Ruling — Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sunbg-297030-en-1e

### Setup

1. Lay out the main game board in the middle of the table, place the Obelisk Wheel on its designated location on the game board, and then position the Obelisk through the holes in the Obelisk Wheel and game board.[1]

2. Set the Obelisk Wheel to a random position, ensuring its sections line up with the action areas.[1]

3. Locate the arrow on the Obelisk Wheel, place the Scoring marker four sections clockwise from the arrow, and place another Scoring marker four sections clockwise from the first (two sections away from the arrow).[1]

4. Shuffle the Pillar tiles and place them face down in a stack next to the board, near the Ra action area.[1]

5. Draw 3 tiles and display them face up on the three spaces associated with the Ra action.[1]

6. Shuffle the Horus Bonus tiles and place them in random order onto the 6 spaces in the Horus action area.[1]

7. Place all Resources, Scribes, and Faith tokens in an accessible general supply beside the game board.[1]

8. Place 1 Gold resource onto the two Statue spaces by the Temple Complex, the two Statue spaces above the workshops and quarries in the Osiris action area, and to the side of the second row of the Osiris action area.[1]

9. Prepare the draw bag:

- For a 4-player game, place all dice into the draw bag.[2]

- For a 3-player game, return 2 gray dice to the game box and add the remaining dice to the draw bag.[2]

- For a 2-player game, return 1 each of yellow, brown, white, and black (but not gray) to the box, adding the remaining dice to the draw bag.[2]

10. For each section around the Obelisk Wheel, draw and roll 3 random dice from the draw bag, adding them to that section, and place each die in the correct row based on whether it is Pure, Tainted, or Forbidden.[2]

11. Give each player a player board and all components of their chosen color.[2]

12. Each player must:

- Place the 10 Buildings on the Building spaces at the top of their player board.[2]

- Place the 6 Statues on the Statue spaces at the bottom of their player board.[2]

- Place 1 Production marker on the '2' position of each of the four Production Tracks.[2]

- Leave the 8 Pillars, the Maat marker, the Victory Point marker on space '10', the Happiness marker on space '2', and the Population marker on space '5' next to their player board.[2]

13. Take 1 Gold and 1 Scribe.[2]

### One Round of Play

1. Players take one turn each in the order indicated on the Turn Order track.[3]

2. On your turn, you must take exactly one die from anywhere around the Obelisk Wheel, choosing only a Pure or Tainted die (not a Forbidden die).[3]

3. Place the chosen die onto the scales on your player board (Pure dice on the left, Tainted dice on the right).[3]

4. Perform an action based on the die's value:

- God Action: Perform the action corresponding to the section from which you took the die.[3]

- Produce Resources: Produce Resources based on the color of the die chosen (gray dice cannot be used).[3]

5. If you have exactly 2 or exactly 4 dice on your player board, immediately perform a Rotation.[3]

6. Otherwise, begin a new Round and the turn passes to the next player.[3]

### Rotation

1. A Rotation is performed every two Rounds, specifically when every player has exactly 2 or exactly 4 dice on their player board.[4]

2. Rotate the Obelisk Wheel one section clockwise.[4]

3. If players have 4 dice, immediately perform a Maat phase.[5][4]

4. For each of the two Shaded sections around the Obelisk Wheel in its new position, draw a number of dice equal to the number of players, roll them, and add them to that section, ensuring dice are in the correct row (Pure, Tainted, or Forbidden).[4]

5. Begin a new Round.[5][4]

### Maat Phase

1. A Maat phase occurs every two Rotations, specifically when every player has exactly 4 dice on their player board.[5][4]

2. Each player determines the balance of their scales:

- Everything on the left side (Pure) counts positive.[4]

- Everything on the right side (Tainted) counts negative

[1] RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook · p.6 · 1 PROGRESS MARKER

[2] RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook · p.7 · 1 PROGRESS MARKER

[3] RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook · p.10 · PURE, TAINTED, AND FORBIDDEN DICE · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · If you are last in Turn Order: · Otherwise (if you are not last In Turn Order):

[4] RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook · p.11 · ROTATION · MAAT PHASE

[5] RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook · p.32 · TECHNOLOGY CARDS · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · AFTER SCORING ...

