Time Division Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
• Components
• Era Setup
• The Basics: Locations and Color
  • Locations
  • Icon Colors
• Gameplay
  • Phase 1: Draft
  • Phase 2: Play
  • Golden Rules
  • End of an Era and Scoring
• Card Effects
  • Reading an Effect
  • Rules for Triggering
  • Rules for Movement
  • Icons
  • Special Effects
• Examples
  • Example 1: Standard Effect
  • Example 2: Delayed Effect
  • Example 3: Check Effect
  • Example 4: Modified Influence Effect
• Campaign
  • Time Travelers
  • Changes to Setup
  • Changes to Gameplay: Face-Down Cards
  • Changes to End of an Era and Scoring
  • End of the Campaign
  • Example: Campaign Scoring
• Card Explanations: Ancient Egypt
• Card Explanations: Dark Ages
• Card Explanations: 1980's

Game Overview

In TIME DIVISION, two players will each join a time agency and travel to different periods in history. There, they must influence important characters to gain control of the era and secure their continued existence in the newly formed timeline.

The game can be played over the course of a single era (for a quick game), or as a full 3-era campaign. Each era has two phases: Draft and Play.

For first-time players, we recommend starting with ANCIENT EGYPT. You can play through this as a single-era game as many times as you like to familiarize yourself with icons and card effects. There is also a helpful "Your First Game" reference guide on the overview sheet!

The three eras are Ancient Egypt (a time of order and belief), The Dark Ages (hard choices and death) and the 1980's (economy is key).

Components

• 1 rulebook
• 1 game board
• 2 card platforms
• 1 VP standee (campaign only)
• 60 character cards: 20 per era (including 2 Time Travelers each for the campaign)
• 1 metal coin
• 1 overview sheet
• VP track (campaign only) on the board

Before the first game: Assemble the card platforms and the VP standee as shown on the assembly instructions.

The platforms: each traveler sees themself as blue and their opponent as red. The card platforms serve as a reminder of this.

Era Setup

Choose an era to play. This describes the setup for a single-era game (for a campaign, see Campaign below).

1. Pick sides and place the board in the center of the table between you.
2. Flip the metal coin and put it on the matching space to determine the starting player. (You may choose to give the coin to the more experienced player instead.)
3. Place the assembled card platforms on their matching spaces following the indicated orientation and color.
4. Take the cards for your chosen era. Remove the 2 Time Travelers (with the star icon) from the deck and return them to the game box – these are only used in a campaign.
5. Shuffle the remaining 18 cards and split them into 2 equal stacks. Place 1 stack face down on each of the Temporary Spaces.
6. Keep the overview sheet within reach for reference.

Board areas: The Past, Temporary Spaces, Decision Spaces, Coin Spaces, each player's Influence Area, and the Independent Stack.

The Basics: Locations and Color

Time traveling is just simple logic: LOCATION -> ACTION -> LOCATION. There are a few restrictions, but in general all you need to do is find the location icon from your card on the board and combine it with an action.

Locations

Most locations are on the board, indicated by 5 different icons (some appear twice). Another location is the Hand of each player. On the cards, you can find these location icons at both ends of an effect row:

• Independent Stack
• The Past
• Decision Space
• Temporary Space
• Influence Area
• Hand

Icon Colors

The icons on the board do not have a color. The icons on cards have either a color (blue or red) or are neutral. The color indicates whose location it is or who is doing an action: you or your rival.

• All blue icons refer to you. Your card platform shows a reminder for that.
• All red icons refer to your rival. Your rival's card platform shows a reminder for that.

This works the same way for the other player! Your rival sees themselves as blue and their rival (you) as red. So, even if the icons on the board don't show a color, for the cards, and from the perspective of each player, they do.

Colors: blue = you; red = rival; neutral (grey) = you and rival / either, neutral locations; the Rival is always red, each player is always blue. Orange/"meets condition" is used for check effects.

Gameplay

Each game consists of two phases: Draft and Play.

Phase 1: Draft

This phase is played simultaneously by both players.

