Ruling — The Pillars of the Earth

You asked

How do I setup the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: The Pillars of the Earthbg-24480-en-1e

To setup the game, follow these steps:

1. Place the game board in the center of the table.[1]

2. Each player chooses a color (blue, red, green or yellow) and receives 3 master builders, 1 large worker, and 7 small workers in that color.[1]

3. Players place their workers in front of them as a supply.[1]

4. Place the master builders in the cloth bag, which is placed next to the game board.[1]

5. Each player receives 3 starting craftsman cards (1 mortar mixer, 1 woodworker, and 1 stonecutter) in their player color and places them face-up in front of them.[1]

6. Each player receives 1 game overview card in their player color.[1]

7. The starting player (the player who most recently saw a cathedral) places their scoring marker (wooden disk) on the '2' space of the victory point track and their wealth marker on the '20' space.[1]

8. Other players place their scoring markers on the '2' space of the victory point track and their wealth markers on the '21', '22', and '23' spaces respectively.[1]

9. Sort the 24 craftsman cards by the round in which they appear (numbers 1-6 on the back), shuffle each of the 6 stacks of 4 cards, and place them in order next to the board.[1]

10. Shuffle the 9 building resource cards.[1]

11. From the 16 advantage cards, remove the 2 cards designated for the final round (marked with a round window in the corners) and place them next to the board.[2]

12. Shuffle the remaining 14 advantage cards, remove 4 from the game (hidden), and place the remaining 10 face down in a pile on top of the 2 final round cards.[2]

13. Shuffle the 6 event cards, remove 4 from the game (hidden), and place the remaining 6 face down on the event cards space in the top right-hand corner of the board.[2]

14. Place the building resources (wooden cubes) on the board: wood (brown) in the forest, stone (gray) in the quarry, and sand (beige) in the gravel pit.[2]

15. Place 4 sand, 4 wood, and 4 stone cubes on the spaces in the Kingsbridge resource market: sand on '2' spaces, wood on '3' spaces, and stone on '4' spaces.[2]

16. Place 1 metal (blue cube) in the King's court and the rest of the metal cubes next to the game board.[2]

17. Place the 4 gray workers in Shiring Castle and the 1 black worker next to the board.[2]

18. Place the black cost marker next to the number 7 on the cost track.[2]

19. Place the remaining 5 cathedral pieces and the die next to the game board.[2]

20. The starting player turns over the top 2 cards of the advantage card deck and places them face up on the spaces in Kingsbridge.[3]

21. Take the 4 craftsman cards for the first round, turn over the top 2 cards, and place them face up on the spaces in Shiring.[3]

[1] RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook · p.3 · P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E

[2] RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook · p.4 · P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E · GOAL OF THE GAME

[3] RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook · p.4 · S U M M A R Y O F G A M E P L A Y · S E Q U E N C E O F A G A M E R O U N D

The book has spoken.

