Inca Empire: The Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Object
• Setup
• How to Play
  • 1. Activate Tokens
  • 2. Deal Cards
  • 3. Draft Cards
  • 4. Take Actions
    • a. Build a City or Colca
    • a. Build a City or Colca (continued)
    • b. Play an Extra Workforce Card
    • c. Play a Trade Agreement card
    • d. Build a Terrace
    • e. Take no additional action
  • 5. Terminate Trade Agreements
  • 6. Pass the Gold Nugget
• End of the Game
• Route Restrictions
• Machu Picchu - 5 Player Game
• FAQ
• Examples of Legal Connections and Placement of Cards
• Sample Play

Contents

• 111 Era cards
• 5 Start cards
• 26 Goal cards
• 1 Cusco card
• 1 First Player Marker
• 5 Reference cards
• 1 Rule book
• 70 (5 sets) Fame/Road tokens
• 5 Road Restriction tokens

Object

The object of the game is to have the most victory points at the end of ERA IV by meeting your personal goals and placing as many tokens as possible.

Setup

1. Decide on a first player and give them the First Player Marker.
2. Sort the cards into six decks (Goal, Start, Era I, Era II, Era III, and Era IV). Shuffle separately.
3. Each player chooses a set of 70 Fame/Road tokens and places them in a pile that is labeled SUPPLY.
4. Place the "Cusco" card in the center of the table.
5. Remove the Trade Agreement cards from the Era I deck. Deal 1 to each player and then shuffle the remainder back into the Era I deck.
6. Deal each player one Start card. If less than five players, remove the Machu Picchu Start card from the game. See five player rule for Machu Picchu at the end of the rulebook (page 10). In a two and three-player game, set the extra start card(s) next to Cusco, as indicated by the arrow on the card.
7. Deal each player five Goal cards (will score only three).

Setup illustration note: the "extra" starting city card(s) in a two or three player game cannot be "claimed" by players. Roads may be built to and from that city. In a 2 or 3-player game the extra Starting City card(s) is placed next to Cuzco. This one is to the north because the compass arrow points south.

How to Play

ERA cards (Terrace when played face-down).

The game will be played over 4 ERA's (each Era is a round). Each round will proceed in the following order:

1. Activate tokens
2. Deal Era cards
3. Draft Era cards
4. Take Actions
5. Close Trade Agreements
6. Pass the gold nugget

1. Activate Tokens

Move 6 of your tokens plus one token for each pair of Terraces (face-down Era cards) you have on the table from your SUPPLY to your ACTIVE POOL.

2. Deal Cards

Deal each player cards:

• 2 and 3 player: 6 cards
• 4 and 5 player: 5 cards

Note: In Era I deal one less card. Each player should be starting with a Trade Agreement and a Start card.

3. Draft Cards

Each player selects two cards from their hand and simultaneously plays them face-up on the table. In player order, each player takes any one card. In reverse turn order, each player takes a second card. The last player selects two cards in a row, and the first player selects first and last.

4. Take Actions

Beginning with the First Player and continuing to the left, players will choose one of the actions listed below. This will continue until each player "passes". Once a player has passed, they can no longer take actions in the current Era. There is no hand limit, but each player must perform two actions in an Era. Each action will require playing a card from the player's hand. Cards remaining in a player's hand carry over to the next round.

a. Build a City or Colca

Place a City or Colca card on the table in the same orientation as the Cusco card. It must be played in the correct location.

• You may only build cities or Colca cards that connect on your road system back to Cusco.
• ONLY Starting Cities can orthogonally connect to Cusco. Starting City cards may NOT be turned into Terraces. No cards other than starting cards may be placed orthogonally next to Cusco.
• Cards are placed in one of 3 columns known as regions. Coastal cards may only be played in the left-most column, plateau cards in the center, and the Mountain cards to the right.

Region card examples: Coastal, Plateau, Mountain.

• Mountain City. Must be placed in the rightmost column.
• Plateau Colca. Can only make orthogonal connections to cities. Must be placed in the center column.
• Coastal Colca. Must be placed in the leftmost column.
• Wild Colca. Wild Colcas may connect corners to other Colcas.

a. Build a City or Colca (continued)

• Cards connect with matching icons. Colcas are placed orthogonally next to Cities.

Place road tokens.

• The number of road tokens needed is the sum of the two numbers connecting the cards. See illustration.

Place Fame tokens.

• Place a Fame token(s) on the box attached to the City or Colca equal to the number in the box. Two tokens in the example to the right.

Card illustrations:

• City. Connects to Colca orthogonally. Connect to other Cities from the corners. May connect outside city corners. No more than two cards apart.
• Colca. Connects to Cities orthogonally. Cannot connect to other Colcas.
• Wild Colca. May be played in ANY region. Connect to other Colcas at the corners.

b. Play an Extra Workforce Card

• Place a token from your SUPPLY on to the Workforce card.
• Take the action on the card.
• Move token from the card to the ACTIVE POOL.
• The Workforce card is turned into a terrace (face-down).

