Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire
Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Components
- Setup
- One Turn of Play
- Placing a Worker
- Description of Tasks
- Performing 2 Secondary Actions
- Recruiting at the End of the Turn
- Festival - Scoring
- End of Game and Final Scoring
- Additional Rules
- Appendix 1 - Passive Buildings
- Appendix 2 - Symbols Reference
- Credits
- Solo Rules
- Quick Reference
Components
1 game board
Tiles
- 20x Passive Buildings (marked with the Passive Ability icon)
- 19x Production Buildings (marked with the Production icon)
- 35x Weavings — 4 of them marked as starting Weavings (#SW01-04)
- Statues: 12x small Statues, 6x large Statues
- 4x Multiplier tiles for resources
- 1x Festival tile
- 1x Coricancha tile
Note: Resources (gold, stone, potato, and corn) are not limited. Use the multiplier tiles provided or any proxy if necessary. All other components (Workers, Step markers, and Conquest markers) are limited, and no more can be added to the game.
Resources
- 25x Stone
- 25x Corn
- 30x Potato
- 20x Gold
Workers
45 Workers, 9 in each color:
- Architect
- Courier
- Craftsman
- Priest
- Warrior
Cards
- 42 God cards
- 30 Army cards
1 draw bag
Solo components (see page 22)
Player components
- Player aid — 1 per player
- High Priest — 1 per player color
- Scoring marker — 1 per player color
- Steps markers — 5 per player color
- Temple marker — 1 per player color
- Conquest markers — 10 per player color
Setup
Important! We prepare each copy of the game with great care. Regrettably, mistakes can still happen. Therefore, during setup, please make sure that you are not missing any elements. This will ensure that your experience is not spoiled by a missing component. If you notice any damaged or missing components, contact us via the customer support form found at https://boardanddice.com/customersupport/.
Key concepts
- Conquest region: Chinchasuyu
- Conquest region: Antisuyu
- Conquest region: Qullasuyu
- Conquest region: Kuntisuyu
- Temple
- Nomads
- Village
- Casualties of War
Anatomy of the central part of the board (the hill):
- section
- bottom terrace
- middle terrace
- top terrace
- segment
- Coricancha
Setup steps
- Lay out the main game board in the center of the play area. Place all resources next to the board to form a general supply.
- Give each player all their Step markers. Place their Scoring marker on the 10 space of the score track and their Temple marker on the bottommost space of the Temple track.
- Rotate the Coricancha tile randomly, and place it on the top of the hill. (Skip this step for your first game, and play with the Coricancha as printed on the board.)
- If playing with 2 players, remove 1 Worker of each color from the game, returning them to the game box.
- If playing with 3 players, remove 2 Workers of each color from the game, returning them to the game box.
- Place 2 Workers of each color in the draw bag. Each player draws 2 Workers. If a player draws 2 Workers of the same color, draw one more Worker (which is thus a different color); then, return one of the duplicate color Workers to the bag.
- Add all remaining Workers to the bag. Randomly draw Workers from the bag, and place them on the Village spaces on the board, forming a queue between the potato and corn icons. The game board shows how many Workers, depending on the number of players, need to be placed into the Village.
- Place a number of Workers (depending on the number of players, as indicated on the game board) into the Nomads space. These Workers do not form a queue.
- If playing with 2 players, place one randomly drawn Worker from the bag on each space with a blocked-space icon in the area immediately surrounding the Coricancha. (Spaces in other areas will be blocked after the first Festival; see page 17.)
- Separate Buildings by type: Production and Passive. Shuffle the Production and Passive Buildings separately, and create two face-down stacks. Then, reveal 2 Buildings of each type next to each of the Building stacks. This becomes the Building Market.
- Shuffle the Army cards, and place them in a face-down deck near the Building Market. Leave space for a discard pile.
- Separate the Statues by God icons, and lay them out near the Building Market.
- Set the Weaving tiles aside, face up. Identify and set aside the 4 starting Weavings. In a 3-player game, remove tiles labeled with the 3-player icon. In a 2-player game, also remove tiles labeled with the 2-player icon. Shuffle the remaining tiles into a face-down stack, and reveal the top Weaving.
- The last person to harvest a vegetable becomes the first player. Alternatively, randomly determine the first player using a method of your choosing.
- Lay the 4 starting Weaving tiles face up on the table. In turn order (starting with the first player and going clockwise around the table), each player picks one. If applicable, remove any unused starting Weaving tiles from the game.
- Give each player 2 stone from the supply.
- Shuffle the God cards to form a face-down deck, and deal 8 to each player. Each player picks 3 to keep in their hand and plays the remaining 5 on the table for their benefits. In reverse turn order, each player receives the benefits shown on the 5 played cards. (Players may use the benefits of one card to pay for the cost of another.)
- Keep the Festival tile near the game board, as it will be needed later.
Example 1: You select the God cards on the left side to gain benefits and the cards on the right side to keep. You gain 5 potato, 1 stone, 1 corn, 1 Army card, and 5 VP. You may also build a Building and you pay for it 1 stone and 1 corn, which you have previously received.
Only replenish the Building Market at the end of this procedure. After all players have finished receiving the benefits of their played cards, shuffle these God cards back into the deck. Leave space near the God cards deck for a central offer of 3/4/5 face-up cards for games of 2/3/4 players, respectively, that will be created and used in the course of the game.
One Turn of Play
Common terminology
- VP = Victory Point
- Resource = potato, corn, stone, or gold; gold is a wild resource that can be spent as any other resource
- Food = potato or corn
On your turn, you must choose one of the following two options:
- Place a Worker: Discard 1 God card or 1 gold to place a Worker from your supply on the game board.
- Perform 2 different secondary actions, in any order:
- Moving the High Priest,
- Praying,
- Training, or
- Recruiting.
Additionally, as a free action at any time during your turn, you may discard any number of Army cards from your hand to gain the resources depicted on them. There is no limit to the number of times you can take this free action on your turn.
At the end of your turn, you have a chance to recruit more Workers, but you can never end your turn with more than 2 in your supply. For details, see Recruiting at the end of the turn on page 16.
If the Village is empty at the end of your turn, a Festival (Scoring) is triggered. Triggering a Festival is explained in its own section on pages 17 and 18.
