Ruling — New York 1901

← New York 1901

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: New York 1901bg-174660-en-1e

On your turn, play proceeds in a clockwise direction,[1] and you advance your Estate by choosing to either Expand or Demolish and then Build.[1]

Expand Step

1. If you have an available Worker at the start of your turn, you can take one of the faceup Territory Cards from the Open Market and place it on top of your Character Card.[1]

2. Place a Worker on top of a Territory on the board that matches both the color and size of the Territory Card you acquired this turn, provided the Territory is not already part of another player's Estate.[1]

3. Once the Expand step is complete, replenish the Open Market back to 4 cards.[1]

4. You may then proceed to the Build step or pass the turn to the next player (you may choose to NOT Build this turn).[1]

*Note: If you have available Workers but do not wish to Expand, you must claim a new Territory on your turn.[2] If you have no available Workers and cannot or do not wish to Demolish, you may skip the Expand step and go straight to the Build step.[2] *

Demolish Step

1. Replace your standing Skyscraper(s) with 1 superior Skyscraper.[1]

2. Choose which Skyscraper you will construct on your Estate during your Build step later this turn, then remove all your Skyscrapers (and Workers) that fall under its footprint.[1]

3. Ensure all demolished Skyscrapers are of a Generation of Technology inferior to the Skyscraper you will Build later this turn (bronze < silver < gold).[1]

4. Return all demolished Skyscrapers to the box; they can no longer be used this game.[1]

5. If Demolishing and Building a new Skyscraper leaves Territories in your Estate vacant (with neither Workers nor Skyscrapers in them), you MUST place one of your Workers in each vacated Territory; if you lack enough Workers to do so, you may NOT perform the Demolish action this turn.[1]

6. After the Demolish step is complete, you MUST proceed to the Build step.[1]

Build Step

1. Add one of your unbuilt Skyscrapers to available space in your Estate, following the Rules of Construction.[3]

2. Ensure Skyscrapers fit entirely within your Estate and touch either a street or a park (corners do not count).[3]

3. Ensure you have unlocked the Skyscraper's Generation of Technology before adding it to the Game Board.[3]

4. Reclaim any Workers in Territories that you built in this turn.[3]

5. Score the points printed on the Skyscraper you built by advancing your Score Token on the Scoring Track based on the number printed on the Skyscraper.[3]

6. After the Build step is complete, play passes to the next player.[3]

[1] RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook · p.4 · Expand: · Demolish: · Playing the game

[2] RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook · p.5 · End of Game · -OR- · Scoring: · Streets of New York: · Bonus Challenge Cards: · Action Cards: · …

[3] RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook · p.4 · Build: · Rules of Construction

