIVbg-13642-en-1e

The game is played over exactly four rounds, each consisting of four phases in the following order: [1]

1st phase: supply [1]

1. Draw the top-most gold card; each player takes the shown amount of gold from the bank and places it in their play area, and the start player places the Louis XIV figure on the game board matching the number on the drawn card.[2]

2. Beginning with the start player and continuing clockwise, each player executes the text on fulfilled mission cards in their play area that refer to the supply phase (except in the 1st round).[2]

3. Each player takes 5 influence cards from the supply beneath game board 11 and adds them to their hand.[2]

2nd phase: influence [1]

1. Beginning with the start player and continuing clockwise until all players have played all their influence cards, each player, on his turn, places one of his influence cards face-up in the middle of the game boards.[3]

2. After playing a person influence card, a player has two possibilities:[3]

* Place: The player may place up to 3 influence markers from his own supply on the game board matching the person on the card.[3] He may then move some of these just-placed markers to a diagonally adjacent game board, provided he leaves at least one marker on the original board.[3] He may then, if he wishes, move one of the just-moved markers (if he moved two) to a second diagonally adjacent board, provided it is not the starting board and he leaves one marker on that second board.[3] He can place markers on at most three game boards using only the three markers placed.[3]

* Take: The player may take 3 influence markers from the general supply in the middle of the board and place them in his own supply (or what is left if there are fewer than three).[3]

3. After playing a joker influence card, a player has two possibilities:[3][4]

* Place: The player may place up to 2 influence markers.[3][4] First, the player takes 1 marker from his own supply and places it on any one of the 12 game boards.[3][4] If he wants, he may then place a second marker from his supply on the same game board or on any diagonally adjacent game board.[3][4]

* Take: The player may take 2 influence markers from the general supply in the middle of the board and place them in his own supply (or what is left, if any).[4]

3rd phase: scoring [1]

1. During the scoring phase, if a player has an intrigue card matching a game board, he can choose to play it just before the board is scored.[5]

2. If playing an intrigue card, the player can either place one influence marker from the general supply or up to two markers from his own supply onto that board (a combination of one from general and one from his own supply is not allowed).[5]

3. The player places the played intrigue card face-down under the stack of intrigue cards next to game board 12.[5]

4. The game board is then scored.[5]

5. For all game boards, the player with the most influence markers on the board takes his reward first, followed by other players in clockwise order starting from the start player.[6]

6. For 'Gold' and '1st place' conditions, if a single player has the most influence markers, the players turn over the board after it is scored; otherwise, the board is not turned over (with an exception for the Louis XIV figure).[5]

7. For the 'influence markers' condition, the board is turned over when at least one player takes the reward.[5]

4th phase: mission [1]

1. After all 12 game boards are scored, players fulfill mission cards from their hands, starting with the start player and continuing clockwise.[7]

2. To fulfill a mission, a player must return the two mission chips pictured on the card to their supplies and place the fulfilled card face-up in their play area (a crown chip can be used for either chip, and 2 crown chips can fulfill a mission).[7]

3. Immediately after fulfilling a mission, the player draws one new mission card from any of the three stacks.[7]

4. A player may continue to fulfill mission cards as long as they are able; when they cannot or will not fulfill any more, their turn ends.[7]

5. At the end of the mission phase, if a player has more than one mission chip left, they must return all but one to the supplies, taking one coat-of-arms as a

[1] RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook · p.3 · PREPARATION · Each player takes · PLAYING THE GAME

[2] RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook · p.3 ·  1st phase: supply

[3] RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook · p.4 ·  2nd phase: influence

[4] RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook · p.4 ·  2nd phase: influence

[5] RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook · p.7 · The intrigue cards · Turn over game boards

[6] RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook · p.11 · Note:

[7] RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook · p.9 ·  4th phase: mission

Answer in hand — your move.