At the end of your turn, replenish the Building Market if you constructed any Buildings. As in the Setup, there should be exactly four face-up Buildings (two of each type) in the Building Market before the next player takes their turn.
Special First Turn Rule: Before taking your first turn of the game, start by placing your High Priest on the Coricancha tile on any of the spaces (even one already occupied by one or more High Priests belonging to other players). This placement only serves to determine the starting position of your High Priest and should not be confused with the Moving the High Priest secondary action described later in the rules.
Placing a Worker
As your action, you may place a Worker from your supply onto an empty space. This costs a matching God card or 1 gold. Additionally, you must pay food costs for Roaming and Descending based on your Worker's placement compared the position of your High Priest.
Placing cost
The most common action—placing a Worker—has two costs: Roaming and Descending. To calculate the total placement cost, determine the Roaming cost and the Descending costs separately (see below). You must pay the total amount of food before performing any tasks with your Worker.
The Roaming cost is based on the distance between the section where your High Priest is standing to the space in question. A section is one-fifth of the board; each side of the hill is one section. It costs 0 food to place within the same section as the High Priest, it costs 1 food to place in an adjacent section, and it costs 3 food to place in a non-adjacent section.
The Descending cost is 0 food on the top terrace, 2 food on the middle terrace, and 5 food on the bottom terrace. This represents the effort needed to carry the tools and the benefits between the Coricancha at the top of the hill and the farms and workshops further down. The Descending cost is decreased by 2 food for each Steps marker above the space in question and in the same section. The owner of the Steps marker scores 1 VP (per Steps marker) each time an opponent places a Worker using their Steps.
It is mandatory to take the benefit of Steps; you may not choose to pay extra Descending cost to deny VP from the owner of the Steps.
Example 2: In the following image, Purple is placing a Worker as depicted. The cost of placement is:
- 1 food for Roaming
- 3 food for Descending
The total Descending cost of 5 food is decreased by 2 due to Black's Steps. Black gains 1 VP as their Steps are used by Purple.
Resolving tasks
Each space is marked with a God symbol and is adjacent to 3 task icons. You can perform tasks related to those icons.
First, determine the number of tasks you may perform:
- you automatically receive 1 task, just for placing the Worker;
- special abilities of different Workers, depending on their color, may grant additional tasks; and
- each adjacent Worker of the same color grants 1 task.
Workers are considered adjacent if they are on the same terrace and they are connected to your Worker via a common path through exactly one task icon. See Examples 3 and 4.
Most commonly, you are able to perform 1 or 2 tasks, seldom 3 or 4, and very rarely 5 or more tasks.
Next, you will "spend" tasks, one at a time, to activate the 3 adjacent task icons. You must distribute tasks as evenly as possible among those 3 task icons:
- If you have 1 task, you may choose any one of the 3 task icons.
- If you have 2 tasks, you must choose 2 different task icons.
- If you have 3 tasks, you must choose all 3 task icons.
- If you have 4 or more tasks, split them into sets of 3; perform each set according to the rules above.
As soon as you are no longer able to respect the rules above, you must stop and forego any remaining tasks.
Example 3: The blue Worker (Architect) placed on the space can perform 2 tasks: 1 simply for placing the Worker plus 1 because there is another blue Worker adjacent to it.
Example 4: Now, the blue Worker (Architect) placed on the space can perform 5 tasks: 1 for placing the Worker plus 4 because of the adjacency of 4 other blue Workers — this is a potent action indeed! The first three tasks must be the adjacent: construct a Building, gain potato, and gain stone. After these tasks are performed, the placed Worker may perform two (different) of the same three tasks again, finally using up all 5 available tasks.
God cards
If you have at least one Statue that matches the God symbol of the God card played when placing a Worker, you may additionally receive the benefits shown on the card. You can receive these benefits before or after resolving your tasks, and you may take one, all, or none of them—taking your benefits is optional.
At the end of your turn, add your played God card to the central offer.
If playing a God card would cause a 4th/5th/6th card (in a game of 2/3/4 players) to be added to the central offer, remove all God cards from the central offer, and shuffle them back into the draw deck. Only after you have done this, place your played card in the offer.
Example 5: In a two-player game, a God card is used to place a Worker on a spot. At the end of the active player's turn — and before adding the new God card to the offer — there are 3 God cards in the offer. Those 3 cards are immediately shuffled into the God card deck. Then, the played God card is added to the God cards offer.
Outside of being used to place a Worker (and potentially gain resources depicted on the God cards when doing so), God cards have the following additional benefits/effects:
- You may immediately return a God card to the bottom of the deck before constructing a Building to replace 1 or 2 tiles in the Building Market.
- During a Festival, you must pay 2 potato for every God card still in your hand.
- Also during the Festival, you may play up to 3 God cards to gain the benefits depicted on them.
- At Final Scoring, every remaining God card in your hand is worth 1 VP.
Note: When paying a gold instead of a God card, you may place your Worker on any God symbol. However, even if you have a matching Statue, you do not receive any associated benefit.
Worker special abilities
Each color Worker has a special ability that activates when placed.
Architect — Perform an additional task when placed on blue spaces.
Craftsman — Perform an additional task when placed on green spaces.
Warrior — Draw 1 Army card into your hand. Then, you may retrieve 1 adjacent non-Warrior Worker from the board into your supply at no cost.
Courier — Pay 1 food fewer for any Roaming/Descending costs. Steps discounts still apply.
Additionally, if this is the first Worker placed within a segment, perform an additional task. (Reminder: A segment is the intersection of a terrace and a section.) In a 2-player game, this includes the Workers placed during setup.
Priest — You may pay 1 potato to gain 1 task for this Worker (once per placement). You must draw one God card, from either the offer or the deck, after resolving the tasks.
Description of Tasks
Collect Resources (potato, corn, stone, gold)
Gain resources as depicted by icons: 3 potato, 2 corn, 2 stone, or 1 gold.
Build Steps / Place a Steps Marker
The cost of building Steps is 3 stone. Upon building Steps (by placing a Steps marker), you immediately receive 4 VP, 1 corn, and 2 potato.
Steps markers are placed in the dedicated spaces on the board, and you may build Steps on any valid empty space regardless of the section into which you place your Worker.
