Welcome to Helvetia Game Rules!

The Basics

I’m here to guide you through the exciting world of Helvetia, a thrilling game that you’re sure to enjoy. It’s easy to get started – just follow these simple steps:

1. Roll the Dice: Begin by rolling the dice to determine your starting position on the game board. Remember, luck is on your side!
2. Move Forward: Use the number rolled on the dice to move your game piece forward along the designated paths. Each space you land on holds a new adventure!
3. Encounter Challenges: Along your journey, you’ll encounter various challenges and obstacles. These challenges will test your skills and strategy.
4. Make Decisions: As you progress through the game, you’ll have to make important decisions that will impact your journey. Choose wisely!
5. Collect Rewards: As you conquer challenges and navigate the game board, you’ll have the opportunity to collect rewards. These rewards will help you on your quest.
6. Reach the Finish Line: The ultimate goal of Helvetia is to reach the finish line before your opponents. Use your wits and determination to outsmart them and emerge victorious!

The Excitement Continues

Helvetia is more than just a game; it’s an immersive experience that will transport you to a whole new world. Explore the beautiful landscapes, meet fascinating characters, and uncover hidden treasures along the way.

Are you ready to embark on your Helvetia adventure? Gather your friends, roll the dice, and let the journey begin!

Building your village in Helvetia involves the production of different goods through your villagers. Each villager can produce one good, either in their own village or in another village, as long as they are awake.

Once a villager has produced a good, they go to sleep and cannot produce anything else. You can tell if a villager is awake by their standing figure. However, once the good is produced, the villager lies down to indicate that they are asleep. The only way to wake up a sleeping villager is by using the “night watchman” action.

In Helvetia, there are no goods cards or tiles. Instead, goods are produced as and when they are needed. This means that when you need a particular good, you will produce it immediately and use it right away, such as when building a new building.

When other players get married in the village, their kids can become residents and live in new buildings. It’s worth marrying someone from another village because then you can use their buildings too. Plus, it’s the only way to earn more coins.

The Pieces that Make it Work

• 1 Game Board
• 72 stickers
• 54 rectangular building tiles
• 24 wooden coins
• 68 delivery cubes
• 64 Wooden Villagers
• 6 rectangular special victory points tiles
• 5 rectangular “Village Center” tiles
• 1 starting player token
• Rulebook

What’s Inside the Box?

Hey there! Let me tell you what you’ll find in the box. We’ve got a game board, stickers, building tiles, wooden coins, delivery cubes, Wooden Villagers, special victory points tiles, Village Center tiles, a starting player token, and a rulebook. It’s all there, ready for you to dive into the game!

Your Goal in the Game

Alright, let’s talk about what you need to do to win. The name of the game is to get 20 or more points by the end of a round. How do you earn those points? Well, mainly by delivering goods to the market. But that’s not all! You can also earn points by achieving specific goals from certain buildings and by having character tiles. So, it’s not just about delivering goods, there are other ways to score points too.

In Helvetia, victory points work differently than in other games. The scoring track is there to show you the current score, but it doesn’t mean all those points are yours for keeps. You see, the points you earn from character tiles and the starting player token only count as long as you have those tiles. If you lose them, your victory point score can actually go down!

Playing the Game

When playing Helvetia, the game is divided into rounds. Each round, we take turns going in a counter-clockwise direction and placing our coins on the board. We continue until only one player has coins left.

The player who is left with coins doesn’t get any more turns, but they do become the starting player for the next round.

After each round, there’s a brief pause to make adjustments. We check the victory points and see if the game is over. If it’s not, we start a new round.

The Characters

I’m going to break it down for you. The game is all about these 5 characters:

When it’s my turn to play the game, I start by choosing one of the 5 characters. This character is going to perform some actions for me. To do this, I put one of my coins on the character’s space for each action I want them to do.

If I want the character to do more than one action, I have to decide how many coins I want to use before I start doing the actions.

Remember: I can only use ONE character for my turn. But that character can do as many actions as I’ve paid for with my coins.

If I’ve already used up all my coins in previous turns, I have to pass on my current turn. I can’t do any more actions in this round. But I can’t pass if I still have some coins left to use.

If I want to place coins on a character in the game, I have to use their action. I can’t place more coins on a character than the number of actions I can perform.

The Process of Producing Goods

In Helvetia, there are two types of goods:

1. Simple goods: These goods can be produced directly. If I see only one good, it means it’s a simple good that can be made right away. For example, on the grain yard, I can produce the good “grain” directly. On the grain yard, I can produce the good “grain” directly.