🔧 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 308 ms · ask 5445 ms · total 5756 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 5756 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 5, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "Place the remaining 2 craftsmen face up at the bottom of the game board, on the 2 lighter colored fields. Draw the top 7 building resources cards. Sort them by type and place them face up next to the 2 craftsman cards. Set aside the 2 remaining building resource cards as they will not be used in thi", "headingPath": "S E Q U E N C E O F A G A M E R O U N D · Phase I: Select Building Resource Cards and Craftsman Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "Place the game board in the center of the table. Each player chooses a color (blue, red, green or yellow) and receives 3 master builders, 1 large worker, and 7 small workers in that color . The large worker is equal to 5 small workers, so each player starts with a total of 12 workers. Players place ", "headingPath": "P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "From the 16 advantage cards, remove the 2 advantage cards designated for the final round, which are marked with a round window in the corners. Place them next to the board. Shuffle the remaining 14 advantage cards. Then, remove 4 of them from the game (these cards remain hidden ; do not look at them", "headingPath": "P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E · GOAL OF THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "The player whose master builder was drawn first can now choose whether to place the master builder (for a cost of 7 gold) or to pass (and lose the first action!) If the player decides to place a master builder, he or she places the master builder on the chosen space and moves his or her wealth marke", "headingPath": "Phase II: Master Builder Assignment", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "After the building resource cards and craftsman cards have been distributed, the starting player takes the bag containing each player's 3 master builders. Without looking, the starting player draws the first master builder from the bag and places it on the black cost marker. The player whose master ", "headingPath": "Phase II: Master Builder Assignment", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "At the end of a round, all players build the cathedral. In doing this, their craftsmen convert building resources into victory points, according to individual their abilities. How many and which building resources are converted into victory points depend on which craftsmen a player has (see 'The Cra", "headingPath": "13. Cathedral: Victory points from craftsmen · 14. Change the starting player", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "The game is played over 6 rounds. Each round represents several years in the building process. At the end of the game, the cathedral is complete. Each round is divided into 3 phases. While that sounds complex and long, the game is actually played in Phases I and II. Phase III requires very little ti", "headingPath": "S U M M A R Y O F G A M E P L A Y · S E Q U E N C E O F A G A M E R O U N D", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "In this phase, the players resolve the actions associated with each numbered location on the game board. The actions are resolved in numerical order, which corresponds to a clockwise direction around the board. The master builders are returned to the bag once the actions of a location have been comp", "headingPath": "Phase III: Game Board Actions (in Clockwise Order) · 1. Events: Reveal the top event card · 2. Archbishop's seat: Protection from events · 3. Wool mill: Collect income · 4. Kingsbridge: Take an advantage card", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E · GOAL OF THE GAME", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "S U M M A R Y O F G A M E P L A Y · S E Q U E N C E O F A G A M E R O U N D", "sharpsignalDocId": 463}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 463 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 463 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 0.87827 of 2177 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 13, 2026 22:29 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 The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	S E Q U E N C E O F A G A M E R O U N D · Phase I: Select Building Resource Cards and Craftsman Cards	p.5	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E	p.3	0.032258 (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 The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E · GOAL OF THE GAME	p.4	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
#4	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	Phase II: Master Builder Assignment	p.6	0.03125 (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 The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	Phase II: Master Builder Assignment	p.5	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
#6	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	13. Cathedral: Victory points from craftsmen · 14. Change the starting player	p.8	0.030303 (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 The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	S U M M A R Y O F G A M E P L A Y · S E Q U E N C E O F A G A M E R O U N D	p.4	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 The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	Phase III: Game Board Actions (in Clockwise Order) · 1. Events: Reveal the top event card · 2. Archbishop's seat: Protection from events · 3. Wool mill: Collect income · 4. Kingsbridge: Take an advantage card	p.6	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 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 22 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 The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E · GOAL OF THE GAME	p.4	#3	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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	S E Q U E N C E O F A G A M E R O U N D · Phase I: Select Building Resource Cards and Craftsman Cards	p.5	#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
#3	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)		p.1	#15	0.013333 (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
#4	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	Phase III: Game Board Actions (in Clockwise Order) · 1. Events: Reveal the top event card · 2. Archbishop's seat: Protection from events · 3. Wool mill: Collect income · 4. Kingsbridge: Take an advantage card	p.6	#8	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
#5	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	Phase II: Master Builder Assignment	p.6	#4	0.03125 (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
#6	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	13. Cathedral: Victory points from craftsmen · 14. Change the starting player	p.8	#6	0.030303 (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 The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E	p.3	#2	0.032258 (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 The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	S U M M A R Y O F G A M E P L A Y · S E Q U E N C E O F A G A M E R O U N D	p.4	#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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E	p.3	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	P R E P A R A T I O N F O R T H E G A M E · GOAL OF THE GAME	p.4	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK The Pillars of the Earth — Rulebook (corpus doc 463)	S U M M A R Y O F G A M E P L A Y · S E Q U E N C E O F A G A M E R O U N D	p.4	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 308 ms · first delta 2032 ms · total 5756 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 308 ms · ask 5445 ms · gateway work 5756 ms · total 5756 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 4001
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 730
tok/sec: 201.0 tok/sec — 730 output tokens in 3.631 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 17s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 22h, checked 6s 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: 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

errata registry — what the gate above had to match against

this game registers NO errata cards (edition 393), 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.