Components
- Game board
- 1 time marker (orange)
- 8 temple stones (grey)
- Goods: 38 llamas 28 coca 28 pottery 28 cloth
- 60 Incas (round disks)
- 10 game stones
- Historical booklet of Machu Picchu
- 28 Sacrifice Cards
- 64 corn tokens
- 15 Priest and Virgin cards
- 5 Player Aids
- 1 Sun Tile
- 7 Moon Tiles
- Rulebook
Game Flow
Each player has on the game board:
- 1 Prince to select his actions,
- 1 Scout to progress on the Incatrail, and
- (mostly) several Incas for goods production.
The players move their Princes around the 15 districts of Machu Picchu. When entering a district, a corresponding action is triggered. There are 5 districts where Incas can produce goods (corn, llamas, coca, pottery and cloth). These goods are used primarily to set up new Incas on the game board, and to acquire Priests and Virgins.
When the Priests and Virgins sacrifice llamas, the Scouts progress on the Incatrail. When a Scout reaches the Mountain Summit (field 20), its player is given a new Sacrifice Card. The Scout then jumps back from (20) to (0), and after that again progresses towards the next Sacrifice Card.
The Sacrifice Cards bring Victory Points to the players.
To the right an example Sacrifice Card is shown. This card brings: 1 Victory Point for each Inca in the potter's quarter of the player's color and 1 Victory Point for each priest of Puma owned by the player.
The other cards bring Victory Points following the same principle. The Gold figures depicted on the card are only relevant in the case of a conquest of Machu Picchu by the Spanish.
The game has a day-night rhythm: Incas are only allowed to produce once a day, and in each temple only once a day may there be a sacrifice. The night allows, among other things, for the recovery of the Incas, Priests and Virgins to be able to produce or to sacrifice again the next day.
Object of the Game
The game may end in two ways:
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Rescue of Machu Picchu: When all 15 Priests and Virgins have been acquired by the players, the game ends immediately. In this case the Incas succeeded in obtaining the help of the sun god Tayta Inti. With his assistance Machu Picchu remains undetected. The winner is the player with the most victory points.
-
Spanish Conquest: If day 9 finishes, the Spanish will conquer Machu Picchu at night. Since they are interested in the gold of the Incas, a player who has the most gold multiplies his victory points by 3, and a player with the second most gold multiplies his victory points by 2.
For all other players the victory points remain unchanged.The number of gold is depicted in the top right corner of the Sacrifice Cards.
Setup
The 15 priest and virgin cards are placed on the top right corner of the game board in the spaces provided.
The market, located bottom right on the game board, is filled with 8 units of goods (two of the appropriate sort at the two topmost fields of each column).
The 28 Sacrifice Cards are shuffled and placed face down on the game board. The Sun Tile is placed on the moon in the sky, and the 7 Moon Tiles are placed nearby.
Place one temple stone on each of the 4 temples (orange districts in Machu Picchu). Place on each of the 5 production districts (listed below) 1 unit of goods of its type as a bonus unit (3 corn count as 1 bonus unit):
- 3 corn in the Corn Terraces
- 1 llama in the Llama's Meadow
- 1 coca in the Coca Plantation
- 1 pottery in the Potter's Quarter
- 1 cloth in the Weaver's Quarter
The orange time marker is placed on the time track
- on day 1 with 2 players
- on day 2 with 3 players
- on day 3 with 4 or 5 players
Place 1 unit of corn on each moon symbol on the time track which lies ahead of the time marker. Shown on the right is an example of a time track with 4 or 5 players.
Game Start
Players' Equipment
Each player receives at the start: 3 corn + 1 llama + 1 coca + 1 pottery + 1 cloth
Set aside the rest of the goods as the supply of the bank. Each player receives the following number of Incas (round wooden disks) of his color in his supply:
- 8 Incas each for 5 players
- 9 Incas each for 4 players
- 10 Incas each for 3 players
- 12 Incas each for 2 players
The other Incas are not needed and are taken out of the game.
