Overview

Helsinki is a tile-placement and card-management game where players shape a market on Senate Square. Players move around the senate board to draw pavilion cards or build pavilion tiles on their personal grid. By covering coats of arms, players unlock special one-time actions. Points come from completing rows and columns and placing superstructures at intersections.

Components

• 1 Senate board
• 1 Action board with scoring track
• 50 Pavilion tiles (double-sided, 2-5 roofs in 5 colors)
• 12 Wild pavilion tiles (1 roof each)
• 100 Pavilion cards (18 per color + 10 wild)
• 4 Player boards (with 7x7 grid of 49 roofs)
• 8 Coats of arms per player
• 1 Statue per player
• 1 Player token per player
• 1 Scoring marker per player
• 4 Bonus cards
• 16 Visitors
• 30 Superstructures
• 5 Covering tiles
• 1 Starting token

Setup

1. Place the Senate board centrally. Shuffle all pavilion cards; stack face down as draw pile. Draw 8 cards to the 8 display slots.
2. Sort pavilion tiles by color and shape as common supply. Place superstructures nearby.
3. Place the action board beside the Senate board. For first game, cover bottom row with covering tiles.
4. Each player takes: 1 Player board (same orientation as Senate board), 8 Coats of arms (on designated roof dots), 1 Statue (center roof), 1 Scoring marker (on “0”), 1 Player token.
5. Youngest player gets starting token, places their player token on any senate space. Others follow clockwise, placing on every other senate space.
6. Each player draws 2 pavilion cards. Card removal for fewer players:
   • 3 players: Remove two “1” and one “5” of each color + 4 wild cards.
   • 2 players: Remove two each of “1,” “2,” “3,” “4” per color, one “5,” + 6 wild cards.

Turn Structure

Starting with the player holding the start token, then clockwise:

1. Move your player token 1-3 spaces clockwise on the senate board.
2. Choose one action:
   • Draw cards (take the 2 adjacent cards, refill from draw pile), OR
   • Build a pavilion (play cards, place tile on your board)

Actions

Drawing Cards

Take the 2 pavilion cards adjacent to your senate space. Refill empty slots from draw pile. Hand limit: 7 cards. Discard excess to the face-up discard pile.

Building a Pavilion

1. Play cards: You need a card showing the desired tile shape plus additional cards of the same color equal to the card’s number minus 1 (e.g., a “4” card requires 3 additional same-color cards). Wild cards substitute for any color. Cards showing unavailable tiles can only be played as additional same-color cards.
2. Take the tile from supply plus any superstructures shown on the card.
3. Place the tile on your player board:
   • Push from the side corresponding to your player token’s position on the senate board.
   • Push toward center until it hits the statue or another tile (edge to edge).
   • May rotate and flip before pushing.
   • Must fit entirely within the 7x7 grid.
4. Color bonus: If the new tile touches a same-colored tile (edge to edge), draw 1 card.
5. Place superstructures on any roof(s) of the newly built tile (1 per roof max).
6. Collect coats of arms that are covered by the new tile; store on your meadow.

Using Coats of Arms (Special Actions)

Place a coat of arms from your meadow onto an action on the action board. Perform that action. Each player can use each action only once per game. Multiple actions may be used per turn.

15 Available Actions include:

• Move 1-5 or 1-6 spaces instead of 1-3
• Move 1 space counter-clockwise
• Gain 1 or 2 wild pavilion tiles
• Push from any side regardless of position
• Draw 1 extra card when drawing
• Take 1 extra superstructure
• Build a second pavilion tile
• Need 1 fewer card to build
• Move a superstructure to any roof
• Ignore hand limit for 1 round
• Draw cards AND build in same turn
• Play any 1 card as wild
• Gain 2 points

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Game ends after the round in which the final card from the draw pile is revealed or drawn. If needed, shuffle the discard pile for one final round.

Final Scoring

• Pavilion tiles: 2 points per complete row; 2 points per complete column (center statue space counts as built).
• Superstructures (evaluated in order):
  1. 3 points each for superstructures at the intersection of a complete row AND column (then remove them).
  2. 1 point each for remaining superstructures in a complete row or column.
  3. 0 points for superstructures in incomplete rows/columns.

Highest score wins. Tiebreaker: the tied player who is behind in player order wins.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• The center space with the statue always counts as a built space for row/column completion.
• A card showing a tile no longer in supply cannot build that tile but can serve as an additional same-color card.
• Wild cards have no number and cannot be played alone.
• Superstructure evaluation order matters: intersection bonuses are scored and removed before row/column bonuses.
• Dry Roads Expansion: Players place 4 visitors on crosswalks. Goal: connect all 4 visitors via pavilion tiles. First to connect claims the highest bonus card (9/7/5/3 points).
• Variant: New Challenges: Cover any 5 actions on the action board with covering tiles for variety.

Player Reference

Scoring	Points
Complete row	2
Complete column	2
Superstructure at row+column intersection	3 (removed after scoring)
Superstructure in complete row or column	1

Turn: Move 1-3 clockwise, then Draw 2 cards OR Build 1 pavilion

Building: Card with tile shape + (number - 1) additional same-color cards

Coats of Arms: Cover them with tiles to unlock one-time special actions