Arrow label: "Indicates that token comes from Supply".

c. Play a Trade Agreement card

• Place a Trade Agreement card in an empty space between adjacent two players. The text of the card will only apply to the two players it is placed between for the remainder of the current Era.
• Place 1 token from the SUPPLY on the Trade Agreement card.
• This card will be removed during the Terminate Trade Agreements phase.

Arrow label: "Tokens come from Active Pool".

d. Build a Terrace

Place a card from your hand face-down in front of you. Place a token from your SUPPLY on the cards and take one of the actions listed below (these actions can only be performed on cards that are connected to Cusco by your road system).

• Build a road between two existing locations (City/Colca building restrictions apply).
• Build a temple in any city that has a temple on it. Use tokens from ACTIVE POOL to place on gold square. Only one player may stack on the square.
• Stock a Colca. Use a token from ACTIVE POOL to place on to a storage hut to claim fish, corn or potatoes.
• Do nothing.

After taking the action Move token to the ACTIVE POOL.

e. Take no additional action

5. Terminate Trade Agreements

(after all players have passed in the action phase)

Starting with the First Player and terminate Trade Agreements in turn order.

If the player has a Trade Agreement card in play, they do the following:

• Move the token from the Trade Agreement card and place it in the ACTIVE POOL.
• Discard the Trade Agreement card.
• Draw one card from the top of the current Era deck.
• MAY take any action except "Play a Trade Agreement".

The next card to the left is "cashed in" in the same fashion. Do this one card at a time until all played Trade Agreement cards have been removed.

Illustration labels: "Discard"; "Active Pool"; "Draw card from Era deck and take action."

6. Pass the Gold Nugget

(The printed page gives no text under this heading.)

End of the Game

After completing Era IV, scores are tallied as follows:

• Score one point for each token placed in the field of play. Tokens in your Active Pool and Supply do not count for scoring.
• Choose three of your five goal cards to score.
• * Wild Colca cards will count as a Colca and as the region in which they were placed.
• * Cusco counts as a plateau for scoring.

Route Restrictions

Once a Route restriction token is placed on a location, no additional roads may be built to or from that location. Temples may be constructed, and Storage Huts may be stocked as long as the road for that player was previously built.

Extra Workforce card shown on this page reads: "Place a Route Limitation token on any location."

Machu Picchu - 5 Player Game

Printed-page note: the Setup step refers to "page 10" for this rule; it is printed on page 8.

If you have five players, add the Machu Picchu card into the group of Start cards.

1. The Machu Picchu card is placed in its column to the right of the mountain region but will connect directly to Cuzco. (Place one road token on the corner of the card to indicate this. The card will not be touching Cuzco.)
2. Machu Picchu can only have roads built in the lower left-hand corner. There are no Colca or City connections. Wild Colcas may not be connected to Machu Picchu.

Illustration label: 5 Player Only.

FAQ

Q: If the "Storage Huts may have two tokens" Trade Agreement is in play and I play "Stock three storage huts" Extra Workforce card, can I place six tokens on three storage huts?

A: YES

Examples of Legal Connections and Placement of Cards

Examples of legal connections and placement of cards. Columns: Coastal Region, Plateau Region, Mountain.

• Coastal Region. Cities may connect corner to corner.
• Plateau Region. Cards must be placed in their corresponding region.
• Mountain. Fame tokens are placed on Cities or Colcas to claim them when built.
• Matching icons. Matching icons means that cards may be connected with roads. The number of road tokens required is the total of the two numbers.
• Multiple players. Multiple players may build roads to and from other player's claimed cards.
• Colcas. Colcas may be stocked by using Fame tokens.
• Wild Colcas. Wild Colcas may connect to Colcas on the corners.

Sample Play

After the initial set up, tokens are activated and cards are drafted...

Player 1: Chooses the build City or Colca action. He plays his starting city card (Nazda). This city may only be built to the left of the Cusco card. It is placed and two tokens from the player's active pool are placed road illustration face-up connecting the two cards. Additionally, one token is placed icon face-up to claim the city (in the box next to the city name with the number 1 printed in it).

Player 2: Chooses to play an Extra Workforce card. The card is placed in front of her and 1 token is moved from her supply onto the card. She then takes the action listed on the card. In this case, two tokens are moved from Supply to her Active pool. The token on the card is then added to her Active pool and the Extra Workforce card is flipped face-down and placed as a terrace.

Player 3: Chooses to play a Trade Agreement. He places the card between himself and player 2. Additionally, one token is moved from his supply and is placed on the card. No other action is taken but in the future, both player 3 and 2 will reap the benefits of the Trade Agreement card until it is removed during the Terminate Trade Agreements phase.

Player 4: Chooses to build a Terrace. One card is played from her hand face-down in front of her. One token is moved from her supply and is placed on the terraced card. Player 4 chooses to do nothing else this turn and the token is moved from the terraced card into her Active pool.

Player 1: Chooses to build a Colca north of Nazda. The card must be a coastal card. He places two road tokens and one fame token from his Active pool to claim the card. Nazda and the Colca card are now considered to be part of his road system.

Player 2: Chooses to build her starting city.

Play continues until all players have passed in this round.

Player 3: Terminate Trade Agreements phase. The Trade Agreement card is discarded and player 3 draws another card of the current Era deck. He may take any action except for the Play Trade Agreement action...