At the beginning of the game each player randomly draws 1 Sacrifice Card. The player's Sacrifice Cards are kept secret from the other players during the game.
Determining the starting player
Initially, a starting player is chosen randomly among all players. The starting player places his Scout (one of his two game stones) onto the first field of the Incatrail.
The second player in clockwise order places his Scout onto field 2, the third player onto field 3, etc.
Set up the first Inca
The starting player places 1 of his Incas (round wooden disks) on the board. The Inca may be one of the 5 following occupations:
- Farmer (Inca in the Corn Terraces)
- Shepherd (Inca in the Llama's Meadow)
- Coca Planter (Inca in the Coca Plantation)
- Potter (Inca in the Potter's Quarter)
- Weaver (Inca in the Weaver's Quarter).
The other players, in clockwise order, also place one Inca of their choice on the board. Every Inca may choose any profession even if it has been selected by another player before.
Select the first turn
The starting player is the first to place his Prince (his other game stone) on any district on the board and thus performs the related action. Then the other players follow in clockwise order.
Moving the Princes
The players move one after another until the game is finished. On each move a player may either
- move his Prince into an adjacent city district, or
- pay 1 llama and move his Prince into any other city district, or
- have his Prince remain in the same city district. In this case, the player takes a moon tile from the game board, and the action connected with the district is NOT triggered.
The City Districts
In 9 of the 15 districts an action can be triggered only once a day. These are the 5 districts for production (round or square symbol) and the 4 temples (octagonal symbol). On every night 1 (additional) bonus unit is placed there (1 temple stone in a temple, 1 unit of goods in a district for production).
When a Prince enters one of these 9 districts he gets all bonus units contained in that district. The rest of the day this district can still be entered, but there is no more production or sacrificing possible until the next day.
Five districts for production: Corn Terraces / Llama's Meadow / Coca Plantation / Potter's Quarter / Weaver's Quarter
When a Prince enters one of these 5 city districts, he receives the entire bonus located in the district. In addition, all Incas (wooden disks) of all players in this district can produce. While farmers will produce 3 corn each for free, the Incas of the other districts each produce either 1 llama, 1 coca, 1 pottery or 1 cloth (depending on their profession); however, they have to pay 1 corn to the bank.
Example: Blue enters the coca plantation with his Prince and takes the two coca units located there as a bonus. All Incas in the coca plantation can produce. Yellow pays 1 corn to the bank and takes 1 coca from the bank. Similarly, Blue pays 1 corn for 1 Coca, and Red pays 2 corn to produce 2 Coca.
The Incas cannot be forced to produce. When a player does not want or is not able to pay 1 corn, his Inca does not produce.
Remember: The Incas can only produce in a district where there is a bonus on the board. Otherwise, they have done their day's work already.
Four districts to sacrifice (4 Temples)
If a Prince enters any of the 4 temples, the player takes all the temple stones from the appropriate temple and moves his Scout 3 steps forward on the Incatrail for each temple stone taken. In addition, now there can be sacrifices performed in this temple.
The order of sacrifices is the seating order of the players, beginning with the player whose turn it is. Remember: There can only be sacrifices in a temple if there was at least one temple stone there.
Condor Temple, Puma Temple and the Temple of the Sun: Here llamas are sacrificed. These sacrifices are done by Priests and Virgins. If for example the Condor Temple is entered, all Priests of Condor of all players may sacrifice 1 llama each.
Each player can pay the bank 1 llama for each Condor Priest they own and thus moves his Scout forward on the Incatrail. The number of steps a Scout can take per sacrifice corresponds to the lowest visible number of its type on the game board.
In a situation as depicted to the right, a sacrifice of a Priest of Condor results in 4 steps forward on the Incatrail.
If the Puma Temple is entered, each Priest of Puma could sacrifice 1 llama for 6 steps, and at the Temple of the Sun each Virgin pays 1 llama for 5 steps forward on the Incatrail. Thus, as players acquire more Priests and Virgins, sacrifices will produce fewer steps on the Incatrail.