🔧 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 83 ms · ask 9141 ms · total 9226 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 9226 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 32, "score": 0.047619, "snippet": "2 Rounds = 1 Rotation 2 Rotations = 1 Maat phase 2 Maat phases = 1 Scoring 2 Scorings = 1 Game Return all Destiny Cards to the middle of the table. Choose new ones in Turn Order. Take exactly 1 Pure or Tainted die from the Obelisk Wheel (not a Forbidden die). Place die onto appropriate side on your ", "headingPath": "TECHNOLOGY CARDS · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · AFTER SCORING ...", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 10, "score": 0.04741, "snippet": "A game of Tekhenu takes place over multiple rounds, following this pattern: 2 Rounds = 1 Rotation 2 Rotations = 1 Maat phase 2 Maat phases = 1 Scoring 2 Scorings = 1 Game Every Round , players take one turn each, in the order indicated on the Turn Order track. Every two Rounds , the shadow of the Ob", "headingPath": "PURE, TAINTED, AND FORBIDDEN DICE · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · If you are last in Turn Order: · Otherwise (if you are not last In Turn Order):", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.045009, "snippet": "ʃ Each player should sum the initiative values shown on their 2 chosen Starting cards. ʃ 3ODFH DOO SOD\\HUV· 0DDW PDUNHUV RQ WKH 7XUQ Order track in descending order based on their total initiative value (highest total initiative YDOXH LV SODFHG ÀUVW RQ WKH 7XUQ 2UGHU WUDFN and so on). In the case of", "headingPath": "B. Determine the initial Turn Order:", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.032787, "snippet": "Prepare the draw bag: For a 4-player game , place all dice into the draw bag. For a 3-player game , return 2 gray dice to the game box, and add the remaining dice to the draw bag. For a 2-player game , return 1 each of yellow, brown, white, and black (but not gray), adding the remaining dice to the ", "headingPath": "1 PROGRESS MARKER", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "Lay out the main game board in the middle of the table, place the Obelisk Wheel on its designated location on the game board, and then position the Obelisk through the holes in the Obelisk Wheel and game board. Set the Obelisk Wheel to a random position (while ensuring that its sections line up with", "headingPath": "1 PROGRESS MARKER", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Every two Rounds, WKH VKDGRZ RI WKH 2EHOLVN URWDWHV A Rotation is performed every two Rounds. This happens when every player has exactly 2 or exactly 4 dice on their player board. To perform a Rotation, do the following: Rotate the Obelisk Wheel one section clockwise, signifying how the movement of ", "headingPath": "ROTATION · MAAT PHASE", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 32, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Score up to 3 Decrees of different types. 6FRUH 9LFWRU\\ 3RLQWV LI \\RX DUH ÀUVW LQ 7XUQ 2UGHU In a 3- or 4-player game, score 2 Victory Points if you are second in Turn Order. Player with the most Victory Points wins! Break ties by the player with most Scribes, then by the player who is earlier in Tu", "headingPath": "If this was the second and final Scoring: · Otherwise:", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "(In a solo or 2-player game, leave Technology T16 DQG 'HFUHH ' LQ WKH JDPH ER[ 6KXIÁH WKH different decks of cards (Blessings, Technologies, and Decrees) separately, placing each deck to the side of the game board. Create the Card Market as follows: 7KH ÀUVW VHFWLRQ PDUNHG LQ , should have 2 Blessin", "headingPath": "1 PROGRESS MARKER · A. Draft Starting cards:", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "1 PROGRESS MARKER", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 7, "quote": null, "headingPath": "1 PROGRESS MARKER", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 10, "quote": null, "headingPath": "PURE, TAINTED, AND FORBIDDEN DICE · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · If you are last in Turn Order: · Otherwise (if you are not last In Turn Order):", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 11, "quote": null, "headingPath": "ROTATION · MAAT PHASE", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}, {"page": 32, "quote": null, "headingPath": "TECHNOLOGY CARDS · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · AFTER SCORING ...", "sharpsignalDocId": 509}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 509 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 509 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 0.90255 of 3253 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row retained until: Nov 15, 2026 10:32

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 Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	TECHNOLOGY CARDS · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · AFTER SCORING ...	p.32	0.047619 (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 Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	PURE, TAINTED, AND FORBIDDEN DICE · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · If you are last in Turn Order: · Otherwise (if you are not last In Turn Order):	p.10	0.04741 (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 Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	B. Determine the initial Turn Order:	p.8	0.045009 (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 Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	1 PROGRESS MARKER	p.7	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
#5	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	1 PROGRESS MARKER	p.6	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
#6	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	ROTATION · MAAT PHASE	p.11	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
#7	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	If this was the second and final Scoring: · Otherwise:	p.32	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 Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	1 PROGRESS MARKER · A. Draft Starting cards:	p.8	0.029412 (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 56 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 Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	BLESSING CARDS	p.30	#11	0.027118 (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
#2	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	TECHNOLOGY CARDS · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · AFTER SCORING ...	p.32	#1	0.047619 (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
#3	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	If this was the second and final Scoring: · Otherwise:	p.32	#7	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
#4	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	1 PROGRESS MARKER	p.6	#5	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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	BLESSING CARDS	p.30	#13	0.026009 (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
#6	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	ROTATION · MAAT PHASE	p.11	#6	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
#7	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	PURE, TAINTED, AND FORBIDDEN DICE · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · If you are last in Turn Order: · Otherwise (if you are not last In Turn Order):	p.10	#2	0.04741 (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 Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	1 PROGRESS MARKER	p.7	#4	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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	1 PROGRESS MARKER	p.6	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	1 PROGRESS MARKER	p.7	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	PURE, TAINTED, AND FORBIDDEN DICE · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · If you are last in Turn Order: · Otherwise (if you are not last In Turn Order):	p.10	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	ROTATION · MAAT PHASE	p.11	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun — Rulebook (corpus doc 509)	TECHNOLOGY CARDS · ONE ROUND OF PLAY · AFTER SCORING ...	p.32	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 83 ms · first delta 4147 ms · total 9226 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 83 ms · ask 9141 ms · gateway work 9226 ms · total 9226 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3944
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 1024
tok/sec: 204.2 tok/sec — 1024 output tokens in 5.015 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 15s 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 441), 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.