You asked
how do i start this game?
Answered counted as answeredThe easiest way to learn and start the game is by following the Swift-Start guides [1][2]. Depending on your group size and mode, you can follow these specific instructions: * **For larger groups:** Distribute one guide to each player (starting with "Player 1") using the 10 Swift-Start cards marked with gray corners [1]. * **For Duet mode:** Use the 6 Swift-Start cards marked with red corners and distribute the "Player A" and "Player B" guides [2]. In both cases, you should proceed with all standard setup steps except for selecting birds and food tokens; instead, the guides will instruct which cards and food each player starts with [1][2]. For your first game in Duet mode, it is specifically recommended to use these Swift-Start guides [3].
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)
- unset-dev (corpus lane freezes the deploy value)
- timings
- search 108 ms · ask 4562 ms · total 4679 ms
- single-flight (PR-5)
- queued 0 ms · generation 4679 ms
- retrieval refs (raw)
- [{"page": 3, "score": 0.031778, "snippet": "This is a detailed rulebook, but you can learn the entire game by using the Swift-Start cards and guides. We recommend using these guides for your first game. 6/15/21 7:35 AM TIP: When selecting bird cards, think about how they will help you get more cards or food early in the game. Brown powers can", "headingPath": "Player Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 45}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "The easiest way to learn Wingspan is by following the Swift-Start guides. Distribute 1 guide to each player, with the first player getting the Player A guide. Proceed with all setup steps in this rulebook as normal, except for selecting birds and food tokens. Instead, the guides will instruct which ", "headingPath": "Duet Mode Swift-Start Guides and Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 49}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.031054, "snippet": "The easiest way to learn Wingspan is by following the Swift-Start guides. Distribute 1 guide per player clockwise around the table, starting with the guide labeled 'Player 1.' Proceed with all setup steps in this rulebook as normal, except for selecting birds and food tokens. Instead, the guides wil", "headingPath": "6/9/21 4:20 PM Swift-Start Guides and Cards:", "sharpsignalDocId": 45}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.029236, "snippet": "The game ends at the conclusion of Round 4. After activating yellow 'Game End' powers, use the scorepad to add together the following: Points for each face-up bird card on your player mat (printed on the cards) Points for each bonus card (printed on the cards) Points for end-of-round goals (shown on", "headingPath": "Game End and Scoring", "sharpsignalDocId": 49}, {"page": 15, "score": 0.028475, "snippet": "This method uses the side of the goal board that has rankings 5-4-3-2-1-0 next to the space for each goal. For example, when using the goal that scores 5, 2, or 1 points, if two players tie for 1st place, each gets 3 points (5 + 2 divided by 2 players, rounded down). Do not award 2nd place to anothe", "headingPath": "Blue: One point per targeted item", "sharpsignalDocId": 49}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.026294, "snippet": "This method uses the side of the goal board that has spaces labeled 5-4-3-2-1-0 next to the space for each goal. For example, when using the goal that scores 5, 2, or 1 points, if two players tie for 1st place, each gets 3 points (5 + 2 divided by 2 players, rounded down). Do not award 2nd place to ", "headingPath": "Blue: One point per targeted item", "sharpsignalDocId": 45}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.025062, "snippet": "The Asia Expansion includes a new Duet mode for exactly 2 players. It includes all other setup steps as shown on this page, but the following replaces step 5 (Goal Tiles): Duet map and Goal tiles. Use the Duet map and Duet endof-round goal tiles. The goals are double-sided and marked with red corner", "headingPath": "Duet Mode (2 Players)", "sharpsignalDocId": 49}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.022836, "snippet": "If you activate a power that gives things to 'all players' or 'other players,' it affects all players at the table, including the other active player. However, the other active player is only affected after finishing their turn. They cannot use any resources gained from your power on their turn. In ", "headingPath": "'All Players' and 'Other Players' powers", "sharpsignalDocId": 49}]
- citations (raw)
- [{"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "6/9/21 4:20 PM Swift-Start Guides and Cards:", "sharpsignalDocId": 45}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Duet Mode Swift-Start Guides and Cards", "sharpsignalDocId": 49}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Game End and Scoring", "sharpsignalDocId": 49}]
- boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
- gate not evaluated for this ruling (boost, supersedence, and wrench all off at ask time), and the base-rulebook arm went unrecorded for the same reason — the wrench that would have stored it was off; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=false, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=false
- 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 9, 2026 00:06
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 Wingspan — Rulebook (corpus doc 45) | Player Setup | p.3 | 0.031778 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded)) | 300 |
| #2 | RULEBOOK Wingspan — Asia Rulebook (corpus doc 49) | Duet Mode Swift-Start Guides and Cards | p.5 | 0.031746 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded)) | 300 |
| #3 | RULEBOOK Wingspan — Rulebook (corpus doc 45) | 6/9/21 4:20 PM Swift-Start Guides and Cards: | p.3 | 0.031054 (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 Wingspan — Asia Rulebook (corpus doc 49) | Game End and Scoring | p.5 | 0.029236 (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 Wingspan — Asia Rulebook (corpus doc 49) | Blue: One point per targeted item | p.15 | 0.028475 (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 Wingspan — Rulebook (corpus doc 45) | Blue: One point per targeted item | p.11 | 0.026294 (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 Wingspan — Asia Rulebook (corpus doc 49) | Duet Mode (2 Players) | p.2 | 0.025062 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; this ruling's arm count was never recorded)) | 300 |
| #8 | RULEBOOK Wingspan — Asia Rulebook (corpus doc 49) | 'All Players' and 'Other Players' powers | p.13 | 0.022836 (inside the measured healthy band 0.016–0.033 (measured on two-arm asks; 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 Wingspan — Rulebook (corpus doc 45) | 6/9/21 4:20 PM Swift-Start Guides and Cards: | p.3 | no quote on the wire |
| [2] | RULEBOOK Wingspan — Asia Rulebook (corpus doc 49) | Duet Mode Swift-Start Guides and Cards | p.5 | no quote on the wire |
| [3] | RULEBOOK Wingspan — Asia Rulebook (corpus doc 49) | Game End and Scoring | p.5 | no quote on the wire |
generation — timing and the path taken
- timing split
- retrieval 108 ms · first delta n/a · total 4679 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 108 ms · ask 4562 ms · gateway work 4679 ms · total 4679 ms
- live seat (read from the running child)
- answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 48s 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
- SERVED — setup-shaped and this game's approved setup checklist is offered above
- pattern that matched
- HOW_DO_I_START — "how do I start"
- matched words (in the normalized question)
-
how do i start
errata registry — what the gate above had to match against
6 errata cards registered for edition 3 — these are what the gate above had to match against
- anatomist · HEADING_EXTRACTED · Wingspan — Update Pack (Corrected Bonus Cards) · corpus doc 66 · p.2
- belted kingfisher · HAND_PINNED · Wingspan — Update Pack (Corrected Bird Cards) · corpus doc 65 · p.17
- ecologist · HEADING_EXTRACTED · Wingspan — Update Pack (Corrected Bonus Cards) · corpus doc 66 · p.5
- oologist · HEADING_EXTRACTED · Wingspan — Update Pack (Corrected Bonus Cards) · corpus doc 66 · p.1
- photographer · HEADING_EXTRACTED · Wingspan — Update Pack (Corrected Bonus Cards) · corpus doc 66 · p.3
- rodentologist · HEADING_EXTRACTED · Wingspan — Update Pack (Corrected Bonus Cards) · corpus doc 66 · p.4
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.