In each section, you may build the lower Steps (furthest from the top of the hill) only if the upper (closest to the top of the hill) spot already contains a Steps marker. When you build Steps on the lower spot, the owner of the upper Steps marker immediately scores 2 VP. This means that even if you are the owner of the upper Steps marker, you receive the 2 VP.
When an opponent uses your Steps to decrease the Descending cost of placing a Worker, you receive 1 VP. Although using your own Steps still reduces the Descending cost of placing your own Worker, you do not receive any VP when doing so.
Construct a Building
Pay the cost (top right corner of the tile) to construct an available Building from the Building Market. Place that Building in your player area. At the end of your turn, replenish the Building Market, as described previously in these rules.
Production Buildings provide resources or VP; however, their benefits must be triggered, as you will see later in the rules.
Passive Buildings provide ongoing abilities.
Detailed descriptions of all Buildings can be found in the Appendix later in the rules.
Before constructing, you may return 1 God card from your hand to the bottom of the draw deck to remove 1 or 2 Buildings from the Building Market and immediately replenish it. Place the Buildings you removed this way face down at the bottom of their stacks in the order of your choosing.
Build a Statue
Build one Statue in your player area.
- Small Statues cost 3 stone and immediately score you 3 VP.
- Large Statues cost 3 stone and 2 gold and immediately score you 9 VP.
Note: VP are awarded even if you gain a Statue some other way (e.g. Conquest or God cards).
Statues can be used to trigger God cards (as explained in the God Cards section on page 10) and can later be discarded when performing Worship actions with the High Priest (described on page 14).
Purchase Weavings
Draw 3 Weaving tiles from the top of the pile (including the face-up Weaving from the top of the pile). Look at all 3 of them, and choose any (including none or all) to purchase. Purchasing 1/2/3 Weavings costs 1/3/6 corn. Any Weavings you do not purchase are offered to other players; in turn order, each other player may purchase 1 leftover Weaving for 3 corn. If any remain, return all leftover Weavings face down to the bottom of the Weavings stack.
Finally, reveal the top Weaving.
Note: If any ability (Building, God card, etc) grants you one or more Weavings (as opposed to a Purchase Weavings task), you may take the face-up tile or the tile beneath the face-up tile—at your discretion—at no additional cost. Other players do not have the opportunity to purchase Weavings when an effect like this is triggered.
Weavings form Tapestries in the form of rows of Weavings. Each player may have multiple Tapestries, but each Tapestry must be composed of Weavings with different patterns. When you gain a Weaving, you must immediately add it at either end of an existing Tapestry or start a new Tapestry. Once placed, Weavings cannot be rearranged and Tapestries cannot be split or merged. There are seven different Weaving patterns, some more common than others.
Example 6: Add new Weaving to a Tapestry.
Note: The icons on the edges of the Weavings do not have to match in order to be placed adjacent to each other in a Tapestry.
During final scoring, each Tapestry yields VP based on its size. Furthermore, each matching connection provides its reward to the owner when taking a Merchant action (described in the next section).
Merchant
Receive rewards from your Tapestries. For each connection where two matching rewards are shown, gain that reward: 1 gold, 2 stone, 3 potato, a God card plus 1 potato, Rejuvenate (flip face-up, for free) 1 Building or Army card, draw one Army card, pay 1 gold to climb once on the Temple, or 3 VP.
Example 7: In the following image, Purple performs the Merchant task. They have two Tapestries: the first one made of 4 Weavings and the second one made of 5 Weavings.
In the first Tapestry, the leftmost Weaving connection matches and provide 3 potato. Also, the rightmost Weaving connection matches, and the reward is advancing one step up the Temple by paying 1 gold. The other Weaving connections do not match.
The second Tapestry, having two matching connections, also provides Purple with resources: 1 Army card and 2 stone.
Training
Draw 2 Army cards, keeping 1 in your hand and discarding the other. Discarded Army cards are placed in the discard pile. When the Army card deck empties, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw deck.
At the bottom of each Army card is a resource. At any point during your turn, you may perform a free action to discard Army cards to gain the resources printed on them. There is no limit to the number of times you may perform this free action on your turn. Army cards also depict 1 or 2 Soldiers on them. These Soldiers are relevant when taking the Conquest High Priest action, where having them in greater number results in more and/or better Conquests.
Produce One
Immediately receive the shown benefits of one of your face-up Production Buildings. This Building remains face up (as opposed to when producing as part of the Produce High Priest Action, which is explained later in the rules).
Performing 2 Secondary Actions
Instead of placing a Worker, you may choose two different secondary actions and perform them in any order. These actions often allow other players—in turn order—to perform some version of the action you choose.
High Priest secondary action
You may move your High Priest 1 or 2 steps (sections) clockwise around the Coricancha and trigger that action for all players.
You (as the active player) may always choose to gain 1 gold instead of taking the action associated with the activation. If you do so, the other players may still perform the action, and they can never choose to gain 1 gold instead.
Worship
All players may discard Statues from their player area to advance on the Temple track.
You may discard 1 large Statue to advance 3 steps on the Temple and/or 1 small Statue to advance 1 step. You may not discard more than 1 of each size Statue this way. Other players may choose to discard one large or small Statue to advance exactly 1 step (regardless of the type of Statue that is discarded).
Remove Statues discarded this way from the game by placing them back in the game box.
Advancing on the Temple may trigger effects that are described later in the rules.
Offering
You may spend 2/4/6 corn to advance 1/2/3 step(s) on the Temple track. Other players may spend 3 corn to advance exactly 1 step on the Temple track. Gain resources (if any).
Rejuvenate
All players may pay to flip face up any number of face-down Production Buildings and/or Army cards.
You may flip one for free, and you may pay 1 food for each additional Building or Army card you wish to flip face up. Other players may pay 1 corn (not potato) per Building or Army card they wish to flip face up.
Conquest
Immediately upon initiating Conquest, you must select a Worker from either end of the Village queue and place it in the Casualties of War area. If the Village is empty, select from the Nomads instead; then, draw a Worker from the bag, and place it in the emptied Nomad space.
All players may now play any number of Army cards from their hand to their player area, face up, at a cost of 1 potato each. You may play your first Army card at no cost.