A production chain is a series of steps used to create complex goods. These goods require more steps to produce. If you see a smaller good next to the complex good in the corner, you’ll need to produce that smaller good first in order to make the complex good. Here’s an example: in the cow shed, the grain from the grain yard can be used to make the “cow” good. But once the cow eats the grain, it’s gone.

A production chain can consist of up to three goods. To make a good, you need to have one of your own villagers awake and in the right building. It doesn’t matter if the villager is in your village or in another player’s village.

Once I’ve made a good, I go to sleep and can’t make any more. But if we need to make something more complex, we need another villager who’s awake and working in a building that produces the first required good.

A Closer Look at the Characters and What They Do

The Builder

Hey there! Let’s talk about the awesome Builder in the game. This little guy is super important because it lets me construct new buildings. All I have to do is choose the Builder and put one of my coins on its space.

Once I’ve done that, I can take any building I want from the face-up ones. But here’s the catch — I have to pay the costs for the building by producing the required goods. You can find more about that in the section called “Production and Production chains” above.

The cost to build a building is right there on the top left of the building tile. It’s like a little price tag!

Now, there are three different types of buildings. Don’t worry, I’ll explain each type in the Annex section under “Buildings”. You’ll find a nice list and a clear explanation there.

If I want to build more than one building, I gotta put more coins on the Builder space. Each coin represents one building. So, if I have three coins there, I can build three buildings! Sounds good, right?

But hold on! There’s a rule here. I can only build each building once. Yep, just once. I guess they want everything to be fair and square.

If you want to construct a building but don’t have all the materials required, you have the option to purchase the missing goods from the Builder. These goods include wood, clay, and stone. However, you need to pay an extra coin for each good you buy from the Builder. The coins you pay are placed on the Builder space.

It is permissible to use only coins to build a structure, and if necessary, you can buy the same good multiple times.

Note: Keep in mind that you can only buy the three goods that are shown, and you can only do so when you take the Builder action.

Example: Imagine this: I’m trying to create a butcher’s shop in my town. But here’s the catch – I need 2 bricks and 1 stone to make it happen. Pretty straightforward, right?

Now, luckily for me, I already have one brick in my possession. But I still need to find another one. Good thing I have some villagers working in the stone quarry and clay quarry. They’re the ones who can get me the materials I need. So, it’s just a matter of time before I get that second brick and complete my butcher’s shop.

When I don’t have a villager on a clay quarry in another village, I have to buy the second brick from the Builder. So, I put 2 coins on the Builder space: 1 coin to activate the Building action and 1 coin to buy the missing brick.

Any new buildings will be placed on empty plots around my village. As soon as I’ve placed a new building, I need to check if there is a villager in my Village Center.

If there is a villager, they immediately move into the new building. After that, I have the option to build another building by placing additional coins on the Builder. And if the newly-built building can be used right away, I can go ahead and use it.

If, at some point in the game, my Village Center gets completely surrounded by buildings, a second “ring” will start forming around it.

Hey there! Let me tell you about an exciting game called “{GAME_NAME}” and an interesting aspect of it called “{KEYWORD}”.

So, in this game, everyone is trying to build their Village Center. It’s not just about building, though. There’s a special goal to aim for. If you are the first player to completely surround your Village Center with buildings, you’ll get an awesome reward – 4 victory points! And guess what? The second player to do the same gets 2 victory points.

But wait, there’s a catch. To actually receive these victory points, all the buildings in your Village Center (excluding the VP buildings) must be occupied by villagers. It’s like a little community growing and thriving within your Village Center.

Now, let me introduce you to an important character called the Trader. The Trader plays a key role in helping you establish your Village Center. They provide you with valuable resources and goods that can aid in building your buildings and making your Village Center grand and prosperous.

So go ahead, start strategizing and building your own Village Center in this amazing game. Surround it with buildings, have your villagers occupy them, and who knows, you might just be the first player to earn those victory points!

Good luck, and enjoy the exciting journey of building and growing your Village Center!

Trusting this information helps and have a delightful day!

Yours truly,

{YOUR_NAME}

So here’s the deal. As a trader, I get to deliver goods to the market in the next big town. And guess what? You can do it too!

Now, each of us can deliver any type of goods to the market once in the game using the trader. And when we do, something exciting happens – we place one of our delivery cubes on the corresponding space of the market. That cube is like a little victory point waiting to happen!

But wait, there’s more! If I’m the first player to deliver a complex good to the market, I don’t just get a victory point – I get a fancy good tile too, worth either 1 or 2 victory points. Now that’s what I call a sweet deal!

