Heroes of Timeline Board Game

Ooh shiny! Okay, so that probably shouldn’t be what I base my entire review on (and it isn’t), but it is worth pointing out that Heroes of Timeline does have a very nice box! I’m a sucker for gold foil on cards (thanks, Red Rising!), and the ones in this game do nothing to stop feeding my magpie-like preferences.

But enough about my predilection for prettiness. We need to move on to the meat of the matter; what is Heroes of Timeline and did we enjoy it?

Go Team!

Heroes of Timeline is a two player, tactical, zero-luck game where you are playing teams of (yep, you guessed it) heroes battling it out against another band of do-gooders. Every character in your team is unique and your team has an ability that all the members share. The game lasts around 15-30 mins over 5 rounds and to win a round, you have to be the player with a hero in the centre hex (golden key tile). If nobody occupies that space at the end of the round, the winner is the player who dominates more sectors (by having only their heroes in them) than the other player. The round loser (and any ties) are punishable by receiving a Bord token which changes depending on which round you have lost.

The game ends after 5 rounds (winner being the player who won the most rounds), or as soon as one player completely eliminates their opposing team in a given round.

If you’ve played Unmatched or any war-type games, you’ll be familiar with the different combat movements: range and melee. But if you’re not, don’t worry. These just means attacking walls or heroes from a distance (range) or in close proximity to your opponent (melee).

To set the stage for these battles, there’s a hex board where the fights go down, as well as hero and team cards, tokens, walls, and clever wee bases to insert armour in readiness!

And…Activate!

Once you have set up the game (which means grabbing your guys and gals, choosing your opposing starting sectors, and taking turns to place 6 defensive walls on the board and deploying your heroes), the turn-based tussle begins.

You’ll begin by declaring any special (or team) pre-turn abilities, and then you’ll take turns to activate. This will generally involve:

1. moving a hero from one hex space to another (according to their distance value but can also skip to remain in place),

2. turning that (well, you can’t really fight with your back turned now, can you!?), and

3. attacking based on which direction that hero is now facing and what abilities it has.

Ranged attacks will be limited by how far your heroes can reach, or whether you are adjacent to your opposing hero and capable of a melee (that can pierce through regular armour!). But

close combat will leave you vulnerable to counter attacks once occupying the eliminated hero’s space. And whether you win the right will depend on the strength of your attack versus the armour the opposing hero has available. By the end of the turns, the winner of the round is whoever has their hero on the centre hex, or has more sectors of the map under their control. And that’s it! Move, turn, aim, fight!

Final Thoughts!

Whilst there is a very strong abstract strategy style gameplay here – the chess style of luck-free manoeuvring being undeniable, the designer has worked hard to flesh out the characters with lots of background details about the Origin of Timeline and the heroes’ reasons for being. And if you take a trip to their website, it is all there for the reading. They have also made a really clear and helpful 25 minute video which means you probably won’t even need to consult the rule book if you prefer to learn visually. And whilst I am most definitely a wordsmith in all other areas of my life, my neuro-spiciness means that I have to see anything spatial related to understand it. And this video really did help me get to grips with how the heroes moved as well as the impact of their various powers.

And speaking of powers, this is where the strong tactical element of this game arises. I know I used the label “abstract strategy” earlier. And keeping a loose hold over whether you are gunning for domination (i.e. area control) or total elimination will shape your overall strategy for sure. Setting up the game will shape the areas, so you’ll know what you need to spread across and hold in order to dominate in a round.

But really, with the asymmetric powers each of your heroes have, and the difference the timing of their activations can make, this game is tactical. Even the number of heroes your team has at the start, as well as what kind of armour they each have, will influence you from the get-go. Likewise if any have combo-attack abilities. Your tactics will essentially shift constantly. Putting what and who you have to the best use in a given theatre will be changing depending on who you put in and who is left in any given fight. And knowing that your heroes’ unprotected backs or sides are always vulnerable to attack could mean a sudden tactical move becomes essential to stay in the game (literally!). Being the player with the smaller team remaining on the board can also work to your advantage if you can pull off a successful reflex move. So being able to factor in a potential catch up is also a useful tactic to bear in mind over the 5 rounds.

And just a note here on the components – the fact the designer has included duplicate team cards so that you can have a reference for your own team as well as your opponent’s characters and group abilities is a really helpful touch.

With the individual battles cycling quickly, and the entire war playing out in under 30 minutes, it can feel like there is scant room for playing the long game. Keeping your powder dry is difficult to do when the action is immediately all up in your face, but there have been moments in our games where we have been able to organise our respective character activations in order to hold abilities or movements back for a more impactful consequence further along in the round. Not many, but definitely some. And, as mentioned previously, a lot of that depends on who is deployed when and against whom. But that’s cool, because (just like changing the areas with wall placement and picking a different team from the 4 available) it increases the replayability, and gives every fight a unique freshness, even though the main turn actions remain constant.

Heroes of Timeline is a slick 2 player asymmetric battler that is fast, fun, and unforgiving! We love those Bord punishments that get dolled out to the loser(s) of each round! It can feel like the loss is compounded rather than helping the loser catch up, but we quite like that. After all, all’s fair in the Origins of Timeline, and it definitely sharpens the mind and desire for a win each round!! It is one of those games that the more you play, the more you become familiar with the characters, and the faster you can put their powers to optimal use. I don’t know for sure, but I could easily see more heroes being added over time, or even expanded boards for longer fights. Regardless of its future content, however, it’s a great option for gamers who like to tussle two player style!