Main Temple: Here all players may sacrifice goods directly. Whether or not they already possess Priests and / or Virgins is unimportant. The sacrificed goods (3 corn count as 1 good) must all be different, so that a maximum of 5 goods can be sacrificed.
For each sacrificed good a player's Scout on the Incatrail advances 2 steps forward. If, for example, a player sacrifices 1 cloth, 1 llama and 3 corn, this totals 3 units. His Scout would therefore advance 6 steps forward on the Incatrail.
Example:
The Priests, Virgins and llamas of the players are shown in the following overview:
The lowest visible number on the game board for virgins is 7 (3 Virgins have been acquired by the players).
Blue enters the Temple of the Sun. As this temple has two temple stones, Blue immediately advances 6 steps on the Incatrail. Now all Virgins may sacrifice. Blue owns no Virgins and so may not sacrifice at this time.
Yellow sacrifices a llama and advances 7 steps on the Incatrail. Red has two Virgins but only one Llama, so he can advance no more than 7 steps. If Red had owned more llamas, he could have sacrificed two llamas and would have advanced a total of 14 steps.
Two districts to set up Incas: Watchman's Hut / Royal Palace
Here, the player can set up new Incas in the production districts. For each new Inca the player has to pay two specific goods to the bank and then places a round wooden disk from his supply onto the game board.
Which goods he has to pay is shown on the opposite chart, which is also part of each player aid.
Farmers and Shepherds are only set up in the Watchman's Hut, and Coca Planters, Potters and Weavers only in the Royal Palace.
On each turn only 1 Inca per district can be set up. Without Incas in his supply a player can not set up more Incas. Otherwise, the total number of Incas present in a district at any time is not restricted.
Example: The red Prince enters the Royal Palace. Red pays to the bank 1 pottery and 1 cloth for a Coca Planter and 1 coca and 1 pottery for a Weaver. Then he places one Inca in the Coca Plantation and one in the Weaver's Quarter. In addition, had he been able to pay for it, he could have set up a Potter in the same turn.
Tip
In the Royal Palace, each of the other two respective goods are needed.
In the Watchman's Hut the other goods (corn or Llama) are needed. In addition a Shepherd needs coca (to kill time) and a Farmer needs pottery (to store his food).
Two districts to acquire Priests And Virgins: House of Priests / House of Virgins
Here, the player can acquire a Priest or a Virgin. On each turn only one Virgin or Priest may be acquired. The costs for Virgins or Priests are printed on them and are paid to the bank. The leftmost Virgin / Priest is taken from the game board and is placed in front of the player.
Example:
The yellow Prince enters the House of Priests. Yellow now can acquire either a Priest of Puma or a Priest of Condor. He opts for a Priest of Puma and pays 2 cloth, 1 pottery and 1 coca to the bank.
Then he takes the Priest of Puma which is furthest left. Taking the card, the number "5" will be visible, and thus sacrifices by Priests of Puma will cause players to advance 5 spaces on the Incatrail.
Two districts for special actions: Central Plaza
Here, the player can trade any number of goods with the bank. Sold goods are placed on the market chart on the game board, and purchased goods are taken from there. Thus the prices of goods automatically change in the course of supply and demand. Prices are noted in units of corn (the Incas had no currency).
If a column is empty, more units can be purchased directly from the bank for the price of 6 corn each. If a column is full, more units can be sold directly to the bank for the price of 3 corn each.
If a player wants to sell 1 coca on the market as shown at right, he has to place that unit on the highest uncovered number, which in this case is the "4", and receives 4 corn in return from the bank.
If he wants to sell 2 units of coca, he places one unit of coca on "4" and the other unit on "3", and receives 4 + 3 = 7 corn in return from the bank. He could sell even more units, each for the price of 3 corn, which are then given to the bank.
However, if he wants to buy 1 coca, he takes the lowest unit of coca from the market and pays 5 corn (number beneath the coca) to the bank. To buy 2 units of coca, he takes the 2 coca from the market and pays a total of 11 corn. He could even buy more coca from the bank for the price of 6 corn per unit.
Before the player trades on the market, he may either remove 1 unit from the market, or add 1 unit to it. Thus he can influence the price of goods according to his preferences beforehand.
