Timeline (British History) is a fantastic card game from Asmodee. The game was designed by Frédéric Henry and was first published in 2012. It won the 2012 Årets Spel Best Adult Game award. It is a simple game to play and kids seem to love it too. Timeline is educational and will certainly get everyone thinking about historic dates. The game comes in a very convenient and colourful tin and can be added to by other Timeline sets. Examples are inventions, science and discovery, music and cinema or general interest.
To Play
The game is perfect for a group of 4. Each player is dealt four cards with the date side down (do not look at the dates). There are 110 history cards. The youngest player goes first. The first card of the pile is turned over with the date up.
Then the game begins as you must decide the date of the event on your card as it relates to the played card. Place your card either before or after the first card. This depends on your perception of the date. You then turn the card over to see if you are correct. If you are right, you have one card less; if you are wrong, the card is removed to the bottom of the pile and you get a new one.
The winner is the first player to get rid of all their cards. This game contains 110 British History themed cards and can be combined with the cards from other sets.
Winner Winner
“When did Jack The Ripper stalk the streets of London? Was this before or after The Great Fire of London?”
Each turn you place one of your cards where you think it goes in the Timeline, before turning it over to see if you are right. There is one goal – play all of your cards correctly or get another card!
The first player to get rid of all their cards by placing them correctly, wins. If multiple players go out in the same round, then everyone else is eliminated from play and each of those players are dealt one more card for another round of play. If only one player has no cards after a bonus round, he wins; otherwise play continues until a single player goes out.
Our Perception
We all thought Timeline was the best game ever. The kids loved it and as a history buff I loved it too. Although, I did come last the first time we played. It is such a great travel game. My only criticism, if it’s valid, is that it would be nice for a single-sentence explanation on the date side of the card. As we were playing with our children, we were constantly being asked ‘who is Jack The Ripper? What was the Domesday Book? What was the Mary Rose?’ A tiny piece of trivia on the reverse side of the card would have cut through all of this.
Where To Buy it?
Timeline (British History) has an RRP of £13.99, and is available from Amazon. We were sent the game to try as part of the Bloggers Board Game Club.
