Ruling — Snowdonia

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You asked

How do I setup the game?

Answered counted as answered

Asked with: Snowdoniabg-119432-en-1e

To setup the game, follow these steps:

1. Place the game board in the centre of the table so all players can reach it.[1]

2. For the Snowdon game, use the yellow side of the Station cards.[1]

3. Sort the Station cards into numerical order by the number on their top right hand corners.[1]

4. If playing the Blaenau Ffestiniog game, put the Blaenau Ffestiniog station on top of the Llanberis space on the board, then lay out the rest of the route around the board as normal.[2]

5. Lay out the Station cards in numerical order with spaces between them, starting at Llanberis and going clockwise around the board, from Two Viaducts (1) to Yr Wyddfa (7).[1]

6. Shuffle the Track cards.[1]

7. Place randomly drawn Track cards, shovel side up, between the Station cards, adjusting them so they are evenly spaced.[1]

8. Each player takes all the pieces of their colour.[1]

9. Each player puts two of their Labourers into their personal supply for use in the first turn, leaving the remaining Labourer in the Pub.[1]

10. Each player puts their Surveyor in any empty space on Llanberis.[1]

11. Randomly determine who will be first to play and give that player the Start Player Marker.[1]

12. Put all remaining pieces into a general supply area.[1]

[1] RULEBOOK Snowdonia — Rulebook · p.2 · 6. RaILWay ROutE: StatION CaRDS · 5. LaBOuRERS · 4. SuRvEyORS · 3. PLayER PIECES · 2. StaRt PLayER · 7. RaILWay ROutE: tRaCk CaRDS · …

[2] RULEBOOK Snowdonia — Rulebook · p.12 · BLAENAU FFESTINIOG · Setup · Excavate and Lay track actions · Build action

Rule found, game on.