Each Army card depicts 1 or 2 Soldiers. Each Conquest space depicts a benefit and the number of Soldiers that are required for conquest. The number next to the discard icon indicates the minimum number of face-up Soldiers in your player area (not in your hand) that must be discarded. The number next to the flip icon indicates the minimum number of face-up Soldiers in your player area (not in your hand) that must be flipped face-down.
After all players who choose to do so have played their desired Army cards, in turn order (starting with you), each player who still has available Conquest markers may place 1 Conquest marker on an empty Conquest space in any region and immediately 1) gain the benefits of that space and 2) flip face down and/or discard the minimum number of Soldiers for that conquest. Then, you (and only you) may place 1 additional Conquest marker, gaining the benefits and discarding and/or flipping face down the appropriate number of Soldiers.
Face-down cards can later be flipped back using a Rejuvenate action, which is described in the previous section.
Example 8: The following image depicts the situation in the four Conquest regions in a 2-player game before Purple initiates a Conquest action.
Purple has 2 Army cards face-up in their player area; then, they play 1 Army card for free and 2 more at the cost of 1 potato each. Purple has a total of 7 Soldiers on face-up Army cards.
Blue has 2 Army cards face-up in their player area; then, they play 1 Army card at the cost of 1 potato. Blue has a total of 4 Soldiers on face-up Army cards.
Purple places a Conquest marker as depicted in the following image to gain 4 VP. To do so, Purple must flip face down 2 Soldiers (and can do this with a single Army card) and must also discard 1 Soldier.
Blue follows, placing a Conquest marker as depicted in the following image to gain 7 VP. To do so, Blue must flip face down 2 Soldiers (and can also do this with a single Army card) and must also discard 2 Soldiers.
Purple, as the active player, may place a second Conquest marker and chooses to do so as depicted in the following image to take 1 God card and 1 free Weaving. To do this, Purple must discard 1 Soldier.
Note: If you choose to take gold instead of performing Conquest, you may not play Army cards or place a Conquest marker. You must still place a Worker in the Casualty of War, and the other players carry out the procedure as normal.
Produce
You receive the shown benefits of any number of your face-up Production Buildings; then, flip those Buildings face down. Before or after doing so, you (and only you), may choose one face-down Production Building to flip face up.
Afterwards, every other player may also receive the shown benefits of any number of their own face-up Production Buildings; then, flip those Buildings face down. Face-down Production Buildings can later be flipped back using a Rejuvenate action, which is described previously in the rules.
Praying secondary action
Take 2 God cards. You may take (in any combination and order) from the top of the God card deck or from the face-up offer. If you draw from the deck first, you may look at the drawn card before deciding where to take your second card from.
Note: Any time you receive God cards (with the exception of the last step of the Festival), you may take those cards, one at a time, from the offer or from the draw deck.
Training secondary action
Draw 2 Army cards, keeping 1 in your hand and discarding the other. The effect of this secondary action is identical to the Training task described previously in the rules.
Recruiting secondary action
You may take one Nomad Worker from the Nomad Workers space. Then, immediately draw one Worker from the bag (if it is not empty), and place it on the vacated Nomad space.
Recruiting at the End of the Turn
At the end of your turn, you may purchase a single Worker from the Village. Spend 1 potato or 1 corn to take a Worker from the respective end of the queue. If this is the last Worker remaining, you may spend 1 potato or 1 corn to purchase it. Purchasing the last Worker empties the Village and triggers a Festival (Scoring), described later in the rules.
Each player has a limit of 2 Workers enforced at the end of their turn. This happens after a possible Worker purchase step, so the limit is enforced immediately. If you have more than 2 Workers, you must immediately give up any surplus by removing those Workers from the game permanently and returning them to the game box. You may purchase a Worker or gain one through other game effects, even when you have 2 or more Workers; the limit is only relevant at the end of your turn.
Festival - Scoring
Each time the Village empties, the active player takes the Festival token and immediately receives VP as follows: 1/2/4 VP for the first/second/third Festival (Scoring). The third Festival also marks that the game is about to come to an end.
At the beginning of the following turn of the player holding the Festival token, resolve the Festival in the following order:
- Players perform a free Merchant task.
- Each player receives the VP to the right of their current position on the Temple track and the resources (if any) depicted to the left of that position. The VP depicted at the center of the top four Temple track spaces are scored only during Final Scoring. Ignore those for now.
- Check each Conquest region: the player who has the most Conquest markers scores VP equal to the current number of Workers in the Casualties of War area. (Ties are broken in favor of the player with the rightmost Conquest marker.)
- Players must pay 1 potato for every God card in their hand. Players lose 2 VP per missing potato; if any player must lose more VP than they currently have, their scoring marker stays on the 0 space--you cannot have negative points.
- If this was the third Festival, skip the next two steps and proceed to the End of the Game and Final Scoring.
- Return the Festival token next to the game board, then draw additional Workers from the bag to refill the Village.
- a. It is possible for the draw bag to run out of Workers before the Village is refilled. In this case, simply place all remaining Workers on the Village.
- b. It is rare but also possible for no Workers to remain in the bag before refilling. In this case, immediately trigger the next Festival: the same person who triggered the previous one receives the Festival token and the associated VP, then each player (this time including the player holding the Festival marker) plays a single turn before evaluating the next (and last) Festival.
- c. If playing with 2 players, and only during the first Festival, place one Worker randomly drawn from the bag on each space marked with the blocked-space icon on the middle terrace of the hill. If any of those spaces are occupied, skip those spaces.
- Finally, proceed to the Festival Card Draw phase (see below).
Festival card draw
After the first and second Festival, players draw God cards from the deck (during this phase players are not allowed to draw cards from the offer) as follows (in order from the player with the fewest VP to the player with the most VP):
- In a 4-player game, the player with the fewest VP draws 2 cards, the player with the second fewest draws 2 cards, the player with the second most draws 1 card, and the player with the most VP draws 1 card.
- In a 3-player game, the player with the fewest VP draws 2 cards, the player with the second fewest draws 2 cards, and the player with the most VP draws 1 card,
- In a 2-player game, the player with the fewest VP draws 2 cards, and the player with the most VP draws 1 card.
- If tied, the player closest to the active player in clockwise turn order (starting with the active player) is considered to have "more" VP.
Then, in turn order (starting from the active player), each player may play up to 3 God cards to receive any benefits depicted on them. Cards used this way are shuffled back into the draw deck and do not affect the card offer.
