Ruling — Goa — RuleSage

← Goa

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Goabg-9216-en-1e

To play the game, follow these procedures:

**Setup**

1. Each player takes a Player Board, Auction Markers, Progress Markers, Player Aid, and Gambit Cards in a color of their choice.[1]

2. Players place Auction Markers in the matching spaces in the top right corner of their Player Board (use markers 1-3 for 2 players, 1-4 for 3 players, and all markers for 4 players).[1]

3. Players place Progress Markers on the topmost space of each of their five Action Tracks.[1]

4. Each player receives 2 Contracts and 4 Ships.[1]

5. The youngest player draws the top Exploration Card; other players draw in clockwise order until a player reveals a card with the Elephant symbol.[1]

6. The player who reveals the Elephant symbol becomes the starting player, takes the Nazar Stone and 5 Pardaos, while all other players receive 10 Pardaos each.[1]

7. All revealed Exploration Cards are placed face up on the discard pile.[1]

**The Round and Turns**

1. Starting with the First Player (the player with the Nazar Stone), players take turns clockwise, one action at a time, until all players have taken three actions.[2]

2. Players may choose among the following actions: Progress on your Player Board, Build ships, Produce, Collect Taxes, Explore, or Establish an Outpost.[2]

3. After all players have completed their three actions, players may (or must) play Compass Cards, starting with the First Player and proceeding clockwise.[2]

4. During this phase, a player may either play 1 Compass Card to take an additional action, or Pass for the remainder of the round.[2]

5. The round ends once all players have passed.[2]

6. At the end of each round, advance the Round Marker one space on the Round Track.[3]

7. After Round 4, the Day Cycle ends; remove all tiles from the Market Grid, then repeat Setup Step C using the Night tiles.[3]

8. The game concludes after the Night Cycle ends.[3]

**Actions**

* **Progress on your Player Board:** Move one Progress Marker down one space by paying 1 to 4 Goods (from Depots and/or Outposts) and 1 Ship for each good paid; return all paid Goods and Ships to the supply.[2]

* **Build Ships:** Take ships from the supply equal to the position of the "Ships" Progress Marker on your Player Board.[2]

* **Produce:** Take any combination of Goods from the supply equal to the position of your "Goods" Progress Marker and place them on empty fields in your Depots and/or Outposts (you cannot take more than you have room for).[2]

* **Collect Taxes:** Take Pardaos from the supply equal to the position of your "Collect Taxes" Progress Marker.[2]

* **Explore:** Draw Exploration Cards from the supply equal to the current position of your Exploration Progress Marker.[4]

* **Establish an Outpost:** Choose an unestablished Outpost and gather the required Contracts (from Exploration Cards, your Player Board, or by playing Contract Cards from your hand); if successful, place the tile on your board and fill it with indicated Goods.[5]

**Tile Auctions**

1. An auction begins once the starting player has placed their second Auction Marker.[6]

2. The starting player acts as the auctioneer for the Nazar Stone auction.[6]

3. The player to the auctioneer's left must either bid at least 1 Pardau or pass.[6]

4. Players proceed clockwise, each having one opportunity to raise the bid or pass (bids may only be increased).[6]

5. The auctioneer makes the final decision; if no bids are placed, the auctioneer takes the tile for free; if the auctioneer accepts the highest bid, the bidder pays the auctioneer; if the auctioneer buys the tile, they pay the bank an amount equal to one less than the highest bid.[6]

6. Return the Auction Marker to its owner's Player Board.[6]

7. The next player clockwise becomes the auctioneer for the tile under their '2' Auction Marker.[6]

8. Continue clockwise until all marked tiles have been auctioned.[6]

[1] RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook · p.5 · 5 Story Cards (see page 20) · About the Game

[2] RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook · p.8 · 3. Actions · A. Progress · B. Build Ships · C. Produce · D. Collect Taxes

[3] RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook · p.11 · End of the Round · 1. Progress Markers · 2. Outposts · 3. Island Symbols · 4. Richest player · 5. Single Depots

[4] RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook · p.9 · E. Explore · Island Symbol: · Playing Exploration Cards: · Example · F. Establish an Outpost

[5] RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook · p.10 · To Establish an Outpost: · Placing the Outpost: · Example

[6] RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook · p.7 · 2. Tile Auctions