🔧 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 173 ms · ask 2603 ms · total 2779 ms
single-flight (PR-5): queued 0 ms · generation 2779 ms
retrieval refs (raw) — what the PASSAGE SEARCH returned, not what the answerer read: [{"page": 12, "score": 0.048412, "snippet": "On the back of the Snowdon Stations are the Blaenau Ffestiniog Stations. The Blaenau Ffestiniog game is for 1 to 4 players only. Put the Blaenau Ffestiniog station on top of the Llanberis space on the board, then lay out the rest of the route around the board as normal. Remove Contract cards 28 and ", "headingPath": "BLAENAU FFESTINIOG · Setup · Excavate and Lay track actions · Build action", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}, {"page": 4, "score": 0.048387, "snippet": "The game is played using the following sequence: Initial Setup Rounds Assign Labourers Resolve Actions Restock Contract cards Check the Weather Restock the Stock Yard Repeat Rounds until the End of Game is reached End of Game Scoring In clockwise order beginning with the Start Player, each player pl", "headingPath": "Game Sequence · assign Labourers · Resolve actions", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}, {"page": 3, "score": 0.048139, "snippet": "Place rubble on each Track card equal to the number on the card, and also put the indicated number of rubble pieces on the Station cards in the boxes marked with a shovel. Passing Rocky Valley Halt The game board has the action spaces for a 3 player game printed at the top in seven Action Areas mark", "headingPath": "8. RuBBLE · 9. aCtION SPaCE CaRDS · 14. StOCk yaRD aND SuPPLy BaG · 13. tRaINS · 10. GaME MaRkERS · 11. CONtRaCt CaRDS · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}, {"page": 11, "score": 0.045285, "snippet": "Snowdonia can also be played solitaire, for which you play a series of games using a different Train each time to see if you can beat your previous scores. Solitaire is played in the same way as the normal game, except for the following changes. In the solo game you will be playing a series of 7 gam", "headingPath": "Solitaire Play · Setting up the Stock yard · Check the Weather · trains · Game end · Credits", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}, {"page": 2, "score": 0.03125, "snippet": "For the Snowdon game use the yellow side of the Station cards; the blue side is for the Blaenau Ffestiniog game (see p12). Sort them into numerical order by the number on their top right hand corners. Waterfall Station (2) is not used if playing solo or with 2 players. The Passing Loop (4½) is only ", "headingPath": "6. RaILWay ROutE: StatION CaRDS · 5. LaBOuRERS · 4. SuRvEyORS · 3. PLayER PIECES · 2. StaRt PLayER · 7. RaILWay ROutE: tRaCk CaRDS · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}, {"page": 7, "score": 0.030769, "snippet": "Look at the top (unrevealed) card of the Contract Card Deck, take a Weather disc in a colour matching the weather icon on the back of that card and place it in the lowest position on the Weather Track. Adjust the markers on the Excavations and Lay Track Work Rate Tracks according to the current weat", "headingPath": "Check the Weather · Restock the Stock yard · End of Game", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.030303, "snippet": "Move the player's Surveyor on to the next Station card numerically along the route. Whether Rubble has been excavated or track laid is irrelevant to the Surveyor. If a Contract card is in position [1] in the Site Office, put it face down onto the discard pile. Move any other Contract cards in the Si", "headingPath": "MOVE THE SURVEYOR · Restock Contract Cards · Check the Weather", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}, {"page": 6, "score": 0.029851, "snippet": "The current Lay Track Work Rate is shown by the Lay Track Work Rate marker. Return to general supply a number of Steel Bars up to the current Lay Track Work Rate plus any bonuses and, for each one, turn over the fully-excavated Track card closest up the mountain to Llanberis. Place one of the player", "headingPath": "WORKS · BUILD · SITE OFFICE", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}]
citations (raw) — what the answer cited, chosen from a retrieval this page cannot show: [{"page": 2, "quote": null, "headingPath": "6. RaILWay ROutE: StatION CaRDS · 5. LaBOuRERS · 4. SuRvEyORS · 3. PLayER PIECES · 2. StaRt PLayER · 7. RaILWay ROutE: tRaCk CaRDS · …", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}, {"page": 12, "quote": null, "headingPath": "BLAENAU FFESTINIOG · Setup · Excavate and Lay track actions · Build action", "sharpsignalDocId": 763}]
boost provenance — errata + base rulebook (E2/E3): no registered errata card matched this query; base rulebook doc 763 boosted; rulesage.errata.boost-enabled=true, rulesage.errata.supersedence-enabled=true
base rulebook doc 763 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 0.90998 of 1022 non-space chars (floor 0.45); 0 glyph-index tokens (max 2)
debug row recorded: Oct 7, 2026 21:19 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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	BLAENAU FFESTINIOG · Setup · Excavate and Lay track actions · Build action	p.12	0.048412 (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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	Game Sequence · assign Labourers · Resolve actions	p.4	0.048387 (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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	8. RuBBLE · 9. aCtION SPaCE CaRDS · 14. StOCk yaRD aND SuPPLy BaG · 13. tRaINS · 10. GaME MaRkERS · 11. CONtRaCt CaRDS · …	p.3	0.048139 (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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	Solitaire Play · Setting up the Stock yard · Check the Weather · trains · Game end · Credits	p.11	0.045285 (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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	6. RaILWay ROutE: StatION CaRDS · 5. LaBOuRERS · 4. SuRvEyORS · 3. PLayER PIECES · 2. StaRt PLayER · 7. RaILWay ROutE: tRaCk CaRDS · …	p.2	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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	Check the Weather · Restock the Stock yard · End of Game	p.7	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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	MOVE THE SURVEYOR · Restock Contract Cards · Check the Weather	p.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))	300
#8	RULEBOOK Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	WORKS · BUILD · SITE OFFICE	p.6	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 20 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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	Game Sequence · assign Labourers · Resolve actions	p.4	#2	0.048387 (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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	Check the Weather · Restock the Stock yard · End of Game	p.7	#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
#3	RULEBOOK Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	Solitaire Play · Setting up the Stock yard · Check the Weather · trains · Game end · Credits	p.11	#4	0.045285 (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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	6. RaILWay ROutE: StatION CaRDS · 5. LaBOuRERS · 4. SuRvEyORS · 3. PLayER PIECES · 2. StaRt PLayER · 7. RaILWay ROutE: tRaCk CaRDS · …	p.2	#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 Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	Surveyor action · What happens when an Event occurs?	p.12	#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
#6	RULEBOOK Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	MOVE THE SURVEYOR · Restock Contract Cards · Check the Weather	p.6	#7	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
#7	RULEBOOK Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	Rubble must be taken in this priority order: · WORKS	p.5	#9	0.029083 (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
#8	RULEBOOK Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	BLAENAU FFESTINIOG · Setup · Excavate and Lay track actions · Build action	p.12	#1	0.048412 (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

chosen chunks — what the answer actually cited

#	document	heading	page	quote chars
[1]	RULEBOOK Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	6. RaILWay ROutE: StatION CaRDS · 5. LaBOuRERS · 4. SuRvEyORS · 3. PLayER PIECES · 2. StaRt PLayER · 7. RaILWay ROutE: tRaCk CaRDS · …	p.2	no quote on the wire
[2]	RULEBOOK Snowdonia — Rulebook (corpus doc 763)	BLAENAU FFESTINIOG · Setup · Excavate and Lay track actions · Build action	p.12	no quote on the wire

generation — timing and the path taken

timing split: retrieval 173 ms · first delta 1156 ms · total 2779 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 173 ms · ask 2603 ms · gateway work 2779 ms · total 2779 ms
tokens in (the prompt the answerer read): 3434
tokens out (what the answerer generated): 319
tok/sec: 201.8 tok/sec — 319 output tokens in 1.581 s of generation
live seat (read from the running child): answering — gemma4:26b think:false · num_ctx 32768 (live-verified 43s ago)
answerer host (measured by rulesage): reachable (for 2h, checked 7s 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: 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 697), 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.