Draw 3 cards from the stack on your Temporary Space. Now choose and distribute:

• A. Choose 1 card for yourself – place it face down in front of yourself.
• B. Choose 1 card for your rival – place it face down in front of your rival.
• C. Put the last card away – place it face down on the Independent Stack.

You are not allowed to look at any distributed face-down cards during the draft!

Repeat until all 18 Era Character cards are divided equally between you, your rival, and the Independent Stack. Take all 6 cards in front of you as your Hand. Now it is time to play!

After the draft, you already know half of your rival's hand. Just know that high cards have high scoring values, but low cards have stronger effects. You will need both.

Phase 2: Play

This phase consists of several rounds. Each round follows this procedure:

1. The player with the coin plays 1 card from their Hand face-up to their Decision Space. Afterwards, the other player plays 1 card from their hand face-up to their Decision Space.

2. Compare the Influence Value in the top left corner of both cards. Move the coin to the side with higher influence. If both cards are of the same Influence Value, the coin stays where it is.

3. The coin-owner now decides what happens to the 2 played cards:

   • 1 card's effect is triggered (by owner) and is moved to The Past.
   • 1 card is collected to the Influence Area (of its owner).

   Resolve in this order:

   1. Trigger -> The Past. The effect of the triggered card is resolved by its owner. Important: This happens first! After the effect is executed, the card moves from its owner's Decision Space to The Past (if possible).
   2. Collect. The other card is collected by its owner by moving it from their Decision Space to their Influence Area (if possible).

Repeat this procedure for all cards in hand. Then proceed to the End of an Era and Scoring.

Holding the coin at the beginning of a round means you must make the first move; but gaining its favor after playing a card is key. Only 6 cards are played by each player – always one after the other. At the beginning of each round, you should both have the same number of cards in hand.

Golden Rules

• Card effects may change basic rules!
• The coin is a universal tie-breaker: The coin-owner has the higher value.

End of an Era and Scoring

An era ends after both players' hands are empty and all cards are resolved. Each player adds up the Influence Values of all cards in their Influence Area. The player with the most total Influence wins the era. In case of a tie, the player with the coin wins.

Card Effects

Reading an Effect

Each effect row shows from left to right from which location a specific card is taken, what you do with it, and where you put it: LOCATION - CARD SPECIFICATION - ACTION - LOCATION.

Example (Potter): The Past, card of your choice, move, your Influence Area. So Potter's effect is: Take a card of your choice from The Past and move it to your Influence Area.

A glossary of icons is below as well as on the overview sheet. Keep in mind that color is also important!

Rules for Triggering

• The standard effect of a triggered card must be completely resolved for the effect to take place. If any requirement cannot be met, the card effect is ignored. You can still choose to trigger such a card for no effect.
• In most cases, the owner of a card triggers its effect. However, the effect triggers another card's effect and requires a few additional clarifications:
  • The player who triggers an effect is considered blue for it, even if the card is owned by the other player.
  • A card cannot be triggered twice in the same round!
  • The card that is affected by the trigger effect is not moved to The Past after its effect is triggered!
  • Other cards' effects ignore the effect of cards with the "ignore" icon (a warning triangle). They can only trigger such a card for no effect.

Rules for Movement

• COLLECTING is a special kind of movement that is separate from card effects. If the card you played in a round is still at your Decision Space after your rival resolves the effect on their card, you collect it for victory points by moving it to your Influence Area.
• Your Influence Area has unlimited storage capacity. In the unlikely event that you have more cards than spaces, just put them next in line.
• In 1 effect row, move/exchange always happens simultaneously.
• Every time a card is moved or collected to your Influence Area, place it at the first free space next to the VP track.
• If a card is exchanged for another, put the new card in the same space.
• If a card is removed from your Influence Area, move all other cards up in order to fill the gap. (This is important for the 1980's.)
• If a card is rotated, it maintains its new orientation when exchanged or moved to another Influence Area or The Past.

Icons

Locations: Independent Stack; The Past; Decision Space; Temporary Space; Influence Area; Hand.

Actions: Move; Exchange; Rotate; Get coin; Trigger effect; Don't trigger effect.