🔧 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 96 ms · ask 6969 ms · total 40771 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 33702 ms · generation 7069 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 8, "score": 0.048916, "snippet": "Each player takes three actions per round. Starting with the First Player (the player with the Nazar Stone ), players take turns clockwise, one action at a time, until all players have taken three actions. After all players have completed their three actions, players may (or must) play Compass Cards", "headingPath": "3. Actions · A. Progress · B. Build Ships · C. Produce · D. Collect Taxes", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.047643, "snippet": "Place the Game Board in the center of the table. A When playing with the Bonanza variant (see page 19) , shuffle the Bonanza tiles and place 4 of them, face down, randomly in each of the 4 corner spaces of the Market Grid on the Game Board. Keep the remaining 4 Bonanza tiles next to the Game Board f", "headingPath": "5 Story Cards (see page 20)", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 9, "score": 0.047163, "snippet": "When you take the Exploration action, draw Exploration Cards from the supply equal to the current position of your Exploration Progress Marker. Each Exploration space on your Player Board shows two values: Draw value: the number of Exploration Cards you may draw. Hand limit: the maximum number of Ex", "headingPath": "E. Explore · Island Symbol: · Playing Exploration Cards: · Example · F. Establish an Outpost", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.045228, "snippet": "Each player takes a Player Board, Auction Markers, Progress Markers, Player Aid , and Gambit Cards* in a color of their choice. Each player places their Auction Markers in the matching spaces in the top right corner of their Player Board. In a 2-player game, use only the markers numbered 1-3. In a 3", "headingPath": "5 Story Cards (see page 20) · About the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.043549, "snippet": "At the end of each round, advance the Round Marker one space on the Round Track. After Round 4, the Day Cycle ends. Remove all tiles from the Market Grid, then repeat Setup Step C (see page 4) using the Night tiles (remember to remove 4 tiles, ensuring that no more than 2 Depots are removed). If you", "headingPath": "End of the Round · 1. Progress Markers · 2. Outposts · 3. Island Symbols · 4. Richest player · 5. Single Depots", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 13, "score": 0.042925, "snippet": "You always place the Nazar Stone first in Round 1. Play proceeds as in the multiplayer game, except whenever it is Lakshmi's turn, follow the rules below. When it is Lakshmi's turn to place an Auction Token (1, 2, or 3): Draw the matching Solo Auction Card and place it on the Solo Board. Then place ", "headingPath": "Solo Gameplay · 1. Place Auction Markers · Example · A. Player is the Auctioneer", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 12, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "Remove the Espionage Tile from the B Tiles. A Place the Solo Board next to your Player Board, with the Day Phase side face up. B Choose the difficulty level for Lakshmi (I, II, or III). Based on your choice, take the indicated number of Pardau Cards, shuffle them, and place them face down as Lakshmi", "headingPath": "Solo Setup", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 20, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "Follow the rules as indicated on your chosen Captain Card: Korean: During setup, move your Build Ships Progress Marker down one row. Ottoman: During setup, move your Produce Progress Marker down one row. Portuguese: During setup, move your Collect Taxes Progress Marker down one row. French: During s", "headingPath": "Gameplay", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "5 Story Cards (see page 20) · About the Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "3. Actions · A. Progress · B. Build Ships · C. Produce · D. Collect Taxes", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 11, "quote": null, "headingPath": "End of the Round · 1. Progress Markers · 2. Outposts · 3. Island Symbols · 4. Richest player · 5. Single Depots", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 9, "quote": null, "headingPath": "E. Explore · Island Symbol: · Playing Exploration Cards: · Example · F. Establish an Outpost", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 10, "quote": null, "headingPath": "To Establish an Outpost: · Placing the Outpost: · Example", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "2. Tile Auctions", "sharpsignalDocId": 443}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 443 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 443 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 0.90623 of 3210 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row retained until: Nov 14, 2026 20:28

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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	3. Actions · A. Progress · B. Build Ships · C. Produce · D. Collect Taxes	p.8	0.048916 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	5 Story Cards (see page 20)	p.4	0.047643 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	E. Explore · Island Symbol: · Playing Exploration Cards: · Example · F. Establish an Outpost	p.9	0.047163 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	5 Story Cards (see page 20) · About the Game	p.5	0.045228 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	End of the Round · 1. Progress Markers · 2. Outposts · 3. Island Symbols · 4. Richest player · 5. Single Depots	p.11	0.043549 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	Solo Gameplay · 1. Place Auction Markers · Example · A. Player is the Auctioneer	p.13	0.042925 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	Solo Setup	p.12	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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	Gameplay	p.20	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 29 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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	3. Actions · A. Progress · B. Build Ships · C. Produce · D. Collect Taxes	p.8	#1	0.048916 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	2. Tile Auctions	p.7	#10	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
#3	RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	Solo Gameplay · 1. Place Auction Markers · Example · A. Player is the Auctioneer	p.13	#6	0.042925 (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
#4	RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	To Establish an Outpost: · Placing the Outpost: · Example	p.10	#11	0.02904 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	End of the Round · 1. Progress Markers · 2. Outposts · 3. Island Symbols · 4. Richest player · 5. Single Depots	p.11	#5	0.043549 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	5 Story Cards (see page 20) · About the Game	p.5	#4	0.045228 (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
#7	RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	E. Explore · Island Symbol: · Playing Exploration Cards: · Example · F. Establish an Outpost	p.9	#3	0.047163 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	2. Tile Auctions	p.7	#14	0.027799 (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 Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	5 Story Cards (see page 20) · About the Game	p.5	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	3. Actions · A. Progress · B. Build Ships · C. Produce · D. Collect Taxes	p.8	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	End of the Round · 1. Progress Markers · 2. Outposts · 3. Island Symbols · 4. Richest player · 5. Single Depots	p.11	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	E. Explore · Island Symbol: · Playing Exploration Cards: · Example · F. Establish an Outpost	p.9	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	To Establish an Outpost: · Placing the Outpost: · Example	p.10	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Goa — Rulebook (corpus doc 443)	2. Tile Auctions	p.7	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 96 ms · first delta 2433 ms · total 40771 ms (retrieval and first-delta both measured from the START of gateway work, so first-delta INCLUDES retrieval — do not subtract)
full breakdown: queued 33702 ms · retrieval 96 ms · ask 6969 ms · gateway work 7069 ms · total 40771 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3958
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 927
tok/sec: 202.2 tok/sec — 927 output tokens in 4.584 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 28s 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 374), 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.