Ruling — AquaSphere

You asked

How do I take my turn?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: AquaSpherebg-159508-en-1e

On your turn, choose 1 of the following 3 options: [1]

**Option A: Program a Bot** [1]

* Take the next available Bot from your supply and place it on an available Program Symbol on your Player Board.[1] (Note: You may not have more than 2 programmed Bots at a time; if you place a third, you must immediately return one to your supply to receive 2 Time Markers [1][2]).

* There are 2 ways to program a Bot: [1]

1. Move your Engineer in the Headquarters 1 space forward along an arrow; the Programming Tile where the Engineer ends up indicates the Program Symbol on your Player Board on which you place the Bot.[1]

2. Once per round, you may pay 3 Time Markers to place a Bot on any unoccupied Program Symbol (place one of the paid Time Markers on the Time Marker symbol on your Player Board to indicate use).[1]

**Option B: Carry Out an Action with a Programmed Bot** [1]

This option consists of 3 steps that must be carried out in the given order: [1]

1. Optional: Move your Scientist to another Sector, paying the depicted number of Time Markers for each Lock passed (0-2 per Lock).[1]

2. Place your Scientist in one of the colored Action Areas for which you have a programmed Bot on the corresponding Program Symbol of your Player Board.[1]

3. Move the Bot from the corresponding Program Symbol to the Control Space of the Sector your Scientist is currently in.[3] (If the Control Space is occupied by another Bot, move that Bot to the Loading Station of the Sector; if this exceeds the permitted number of Bots for the player count, players must return all but one Bot to their supply).[3] You may now carry out the action of the Action Area that is occupied by your Scientist.[3] (If you have Research Cards that activate on carrying out a certain action, you may use them now).[3]

**Option C: Pass** [1]

* Move your Engineer token in the Headquarters onto the next free space of the Pass Order Track, which terminates your round.[3]

[1] RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook · p.6 · course of play: short overview · course of a turn · A: ProGrAm A BoT · B: CArry ouT An ACTion wiTH A ProGrAmmeD BoT · 1. DETERMINE WHERE TO CARRy OuT THE ACTION

[2] RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook · p.5 · 7 Program Symbols · Supply of Bots and Submarines · Lab - Personal Supply · Research Cards: · Crystals: · Octopods: · …

[3] RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook · p.7 · 2. PLACE THE BOT · 3. CARRy OuT THE ACTION · C: PASS

🔧 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 74 ms · ask 4889 ms · total 4964 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 4964 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 6, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "The game is played over 4 rounds . Beginning with the Starting Player, you take turns (see below) in the order indicated by the Play Order Track until everyone has passed. Then, there is an Intermediate Scoring and the next round is prepared. The next round will be played in the order you have passe", "headingPath": "course of play: short overview · course of a turn · A: ProGrAm A BoT · B: CArry ouT An ACTion wiTH A ProGrAmmeD BoT · 1. DETERMINE WHERE TO CARRy OuT THE ACTION", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.048131, "snippet": "Whenever your Counter completes a full circle around the Knowledge Track, move your Counter on this track 1 space forward. Starting Space The Programming Section consists of 7 spaces, each of which contains a Programming Tile, and the Starting Space , on which you place your Engineer at the beginnin", "headingPath": "Full Circle Counting Track · Programming Section · Station · Knowledge Track · Action Areas · Control Space · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "Move the Bot from the corresponding Program Symbol to the Control Space of the Sector your Scientist is currently in. If the Control Space is occupied by another Bot, move that Bot to the Loading Station of the Sector. If the number of Bots in the Loading Station now exceeds the permitted number, ea", "headingPath": "2. PLACE THE BOT · 3. CARRy OuT THE ACTION · C: PASS", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "Draw 6 Research Cards from the draw pile and place one in each of the Sectors (on top of already existing Research Cards, if necessary) . Draw 6 Lab Expansions from the draw pile and place one in each of the Sectors (on top of already existing Lab Expansions, if necessary) . The topmost Center Tile ", "headingPath": "STATION · HEADquARTERS · final scoring and the end of the game · you get Knowledge Points (KP) as follows: · The player with the most Knowledge Points wins the game.", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Put the 6 Sectors of the Station 1 together in any order. Place the Headquarters 2 next to it, but not too closely. Leave some space for the general supply 3 . Each player chooses a player color and takes the wooden playing pieces of that color and a Player Board 4 . Randomly determine a Starting Pl", "headingPath": "1. Game Boards (see pages 4/5 for details) · 2. Headquarters · 3. General Supply · 4. Player Boards", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "You may only have 1 Submarine in each Sector! If you have not already placed a Submarine in the chosen Sector: Take the next Submarine from the left of your Player Board and place it on the next available Submarine Space in the Sector. Pay as many Time Markers as depicted on the space. If you cannot", "headingPath": "PLACe A SuBmArine · TAke A reSeArCH CArD · ProGrAm A BoT", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.030018, "snippet": "Bots must be programmed before you can carry out the corresponding action in the respective Sector (see 'Course of a Turn - Option B' on page 6) . Indicate that a Bot is programmed by placing it on a Program Symbol on your Player Board (see page 8/9 for an overview of all the Program Symbols and the", "headingPath": "7 Program Symbols · Supply of Bots and Submarines · Lab - Personal Supply · Research Cards: · Crystals: · Octopods: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "5. Station a) Center Tiles • Take the appropriate 4 Center Tiles according to the number of players (as indicated by the symbol below the light bulb). • Place the tile with a 5 in its light bulb in the middle of the Station. • Then place the tiles with a 4, 3 and 2 on top of it (in that order), each", "headingPath": "", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "course of play: short overview · course of a turn · A: ProGrAm A BoT · B: CArry ouT An ACTion wiTH A ProGrAmmeD BoT · 1. DETERMINE WHERE TO CARRy OuT THE ACTION", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "7 Program Symbols · Supply of Bots and Submarines · Lab - Personal Supply · Research Cards: · Crystals: · Octopods: · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "2. PLACE THE BOT · 3. CARRy OuT THE ACTION · C: PASS", "sharpsignalDocId": 667}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 667 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 667 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)
debug row retained until: Nov 11, 2026 08:13

