Ruling — Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers

← Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers

You asked

How do I play?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherersbg-4390-en-1e

### Setup

1. Place the starting tile (the back with a dark 'C') faceup in the middle of the table.[1]

2. Separate the regular land tiles from the menhir tiles by back.[1]

3. Shuffle the menhir tiles and set them aside facedown in a stack.[1]

4. Shuffle the regular tiles and place them facedown in multiple stacks so that each player can easily reach at least 1 stack.[1]

5. Place the scoreboard near the edge of the table, away from the starting tile.[1]

6. Each player gets 5 meeples and 3 huts in the color of their choice.[1]

7. Place the sixth meeple of each color in use on the '0' space of the scoreboard.[1]

### Gameplay

1. The youngest player takes the first turn, and play continues clockwise until the land tiles run out.[2]

2. The current player performs the following actions in order:

* Draw 1 land tile.[2]

* Place the tile so that it continues the landscape, connecting to 1 or more tiles.[2][3] The tile must continue each feature it is connected to.[3] In the rare event that you are unable to place the tile you drew, return that tile to the box and draw a new tile to replace it.[3]

* You may place 1 meeple or 1 hut on the tile you just placed,[2][3] provided the piece is placed on a feature without another similar piece (meeple or hut).[3]

* Specific meeple placements include:

* Place a meeple as a fisher on a river, but only if no other meeples are present on the same river.[2]

* Place a meeple on a river with a hut.[2]

* Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest, but only if no other meeples are present on that forest.[4]

* Place a meeple on a grassland as a hunter, but only if no other hunters are present on that grassland.[5]

* Specific hut placements include:

* Place a hut on either a river or a lake on the tile you just placed, but only if no other huts are present on the same river system.[2]

* Huts can be placed on a river where a meeple is already present.[2]

* If you place a tile that completes a forest containing 1 or more menhirs, you take an extra turn in which you draw and place a menhir tile.[4][5] You cannot take multiple extra turns in a row.[5]

3. Completed features (rivers and forests) are scored at the end of each turn in which 1 or more features are completed.[5] Points are scored by the player whose meeple occupies a given feature.[5] If multiple meeples are present on a single connected feature, the player with the most meeples on the feature scores points.[5] In the event of a tie, all players tied for the most score the full points from the completed feature.[5] After scoring, all meeples on completed features are returned to their owners' supplies.[5]

4. When you place a tile with an immediate action, you must immediately resolve the corresponding action.[6]

### Ending the Game and Final Scoring

1. The game ends at the end of the turn when the last land tile (not menhir tile) is placed.[7]

2. Resolve the following steps:

* Leave all huts and hunters on tiles.[7]

* Remove all other meeples from tiles.[7]

* No points are scored for incomplete forests and rivers.[7]

* The player with the most huts on each river system scores 1 point for each fish shown in that river system; if multiple players are tied for the most huts, each tied player scores the full points.[7]

3. The player with the most points wins the game.[2]

[1] RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook · p.2 · A clever tile placement game for 2-5 players, ages 8 and up · CONTENTS & SETUP · 24 COVERING MARKERS

[2] RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook · p.3 · THE OBJECT OF THE GAME · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. Place a land tile · Place a meeple or a hut: · 2a. Place a meeple as a fisher on a river · 2b. Place a hut on a river or lake

[3] RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook · p.5 · 2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest · 1. Place a land tile · 2. Place a meeple or a hut

[4] RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook · p.4 · 2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest

[5] RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook · p.5 · 3. Score completed features · 2. Place a meeple as a hunter

[6] RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook · p.8 · MENHIR TILES · Menhir tiles with immediate actions

[7] RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook · p.6 · Multiple meeples on the same feature · END OF THE GAME, FINAL SCORING, AND DETERMINING THE WINNER · Scoring huts on river systems

Question closed. Friendships intact.

