Ruling — Colossal Arena

← Colossal Arena

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Colossal Arenabg-105-en-1e

To play the game, follow these steps:

Setup

1. Each player is assigned a color (red, green, blue, yellow, or white) and takes 5 bet tokens of that color.[1]

2. Select 8 of the 12 creature cards to use and lay them side by side in a single line, faceup.[1]

3. Shuffle the remaining blue-backed combat, spectator, and referee cards to form the draw deck.[1]

4. Deal 8 cards face down to each player to form hands; players may look at their hands.[1]

5. Place the rest of the deck face down off to one side.[1]

6. Randomly choose a starting player; play proceeds clockwise.[1]

Turn Structure

Each player's turn consists of four phases:[2]

1. Phase 1: Place a Bet [3][2]

* Place a Normal Bet: Play one of your bet tokens above a creature of your choice in the current combat row, provided there isn't already a bet there.[3] You cannot bet on an eliminated creature, and no more than one player can bet on a creature during each round.[3]

* Place a Secret Bet: During the first round only, choose a combat card from your hand that corresponds to a creature, place it face down in front of you, and place a bet token on top.[3] You may only make one secret bet per game, and you skip Phase 2 of your turn if you do this.[3]

* Reveal a Secret Bet: Instead of placing a bet, turn the combat card underneath your secret bet face up, show it to others, place the bet token above the corresponding creature card, and discard the combat card.[4]

* Pass: Do nothing during this phase.[3]

2. Phase 2: Play a Card [2][4]

* Play a Combat Card: Place a combat card in the current combat row in the same column as the creature it depicts, covering any previous card.[5] You cannot play cards depicting eliminated creatures.[5] If you are the creature's backer, you may immediately use its special power.[5]

* Play a Spectator Card: Place a spectator card in the current combat row on any surviving creature of your choice.[5] This cannot activate a creature's special power.[5]

* Play a Referee Card: Follow the directions on the card and then place it in the discard pile.[6]

* Pass: To pass, you must show your hand to others to prove you have no playable cards.[4] (Note: You cannot pass if you have playable cards [5]).

3. Phase 3: Discard and Draw Cards [7]

* Discard up to 3 combat cards depicting eliminated creatures, showing them to others as you discard.[7]

* If you have fewer than 8 cards, draw from the deck until you have 8 cards.[7] If the last card is drawn, the game ends immediately.[7]

4. Phase 4: Check for Creature Elimination [1][2][7]

* As the last action of your turn, check if a creature is eliminated.[7]

* A creature is eliminated if it has the single lowest combat value in the current combat row and all remaining creatures have a combat or spectator card played on them in that row.[1][7]

* If a creature is eliminated, turn its card face down and begin a new combat row below the previous one for a new round.[1]

Game End and Winning

The game ends at the end of the 5th round or when the last card is drawn from the deck.[7] All players reveal secret bets and calculate the total value of bets placed on creatures that were not eliminated.[7] The player with the most gold wins; ties are broken by the player who took the most recent turn.[7]

[1] RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook · p.1 · GAME SETUP · Rounds of Play · Playing Cards · Checking for Elimination

[2] RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook · p.2 · Bet Values · The Backer · PLAYING THE GAME

[3] RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook · p.2 · Phase 1: Place a Bet · Placing a Normal Bet · Placing a Secret Bet

[4] RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook · p.2 · Revealing a Secret Bet · Phase 2: Play a Card

[5] RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook · p.3 · Playing a Combat Card · Playing a Spectator Card · Passing

[6] RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook · p.3 · Playing a Referee Card

[7] RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook · p.3 · Phase 3: Discard and Draw Cards · Phase 4: Check for Creature Elimination · GAME END · DEAL MAKING

So says the rulebook. So plays the table.