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 AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	course of play: short overview · course of a turn · A: ProGrAm A BoT · B: CArry ouT An ACTion wiTH A ProGrAmmeD BoT · 1. DETERMINE WHERE TO CARRy OuT THE ACTION	p.6	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	Full Circle Counting Track · Programming Section · Station · Knowledge Track · Action Areas · Control Space · …	p.4	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
#3	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	2. PLACE THE BOT · 3. CARRy OuT THE ACTION · C: PASS	p.7	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 AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	STATION · HEADquARTERS · final scoring and the end of the game · you get Knowledge Points (KP) as follows: · The player with the most Knowledge Points wins the game.	p.11	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 AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	1. Game Boards (see pages 4/5 for details) · 2. Headquarters · 3. General Supply · 4. Player Boards	p.2	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 AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	PLACe A SuBmArine · TAke A reSeArCH CArD · ProGrAm A BoT	p.9	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 AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	7 Program Symbols · Supply of Bots and Submarines · Lab - Personal Supply · Research Cards: · Crystals: · Octopods: · …	p.5	0.030018 (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 AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)		p.3	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

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 13 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 AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	course of play: short overview · course of a turn · A: ProGrAm A BoT · B: CArry ouT An ACTion wiTH A ProGrAmmeD BoT · 1. DETERMINE WHERE TO CARRy OuT THE ACTION	p.6	#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
#2	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)		p.3	#8	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
#3	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	PLACe A SuBmArine · TAke A reSeArCH CArD · ProGrAm A BoT	p.9	#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
#4	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	1. Game Boards (see pages 4/5 for details) · 2. Headquarters · 3. General Supply · 4. Player Boards	p.2	#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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	Full Circle Counting Track · Programming Section · Station · Knowledge Track · Action Areas · Control Space · …	p.4	#2	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
#6	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	exPAnD THe LAB · TAke Time mArkerS · TAke CrySTALS · CATCH oCToPoDS	p.8	#11	0.014286 (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
#7	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	2. PLACE THE BOT · 3. CARRy OuT THE ACTION · C: PASS	p.7	#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
#8	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	7 Program Symbols · Supply of Bots and Submarines · Lab - Personal Supply · Research Cards: · Crystals: · Octopods: · …	p.5	#7	0.030018 (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 AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	course of play: short overview · course of a turn · A: ProGrAm A BoT · B: CArry ouT An ACTion wiTH A ProGrAmmeD BoT · 1. DETERMINE WHERE TO CARRy OuT THE ACTION	p.6	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	7 Program Symbols · Supply of Bots and Submarines · Lab - Personal Supply · Research Cards: · Crystals: · Octopods: · …	p.5	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK AquaSphere — Rulebook (corpus doc 667)	2. PLACE THE BOT · 3. CARRy OuT THE ACTION · C: PASS	p.7	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 74 ms · first delta 1702 ms · total 4964 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 74 ms · ask 4889 ms · gateway work 4964 ms · total 4964 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 4207
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 472
tok/sec: 148.4 tok/sec — 472 output tokens in 3.181 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 45s 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: 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 600), 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.