At the end of this step, if any Buildings remain in the Building Market, remove them (placing them face-down at the bottom of their respective Building stack(s)), and add four new Buildings (two of each type).
End of Game and Final Scoring
After the third and final Festival, each player receives VP as follows:
- Tapestries: a Tapestry comprised of 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 different Weavings score 0/1/3/6/10/15/21 VP.
- If a player has reached one of the top 4 steps of the Temple track, they receive the VP printed at the center of that step. (The player aid summarises this as: score Temple pinnacle 2/6/12/20 VP.)
- 2 VP per face-up Building (including Passive ones).
- 1 VP per God card in their hand.
- 1 VP per face-up Army card in their player area (not in their hand!).
- 1 VP per leftover Worker in their supply.
- 1 VP for each gold in their supply.
The player with the most VP wins. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most resources (a total of all gold, stone, corn, and potato) wins. If still tied, the tied players share a victory.
Additional Rules
Climbing the Temple
Whenever you advance your Temple marker on the Temple track, gain the resource shown to the left of that step (if any). If you move multiple steps, gain all resources shown to the left of each step you advance. Any number of players may occupy the same step.
Table: Temple rewards (from the top of the track downward)
- Gain 1 gold.
- Take 1 God card from the top of the deck or the offer. Draw 2 Army cards, keep 1, and discard the other.
- Gain 2 stone.
- Gain 1 stone OR take 1 Worker from the Nomads.
- Draw 2 Army cards, keep 1, and discard the other.
- Gain 1 potato. Take 1 God card from the top of the deck or the offer.
Receiving free Workers
Whenever you receive a free Worker (from a God card, a Temple reward, or other ability), take the Worker from the Nomads. Then, immediately refill the Nomads with a Worker from the bag, if the bag is not empty. If there are no Workers in the Nomads space, then you do not receive your free Worker.
Appendix 1 - Passive Buildings
- Z01 — You may treat any Worker you place as a Courier.
- Z02 — You may treat any Worker you place as a Priest.
- Z03 — Whenever you place a Warrior, you may Rejuvenate up to 2 of your Production Buildings for free.
- Z04 — Whenever you create a new match in a Tapestry, receive that reward immediately.
- Z05 — Craftsmen may be used as Architects, and Architects may be used as Craftsmen.
- Z06 — At the start of each Festival, gain 4 potato. During endgame scoring, gain an additional 1 VP per God card left in your hand (i.e. gain 2 VP per God card in your hand).
- Z07 — When placing a Worker, gain VP when you use your own Steps.
- Z08 — When you trigger a Purchase Weavings task, draw 5 tiles and discard 2 (place them face down at the bottom of the pile in the order of your choosing) before proceeding normally with the task.
- Z09 — At the start of each Festival, gain 1 VP per Weaving in your longest Tapestry.
- Z10 — At the start of each Festival, gain 2 potato, 1 corn, and 1 stone.
- Z11 — Whenever any player activates the Offering High Priest secondary action, gain 1 Weaving (the top one or the one directly underneath — your choice).
- Z12 — Whenever any player activates the Worship High Priest secondary action or immediately before a Festival, you may pay one gold to advance on the Temple.
- Z13 — For each Conquest, you may flip face down and/or discard one fewer Soldier (this works as a discount). You are still required to flip or discard at least one Soldier.
- Z14 — Gain +2 Tasks when you place a Warrior.
- Z15 — You may freely exchange 2 stone, 1 gold, and 2 corn between each other.
- Z16 — Whenever any player activates the Produce High Priest secondary action, you may Rejuvenate for free 1 Production Building or 1 Army card before or after producing.
- Z17 — Whenever any player activates the Conquest High Priest secondary action, you gain 1 gold and 1 VP.
- Z18 — Whenever any player activates the Rejuvenate High Priest secondary action, draw 1 Army card and gain 1 gold.
- Z19 — Any time during your turn, you may pay 1 potato to draw 1 God card.
- Z20 — Whenever you perform the task Collect Resources (potato, corn, stone, but not gold), receive 1 extra resource of that type and 1 VP.
Appendix 2 - Symbols Reference
Resources
- potato
- corn
- stone
- gold
Tasks
- Collect Resources: Gain 3 potato
- Collect Resources: Gain 2 corn
- Collect Resources: Gain 2 stone
- Collect Resources: Gain 1 gold
- Purchase Weavings
- Build a Statue
- Build Steps
- Build a Building
- Training: Draw 2 Army cards; keep one, discard the other
- Produce One: Gain benefits from 1 Building; do not flip it
- Merchant: Gain rewards from Tapestries
High Priest secondary actions
- Produce
- Worship
- Offering
- Conquest
- Rejuvenate
Temple / Conquest regions / Production Buildings / Tapestries rewards
- Gain a free Weaving
- Build Steps for free, gain benefits
- Build a small Statue for free, gain its benefits
- Build a Building for free
- Gain a God card from the offer or deck
- Gain X Victory Points
- Take a Worker from Nomads
- Advance one step on the Temple, gaining rewards
- Flip X Soldiers
- Discard X Soldiers
- Pay 1 gold to advance on the Temple
- Rejuvenate 1 Building or Army card
Other symbols
- Building
- Production Building
- Passive Building
- Army card
- Large Statue
- Festival
- God symbols
Credits
Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire
Game design: Dávid Turczi
Game development: Dávid Turczi, Rainer Åhlfors, Andrei Novac, Błażej Kubacki, Małgorzata Mitura
Illustrations: Jakub Skop, Michał Długaj, Alexander Zawada
Graphic design: Zbigniew Umgelter
Rulebook: Dávid Turczi, Andrei Novac, Błażej Kubacki, Rainer Åhlfors
Rulebook editing: Emanuela & Robert Pratt
Rulebook DTP: Agnieszka Kopera
Special thanks to Daniele Tascini for his inspiration and ideas.
Additional solo playtesting and development: Nick Shaw, Jonathan Bobal, Gary Perrin, Jimmy Durden, Noralie Lubbers.
