Ruling — Guards of Atlantis II

← Guards of Atlantis II

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Guards of Atlantis IIbg-267609-en-1e

Setup

1. Place the board as shown.[1]

2. Split players into two equal teams: 'Team red' and 'Team blue'.[1]

3. Flip the Tie Breaker coin in the air and place it, result side up, near the corner of the board.[1]

4. Place a number of Wave counters next to the edge of the board based on desired game length: 3 for a Quick game or 5 for a Long game.[1]

5. Take a number of blue and red Life counters based on chosen game length and total player count, and place them on the corresponding Throne with their 'unspent' side up.[1]

6. Place the coins within reach of all players.[1]

7. Distribute hero dashboards to players (e.g., in a 4-player game, randomly distribute 'Wasp the Warmaiden' and 'Xargatha the Changed' to the Red team, and 'Arien the Tidemaster' and 'Brogan the Destroyer' to the Blue team).[1]

8. Place the dashboards in front of the players.[1]

9. Each player takes a Level indicator card and tucks it under the left edge of their hero dashboard to indicate a starting level of 1.[1]

10. For 8 or more players, use the double-lane map.[2]

11. When using a double-lane map, place minions in the two starting Battle Zones.[2]

13. When playing with more than 3 heroes per team, place any remaining heroes into empty spaces adjacent to their team's occupied hero spawn points.[2]

Round Structure and Turn Sequence

1. The game is split into rounds, with each round consisting of four turns.[3]

2. On each turn, all players simultaneously select and play one Action card from their hand facedown on any clear area of the game board.[3]

3. You must play a card if able, even if your hero is not on the board; if you have no cards left, you must announce you are passing.[3]

4. Once all players have played a card facedown or passed, reveal the cards by flipping them faceup.[3]

5. Determine the initiative order using the number in the top left corner of the Action card; the highest Initiative acts first, followed by the next-highest.[3]

6. Break ties using the Tie Breaker coin; the player on the team whose symbol is currently revealed on the coin acts first.[3]

7. When it is your time to act, choose one and only one of the available actions to perform.[3]

8. After four turns, the round ends, players take their cards back into their hand, and a new round begins.[3]

Actions and Mechanics

* Actions: Most cards have one Primary action and one or more secondary actions.[3] You may also choose a "Hold" action, which means doing nothing that turn.[3][4]

* Movement: You may use a secondary Movement action to move.[4]

* Attack: A Basic Attack targets a unit adjacent to you; before attacking, you may move another Tie Breaker coin.[3]

* Pushing: When a unit or token is pushed, it moves in a straight line directly away from the pushing unit for the specified distance.[5]

* Minions: Minions automatically fight other minions between rounds.[6] If all opposing minions are destroyed, your minions advance one Zone closer to the enemy Throne, which becomes the new Battle Zone.[6]

Winning the Game

The game ends in one of three ways:

1. Pushing the Lane: Your minions push the Lane into the enemy Throne.[6][7]

2. Defeating Heroes: You defeat enemy heroes until their team runs out of Life counters.[7]

3. Time Runs Out: When the last Wave counter is removed, the game ends immediately, and the team that won the last Push wins.[7]

[1] RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook · p.6 · Overview · 1. Place the Board · 2. Split into Two Equal Teams · 3. Place the Tie Breaker Coin · 4. Place the Wave Counters · 5. Place the Life Counters · …

[2] RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook · p.21 · PLAYING ON A DOUBLE-LANE MAP

[3] RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook · p.8 · 10. Place Minion Miniatures · ROUND STRUCTURE · Play One Card · Check the Initiative · Tied Initiative · Perform One Action · …

[4] RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook · p.13 · HOLD ACTION

[5] RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook · p.19 · Next Turn (Active Effect) · Next Turn, After Playing Cards (Active Effect) · Obstacle · Place · Push (Unit / Token)

[6] RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook · p.4 · Heroes · Teams · Zones and Thrones · Minions · Battle Zone and 'Pushing a Lane'

[7] RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook · p.4 · Action Cards · Read all the cards carefully! · Defeating Enemy Heroes · Last Push · Line of Sight

