Fika
Fika Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 18 Café Cards (3 suits, numbered 1 to 6)
- 5 Street Cards (with 4 transparent stickers to connect them)
- 3 Tip Cards
- 4 Player Aids
- 3 Tokens
- Rules
Credits
- Designer: Pieter Van Gompel
- Illustrator: Beth Sobel
- Graphic Design: Aleksandra Bilic
- Editors: Daniel Theuerkaufer, Lisa Prohaska
- Copy Editors: Daniel Theuerkaufer, Jacob J. Coon, Harriet Cooper
Service & Support: Please contact [email protected] for our customer service or navigate to www.boardgamecircus.com/service for our customer service contact form.
(c)2022 Board Game Circus, Daniel Theuerkaufer, Im Mattfeldele 8, 79189 Bad Krozingen, Germany. All rights reserved. Reprint and/or publishing requires explicit prior permission.
This game wouldn't exist without the support of many people. Pieter would like to thank Angela, Liam and Ayla. Special thanks also go my sister Edith and her husband Joren. Thanks to Ken Vandenbroek, Tim Van Der Hoeven, Mike Bruner, Emiel Ament, Joshua Blaylock, Karl Schwiegershausen, Paul Wake, John Kean, Rick Kanazawa, Michelle Skevington-Carter, Frank Harvie, Greg Okulov, Roger Abshire, Filip De Kavel, Glenn Dejaeger, Arne De Cnodder, Bert Heyman and Amina Van Imschoot. Last but not least, I want to thank Daniel Theuerkaufer and his team for bringing this project to life in the best possible way.
Board Game Circus would like to thank Pieter Van Gompel, Lisa Prohaska, Beth Sobel, Aleksandra Bilic, Dirk Huesmann, Frank Thuro, Martin Piscosquito, Michiel de Wit and everyone from the virtual and in-person playtesting.
Café Card Layout
Front
- Suit: There are 3 colored suits: brown, green and pink.
- Number: There are 6 cards in each suit, numbered 1 to 6.
- Effect: Each card features one of six effects, corresponding with the numbers. These effects may only be resolved immediately after placing the card.
- Objective: Each card has an objective that is scored at the end of the round. You earn the coins stated on the card by fulfilling these objectives.
- Special Feature: Cards with the number 6 have a special feature which activates during scoring.
Example card: Kladdkaka, number 6, pink suit. Effect: Swap the positions of up to 2 cards in either café. Objective: 9 coins. Special feature: When this 6 is opposite a 1, the 6 becomes a 2-5.
Back
Group: The back of each card is divided into two sections. Each half shows 2 or 3 cups.
If there is a Group on the Street in front of a card in your café, the number of coins that you earn for completing that card's objective is either doubled or tripled: If the half with 2 cups points towards you, you gain twice as many points. If it is the half with 3 cups, you gain three times as many points.
Since the other half naturally points to the other player, you can both benefit from the Group, although one of you will benefit more than the other.
Setup
- Allow enough space between you and your opponent to place 3 parallel rows of 5 cards. Place a row of 5 Street cards in the middle as shown. This is the Street that the Groups will move along.
- Setting out the Street creates 5 empty card slots on either side. These two rows represent your café and your opponent's café. This is where you will place your cards.
- Shuffle all 18 Café cards.
- Place 4 Café cards face up nearby to create the general supply.
- Deal 6 Café cards face down to each player. These become your hand.
- Place the remaining 2 Café cards face down next to the Street. These are the Groups coming in for their coffee break.
- Place the 3 Tip cards and the 3 tokens nearby.
Make sure there are at least 2 different suits and 3 different numbers in the general supply. If needed, discard cards and place new ones to meet this requirement, making sure that you shuffle the remaining cards afterwards.
Game Overview
FIKA is played over 2 to 3 rounds, in which you choose cards and place them in your café. At the end of each round, you earn the coins depicted on your cards for fulfilling your cards' objectives. Whoever earns the most coins wins the round. The first to win 2 rounds wins the game!
How to Play
Each round is made up of 2 phases: You first determine the primary and secondary suit colors for the round, and then you start playing your cards.
1. Determine the primary color and the secondary color
Decide who chooses the primary suit color for the first round by flipping a coin. In all other rounds, the player who lost the previous round will choose the primary color for the current round. Their opponent chooses the secondary color. Stack the tokens accordingly as a reminder, with the primary suit color on the top and the unselected third color at the bottom. These colors determine the order of priority if there is a tie when you are placing your cards.
2. Play cards
In this phase, you play simultaneously. Each turn, both of you choose and reveal one of your cards at the same time. Respecting the order of priority, you place your card into any empty slot in your own café and may resolve its effect. Play through these steps in the order stated:
A. Choose 1 card simultaneously
Choose one card from your hand and put it face down in front of you.
B. Reveal cards simultaneously
Reveal your chosen card.
C. Place cards and choose whether to resolve their effects
If the number on your card is higher than the number on your opponent's card, you get to place your card first. Place it into one of the empty slots in your café. If you wish to resolve the effect on this card, you must do so immediately.
