Tawantinsuyu

The great Sapa Inca Pachacuti turned to his offspring and ordered him to worship Inti, the Sun God, and extend the Inca Empire to the llamas. 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 rise.

Gather the people of 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 Temple of the Sun, reaping the fruits of your piety. Build structures that both feed your people and give you benefits that no one else has. Gather an army and conquer the villages in the four kingdoms of Tawantinsuyu. Prove that you are a worthy successor to Pachacuti and lead the Inca to glory!

In Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire, players place workers at different locations on the game board, performing actions, collecting resources (potatoes, corn, stone and gold), building buildings and stairs, carving statues, increasing their military strength and collecting weavings.

The game board features a hill in the ancient Inca capital of Cusco, whose sides are terraced and divided into five sections. At the top of the hill is the Coricancha, the golden temple, the most important temple of the Inca Empire. In Coricancha, each player has a High Priest. On the terraced sections below are various places where the workers are placed, connected by paths and individually marked by symbols. In turn, you must either place a worker on a site outside the Coricancha, or choose two of the following locations:

• Recruit a worker.
• Take two cards of God.
• Draw two army cards and keep one of them.
• Move your High Priest one or two steps clockwise inside the Coricancha.

When you place a worker, you must first get rid of a god card with a corresponding symbol or pay a gold coin. Once placed, the worker stays on the game board until the end of the game! Each place of placement of a worker is connected to exactly three action spaces. You should always perform at least one of these actions. However, for each adjacent worker (i.e. connected to your workplace by a direct path through one of the action boxes) that corresponds to the type of worker that has just been placed, you receive an additional action!

While certain locations allow you to perform multiple actions, other actions and investments may be more desirable, especially since each of the five types of workers has a unique ability:

• Warrior: Remove one of the adjacent workers and place it in your player area.
• Craftsman: Win 1 action if you place it on a craftsman's space.
• Architect: Win 1 action if you place it in an architect's space.
• Courier: Decrease in investment cost; 1 action if it is the first worker placed in a given space.
• Priest: Take a map of God; you can pay a potato to get 1 share.

All God cards contain one of the different symbols on the workers' places of placement. Before placing a worker, you must either dispose of a god card with a corresponding symbol or pay valuable gold resources. God cards also represent special abilities that can only be activated if you have previously built a corresponding statue!

Army maps allow you to send one or more units to conquer villages in nearby areas. You must face off against other players for control of each region as well as for the valuable rewards that can be obtained as a result of a military conquest.

Your High Priest's position within The Coricancha has a significant impact on your overall strategy, affecting your access to powerful actions and determining the potential costs of resources when placing your workers. Specifically, when you place a worker, you have to pay extra resources plus your worker is away from your High Priest, from nothing up to eight potatoes or corn!

In addition, when you move your High Priest, you can activate powerful actions available only in the Coricancha:

• Produce: Get all the rewards from your production buildings.
• Ador: Sacrifice previously carved statues for permanent advances in the temple.
• Offering: Pay for resources for advancements in the temple.
• Conquest: Take part in the military conquest of nearby villages.
• Rejuvenate: Refresh previously activated military buildings and units.

Throughout the game, you score victory points every time you build stairs or carve statues. Earn bonus win points every time another player uses the stairs you've built. Score victory points when advancing temples and controlling all four regions.

The game ends when the pool of workers is exhausted, symbolizing the full integration of neighbouring regions and villages into the new Inca Empire. You then score bonus victory points by reaching the top of the temple, thanks to your woven tapestries and the various buildings and resources you have accumulated.