Time Division: Rapid Review
Information:
Player Age: 12+
Player Count: 2 Players
BGG Weight: 2.75
Time to Play: 20 - 60 Minutes
Year Published: 2023
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the Publisher.
Rundown:
Time division is a tense hand management game where players try to score the best-valued cards into their influence area to then score the most points at the end of the game.
Each turn players want to play the higher valued card to gain the coin to their side, allowing them to decide which player will score their card and which player will activate their card’s ability. Be careful, as abilities are often more useful than they originally seem.
Alteration:
At the start of any game there are three different eras from which to choose from. Ancient Egypt, which is the recommended starting deck and the easiest to understand.
The Dark Ages focuses on an orange colour for the actions that determines which player it refers to based on prerequisites.
The last deck is 1980's which is very tricky as it has cards that have end-game scoring triggered from pink abilities on cards, instead of simply having their value scored.
Players could also have a campaign game that spans over the 3 eras. Each victory gains the winning player two points, and one point per time traveller in your influence area. Time travellers are only used in this campaign way of playing, they add powerful abilities or coveted points and players must decide how/when best to use them.
Phases:
Draft:
Drafting is the first phase of the game and can be played simultaneously. Each player drafts one card for themself, one for their opponent, and one for the independent stack. Players will repeat this drafting process until all cards are drafted. This can be daunting when you don't yet understand the cards. Just know that high cards have high-scoring values and low cards have stronger abilities. The benefit of this is once you know the cards you know most of what your opponent can play.
Play:
The player that possesses the coin will play one card face-up into their decision space. This action will then be copied by the opponent. Whomever has the highest value will gain the coin to their side. Any ties are broken by the original holder of the coin. The player with the coin will choose one of the played cards to trigger their effect, followed by the other card moving into it’s influence area to be scored. This is a challenging choice, and the crux of the game, because if you don't manage your hand effectively you can have weak abilities activated or no card to score after your opponent's ability wipes it out. Getting into your opponent's head space is pivotal as the coin holder reveals which card they play first.
Iconography:
This game is language-independent so there is a lot of iconography for players to grasp. The first concept being the colour code. Red denotes your rival, blue denotes you, black is neutral and orange is dependent on whether a condition is met. Two ramps on the decision space helps to remind players of the blue and red colours meanings.
On the board, several locations have icons attached to them to help players understand where a card is referring to.
These icons are shown in the image below.
Like any game that leans into heavy iconography to maintain language independent, it is a steep learning curve to understand. However, once understood, I do believe the iconography is practical and there is also a page in the rules for each era if any clarification is needed.
Determination:
- Three different era decks to play. Individually or together as a campaign.
- Daunting first draft for the very first play.
- Daunting iconography at first.
When I looked at Time Division it appeared quite daunting and confusing to wrap my head around. Once I played the game, however, I instantly needed to play again as my understanding grew immediately after one play. There is a lot of tense excitement in how you plan to outsmart your opponent. Since you know half their cards after the draft phase, you can anticipate to a degree how they will react to the card you play (if you are playing the first card each round). Time Division is a very smart hand-management game with an interesting mechanism of the highest valued card owner choosing which scores their card and which activates their ability. Ultimately, it's about outsmarting the opponent to make sure you get the desired effect, whether your the second player or first player. If you enjoy fast and tense duel games that often have you scratching your head as you try to get into the mind of the other player, I strongly recommend Time Division.
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