Thoughts on Timeline: Science & Discoveries

 

Our copy of Timeline: Science & Discoveries was kindly provided to us by Esdevium Games.

Timeline: Science & Discoveries sells at a RRP of £12.99, and is available online or from your friendly local game store!

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Timeline begins with a single card. And from this single card, we’re going to start a game of Timeline right here, right now. Don’t worry, this is going to be easy. As we all know, the = sign was invented in 1557 but the question you need to ask yourself is: was blood circulation discovered before or after the = sign?

 

 

Have you got it?

 

 

 

Of course blood was discovered before equals signs! Ok, now, where do you think cocoa goes?

 

 

Any idea?

 

 

 

Between blood and inventing maths! Did you get it wrong? Well you’ll have to draw a new card. Get it right? Woohoo! Now figure out which card you’ll play next while everyone else takes their turn. And that’s how the game goes, each player guessing where one of their cards fits into the timeline until someone runs out of cards!

Timeline is quite possibly the most fun you’ll ever have with dates. It is also the simplest game about history you’ll ever see. You already know everything you need to know to play the game. This makes it perfect for beati – helping your lovely children learn some interesting pieces of history. But it’s just as fun being played with a group of gamers as a filler. If it’s just the 2 of you, you’ll need to start with more than the 4 cards the game recommends, and with more than 5/6 players the game will take longer than the advertised 15 mins. Fortunately down time isn’t much of an issue because you care where people are placing their cards lest they make one of your cards harder. Plus it’s just funny when your friends get it wrong!

 

 

The genius of Timeline lies in how its simple system produces a natural pacing for the game. Your first guess is going to be pretty easy, but as more cards get added to the timeline, the gaps between dates get smaller and smaller and each card gets harder to guess so that the final turns come down to the wire. You might know that the Theory of Evolution was published in the 1800s, but when there are already 8 or 9 cards out from that period, you’re going to struggle!

Of course, to get something out of the game you need to have at least some idea of when things happened. In fact, when you don’t know any history you’re just shooting in the dark. Likewise, if you know all the dates its not much fun either – but for the vast majority of people the game works magnificently. You’ll feel good when you get a tricky card right, you’ll be frustrated when you can’t find a space for your last card! The game will surprise you and you’ll discover things you never knew. You’ll be sitting on the peak of awesome:

 

 

As you play Timeline you will start to learn the dates on the cards, particularly those dates that used to catch you out. I now have the knowledge that Okapis were discovered in 1901 permanently burned into my mind. And the effect of this is two-fold: firstly those poor suckers who were just guessing before will start to climb the peak of awesomeness as they remember roughly when Antibiotics were invented, say. But while they’re climbing, you might be starting to slide down towards lonely history teacher, seeing you breeze through the game and offering you fascinating new conversations at work. For example

Colleague: Man, I really like the taste of tomatoes!

You: Did you know they were discovered in 1544!?

Colleague: …

You: By Europeans of course.

There are a lot of “Discovered by European” cards. Or

Colleague: Yeah, so I’ve decided to start going to therapy to help me through.

You: Psychoanalysis was invented in 1904! That was a while ago. I’m sure they’re very good at it now.

Colleague: Why do I even tell you things anymore!?

The process of learning the cards also doesn’t take as long as you might like. A copy of Timeline contains only 110 cards, which might sound like a lot but you and your friends can easily get through a third to half the deck in a single play, and the game’s short play time means that it’s easy to play a couple of rounds together over lunch. To resolve this issue you can easily pick up one of the other sets that are available, and 200 to 300 cards will not only take much longer to learn than 100, you also need to be playing more frequently to see cards repeatedly. Plus, there is the new Timeline Challenge offering multiple new ways to play the game with your existing decks. It’s not great to have to suggest purchasing more as the only way to extend your game experience, however.

 

 

I really, really like Timeline. In a desert of tedious educational games, this is an oasis of brilliant design. It has lovely artwork, and comes in a nice sturdy tin. But does it justify its price? In a couple of weeks of (fairly intensive) play testing I’ve definitely noticed my knowledge of the cards in the deck improving. I’m sliding down the slope towards boring history teacher. I’m considering sewing elbow patches on to my tweed jacket.

But learning dates is really one of the main selling points of the game. I can honestly think of no better system for teaching this kind of material. As educational games go, Timeline is a real masterpiece, and I would heartily recommend this game for anyone with kids. For everyone else this is a great game to pick up, just be aware that if you play this too heavily, you will learn the cards and the game will lose it’s edge. But it is such good fun while it lasts.

So… I guess my real recommendation is: don’t binge it like a reviewer. Crack the game out occasionally, and learn something new! Behind every card is a story waiting to be discovered. I mean did you realise how late the rotation of the Earth was proven empirically!? It was originally proposed by the Indian astronomer Aryabhata in 499CE…

 

Rating: History (Master-) Class

 

 

PS: History teachers are not all boring or lonely.

PPS: Graph jokes make everything better… right?