🔧 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 85 ms · ask 5716 ms · total 5803 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 5803 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 3, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "When you play a combat card, place it in the current combat row in the same column as the creature depicted on the card. You may not play combat cards depicting eliminated creatures. If there is already a card in that position, cover it up completely with the new cardthe old card is overridden and p", "headingPath": "Playing a Combat Card · Playing a Spectator Card · Passing", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 1, "score": 0.048131, "snippet": "Each player is assigned a color (red, green, blue, yellow, or white) and takes the 5 bet tokens of that color. Select 8 of the 12 creature cards to be used this game (either by player consensus or randomly). Set the other 4 creature cards and their corresponding combat cards aside-they will not be u", "headingPath": "GAME SETUP · Rounds of Play · Playing Cards · Checking for Elimination", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.046898, "snippet": "Instead of placing a bet during your turn, you can choose to reveal your secret bet to the other players. To do this, turn the combat card underneath your bet token face up and show it to the other players. Next, place the bet token above the corresponding creature card (not above the current combat", "headingPath": "Revealing a Secret Bet · Phase 2: Play a Card", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.046898, "snippet": "When you play a referee card, follow the directions on the card and then place it in the discard pile. There are two kinds of referee cards: the two Prefects, and the Magister. When you play the Magister card, choose a surviving creature. Any players who have made secret bets on that creature must i", "headingPath": "Playing a Referee Card", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.046175, "snippet": "This is one example of what the play area could look like at the end of the game When you activate the Amazon's special power, you may choose to draw 3 cards (no more, no less) from the draw deck and add them to your hand. If you draw the last card in the draw deck by activating this power, the game", "headingPath": "Playing a Referee Card · Amazon (Scouting) · Colossus (Endurance) · Cyclops (Stunning Blow) · Daimon (Wealth) · Ettin (Multiple Heads) · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.045688, "snippet": "During this phase, you may first discard up to 3 combat cards depicting creatures that have been eliminated. You may discard them in any order, but you must show each card to the other players as you discard it to prove that it belongs to a creature that has been eliminated. After discarding, if you", "headingPath": "Phase 3: Discard and Draw Cards · Phase 4: Check for Creature Elimination · GAME END · DEAL MAKING", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.044557, "snippet": "In this phase, you may: Place a Normal Bet: Play one of your bet tokens above a creature of your choice in the current combat row, as long as there isn't already a bet there. OR Place a Secret Bet: Play one of your bet tokens on a face down combat card from your hand in front of you to secretly bet ", "headingPath": "Phase 1: Place a Bet · Placing a Normal Bet · Placing a Secret Bet", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.043905, "snippet": "Each player has 5 bets that he can make over the course of the game. These are represented by his 5 bet tokens. At the end of the game, a bet pays out if it is placed on a creature that has made it through all 5 rounds of combat. Each bet pays out a certain bet value at the end of the game based on ", "headingPath": "Bet Values · The Backer · PLAYING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 1, "quote": null, "headingPath": "GAME SETUP · Rounds of Play · Playing Cards · Checking for Elimination", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Bet Values · The Backer · PLAYING THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Phase 1: Place a Bet · Placing a Normal Bet · Placing a Secret Bet", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Revealing a Secret Bet · Phase 2: Play a Card", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Playing a Combat Card · Playing a Spectator Card · Passing", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Playing a Referee Card", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Phase 3: Discard and Draw Cards · Phase 4: Check for Creature Elimination · GAME END · DEAL MAKING", "sharpsignalDocId": 1201}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1201 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1201 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 0.89803 of 2687 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 5, 2026 15:38 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 Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Playing a Combat Card · Playing a Spectator Card · Passing	p.3	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	GAME SETUP · Rounds of Play · Playing Cards · Checking for Elimination	p.1	0.048131 (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 Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Revealing a Secret Bet · Phase 2: Play a Card	p.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))	300
#4	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Playing a Referee Card	p.3	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
#5	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Playing a Referee Card · Amazon (Scouting) · Colossus (Endurance) · Cyclops (Stunning Blow) · Daimon (Wealth) · Ettin (Multiple Heads) · …	p.4	0.046175 (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 Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Phase 3: Discard and Draw Cards · Phase 4: Check for Creature Elimination · GAME END · DEAL MAKING	p.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))	300
#7	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Phase 1: Place a Bet · Placing a Normal Bet · Placing a Secret Bet	p.2	0.044557 (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 Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Bet Values · The Backer · PLAYING THE GAME	p.2	0.043905 (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 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 at	document	heading	page	fused rank	fused RRF score	carried by	how it got its slot
#1	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Playing a Referee Card	p.3	#4	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
#2	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Phase 1: Place a Bet · Placing a Normal Bet · Placing a Secret Bet	p.2	#7	0.044557 (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 Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	GAME SETUP · Rounds of Play · Playing Cards · Checking for Elimination	p.1	#2	0.048131 (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 Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Bet Values · The Backer · PLAYING THE GAME	p.2	#8	0.043905 (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 Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Phase 3: Discard and Draw Cards · Phase 4: Check for Creature Elimination · GAME END · DEAL MAKING	p.3	#6	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
#6	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Playing a Referee Card · Amazon (Scouting) · Colossus (Endurance) · Cyclops (Stunning Blow) · Daimon (Wealth) · Ettin (Multiple Heads) · …	p.4	#5	0.046175 (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 Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Playing a Combat Card · Playing a Spectator Card · Passing	p.3	#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
#8	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Revealing a Secret Bet · Phase 2: Play a Card	p.2	#3	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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	GAME SETUP · Rounds of Play · Playing Cards · Checking for Elimination	p.1	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Bet Values · The Backer · PLAYING THE GAME	p.2	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Phase 1: Place a Bet · Placing a Normal Bet · Placing a Secret Bet	p.2	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Revealing a Secret Bet · Phase 2: Play a Card	p.2	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Playing a Combat Card · Playing a Spectator Card · Passing	p.3	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Playing a Referee Card	p.3	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Colossal Arena — Rulebook (corpus doc 1201)	Phase 3: Discard and Draw Cards · Phase 4: Check for Creature Elimination · GAME END · DEAL MAKING	p.3	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 85 ms · first delta 1471 ms · total 5803 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 85 ms · ask 5716 ms · gateway work 5803 ms · total 5803 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3667
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 853
tok/sec: 199.9 tok/sec — 853 output tokens in 4.267 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 8s 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.

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 1131), 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.