Playtesters: Nick Shaw, Charlotte Levy, Kieran Symington, Wai-yee Phuah, Neil HK, Ben Hodgson, Fabio Lopiano, Denholm Spurr, Jimmy Durden, Noralie Lubbers, Jonathan Bobal, Gary Perrin, Anthony Howgego, Jeroen van den Hark, Robert Plesowicz, Łukasz Włodarczyk, Daniel Dubel, Mateusz Pasek, Iwona Jaworowska, Konrad Sass, Anna Czarnacka, Bartosz Folta, Anita Sokołowska, Jakub Muliński, Weronika Nogaś, Katarzyna Meszczyńska, Łukasz Juras, Krzysztof Jurzysta, Marek Mańko, the board game group at Game Grid (Lehi, UT).
Board & Dice
- Executive Manager: Andrei Novac
- Operations Manager: Aleksandra Menio
- Head of Marketing: Filip Glowacz
- Head of Sales: Ireneusz Huszcza
- Art Direction: Kuba Polkowski
- Development Lead: Błażej Kubacki
© 2020 Board & Dice. All rights reserved.
For more information about Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire please visit WWW.BOARDANDDICE.COM.
Solo Rules
Extra components
- Axomamma board
- 8 numbered tokens (of values 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4)
- 6-sided die (with faces showing values 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4)
- 2 double-sided Axomamma Personality tokens
Axomamma or "it" refers to the automated opponent, while "you" refers to the lone human player.
Axomamma board reference
(The text printed on the Axomamma board, summarising the detailed rules below.)
High Priest actions (when Axomamma triggers the action):
- Produce: Gains rewards of all its face-up Production Buildings, then flips face down all but the highest-numbered Building.
- Offering: As much as it can afford (costs as usual).
- Worship: As much as it can afford (costs as usual).
- Conquest: Plays all Army cards in hand for free. Chooses space with most markers in any Conquest region (fewest markers > less than 3 of its markers > fewest of your markers > Antisuyu > Chinchasuyu > Kuntisuyu > Qullasuyu). For its second Conquest, it chooses the space with fewest discards for free.
- Rejuvenate: Flips face up all its Production Buildings & Army cards for free.
Then: draws 1 Army card, and discards up to 2 God cards from market.
High Priest reactions (when Axomamma follows your action):
- Produce: Gains rewards of all its face-up Production Buildings, then flips them all face down.
- Offering: As much as it can afford (costs as usual).
- Worship: As much as it can afford (costs as usual).
- Conquest: Plays all Army cards in hand for free. Chooses space with fewest markers in any Conquest region (fewest markers > fewer than 3 of its markers > fewest of your markers > Antisuyu > Chinchasuyu > Kuntisuyu > Qullasuyu).
- Rejuvenate: Flips up half (round up) of its face-down Buildings and half of its face-down Army cards.
High Priest activation conditions:
- 2+ face-up Production Buildings (Produce)
- 4+ corn (Offering)
- 1+ Statue (Worship)
- More available Soldiers than number of Casualties of War (Conquest) — Soldiers on face-up Army cards + 1 Soldier per Army card in hand
- 3+ face-down Buildings and/or Army cards (Rejuvenate)
Board actions:
- Weavings — Axomamma triggers the action: Buys 2 Weavings if possible (unique in largest set > red > green > yellow > highest number), otherwise it buys 1 Weaving and gains 1 gold. You trigger the action: Buys 1 Weaving if it can & it's unique. Regular Weaving costs apply.
- Statue — Buys a large Statue if possible, otherwise a small one it doesn't have.
- Building — Builds random of required type, for 1 stone or 1 gold (preferring to pay stone).
- Steps — Builds in its High Priest's section if it can; otherwise, next sections clockwise in a valid spot. Avoids building under yours, if possible, to build elsewhere. Axomamma always prefers to build upper Steps, if possible.
- Gains 2 VP.
- Takes 1 Army card, face down, into its hand.
- Takes 1 Worker* from potato-side of the Village.
- Takes 1 Worker* from corn-side of the Village.
- Takes 1 random Worker* from the Nomads (refill as usual).
- Takes depicted resources into its supply.
* Whenever taking any Worker, Axomamma gains a color-based recruiting reward as shown on this board.
No Worker action:
- Recruits a random Worker from Nomads (refill as usual);
- Discards up to 2 God cards from market, gains 1 VP for each;
- Draws 1 Army card; and
- Moves High Priest 1 spot clockwise (does not perform secondary action).
Festival:
- Free Merchant action: Axomamma gains 1 VP per Weaving instead.
- Axomamma does not pay potato for its tucked God cards.
- Draw cards: Instead of drawing God cards, if it has fewer VP than you, Axomamma scores 2 VP.
Action failure: If a middle-row action fails, Axomamma gains 1 gold.
Recruiting rewards: white Worker: 1 God card and 1 VP; yellow Worker: 1 potato and 1 VP; red Worker: 1 Army card; green Worker: 1 corn; blue Worker: 1 stone.
Setup
- Place Axomamma's player board in its play area.
- Set up a 2-player game, with the following exceptions:
- When gaining a starting Weaving, Axomamma gets a random starting Weaving tile before you get to pick yours.
- Axomamma does not get a starting hand of God cards. Instead, it receives 2 stone, 2 corn, 1 gold, and 1 Army card face down in its hand at the bottom of its board.
- Axomamma receives 2 random Workers from the draw bag (in the same way you do).
- You place your High Priest first; then, roll the die, and place Axomamma's High Priest the number of spaces clockwise from your High Priest equal to the value you rolled.
- Place the 8 numbered tokens on their respective starting spaces.
- Draw 4 God cards and slide them under the 4 spaces at the top of Axomamma's board so that only the God symbol remain uncovered.
- Axomamma places 1 free Steps marker in the section where its High Priest starts (but does not gain any benefits from this placement).
- Give Axomamma a Personality token to affect what type of action it will favor during the game:
- Select one of the 2 double-sided personality tokens at random, and select one side at random (return the unused Personality token to the box).
- Place the chosen token over the top of the spot in the top row of actions on Axomamma's board.
Gameplay
You are the starting player and play your turns normally. Axomamma plays its turns in a slightly different way.
General notes
Personality Token
Whenever a numbered token lands on the spot below the Personality token, Axomamma takes the actions shown.
Note: Because of this, Axomamma is a slightly stronger opponent!
