You asked
How do I setup the game?
Abstained — no grounded answer; closest passages below counted as honest abstainAsked with: Fire in the Lakebg-144189-en-1e
I looked through Fire in the Lake's rulebook and couldn't find a solid answer to that one — and I'd rather tell you so than guess at your table. Try asking it another way, or ask me about setup, turns, or how the game ends: those I know cold.
The closest rulebook passages are below — check them before ruling.
GUIDELINES: Unless otherwise specified, carry out whatever actions apply to the maximum extent (such as in the most spaces or with the most pieces allowed and only as long as needed pieces and Resources are available). Normal Resource costs, requirements, and procedures apply. EXAMPLE: Non-Player VC
Similarly track with markers on the edge track the following totals that affect victory (7.0). Total Support (1.6.2) plus the number of US Troops and Bases Available (1.4.1). Total Population Controlled by the NVA plus the number of NVA Bases on the map (1.7). Total Population Controlled by the COIN
For multiple free Operations (such as 'Sweep then Assault'), use the priorities for the first. Where not applicable, choose pieces per 8.1.2 and spaces randomly (8.2-8.3). NOTE: If there is a choice among Operations, use the Faction's flowchart to select one. If there is a choice among Special Activ
Unless this is the final Coup Round, first relocate so each space with NVA Bases has at least 2 NVA units. Next relocate to add as much total NVA Control on the map as possible, moving in only the Troops needed to add Control. Then relocate to at least remove COIN Control where it is not possible to
If several candidate Provinces or Cities have equal priority for a Non-player Operation, Special Activity, or Event, select one using the Random Spaces Map: Roll two dice in succession: the first die thrown indicates the 'tens', the second die the 'ones' (Example: '2' followed by '6' is 26, Quang Tr
🔧 debug — where this ruling came from
- outcome
- ABSTAINED — Abstained — no grounded answer; closest passages below
- warm abstain
-
- this ruling — W1 — generic warm abstain · receipt: none (generic)
- corpus profile
- live
- answerer pin (deploy-frozen, attribution only)
- gemma4:26b think:false 5571076f3d70
- timings
- search 231 ms · ask 13984 ms · total 20479 ms
- single-flight (PR-5)
- queued 6253 ms · generation 14226 ms
- retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read
- [{"page": 13, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "GUIDELINES: Unless otherwise specified, carry out whatever actions apply to the maximum extent (such as in the most spaces or with the most pieces allowed and only as long as needed pieces and Resources are available). Normal Resource costs, requirements, and procedures apply. EXAMPLE: Non-Player VC", "headingPath": "8.1 Non-Player Sequence of Play", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "Similarly track with markers on the edge track the following totals that affect victory (7.0). Total Support (1.6.2) plus the number of US Troops and Bases Available (1.4.1). Total Population Controlled by the NVA plus the number of NVA Bases on the map (1.7). Total Population Controlled by the COIN", "headingPath": "1.9 Victory Markers · 2.1 Set Up · 2.2 Start", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 14, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "For multiple free Operations (such as 'Sweep then Assault'), use the priorities for the first. Where not applicable, choose pieces per 8.1.2 and spaces randomly (8.2-8.3). NOTE: If there is a choice among Operations, use the Faction's flowchart to select one. If there is a choice among Special Activ", "headingPath": "8.4 Non-Player Events", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 18, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "Unless this is the final Coup Round, first relocate so each space with NVA Bases has at least 2 NVA units. Next relocate to add as much total NVA Control on the map as possible, moving in only the Troops needed to add Control. Then relocate to at least remove COIN Control where it is not possible to", "headingPath": "8.6 Non-Player NVA Actions", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "If several candidate Provinces or Cities have equal priority for a Non-player Operation, Special Activity, or Event, select one using the Random Spaces Map: Roll two dice in succession: the first die thrown indicates the 'tens', the second die the 'ones' (Example: '2' followed by '6' is 26, Quang Tr", "headingPath": "8.2 Random Spaces", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 18, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "If the ARVN did not play the Event or Pass, they will Train (3.2.1) if at least one of the following conditions is met: There are at least 12 ARVN pieces in the Available box. Train alone (i.e., without any Transport) would place an ARVN Base. The ARVN attempted to Patrol but were unable to do so. I", "headingPath": "8.7 Non-Player ARVN Actions", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 21, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Finally Assault in all other spaces where any VC and/or NVA pieces can be removed, again using the same priorities as above to determine the exact order if necessary. IF NONE: If no US Assault is able to remove enemy pieces (even after Air Lift per below), US instead Sweeps per 8.8.5. AIR LIFT: Firs", "headingPath": "8.8 Non-Player US Actions", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}, {"page": 12, "score": 0.029514, "snippet": "You have read all rules needed for 4 players or the No Non-Player option with 2 or 3 players (1.5, recommended for first-time play). Check victory at the start of each Coup Round (6.1), comparing the positions of the various victory markers (1.9) to the thresholds marked on the edge track. Victory c", "headingPath": "STOP! · 7.2 During Coup Rounds · 7.3 After Final Coup", "sharpsignalDocId": 548}]
- citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show
- []
- boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3)
-
no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 548 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 548 boosted
- answered-before recall
-
no past answered ruling for this game matched closely enough
similarity threshold in force: 0.55 (rulesage.answered-before.similarity-threshold; the exact-question tier is not gated by it)
- debug row retained until
- Nov 8, 2026 22:25
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. How much wider that pool was is set gateway-side and is NOT REPORTED for this ruling, and neither are the answerer's final rows — so rulesage has nothing of its own to show beside these.
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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548) | 8.1 Non-Player Sequence of Play | p.13 | 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 |
| #2 | RULEBOOK Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548) | 1.9 Victory Markers · 2.1 Set Up · 2.2 Start | p.5 | 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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548) | 8.4 Non-Player Events | p.14 | 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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548) | 8.6 Non-Player NVA Actions | p.18 | 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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548) | 8.2 Random Spaces | p.13 | 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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548) | 8.7 Non-Player ARVN Actions | p.18 | 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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548) | 8.8 Non-Player US Actions | p.21 | 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 Fire in the Lake — Rulebook (corpus doc 548) | STOP! · 7.2 During Coup Rounds · 7.3 After Final Coup | p.12 | 0.029514 (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.
the passages the answerer read: NOT RECORDED for this ruling. Any of three things leaves this empty, and they are all different from the answerer having had nothing to read: this ask may never have reached a gateway at all; a multi-book ask keeps each book's own context on that book's own page rather than here; or the gateway build that answered may simply not report it. What this NEVER means is that the answerer read nothing — an answer was composed from passages either way, and their absence here is a gap in what we were told, not in what it read.
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 |
|---|
generation — timing and the path taken
- timing split
- retrieval 231 ms · first delta 14119 ms · total 20479 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
- full breakdown
- queued 6253 ms · retrieval 231 ms · ask 13984 ms · gateway work 14226 ms · total 20479 ms
- tokens in (the prompt the answerer read)
- 4079
- tokens out (what the answerer generated)
- 9
- tok/sec
- 140.6 tok/sec — 9 output tokens in 0.064 s of generation
- live seat (read from the running child)
- answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 51s ago)
- 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
- ABSTAINED — Abstained — no grounded answer; closest passages below
- abstain rationale
-
I don't have enough information.
the answerer's own words, verbatim — hostile corpus/LLM text, rendered escaped
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 480), 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.