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 180 ms · ask 11621 ms · total 13286 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 1481 ms · generation 11805 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 8, "score": 0.048131, "snippet": "7 The game is split into rounds. Each round consists of four turns. On each turn, all players select and play one card simultaneously, then resolve them, one by one, in the initiative order. After four turns, the round ends, players take their cards back into their hand, and a new round begins. This", "headingPath": "10. Place Minion Miniatures · ROUND STRUCTURE · Play One Card · Check the Initiative · Tied Initiative · Perform One Action · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 23, "score": 0.045928, "snippet": "You can use the hero profile cards to form the teams. There is no single 'correct' way to select heroes, it comes down to the time it takes, player experience, player count, and personal preference. Shuffle all hero profile cards (of appropriate complexity) and deal one randomly to each player. This", "headingPath": "HERO SELECTION METHODS · All Random · All Pick · Single Draft · Random Draft · Player Draft · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.045262, "snippet": "In Guards of Atlantis II , each player is represented by a single hero. Heroes differ vastly from one another in their abilities, playstyle, and complexity. Over the course of the game, heroes collect coins and spend them to upgrade their starting abilities and obtain new ones, becoming increasingly", "headingPath": "Heroes · Teams · Zones and Thrones · Minions · Battle Zone and 'Pushing a Lane'", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 24, "score": 0.04374, "snippet": "This page is meant to be used for quick reference only. For full rules, refer to the corresponding page. 3x Wave counters 4x Life counters per team (4 Players) 5x Life counters per team (6 Players) Pages 5-6 5x Wave counters 6x Life counters per team (4-5 Players) 8x Life counters per team (6 Player", "headingPath": "Pick/Ban Order · Quick Game Setup · Long Game Setup · Game Structure · On each Turn, all players: · End of Round steps: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.043697, "snippet": "Guards of Atlantis II has strict rules for communication during the game. Following them ensures that the game is played as intended and runs smoothly. Several heroes are designed and balanced with these rules in mind. Between turns, you are free to discuss strategy with your team, but it must be do", "headingPath": "Table Talk · Hidden Information · Overview", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "5 Take the board and place it as shown. Players must split into two equal teams. One team is 'Team red' and the other team is 'Team blue' . Take the Tie Breaker coin, flip it in the air, and then place it, result side up, near the corner of the board, as shown. Tie Breaker coin Place a number of Wav", "headingPath": "Overview · 1. Place the Board · 2. Split into Two Equal Teams · 3. Place the Tie Breaker Coin · 4. Place the Wave Counters · 5. Place the Life Counters · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 16, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "Choose a non-basic Action card in your hand with the lowest card Tier or tied for the lowest. Return this card to your deck. Your Basic cards (Gold and Silver), are never upgraded, have no Tier, and are not considered when checking your lowest card Tier. Find two Action cards in your deck that have ", "headingPath": "Upgrade a Card", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 16, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "Your hero starts the game at level 1. When you collect enough coins, you must purchase a level up. Coins are usually gained by defeating enemy heroes and minions. Several heroes are able to gain coins by performing special actions. Leveling up is not optional! At the end of each round, you must purc", "headingPath": "LEVELING UP", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Overview · 1. Place the Board · 2. Split into Two Equal Teams · 3. Place the Tie Breaker Coin · 4. Place the Wave Counters · 5. Place the Life Counters · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 21, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PLAYING ON A DOUBLE-LANE MAP", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "10. Place Minion Miniatures · ROUND STRUCTURE · Play One Card · Check the Initiative · Tied Initiative · Perform One Action · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 13, "quote": null, "headingPath": "HOLD ACTION", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 19, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Next Turn (Active Effect) · Next Turn, After Playing Cards (Active Effect) · Obstacle · Place · Push (Unit / Token)", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Heroes · Teams · Zones and Thrones · Minions · Battle Zone and 'Pushing a Lane'", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Action Cards · Read all the cards carefully! · Defeating Enemy Heroes · Last Push · Line of Sight", "sharpsignalDocId": 784}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 784 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 784 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 0.89417 of 2797 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Sep 20, 2026 09:24 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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	10. Place Minion Miniatures · ROUND STRUCTURE · Play One Card · Check the Initiative · Tied Initiative · Perform One Action · …	p.8	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
#2	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	HERO SELECTION METHODS · All Random · All Pick · Single Draft · Random Draft · Player Draft · …	p.23	0.045928 (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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Heroes · Teams · Zones and Thrones · Minions · Battle Zone and 'Pushing a Lane'	p.4	0.045262 (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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Pick/Ban Order · Quick Game Setup · Long Game Setup · Game Structure · On each Turn, all players: · End of Round steps: · …	p.24	0.04374 (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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Table Talk · Hidden Information · Overview	p.5	0.043697 (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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Overview · 1. Place the Board · 2. Split into Two Equal Teams · 3. Place the Tie Breaker Coin · 4. Place the Wave Counters · 5. Place the Life Counters · …	p.6	0.032787 (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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Upgrade a Card	p.16	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
#8	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	LEVELING UP	p.16	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

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 73 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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	10. Place Minion Miniatures · ROUND STRUCTURE · Play One Card · Check the Initiative · Tied Initiative · Perform One Action · …	p.8	#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))	vector + full-text + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#2	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Overview · 1. Place the Board · 2. Split into Two Equal Teams · 3. Place the Tie Breaker Coin · 4. Place the Wave Counters · 5. Place the Life Counters · …	p.6	#6	0.032787 (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
#3	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Extended Player Counts · 2 Players · 8 or 10 Players · Odd Number of Players · Handicap Cards	p.21	#9	0.029551 (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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	PLAYING ON A DOUBLE-LANE MAP	p.21	#10	0.029236 (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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	HOLD ACTION	p.13	#13	0.027598 (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
#6	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Next Turn (Active Effect) · Next Turn, After Playing Cards (Active Effect) · Obstacle · Place · Push (Unit / Token)	p.19	#11	0.029199 (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
#7	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Heroes · Teams · Zones and Thrones · Minions · Battle Zone and 'Pushing a Lane'	p.4	#3	0.045262 (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 Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Action Cards · Read all the cards carefully! · Defeating Enemy Heroes · Last Push · Line of Sight	p.4	#16	0.026857 (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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Overview · 1. Place the Board · 2. Split into Two Equal Teams · 3. Place the Tie Breaker Coin · 4. Place the Wave Counters · 5. Place the Life Counters · …	p.6	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	PLAYING ON A DOUBLE-LANE MAP	p.21	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	10. Place Minion Miniatures · ROUND STRUCTURE · Play One Card · Check the Initiative · Tied Initiative · Perform One Action · …	p.8	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	HOLD ACTION	p.13	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Next Turn (Active Effect) · Next Turn, After Playing Cards (Active Effect) · Obstacle · Place · Push (Unit / Token)	p.19	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Heroes · Teams · Zones and Thrones · Minions · Battle Zone and 'Pushing a Lane'	p.4	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Guards of Atlantis II — Rulebook (corpus doc 784)	Action Cards · Read all the cards carefully! · Defeating Enemy Heroes · Last Push · Line of Sight	p.4	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 180 ms · first delta 7256 ms · total 13286 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 1481 ms · retrieval 180 ms · ask 11621 ms · gateway work 11805 ms · total 13286 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 4354
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 855
tok/sec: 194.4 tok/sec — 855 output tokens in 4.399 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 57s 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 719), 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.