Gaining Workers
Whenever Axomamma gains a Worker from the Village or Nomads area, it also gets a reward based on the color of the Worker, as shown on its player board.
Recruiting rewards:
- White Worker (Priest): 1 God card and 1 VP
- Yellow Worker (Courier): 1 potato and 1 VP
- Red Worker (Warrior): 1 Army card
- Green Worker (Craftsman): 1 corn
- Blue Worker (Architect): 1 stone
After gaining this benefit, the color of the Worker becomes irrelevant for Axomamma.
Whenever Axomamma has more than 2 Workers, it immediately discards down to 2 Workers. Discard excess Worker at random and remove them from the game.
Drawing God cards
Whenever Axomamma may draw a God card as an effect (e.g. triggered by a Statue or climbing the Temple track), it instead removes the oldest God card in the offer, places it at the bottom of its deck, and scores 1 VP.
Drawing Army cards
Whenever Axomamma draws Army cards, it keeps them face down below its board, in its "hand." If Axomamma receives an effect that allows it to draw 2 cards and keep 1, it draws 1 card instead.
Resources
Axomamma uses potato differently than you. Whenever Axomamma has 5 or more potato in its supply, it exchanges 5 of them for 5 VP until it has fewer than 5 potato left. Axomamma does not use gold as a wild resource to stand in for potato for this purpose, but it does for all other purposes. Axomamma uses all other resources the same way you do.
Statue Benefits
If Axomamma owns a Statue (of any type) and it selects a God card tucked under its board for a main action that matches that Statue, Axomamma scores 5 VP (ignoring anything else depicted on the God card).
Temple Benefits
Axomamma receives all benefits when moving up the Temple track, except for drawing God cards into its hand (see Drawing God cards earlier).
When it gains the stone/Worker Temple bonus, it takes whichever of these two it has the fewest of:
- If there is a tie, Axomamma takes a Worker if it has 0 or 1 Workers; otherwise it takes the stone.
- If there are no Workers available in the Village or Nomads area, Axomamma takes the stone.
- When Axomamma must take a Worker, it takes it from the potato-cost side of the Village. If the Village is empty, it takes a random Worker from the Nomads area.
High Priest Action
If Axomamma meets the conditions (see High Priest Activation Condition below) of one of the next 2 High Priest actions accessible from its High Priest's current position, it 1) moves its High Priest to the closest of these actions it can perform and 2) performs that action. You may follow the action, as per the standard rules.
Whenever Axomamma performs a High Priest action, it also
- draws 1 Army card, placing it face down below its board and
- discards up to 2 God cards from the central offer, discarding the oldest 2 if there are 3 to choose from. (It does not score VP for discarding these cards.)
High Priest Activation Conditions
- Offering: Axomamma has 4 corn or more.
- Produce: Axomamma has at least two face-up Production Buildings.
- Worship: Axomamma has one or more Statues.
- Conquest: Axomamma has more "available Soldiers" than the number of Workers in the Casualties of War area (available Soldiers are Soldiers on face-up Army cards on the table, plus any Soldiers on Army cards in its "hand").
- Rejuvenate: Axomamma has a combined total of three or more face-down Buildings and/or Army cards.
High Priest Actions & Reactions
Produce
If Axomamma takes the Action: Axomamma activates all its face-up Production Buildings. If a Building gives a choice of resources, Axomamma takes whichever it has the fewest of. If tied, choose in the following priority order: gold, corn, stone, potato. Then, Axomamma flips all activated Buildings face down.
If Axomamma follows your Action: It keeps the highest reference number Building face up.
Offering / Worship
Either way: Perform as if in a multiplayer game. Axomamma offers/worships as much as it can for the standard costs.
Conquest
If Axomamma takes the Action: Axomamma plays all of its Army cards in-hand for free. Then, it chooses the available Conquest space with the highest depicted discard-Soldiers requirement, breaking ties in the following priority order: region with the fewest Conquest markers overall > region with fewer than 3 of its markers > region with the fewest of your Conquest markers > Antisuyu > Chinchasuyu > Kuntisuyu > Qullasuyu. It then discards and flips Army cards face down according to standard rules. Axomamma favors discarding 1-Soldier cards over 2-Soldier cards and flipping 2-Soldier cards over 1-Soldier cards.
If Axomamma follows your Action: For its second Conquest, Axomamma chooses the space across all regions which requires discarding the fewest Army cards. If tied, pick one randomly.
Rejuvenate
Either way: Axomamma does not pay any cost to flip Buildings or Army cards face up.
If Axomamma takes the Action: Axomamma flips all of its face-down Buildings and Army cards face up.
If Axomamma follows your Action: Axomamma flips face up half (rounding up) of its total number of face-down Production Buildings and half of its face-down Army cards. (E.g. If Axomamma has 3 face-down Buildings and 3 face-down Army cards, it flips up 2 Buildings and 2 Army cards.)
Axomamma Board Action
If Axomamma has no Worker to place, see the No Worker section on page 26.
If Axomamma does not trigger a High Priest action and it has at least one Worker, it will place a Worker on the board and perform an action. If it has multiple Workers to pick from, it places its "oldest" (or if this is its first placement of the game, pick randomly).
To place a Worker, roll the die to select one of the four God cards tucked under the top of its player board.
- Axomamma finds a space on the main board that matches the God symbol of the selected card (prioritizing the top terrace of the hill before the first Festival, the middle terrace between the first and second Festival, and the bottom terrace after the second Festival).
- If there is no matching space on the desired terrace, Axomamma tries to find a matching space on the next terrace up if possible, then on the next terrace down.
- If multiple valid spaces exist on the desired terrace, Axomamma chooses the space with the lowest combined Descending and Roaming cost.
- If still tied, choose randomly between the tied options.
- In the extremely unlikely case of no matching spaces being available, draw another God card from the deck to pick another symbol (discarding the original God card to the central offer); repeat this step as many times as necessary to find a valid space to place on.
Place the Worker on the space selected. Axomamma does not pay Roaming and Descending costs. Then, discard the chosen God card from its board to the central offer, and draw a God card from the top of the deck to replace it (tucking it under Axomamma's board). If Axomamma's Worker uses your Steps, you gain VP normally.
It then performs all actions under the tokens on its player board matching the rolled number (top to bottom order).