🔧 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 103 ms · ask 7415 ms · total 7520 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 7520 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 3, "score": 0.047371, "snippet": " The 30 influence cards (green backs) picture each of the 12 court followers twice each and 6 joker cards showing picture frames with curtains and a question mark. Shuffle these cards and place them as a face-down supply beneath board 11.  The 40 mission cards (three different-hued blue backs) ind", "headingPath": "PREPARATION · Each player takes · PLAYING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.046871, "snippet": " For all game boards, the player with the most influence markers on the board takes his reward first. Then, the other players follow in clockwise order starting with the start player. Note, however, that the order is only really relevent for boards 6 and 8.  Each qualified player takes a reward fr", "headingPath": "Note:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.045688, "snippet": "Beginning with the start player, and continuing in clockwise order until all players have played all their influence cards, each player, on his turn, places one of his influence cards face-up in the middle of the game boards ( see fig. 1 ). After playing the card, the player has two possibilities fo", "headingPath": " 2nd phase: influence", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.045002, "snippet": "For each of the 12 persons on the game board s, there is exactly one intrigue card . During the scoring phase, when the players are scoring a game board and one of the players has the intrigue card matching that game board, he can play this card just before the game board is scored. If the player ch", "headingPath": "The intrigue cards · Turn over game boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.044604, "snippet": "Beginning with game board 1, then board 2, 3, and so forth, all the way to board 12, check each board one-at-a-time to see which player gets the reward for the board ( details of the rewards are described on page 10 ). There are three different conditions that the 12 game boards demand from players,", "headingPath": " 3rd phase: scoring", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.044337, "snippet": "After all 12 game boards are scored, the players fulfill mission cards from their hands, beginning with the start player and continuing around the table in clockwise order. To fulfill a mission card, a player must have the two mission chips pictured on the card. He returns them to their supplies and", "headingPath": " 4th phase: mission", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.044103, "snippet": "This phase consists of three steps, executed in the following order: 1. Draw the top-most gold card ( also in the 1st round ): each player takes the shown amount of gold from the bank and places it visibly in his play area with his other gold. Then, the start player places the Louis XIV figure on th", "headingPath": " 1st phase: supply", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.044071, "snippet": "(Note: the following rules should be used when playing with 3 or 4 players. The rule changes for 2 players are on page 15 of this booklet.) The 12 game boards each show a portrait of an important person in the court of the Sun King (look for a short biography of each person on the last two pages of ", "headingPath": "PREPARATION", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PREPARATION · Each player takes · PLAYING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": " 1st phase: supply", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": " 2nd phase: influence", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": " 2nd phase: influence", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "The intrigue cards · Turn over game boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 11, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Note:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}, {"page": 9, "quote": null, "headingPath": " 4th phase: mission", "sharpsignalDocId": 1025}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1025 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1025 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 0.91529 of 3506 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 5, 2026 15:13 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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	PREPARATION · Each player takes · PLAYING THE GAME	p.3	0.047371 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	Note:	p.11	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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 2nd phase: influence	p.4	0.045688 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	The intrigue cards · Turn over game boards	p.7	0.045002 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 3rd phase: scoring	p.6	0.044604 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 4th phase: mission	p.9	0.044337 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 1st phase: supply	p.3	0.044103 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	PREPARATION	p.2	0.044071 (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 31 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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	The intrigue cards · Turn over game boards	p.7	#4	0.045002 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 2nd phase: influence	p.4	#3	0.045688 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 4th phase: mission	p.9	#6	0.044337 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	PREPARATION	p.2	#25	0.012821 (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
#5	RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	PREPARATION · Each player takes · PLAYING THE GAME	p.3	#1	0.047371 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	Note:	p.11	#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
#7	RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 2nd phase: influence	p.4	#16	0.026501 (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
#8	RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 1st phase: supply	p.3	#7	0.044103 (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 Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	PREPARATION · Each player takes · PLAYING THE GAME	p.3	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 1st phase: supply	p.3	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 2nd phase: influence	p.4	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 2nd phase: influence	p.4	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	The intrigue cards · Turn over game boards	p.7	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	Note:	p.11	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Louis XIV — Rulebook (corpus doc 1025)	 4th phase: mission	p.9	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 103 ms · first delta 2387 ms · total 7520 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 103 ms · ask 7415 ms · gateway work 7520 ms · total 7520 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3020
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 1024
tok/sec: 201.9 tok/sec — 1024 output tokens in 5.073 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 0s 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 955), 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.