You asked
How do I setup the game?
Answered counted as answeredThe provided sources contain different setup procedures depending on the specific game or map being played: **Standard Setup (5.1)** 1. Assign one faction to each player in any way, determine the starting player and seating order randomly, and each player takes their chosen faction board and the pieces listed on its back [1]. 2. Each player places their score marker on '0' on the score track [1]. 3. If playing with two players, remove all four dominance cards from the deck, shuffle the deck, and each player draws three cards [1]. 4. Place a ruin in each slot on the map marked with an 'R' (four in total) [1]. 5. Place 2 M, 2 B, 1 C, 1 H, 2 S, 2 T, and 2 X on the corresponding spaces of the item supply near the top of the map [1]. 6. Hand out the 16 faction overview cards as desired and place the two battle dice near the map [1]. 7. In setup order (A, B, C, etc.), each player follows their faction's setup instructions listed in their rules section and on the back of their faction board [1]. **Winter Map Setup** 1. Take out 12 suit markers, flip them face down, and shuffle them [2]. 2. Place one suit marker near each clearing on the map [2]. 3. Flip all suit markers over and set up the game as normal [2]. **Advanced Setup (Appendix A)** 1. Agree whether to omit any factions from the draft pool; note that you cannot include both the Vagabond and the Knaves of the Deepwood [3]. 2. If including the Vagabond, choose whether to include one or both Vagabond setup cards [3]. 3. Shuffle all militant faction setup cards (red name with sword) and deal one card to a pool in the center of the table [3]. 4. Shuffle the remaining militant faction setup cards with all insurgent faction setup cards (grey name with no sword) and deal one faction setup card per player (note: there will be one more card than the number of players) [3]. 5. If playing with two players, remove all insurgent faction setup cards before dealing [3]. 6. If the last faction setup card dealt is an insurgent, turn it sideways to show it is locked and cannot be chosen unless at least one militant faction has been chosen [3]. 7. If a Vagabond faction setup card is dealt, also deal one random character card next to it face up; if a player chooses this faction, they must use this character card [3]. 8. If a Knaves of the Deepwood faction setup card is dealt, also deal four random Captain cards next to it face up [3]. 9. Starting with the last player in turn order and going counterclockwise, each player chooses one faction setup card from the pool and sets up the faction immediately as described [3]. **Setup for other specific games/rules mentioned:** * **Game 17.3:** 1. Form a supply of 20 warriors [4]; 2. Place 4 warriors in a corner clearing (starting clearing) and 2 warriors in a different clearing [4]; 3. Fill your Assemblies track on your player board with your 6 assemblies [4]. * **Game 16.3:** 1. Form a supply of 20 warriors and 12 enclaves [5]; 2. Place 5 warriors and 1 enclave on the Peaceful side of a clearing on the river (starting clearing) [5]; 3. In a two-player game, remove the Frog Dominance card permanently [5]; 4. Shuffle all Frog cards into the shared deck (14 cards, or 13 if the Frog Dominance card was removed) and place the Pond placard near the shared deck [5].
Strategy guides → — community tips, kept separate from rulings
🔧 debug — where this ruling came from
- outcome
- ANSWERED — Answered
- corpus profile
- live
- answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only)
- gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
- timings
- search 225 ms · ask 13994 ms · total 14231 ms
- single-flight (PR-5)
- queued 0 ms · generation 14231 ms
- retrieval refs (raw)
- [{"page": 4, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "If any players are new to the game, use the Standard Setup (5.1) If everyone has played and you want more variety, use the Advanced Setup (Appendix A). If you want to play with five or more factions that would start in corner clearings, you must use the Advanced Setup.", "headingPath": "5. Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "Follow the modified setup rules on the first two pages of the Walking /Through Root booklet. Once you have set up the game, give the players an overview of Root's theme and the victory conditions for each faction. Now you're ready to play.", "headingPath": "Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 75}, {"page": 23, "score": 0.030798, "snippet": "Before playing on the winter map, take out the 12 suit markers, flip them face down, and shuffle them. /Then, place one suit marker near each clearing on the map. A/fter a suit marker has been added to each clearing, flip them all over, and set up the game as normal. Note the different placement of ", "headingPath": "Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 75}, {"page": 23, "score": 0.028624, "snippet": "As a group, you may choose and set up factions as described in the Standard Setup (5.1) or you may use the faction setup cards included in the Marauder and Homeland Expansions, as described below. A.8.1 Step 1: Create Dra/ft Pool. Agree whether you will omit any factions from the game. You can- not ", "headingPath": "A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 19, "score": 0.02758, "snippet": "16.3.1 Step 1: Gather Pieces. Form a supply of 20 warriors and 12 enclaves. 16.3.2 Step 2: Place Warriors and Enclave. In a clearing on the river, place 5 warriors and 1 enclave on its Peaceful side. /This is your starting clearing. 