You must resolve the effect at this point if you wish to use it — you cannot resolve it later in the game!
Your opponent then places their card into any empty slot in their café, and resolves their card effect in the same way.
If the numbers on your cards are the same, the color of the card determines who gets to place and resolve their card first: the primary color takes priority and is placed first, followed by the secondary color, and then the unselected color is placed last.
Example: Matea chooses pink for the primary color and Josefine chooses brown for the secondary color. So for this round, the order of priority of the colors is: pink > brown > green. They each play their card, but both reveal a card with the number 6. As Matea's card is pink and Josefine's card is brown, Matea gets to place and resolve her card first. If Matea had revealed a green 6, Josefine would have placed her card first because her card is of the secondary color, whereas green has no priority at all.
Repeat steps A to C, until there are 5 cards in each of the cafés. The round then ends.
Once there are 5 cards in your café, your opponent cannot make any more changes to your café.
After both of you have placed your cards, if your opponent already has 5 cards in their café but you don't, you may place and resolve up to 2 more cards until you have 5 cards in your café.
Scoring
At the end of the round, review your café from left to right to see which objectives have been fulfilled.
Each card has one objective, which earns you coins if you have that card in your café and you fulfill its requirements. You may score each card only once, even if you are able to fulfill its objective more than once. If a Group has been placed in front of a card, that card's coin reward is either doubled or tripled, depending on which half of the Group points towards you.
Add up all the coins you have earned from your objectives. If you have earned the most coins, you win the round and receive 1 Tip card.
In the event of a tie, the player with the highest number on a card of the primary suit color in their café wins the round. If there's still a tie, the player with the next highest number on a card of the primary suit color wins the round.
Remember that the special feature on cards with the number 6 means that a 6 opposite a 1 will no longer count as a 6.
If you now have 2 Tip cards, the game ends and you win!
Otherwise, set up the next round following steps 3 to 6 as listed under Setup, and continue playing.
Café Cards Reference
Cards with the number 1
Effect: After you have placed this card, you may swap 1 card from the general supply with 1 card from either your own café (which can be this card) or your opponent's café. Do not resolve the effect of any swapped cards.
Objective: You earn 5 coins if you have at least 2 cards of the same number placed next to each other in your café at the end of the round.
Even if you have two pairs of cards of the same number placed next to each other in your café, which would fulfill the objective twice, you can only gain a maximum of 5 coins for this card.
Cards with the number 2
Effect: After you have placed this card, you may swap 1 card from your café with the card opposite in your opponent's café. Do not resolve the effects of any swapped cards.
Objective: You earn 6 coins if the outer slots of your café contain cards showing the numbers 1 and 6 at the end of the round (it does not make a difference which of the cards is on the left or the right).
Cards with the number 3
Effect: After you have placed this card, you may swap 1 card from your hand with any 1 Group that is next to or on the Street. Add the Group to your hand and place any card from your hand (which can be the Group you have just taken) face down as a Group. You must place the Group in the same space and must orient it in the same direction.
Objective: You earn 7 coins if there is a Group in front of this card on the Street at the end of the round.
Cards with the number 4
Effect: After you have placed this card, you may swap 1 or 2 other cards from your café (not this card) with 1 or 2 cards from your hand. You may exchange 2 cards for 2 cards, 1 card for 1 card, or instead exchange just 1 card from your café with 2 cards in your hand, or 2 cards in your café for 1 card in your hand.
You must place the cards from your hand down before adding the swapped cards from your café to your hand. Where possible, you must place them into the slots emptied. Do not resolve the effect of any swapped cards.
Objective: You earn 7 coins if you have at least 3 cards of the same suit placed next to each other in your café at the end of the round.
This effect lets you place one additional card in a turn or empty a slot. It can mean a round lasts more than 5 turns, as you're filling your café more slowly.
Cards with the number 5
Effect: After you have placed this card, you may move any 1 Group that is next to or on the Street. Put it on top of any Street card, with the half showing 3 cups pointing towards one of your slots and the other half pointing towards the slot opposite in your opponent's café. You may even put the Group back down on the same Street card you took it from, simply turning it around so that the 3 cups point towards you.
Objective: You earn 8 coins if you have at least 3 consecutively numbered cards placed next to each other in your café, in either ascending or descending order, at the end of the round.
Cards with the number 6
Effect: After you have placed this card, you may swap the position of up to 2 cards (which can include this card) in either your own café or your opponent's café. You may swap the location of 2 cards or swap 1 card with an empty slot. Do not resolve the effect of any swapped cards.
Objective: You earn 9 coins if you have at least 4 cards of the same suit in your café at the end of the round. They do not have to be next to each other.
Special Feature: When scoring at the end of the round, if you have a card numbered 6 in your café opposite a 1 in your opponent's café, you must decrease the 6 to a number of your choosing between 2 and 5. Only the number changes — the objective and suit remain unaffected.
This can influence the scoring of other cards!
Icons
- A blank/white icon = any card
- X = a certain number
- A colored swatch = a certain color
- A looping line = next to each other
- The cup pair icon = a Group