Board Gaming - Timeline (Diversity Edition)

Timeline: Diversity

^{The game comes in this nice sturdy tin, with pushed out image for 3D effect}

Some times a little simple game really grabs me and gets my interest. The first time I came across Timeline, it was like this. Here is this very simple game that has so much in it.

How simple is it? Well, you start with 4 cards, and you just have to take turns to place them in the correct position on the timeline. First one to get rid of their cards wins*. With the diversity edition the things vary as much as things like "Domestication of Cows" through "The revolt of Spartacus" and "The invention of the Playing Card" up to "The first man in space". Now there's a lot of variation in the deck, with 110 individual cards it's unlikely that any game will start with the same starting card, making the timeline and decisions you make different each turn, even without considering how different your cards (and your opponent(s)_ could be.

^{My starting cards - Invention of the Hairdryer, Carving of the Rosetta Stone, Invention of the Pneumatic Drill, Invention of the Flute.}

The game starts with 4 dealt to each player, and 1 to the table to start the timeline. The one for the timeline is turned over and it's year is visible to everyone. The first player gets what should be the easiest turn, as they've just got to decide which side of that year one of their cards goes. So they might have to work out if one of their things is before or after 900 (CE). Or it might be before or after 1860, and all 4 of their items are industrial revolution items that could be either side of it if you don't know...

When you get one wrong, you draw a replacement card. In our 'hard mode' playing of the game, you shift the wrong card to the correct place in the lineup, but by the rules it is discarded.

^{I got the pneumatic drill wrong as I put it after the garbage can, but it was before. Misaligned is how we show which cards were placed incorrectly.}

Most games will take less than half an hour, even with the hard mode rule modification, but sometimes things get quite difficult and you're just hoping that when you get one wrong you draw something you know the exact year of. Especially if you have to slot it into a very small gap.

^{The last 5 cards on the right are all in the 18 hundreds. (1812 - 1890) Better hope to either know the year or not need to go near the 19th century!}

• The game goes until everyone has had the same amount of turns, and if there are multiple people that got rid of their cards, then those players go into a tie-breaker where they each draw 1 and continue play to separate them. Repeat until there is just 1 winner.

There is learning possible, as well as surprises in when things actually were invented, especially when they're common household items that we just don't think are anywhere near as old as they are. And then there are the 9 other versions of the game that can all be combined together to tailor the style of deck to your liking. You like inventions? There's an entire version that is just 'invention of...' cards. American History? Discoveries? Music & Cinema? All of these have their own 110 card editions of the game, as well as others, so whatever you specific personal interest area, one of the versions is likely to be things you have interest in.

I gave this game to my mum for Christmas, and we played quite a few 2 player games, and a couple of 3 player with my brother. Mum even introduced my niece (9) to the game and she loves it. I'm likely to give another version of it at some point to expand the variability of the deck.

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