So, here’s what happened: I put 2 coins on the Trader and delivered 2 goods to the Market.

I delivered 1 timber and 1 ale and put a delivery cube on each of them. Since I was the first to deliver the ale, I also got the corresponding good tile.

Important: Just so you know, I don’t have to deliver the prerequisite goods to the Market in order to deliver the complex goods.

The way the Market is set up and ordered is just for organizing the production chains and doesn’t affect the delivery.

Just a reminder: When I use the Trader action to deliver to the Market, I can’t buy goods.

Extra Victory Points During Delivery

In addition to the victory points I mentioned earlier, I can also earn VPs on the Market with 4 possible bonus options.

Did you know that in the game Helvetia, the first player to fill an entire row on the Market with goods gets a special VP tile? It’s pretty cool, right?

Check this out – in the picture, the blue player was the first to complete the production chain in the middle. They made it all the way from ore to iron and finally to cowbell. And because of that, they earned a special VP tile just for them!

Now, let me tell you about the Night Watchman…

The Night Watchman is a special action that can be used to wake up villagers who are sleeping. It’s the only way to do it.

When you place a coin on the Night Watchman space, you get to choose one village. In that village, you can wake up all the sleeping villagers.

This includes the villagers belonging to you and the ones belonging to other players. They all wake up and stand up again.

Remember: The Village Center has two buildings on its left and right sides. These buildings are part of two different quarters. When the Night Watchman activates either of these quarters, the villagers in those buildings also wake up.

When I play the game, I like to strategize and make careful decisions. So, I start by placing 1 coin on the Night Watchman and receiving 1 quarter. Now, I have to choose which quarter I want to focus on.

Next, I wake up my female brickworker and the male woodcutter, since they both belong partially to the upper left quarter I chose. It’s important to awaken the right workers to maximize my efficiency.

The yellow male brickworker is also woken up by me. However, the red-blue mason-couple is already awake, so they are not affected by my actions.

There is one more couple, the red-white couple, in the goat yard. They are currently sleeping, but since the goat yard is not in the quarter I chose, they remain asleep for now.

Priest

Hey there! Did you know that the Priest action lets me choose one of my own villagers who isn’t married and allow them to get hitched in another village? Pretty cool, huh?

A villager is considered “not married” when they don’t live in a building. So, villagers who are either in the School or in the Village Center can tie the knot.

If I want to marry one of my “not married” villagers, I can take them from the Village Center or School and place them in someone else’s village. But wait, there’s a catch!

I can only put my villager in a building that already has one and only one villager of the opposite sex. Gotta keep it balanced, you know?

So, that’s how the Priest action works. It’s a pretty neat way to help my villagers find love, even if it means sending them off to another village.

So, here’s the deal. In this little story, we have a guy named White. He’s single and looking for love. But guess what? There’s also this woman in the Village Center who’s single and jobless. These two seem like a match made in heaven, don’t you think? Well, White sure does! He decides to put two coins on the Priest and marry them both.

Now, let’s say there’s another player in the game, and they have some coins in their Village Center. But wait! If White, who took the Priest action and put one of his villagers in that player’s village to get hitched, can snag one of those coins for himself.

Here’s the twist: If the coin he grabs happens to be one of his own color, he can use it to take more actions later on – not in this turn, though. But if it’s a coin of a different color, he just adds it to his own Village Center. Oh, and don’t forget, if there are multiple coins available during the wedding, White gets to pick which one he wants as a dowry.

I placed my villagers next to their new partners and collected the red and white coins from Blue’s Village Center. In my next turn, I can use the white coin, while the red coin goes into my Village Center.

Midwife

When you play the Midwife action, you have the power to bring new villagers into the game. It’s a simple process: just place a coin in the midwife space, and a couple in your own village will have a baby.

Now, let me explain how it works. First, you need to choose one of your villager figures. It’s important to note that this game has perfect birth control, so you can only choose one villager to have a child. Once you’ve selected your villager, place it tipped over onto one of its parents in a building.

Note: It’s important to remember that each couple can only have 1 child per turn. However, you can choose the Midwife multiple times in a round, so it’s possible for a couple to have more than one child in a round.

The End of the Round

The round comes to an end when only 1 player has any coins left. This player receives the starting player token and gets to play first in the next round. Having control of the starting player token is worth 1 victory point. Keep in mind that this player may not have had a turn of their own during the round!