Actions in the top row require no payment. These actions can always be performed. On the fifth option (stone or corn), Axomamma takes whichever it has the fewest of.
Actions in the middle row require payment. If a middle row action cannot be fully performed (e.g. Axomamma cannot pay enough stone for a Building/Steps/Statue, it does not have enough corn for Weavings, etc.), Axomamma gains 1 gold instead. Remember that Axomamma may also use gold (as it is a wild resource) to pay for costs, but only if necessary.
Actions in the bottom row require no payment, but they may be impossible to perform.
If an action cannot be performed (e.g. Axomamma wants to gain a Worker from the Village when there are none left), Axomamma skips that action.
Note: Actions performed by Axomamma are not connected in any way with the placement of the Worker on the board.
Finally, Axomamma moves all the matching numbered tokens forward (clockwise) a number of spaces equal to the token's value (e.g. if you roll a 3, do all actions under the #3 tokens; then, move all #3 tokens 3 spaces clockwise around their respective loops).
Note: Multiple tokens can share the same spot; therefore, spots with existing tokens do count as spaces when counting moves for other tokens.
Action Details
Collect Resources (potato / stone / corn / gold): Axomamma gains the resources normally.
Purchase Weavings: Axomamma ignores benefits when adding Weavings to Tapestries.
- If Axomamma initiates a Weaving task, it buys 2 Weavings, if it can afford to do so. If it can only afford 1 Weaving, it buys 1 but also gains 1 gold. When choosing Weavings, it prefers to add a new one to its largest Tapestry, before adding to a smaller Tapestry or starting a new one. If more than one possibility exists, following the rules above, Axomamma chooses the Weaving with a higher reference number.
- If you initiate the Weaving task, it always buy 1 Weaving if it has 2 or more corn, unless any leftover Weaving would require starting a new Tapestry.
Build a Statue: Axomamma favors large Statues over small Statues, if it can afford the cost. To determine which Statue Axomamma builds:
- Roll its die to select one of its tucked God cards (it does not discard this God card), and build the Statue that matches the symbol on that God card.
- If no matching Statue exists, perform the step above for the next card in clockwise direction.
- If there are no matching Statues for any of its tucked God cards, Axomamma builds a Statue at random, again favoring large Statues over small Statues.
Construct a Building: If Axomamma has at least 1 stone or 1 gold, it pays that stone or gold (preferring to pay stone) to choose and build a random Building (of the type specified by the action space on Axomamma's board) from the Building Market. Axomamma ignores the printed cost of Buildings.
Build Steps: If it can, Axomamma builds Steps between the top and middle terrace in the section where its High Priest is. Otherwise, move clockwise from there to find a valid spot. If no section is available, proceed to lower spots, following the same rule. If possible, Axomamma avoids building Steps which would grant you VP.
Recruit from the Village (potato side / corn side): Axomamma recruits a Worker from the Village from the potato/corn side of the queue, respectively, for free. It then receives the reward associated with that color Worker (printed on its board).
Recruit from the Nomads: Axomamma recruits a random Nomad Worker (and refills the pool as usual). It then receives the reward associated with that color Worker (printed in its board).
Personality Actions
When using a Personality token, Axomamma gains gold and takes one of the actions shown below. It gains these for free (it does not pay any usual costs for them) and gains the benefits/bonuses associated with them.
Statue: Build a randomly chosen small Statue for free (and gain the associated 3 VP).
Weaving: Take 1 Weaving for free from the top of the Weavings stack.
Temple: Advance on the Temple track one space, gaining the corresponding bonus.
Building: Construct 1 Building for free. If Axomamma has fewer than 2 face-up Production Buildings, it constructs random Production Building. Otherwise, it constructs one random Passive Building.
No Worker
If Axomamma has no Workers and does not meet the conditions of a High Priest secondary action, it does all of the following:
- recruits a random Nomad Worker (refilling Nomads as usual);
- discards up to 2 God cards from the offer (oldest first), scoring 1 VP for each discarded card;
- draws 1 Army card and places it face down into its hand below its board; and
- moves its High Priest one spot clockwise on the Coricancha tile without triggering that activation.
Festival
A Festival is performed according to normal rules, except:
- instead of Axomamma taking a free Merchant action, it scores 1 VP per Weaving it owns;
- Axomamma does not pay any potato for the 4 God cards tucked under its player board; and
- Axomamma skips the Festival Draw Cards step and instead gains 2 VP if it is behind you on the score track.
End of Game
Before scoring, Axomamma takes a final Rejuvenate action; if it has any remaining Statues, it also takes a final Worship action. You may not follow either of these actions.
The rest of the final scoring proceeds as per standard rules.
You must score at least 120 VP and be ahead of Axomamma to win the game!
Adjusting Difficulty
If you are able to win by a large margin (25 VP or more) against Axomamma or if you lose to it by a large margin, choose some of the following options to increase or decrease the difficulty.
Decreasing difficulty
- Axomamma does not use a Personality token.
- Axomamma must spend 2 stone to construct Buildings instead of 1.
- High Priest secondary action:
- Worship: Axomamma's Condition to initiate this activation is to have at least 2 Statues to sacrifice.
- Conquest: If Axomamma initiated this activation, it does not perform the second (easier) Conquest.
- If Axomamma takes a No Workers action, it does not gain an Army card.
Increasing difficulty
- High Priest secondary action:
- Worship/Offering: If Axomamma initiated this activation, it first advances once for free on the Temple track (before spending corn/Statues to advance per standard rules).
- Conquest:
- Axomamma's Soldier strength only needs to equal the number of Casualties of War in order to take a Conquest action;
- To conquer a region space, Axomamma gets a 1-Soldier discount on the flip requirement and a 1-Soldier discount on the discard requirement.
- Whenever Axomamma chooses a High Priest secondary action, it scores 2 VP.
- During a Festival, it scores an additional 1 VP (for a total of 2 VP) per Weaving.
- If Axomamma takes a No Workers action, it scores an additional 2 VP.
- Axomamma scores 1 VP for each leftover resource (so, 2 VP per gold) it has at the end of the game.
Quick Reference
(The back cover repeats the Appendix 2 symbols reference: Resources, Tasks, High Priest Secondary Actions, Temple / Conquest regions / Production Buildings / Tapestries rewards, Other symbols, and God symbols.)