Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire

2020 | Ancient

The great Sapa Inca Pachacuti turned to his offspring and ordered them to worship Inti, the Sun God, and to expand the Inca Empire as far as the llamas roam. With Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Qullasuyu, and Kuntisuyu — the four regions of the new empire — now ripe for conquest, the time has come for Pachacuti's true successor to arise.

Gather your people from the villages below and use their unique abilities to strategically place them where they can perform the greatest tasks for you. Climb the steps of the Sun Temple, reaping the rewards of your piety. Build structures that both nourish your people and provide you with benefits no other has at their disposal. Muster an army and conquer villages in the four realms of Tawantinsuyu. Prove yourself a worthy successor to Pachacuti and lead the Inca to glory!

During the game, players will place workers onto various locations on the game board, performing actions, collecting resources (potatoes, corn, stone, and gold), constructing buildings and stairs, sculpt statues, expanding their military strength, and collect weavings.

The game board features a hill, located within the old Inca capital of Cusco, the sides of which are terraced and divided into five sections. Atop the hill sits the Coricancha, The Golden Temple, the most important temple of the Inca Empire.

Within the Coricancha, each player has a High Priest. On the terraced sections below exist a variety of worker placement locations, interconnected by paths and individually marked by symbols.

On your turn, you must either:
• place a worker onto a location outside the Coricancha
OR, choose two of the following:
• recruit 1 worker,
• take 2 God cards,
• draw 2 Army cards (keeping 1), or
• move your High Priest, 1 or 2 steps clockwise within the Coricancha.

Placing a worker
When placing a worker, you must first discard a God card with a matching symbol, or pay 1 gold, before placing your worker onto the desired location. Once placed, the worker remains on the game board for the rest of the game! (See Warrior worker abilities below.)

Each worker placement location is connected to exactly 3 action spaces. You must always perform at least 1 of these actions. However, for each adjacent worker (connected to your worker's location via direct path through one of the action spaces) which matches your worker (matching in type to the worker you just placed), you receive one additional action!

You must carefully consider where to place each worker, as certain actions may be more desirable, while other placement locations will result in being able to perform multiple actions.

Worker abilities
In addition to gaining more actions when placed adjacent to a worker of its type, each of the five types of workers have a unique ability:

• Warrior: Remove 1 of the adjacent workers, placing it in your player area.

• Craftsman: Gain +1 action if placed onto a craftsman space.

• Architect: Gain +1 action if placed onto an architect space.

• Courier: Decreased placement cost; +1 action if it is the first worker placed within a given area.

• Priest: Take 1 God card. You may pay 1 potato to gain +1 action.

God cards
All God cards feature one of the different symbols found on the worker placement locations. Before placing a worker, you must always discard a God card with a matching symbol, or else pay valuable gold resources.

However, God cards also depict special abilities which can only be activated if you have previously built a matching Statue!

Army cards
Army cards allow you to send one or more units to conquer villages in nearby regions. You must compete against the other players for control of each region along with valuable rewards which can be gained as a result of military conquest.

High Priest and the Coricancha
The position of your High Priest within the Coricancha has a significant impact on your overall strategy. Knowing when and how far to move your High Priest will affect your access to powerful actions and determine any potential resource costs when placing your workers.

When placing a worker, you must pay additional resources the farther your worker is from your High Priest. There is no placement cost at all when a worker is placed onto a location in an area immediately below the location of your High Priest. However, further down the hill, and several sections to the left or right of your High Priest, the placement cost can be as high as 8 potatoes or corn! Careful planning and execution is therefore important to avoid paying expensive placement costs.

Additionally, when moving your High Priest, you can activate powerful actions available only within the Coricancha.

• Produce: Gain all rewards from your Production buildings.

• Worship: Sacrifice previously sculpted Statues to gain permanent Temple advancements.

• Offering: Pay resources to gain Temple advancements.

• Conquer: Engage in military conquest of nearby villages.

• Rejuvenate: Refresh previously activated buildings and military units.

Victory points and game end
Throughout the game, score victory points whenever you construct stairs or sculpt statues. Gain bonus victory points whenever another player makes use of the stairs you have constructed. Score victory points from temple advancements and control of the four regions.

The game ends when the worker pool has become exhausted, symbolizing the full incorporation of nearby regions and villages into the newly risen Inca Empire.

At the end of the game, score bonus victory points from reaching the top of the Temple, from your woven Tapestries, and from various buildings and resources you have accumulated.