Example:
The current situation on the market is shown on the right. A player enters the Central Plaza with his Prince and wants to sell 2 cloth and 1 coca, and in return to buy 1 pottery and 1 llama.
At first he removes 1 unit of cloth from the market in order to raise the price. He then sells his two cloth for 5 and 4 corn and places them on the market.
He also places his coca on the market and receives 5 corn. Then he takes a llama from the market and pays 4 corn for it.
Finally, he pays 6 corn for 1 pottery, which he takes from the bank's supply.
Sun Clock
Here, the player may place one of his own Incas, who was previously placed in another city district, to serve at the Sun Clock until the next night. The player takes one of his round wooden disks from any district and places it at the Sun Clock.
At night, the players take their Incas at the Sun Clock back into their supply, and receive 3 different units of goods from the bank and their Scouts advance 3 steps on the Incatrail in return for each Inca taken back.
Tip:
During the game, the Sun Clock is the only way for an Inca to later change his occupation. This can be important in order to optimize the final scoring of Victory Points from the Sacrifice Cards.
The Incatrail
Through Moon Tiles, the Sun Clock, and sacrifices in the temples, the players' Scouts advance on the Incatrail. If a Scout reaches or passes the Granary at step 7, its player receives 3 corn from the bank.
Likewise; the player receives 1 llama from the bank at the Llama Stable at step 13. If a Scout reaches the mountain summit (step 20), the player secretly draws 3 Sacrifice Cards from stack and returns 2 cards to the bottom of the stack.
He can return any card he wants, even cards he had in possession before his turn. If there are only 2 Sacrifice Cards left, the player draws both of them and returns 1 card of his choice. If there is only 1 card left, the player simply claims it.
From the summit, the Scout returns to step zero and from there advances towards the next Sacrifice Card. If, for example, a Scout from step "18" advances by 5 steps in a turn, he will end up on the "3". Sacrifice Cards are kept hidden from the other players; only the number of cards of a player has to be made public.
The llama and the corn received on the Incatrail are paid at the end of the turn. In particular, a player can not use a llama from the Llama Stable to sacrifice with it in the same turn.
Example:
A Scout is located on the "12". His owner has sacrificed for a total of 15 steps forward. There are 8 steps to the summit, so after reaching the summit 7 steps remain and the Scout moves to step "7".
The player receives 1 llama because the Llama Stable is passed, he takes 3 Sacrifice Cards and returns 2 cards to the bottom of the stack, and he finally receives 3 corn because the Scout also reached the Granary.
Day and Night
The end of the day
As already described, a Prince may stay in the same city district and take a Moon Tile from the game board. However, staying in a district does not trigger the action connected with it, not even in districts which can be used several times a day.
There are 7 moon tiles in total. The player who takes the third moon tile from the game board (leaving 4 tiles there) triggers the end of the day. He also takes the yellow Sun Tile (marking him as the starting player of the next day) so that the moon is visible on the sky.
The other players all take one last turn on this day, and the last player of the day gets the 1 corn from the time track at the end of his turn thus uncovering the moon symbol on the track. After that, the night comes and the player with the Sun Tile will later execute the first turn on a new day.
What happens at night
At night, the player's turns are interrupted by the following actions:
-
Moon Tiles: The Moon Tiles of all players are returned to the game board. Their owners receive either 2 or 3 steps on the Incatrail or the goods depicted on their moon tiles.
Except for the 3 corn, for any other goods the player has to pay 1 corn to the bank. If a player has the Moon Tile which gives him 3 corn, he can use these corn units at the same time to pay for the other goods on his other Moon Tiles.
-
Sun Clock: The players take their Incas that they previously sent to the Sun Clock back into their personal supply. They receive for each withdrawn Inca 3 different units of goods from the bank (3 corn count as 1 unit of goods) and 3 additional steps on the Incatrail.