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 80 ms · ask 4301 ms · total 8656 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 4273 ms · generation 4383 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 3, "score": 0.048916, "snippet": "Before beginning Set Up, remove the Character Card for David Schneider along with all the pink Territory Cards, and place them back in the box (they will not be used this game). Place the Game Board in the center of the table, and arrange the 4 black Legendary Skyscrapers next to it, within reach of", "headingPath": "When playing with 2 players:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.048139, "snippet": "The end of the game is triggered when either: One player has only 4 unbuilt Skyscrapers remaining in front of them. There are only 3 cards remaining in the Open Market, and the Future Market is empty. When you trigger the end of the game, you will complete your final turn. Each other player will the", "headingPath": "End of Game · -OR- · Scoring: · Streets of New York: · Bonus Challenge Cards: · Action Cards: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.048131, "snippet": "If you have an available Worker at the start of your turn, then you can take one of the faceup Territory Cards from the Open Market and place it on top of your Character Card (to keep track of your growing Estate). Then place a Worker on top of a Territory on the board that matches both the color an", "headingPath": "Expand: · Demolish: · Playing the game", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.046875, "snippet": "Add one of your unbuilt Skyscrapers to available space in your Estate, following all the Rules of Construction . Reclaim any Workers in Territories that you built in this turn. Score the points printed on the Skyscraper you built by advancing your Score Token on the Scoring Track based on the number", "headingPath": "Build: · Rules of Construction", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.045688, "snippet": "Do not play with the Starter Buildings (players will have to build their empires from scratch). Silver and gold technologies are more difficult to unlock: Silver at 10 points Gold at 25 points Note: Symbols on the Scoring Track mark these thresholds", "headingPath": "For Advanced Players:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Districts: The Game Board is divided into 5 Districts represented by the different colored areas on the board. Territories: There are 13 Territories in each District, marked by the solid lines (dotted lines are only used to aid with the placement of Skyscrapers within Territories). Territories come ", "headingPath": "The Game Board: · Workers: · Score Tokens: · Territory Cards: · Character Cards: · Streets of New York Cards: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Each Skyscraper in this game represents a real-world skyscraper that was at one point standing in New York City. Skyscrapers are added to the board to score points during the Build step of your turn. The number printed on each Skyscraper represents the number of points you will score when you Build ", "headingPath": "Skyscrapers: · Legendary Skyscrapers: · Starter Buildings:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.029644, "snippet": "Early graphic design support: Sylvain Dubuc. The playtesters at Steakand-Shake: Kevin G. Nunn, Nicholas Vitek, John Eyster, David Infortunio, Luther Bell Hendricks V, Danielle Harding, Bill Scherer. The playtesters on Facebook: Jarek Smith, Luke Laurie, Jeff Cornelius, Shoji McGhee, Dominique DeMill", "headingPath": "Credits and Acknowledgments:", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Expand: · Demolish: · Playing the game", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "End of Game · -OR- · Scoring: · Streets of New York: · Bonus Challenge Cards: · Action Cards: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Build: · Rules of Construction", "sharpsignalDocId": 1255}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 1255 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 1255 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 0.92447 of 2105 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 6, 2026 11:15 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 New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	When playing with 2 players:	p.3	0.048916 (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 New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	End of Game · -OR- · Scoring: · Streets of New York: · Bonus Challenge Cards: · Action Cards: · …	p.5	0.048139 (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 New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Expand: · Demolish: · Playing the game	p.4	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
#4	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Build: · Rules of Construction	p.4	0.046875 (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 New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	For Advanced Players:	p.5	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))	249
#6	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	The Game Board: · Workers: · Score Tokens: · Territory Cards: · Character Cards: · Streets of New York Cards: · …	p.2	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
#7	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Skyscrapers: · Legendary Skyscrapers: · Starter Buildings:	p.3	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))	300
#8	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Credits and Acknowledgments:	p.8	0.029644 (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 12 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 New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Expand: · Demolish: · Playing the game	p.4	#3	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
#2	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Build: · Rules of Construction	p.4	#4	0.046875 (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 New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	For Advanced Players:	p.5	#5	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
#4	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Skyscrapers: · Legendary Skyscrapers: · Starter Buildings:	p.3	#7	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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	· Example 1 · · · Example 2 · · · Example 3 ·	p.6	#10	0.014286 (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 New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Bonus Challenge Cards · Bronze Baron · Master Architect · Generation King · Gold Tycoon · Gold Prestige · …	p.8	#9	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
#7	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	End of Game · -OR- · Scoring: · Streets of New York: · Bonus Challenge Cards: · Action Cards: · …	p.5	#2	0.048139 (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 New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	When playing with 2 players:	p.3	#1	0.048916 (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 New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Expand: · Demolish: · Playing the game	p.4	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	End of Game · -OR- · Scoring: · Streets of New York: · Bonus Challenge Cards: · Action Cards: · …	p.5	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK New York 1901 — Rulebook (corpus doc 1255)	Build: · Rules of Construction	p.4	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 80 ms · first delta 1281 ms · total 8656 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 4273 ms · retrieval 80 ms · ask 4301 ms · gateway work 4383 ms · total 8656 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3015
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 603
tok/sec: 201.5 tok/sec — 603 output tokens in 2.993 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 19s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 10s 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 1185), 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.