16.3.3 Step 3: Remove Dominance. In a two-player game, remove the F", "headingPath": "16.3 Faction Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 31, "score": 0.022059, "snippet": "hand limit and, 3.3.2 taking available, 3.3.4 winning with, 3.3.1.I-II Faction dra/fting in advanced setup, A.8 pieces, 1.5.2 standard setup, 5.1.1, 5.1.7 Ferry piece, M.3.5 Forests, 2.4 on lake map, M.3.4 on mountain map, M.4.5 Glossary, Appendix G Hirelings rules for, Appendix H setup for, A.6 Hit", "headingPath": "Decks, A.2", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.015873, "snippet": "5.1.1 Step 1: Assign Factions and Starting Player. Assign one faction to each player in any way. Determine the starting player and seating order randomly. Each player takes their chosen faction board and the pieces listed on its back. 5.1.2 Step 2: Place Score Markers. Each player places their score", "headingPath": "5.1 Standard Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.015625, "snippet": "To set up an interesting game, choose factions whose reach values add up to at least the total reach recommended for your player count. (Adventurous players are welcome to use any faction mix with 17+ Reach.) | Viable Reach Sums | Viable Reach Sums | Viable Reach Sums | Viable Reach Sums | Viable Re", "headingPath": "5.2 Reach", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}]
- citations (raw)
- [{"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "5.1 Standard Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 23, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 75}, {"page": 23, "quote": null, "headingPath": "A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 20, "quote": null, "headingPath": "17.3 Faction Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}, {"page": 19, "quote": null, "headingPath": "16.3 Faction Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 56}]
- boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
-
no registered errata card matched this query; base-rulebook boost: not recorded (this ruling predates it); rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base-rulebook boost: not recorded (this ruling predates it)
- 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)
- debug row retained until
- Oct 31, 2026 01:41
retrieval — what the search arm returned
score = the fused retrieval score (reciprocal-rank fusion over the search arms) — NOT a cosine similarity. How many arms fused this ruling was NOT RECORDED (it predates the boost trail, ran on the path that stored none, or stored one that could not be read), and the ceiling depends on that count (ceiling = arms/(k+1) at k=60): 2 arms top out at 0.03279; 3 arms top out at 0.04918. So a score above 0.03279 here is not an anomaly: it is arithmetic proof a boost arm voted, and the measured band 0.016–0.033 (taken on two-arm asks) is what does not apply. 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 Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | 5. Setup | p.4 | 0.032787 (at the 2-arm ceiling (0.03279) — the top of a 2-arm fuse; whether more arms ran here was never recorded) | 269 |
| #2 | RULEBOOK Root — Learning to Play (corpus doc 75) | Setup | p.3 | 0.032258 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded)) | 239 |
| #3 | RULEBOOK Root — Learning to Play (corpus doc 75) | Setup | p.23 | 0.030798 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded)) | 300 |
| #4 | RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions | p.23 | 0.028624 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded)) | 300 |
| #5 | RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | 16.3 Faction Setup | p.19 | 0.02758 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded)) | 300 |
| #6 | RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | Decks, A.2 | p.31 | 0.022059 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded)) | 300 |
| #7 | RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | 5.1 Standard Setup | p.5 | 0.015873 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded) | 300 |
| #8 | RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | 5.2 Reach | p.5 | 0.015625 (below the measured healthy band (< 0.016) — a weak fuse on a two-arm ask, and this ruling's arm count was never recorded) | 300 |
chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited
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.
| # | document | heading | page | quote chars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [1] | RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | 5.1 Standard Setup | p.5 | no quote on the wire |
| [2] | RULEBOOK Root — Learning to Play (corpus doc 75) | Setup | p.23 | no quote on the wire |
| [3] | RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | A.8 Step 8: Set Up Factions | p.23 | no quote on the wire |
| [4] | RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | 17.3 Faction Setup | p.20 | no quote on the wire |
| [5] | RULEBOOK Root — Law of Root (corpus doc 56) | 16.3 Faction Setup | p.19 | no quote on the wire |
generation — timing and the path taken
- timing split
- retrieval 225 ms · first delta n/a · total 14231 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 225 ms · ask 13994 ms · gateway work 14231 ms · total 14231 ms
- live seat (read from the running child)
- answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 57s ago)
- stream path
- not recorded — this ruling predates the stream-path column (V41)
- 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 6), 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.