-
9 x Bonus: 9 new bonus units are placed on the game board. On each of the 4 temples one (additional) temple stone is placed, and on each of the 5 production districts one (additional) unit of goods:
- 3 corn on the Corn Terraces
- 1 llama on the Llama's Meadow
- 1 coca on the Coca Plantation
- 1 pottery on the Potter's Quarter
- 1 cloth on the Weaver's Quarter
In each district only a maximum of two bonus units (goods or temple stones) may be located.
-
Time Marker: The marker on the track is moved upwards to the new day. The starting player sets his sun tile back again to the moon and then executes his first turn on the new day.
Special rules for the last day (day 9)
Because the last day is no longer followed by a night, special rules apply to the Moon Tiles and the Sun Clock on day 9.
Moon Tiles: The bonus of a Moon Tile will be paid immediately. So if for example a player takes the Moon Tile with the llama, he pays 1 corn and receives 1 llama from the bank immediately. The Moon Tile still remains with the player though.
Sun Clock: Similarly, the bonus for the Incas serving at the Sun Clock on the last day is paid immediately. The round wooden disks of the Incas stay at the Sun Clock until the game has finished, however.
End of the Game
The game may end in two ways:
-
Rescue of Machu Picchu
When all 15 Priests and Virgins are acquired by the players, and no more of them are on the game board, the game ends immediately after the turn of the player who took the last Priest or Virgin card. Likewise the game ends immediately if the stack with the 28 Sacrifice Cards is exhausted.
If in this case even more players should be entitled to get a Sacrifice Card, they get 3 Victory Points instead. In both cases, either through the Virgins and Priests or the Sacrifice Cards, the Incas obtain the help of their sun god Tayta Inti, so that the Spanish will not discover Machu Picchu.
The player with the most Victory Points wins.
The number of remaining units of goods is used as a tie breaker (3 corn count as one unit).
-
Spanish Conquest
If there is no rescue of Machu Picchu, the game ends after day 9 is over. After the 3rd Moon Tile has been taken on the 9th day, all other players still execute one final turn. At night, the Spanish discover and conquer Machu Picchu.
They are mainly interested in the gold of the Incas. Depending on the total number of collected gold figurines on their Sacrifice Cards, players can either triple or double their Victory Points, or count them once.
The player with the highest final value of Victory Points wins.
If there are several players who have the same number of gold, they all get to multiply their score by the appropriate number. If, for example, two players have the same number of gold, but more gold than any other player, they both triple their VPs.
After the scores are multiplied, the tie breaker again is the number of remaining units of goods (3 corn count as one unit).
Example for a Spanish Conquest:
Victory Points Gold Multiplier Final Score Blue 17 18 3 51 Green 34 12 1 34 Red 18 17 2 36 Yellow 27 17 2 54 In this case, yellow has the highest final score with 54 and wins the game!
Victory Points
Victory Points (VPs) are calculated as follows:
The icons on the Sacrifice Cards bring 1 VP for each Inca in the appropriate city district or for any appropriate Priest and Virgin. Moreover, a player whose scout has reached the granary (steps "712") gets 1 additional VP, and whose scout has reached the Lama Stable (steps "13-19") gets 2 additional VPs.
For the evaluation of VPs it is recommended that you arrange the Sacrifice Cards side by side.
In the example shown the player has on his 4 cards a total of 1 corn, 2 coca, 2 cloth and 3 Puma icons. It is assumed that the player owns the blue Incas in the districts as shown, and has acquired 2 Priests of Puma and 1 Virgin of the Sun.
Now the VPs from the Sacrifice Cards are added. Overall the cards contain 1 corn icon. The 2 Farmers thus result in 1 x 2 = 2 VPs. He gets no VPs for his Shepherd because his cards do not show a llama icon. His two coca icons result in 2 x 1 = 2 VPs.
The two cloth icons give 2 x 3 = 6 VPs. Finally, he receives for the 3 Puma icons 3 x 2 = 6 VPs. Assuming that the blue Scout stands on the Incatrail on the "11", this brings yet another VP.
Overall, the player has 2 + 2 + 6 + 6 + 1 = 17 Victory Points. The score is tracked with the Prince on the score track on the board.
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