🔧 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 145 ms · ask 5629 ms · total 5776 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 5776 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 3, "score": 0.04918, "snippet": "Each turn, you place land tiles to create a vast landscape of forests and grasslands. These grasslands include grazing animals, as well as rivers and lakes full of fish. You must strategically place your tribe members on these tiles to reap the bounty of the forests, grasslands, rivers, and lakes fo", "headingPath": "THE OBJECT OF THE GAME · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. Place a land tile · Place a meeple or a hut: · 2a. Place a meeple as a fisher on a river · 2b. Place a hut on a river or lake", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.047379, "snippet": "Because you completed a forest containing a menhir, you begin an extra turn, drawing and placing a menhir tile. You place the tile and place a gatherer on the forest. The forest is now complete, and you score 6 points for the 3 tiles that comprise the forest. The completed forest also contains a men", "headingPath": "2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest · 1. Place a land tile · 2. Place a meeple or a hut", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.032258, "snippet": "A river is completed when both ends are closed by lakes or forests, or when it loops back onto itself by connecting to the other end. When a river is completed, it is scored. If one of your meeples is on a river when it scores, you will score points from it, regardless of who placed the tile that co", "headingPath": "3. Scoring a river · 1. Place a land tile · Normal Forest Scoring · Menhirs", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 5, "score": 0.031746, "snippet": "A river is completed when both ends are closed by lakes or forests, or when it loops back onto itself. A river scores 1 point for each tile, and 1 point for each fish in the river and any lakes that close it. A forest is completed when it is surrounded by grassland and has no internal gaps. A forest", "headingPath": "3. Score completed features · 2. Place a meeple as a hunter", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Thousands of years before the people of Carcassonne built mighty walls and castles, their ancestors settled the land. They hunted wild animals, gathered berries, and caught fish to ensure their daily survival and continued prosperity. Even today, fantastic cave paintings and prehistoric data testify", "headingPath": "A clever tile placement game for 2-5 players, ages 8 and up · CONTENTS & SETUP · 24 COVERING MARKERS", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "You must score any features completed by the tile you placed this turn. 3 You place the red-outlined tile. The river and grasslands are continued by the new tile. You place a meeple as a fisher on the tile you just placed. This is legal because there are no other meeples on that river. Because the r", "headingPath": "Score features:", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 8, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "Menhirs are found in forests, and when a forest with a menhir is completed, you take an extra turn in which you draw and place a menhir tile. After placing a menhir tile, you can place a meeple or hut on it as normal. When you place a tile with an immediate action, you must immediately resolve the c", "headingPath": "MENHIR TILES · Menhir tiles with immediate actions", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.029412, "snippet": "You may place a meeple on a forest tile you just placed as a gatherer . As with rivers, a meeple can be placed on a forest only if there are no other meeples present on that forest. You place a tile so that it continues the existing forest. Because there are no meeples currently on the forest, you c", "headingPath": "2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "A clever tile placement game for 2-5 players, ages 8 and up · CONTENTS & SETUP · 24 COVERING MARKERS", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 3, "quote": null, "headingPath": "THE OBJECT OF THE GAME · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. Place a land tile · Place a meeple or a hut: · 2a. Place a meeple as a fisher on a river · 2b. Place a hut on a river or lake", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest · 1. Place a land tile · 2. Place a meeple or a hut", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 4, "quote": null, "headingPath": "2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 5, "quote": null, "headingPath": "3. Score completed features · 2. Place a meeple as a hunter", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 8, "quote": null, "headingPath": "MENHIR TILES · Menhir tiles with immediate actions", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}, {"page": 6, "quote": null, "headingPath": "Multiple meeples on the same feature · END OF THE GAME, FINAL SCORING, AND DETERMINING THE WINNER · Scoring huts on river systems", "sharpsignalDocId": 641}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 641 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 641 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 0.91048 of 2692 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row retained until: Nov 24, 2026 05:34 UTC

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 Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	THE OBJECT OF THE GAME · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. Place a land tile · Place a meeple or a hut: · 2a. Place a meeple as a fisher on a river · 2b. Place a hut on a river or lake	p.3	0.04918 (at the 3-arm ceiling (0.04918) — every arm ranked it #1)	300
#2	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest · 1. Place a land tile · 2. Place a meeple or a hut	p.5	0.047379 (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 Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	3. Scoring a river · 1. Place a land tile · Normal Forest Scoring · Menhirs	p.4	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
#4	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	3. Score completed features · 2. Place a meeple as a hunter	p.5	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
#5	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	A clever tile placement game for 2-5 players, ages 8 and up · CONTENTS & SETUP · 24 COVERING MARKERS	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 Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	Score features:	p.3	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 Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	MENHIR TILES · Menhir tiles with immediate actions	p.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))	300
#8	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest	p.4	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 11 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 Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	THE OBJECT OF THE GAME · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. Place a land tile · Place a meeple or a hut: · 2a. Place a meeple as a fisher on a river · 2b. Place a hut on a river or lake	p.3	#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 Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest · 1. Place a land tile · 2. Place a meeple or a hut	p.5	#2	0.047379 (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 Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	Menhir tiles that affect final scoring	p.8	#10	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
#4	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest	p.4	#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))	vector + the doc-priority boost arm	the re-ranker chose it
#5	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	A clever tile placement game for 2-5 players, ages 8 and up · CONTENTS & SETUP · 24 COVERING MARKERS	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
#6	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	MENHIR TILES · Menhir tiles with immediate actions	p.8	#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
#7	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	3. Score completed features · 2. Place a meeple as a hunter	p.5	#4	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 Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	Multiple meeples on the same feature · END OF THE GAME, FINAL SCORING, AND DETERMINING THE WINNER · Scoring huts on river systems	p.6	#9	0.014493 (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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	A clever tile placement game for 2-5 players, ages 8 and up · CONTENTS & SETUP · 24 COVERING MARKERS	p.2	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	THE OBJECT OF THE GAME · PLAYING THE GAME · 1. Place a land tile · Place a meeple or a hut: · 2a. Place a meeple as a fisher on a river · 2b. Place a hut on a river or lake	p.3	no quote on the wire
[3]	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest · 1. Place a land tile · 2. Place a meeple or a hut	p.5	no quote on the wire
[4]	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	2. Place a meeple as a gatherer on a forest	p.4	no quote on the wire
[5]	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	3. Score completed features · 2. Place a meeple as a hunter	p.5	no quote on the wire
[6]	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	MENHIR TILES · Menhir tiles with immediate actions	p.8	no quote on the wire
[7]	RULEBOOK Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers — Rulebook (corpus doc 641)	Multiple meeples on the same feature · END OF THE GAME, FINAL SCORING, AND DETERMINING THE WINNER · Scoring huts on river systems	p.6	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 145 ms · first delta 1494 ms · total 5776 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 145 ms · ask 5629 ms · gateway work 5776 ms · total 5776 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3371
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 853
tok/sec: 202.0 tok/sec — 853 output tokens in 4.223 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 54s ago)
gateway schema (read from the running child): schema head 0042_definer_search_path (live revision not readable by this principal)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 60h, checked 0s ago)
answerer node (the seat proxy's own header — this probe, not this ask): node1
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 574), 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.