The following steps are taken:

1. Awarding Character Tiles

Each character – Builder, Trader, Night Watchman, Priest, and Midwife – has a corresponding character tile. At the start of the game, these tiles are placed on the respective characters.

Let’s talk about the 5 character action spaces. I want to check if one player has the most coins on any of these spaces. If someone has the most coins, they get the corresponding tile.

But what happens if no player has more coins than anyone else on a space? Maybe no coins have been placed there or there’s a tie in the number of coins. In that case, the character tile stays where it is – either on the action space or in front of the player who had it before.

When a player wins a tile, it’s theirs forever. We never put it back on the action space.

When it comes to the Builder tile, it goes to Yellow this time. Why? Well, Yellow has more coins on the Builder than anyone else. So, Yellow gets to take control of the tile and earn some victory points.

The Trader tile, on the other hand, goes to Red. Just like with the Builder, Red has placed the most coins on the Trader. So, Red gets to claim the tile and gain a victory point.

As for the Night Watchman tile, it stays where it is for now. No one has placed any coins on this tile during this round, so there’s no one in control yet.

Now, let’s talk about the Priest and the Midwife tiles. The Priest tile goes to White because White is the only player who has placed coins on it. By doing so, White gains control of the tile and earns a victory point.

On the other hand, the Midwife tile remains where it is at the moment. Both Red and Blue have placed the same number of coins on this tile, so there is no clear winner. No victory points are awarded for this tile.

Control of a character tile has two results:

1. First, you gain 1 victory point. That’s a nice little bonus, but remember, if you pass the tile to another player later on, you’ll lose that point.

When I have a character tile, I can use it to take an extra action with that character. So, if I have control of a character tile, I can use it to take an additional action with that character. This could be an extra action with the character I chose for my regular action.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say I have the Trader character tile. I can place 2 coins on the Trader to deliver 2 goods to the Market. Then, because I have control of the character tile of the Priest from the previous round, I can use it to marry a villager into another village.

Just remember, having a character tile means I can take an extra action with that character. It’s like getting a bonus to do more in the game.

When I play the game, I can only use one character tile in each turn.

If I run out of coins, I can’t have a turn. That means I can’t use any of my remaining character tiles.

Here are some additional rules for using character tiles:

1. I can choose to use the additional action either before or after the regular action. But I have to finish one action before starting another.
2. If I use a character tile and also choose the same character for my regular action, I combine both actions together.
3. There’s a special case: usually, I don’t need to use coins when using a character tile. But if I use the character tile Builder to take 1 building action, I can use coins to buy goods from the Builder.

2. Giving the Coins Back to the Owners

All the coins on action spaces go back to their owners.

3. Children Returning from School

All of us villagers from the school are going back to the village.

Right now, the kids who haven’t gotten married yet are considered grown up and will officially join the village community. If there are any empty buildings in the village, the new villagers will go straight into them.

If there are more empty buildings than new villagers, the player can choose which buildings to put them in. Any villagers who don’t have a place in a building will go to the Village Center. They can get married or move into new buildings in the next round.

The order in which we take turns can be important in this phase. If needed, we’ll take turns, starting with the new player in charge.

4. It’s School Time for the Children

Hey there, let’s talk about what happens to the kids after the midwife does her thing. Once they’re born, they go straight to School. From there, they can either get hitched in the next round or become part of the village community at the end of the next round.

5. Time to Tally Up

Now it’s time to see who’s winning. Each player will count up their victory points based on what’s going on right now. This will give us an idea of where everyone stands in the game.

Let me break down the possible ways to earn victory points for you:

You get 1 victory point if you control the starting player token.

For each delivery cube in the Market, you earn 1 victory point.

For each good tile, you can earn 1 or 2 victory points.

Each character tile is worth 1 victory point.

If you have a VP building, you will receive 3 victory points for each one.

Being the first to completely fill an area of the Market can earn you 1, 2, or 4 victory points.

Completing the village can give you 4 or 2 victory points.

If a player has 20 or more Victory Points (VPs) at this stage, the round is cut short, and the game comes to an end.

6. Fresh Construction

Five new buildings are revealed from the ‘2’ deck of tiles and placed beside any unbuilt structures from previous rounds. If the ‘2’ deck runs out, tiles are taken from the ‘3’ pile.

Afterward, a new round begins.

End Game

The game concludes when one player accumulates 20 or more VPs after tallying each player’s points. The player with the highest VPs wins. In the event of a tie, the number of awakened villagers across all villages is counted. The player with the most awake villagers wins. If there is still a tie, the victory is shared among the tied players.