Card specification: Single card; Card of this Influence Value (e.g. 4); ? Random card; Lowest-value card; Highest-value card; Chosen card; Rotated card; Lowest total influence; Fewest cards; Highest total influence; Most cards; All rotated cards; All cards; Basic Influence Value of the card directly next to this card.

Notes on Specifications

• "? Random" means that cards are shuffled and then a card is drawn.
• "Chosen" means that the player of the indicated color looks at all cards in the specified location and picks one.
• Your Total Influence is the sum of all face-up cards in your Influence Area.
• All cards or all rotated cards is the tally of all such cards in your Influence Area.

Special Effects

All special effects rows appear on a colored bar. The color indicates the type of effect.

• Delayed (black bar): The icon row on the black bar is an effect that is triggered in the next round. Afterwards, the card is moved to The Past. Check the detailed card explanations on pages 14-16 for the individual timing of each delayed effect.
• Check (orange bar): The icon row on the orange bar shows which condition must be met by a player to be considered orange. Orange then activates the effect row under the plate.
• Modified Influence (pink bar): The icon row on the pink bar applies only during scoring and only if the card is rotated. It increases the influence value of the card.

Card layout: Basic Influence Value, Title, Special Effect, Standard Effect.

Examples

Example 1: Standard Effect

• You are the coin-owner at the beginning of the round: You play a card (Foreman, 6) to your Decision Space first. Your card's effect: Take a 4 influence card from your rival's Decision Space and move it to The Past.
• Then, your rival plays a card (Farmer, 1) to their Decision Space. Rival's card's effect: Select a card of your choice from your rival's Hand and trigger its effect.
• Your card has the higher Influence Value, so you keep the coin. You then choose which of the played cards is triggered for its effect.
• You decide to trigger your card for its effect. Since the card of your rival isn't a 4, your card will have no effect. Then, move your card to The Past.
• Your rival collects their card.

(Better to feed crumbs to your rival than let them use a powerful effect from your hand.)

Example 2: Delayed Effect

This effect appears in all 3 eras. First, you move such a card to your Temporary Space. Only in the next round will you activate its Delayed Effect. All cards with a delayed effect show this icon. These card effects can only be used after playing the card yourself.

You trigger Night Watchman (Dark Ages) with a delayed effect. Your card's effect:

• In the current round: Move this card to your Temporary Space. (Your turn ends after this action is completed and your rival collects their card.)
• In the next round: Both you and your rival play cards to your Decision Spaces simultaneously.

The effect of Night Watchman is now resolved and the card is moved to The Past. Afterwards, the newly played cards are resolved.

Example 3: Check Effect

This effect appears on the Dark Ages era cards. They have a special condition that determines who triggers the card's standard effect below the orange bar.

You trigger Plague Doctor. Your card's effect:

• Check: The player with the highest total influence in their Influence Area is orange.
• Orange player takes a card of their choice from their hand and exchanges it with a card of their choice from The Past.

Let's say your rival has the highest total influence. Therefore, your rival exchanges one card from their hand with a card from The Past. Beware, regardless of who played a card with a check effect, the player who fulfills the listed condition triggers it. This can be good or bad.

Example 4: Modified Influence Effect

This effect appears on the 1980's era cards. If rotated they have a special Influence Value at scoring.

You trigger Private Investigator (base 4). Your card's effect:

• Rotate your card 180 degrees and move it to your Influence Area. (Your turn ends after this action is completed and your rival collects their card.)
• Modified Influence Effect: This card is now worth 4 times the total number of rotated cards in both players' Influence Areas, instead of its base value.

Let's say this rotated card is still in your Influence Area at the end of an era and there are a total of 3 rotated cards in your and your rival's Influence Areas. The Modified Influence value equals: 4 (Base Influence) x 3 (total number of rotated cards in both Influence Areas) = 12 Influence.

Campaign

A Campaign is played over the course of 3 eras. You can play any 3 eras in any order. You will track the Victory Points (VP) won in each era on the VP track using the VP standee.

Time Travelers

Cards with a star icon are Time Travelers. This card is worth 1 VP. Important: If rotated, the Traveler is not worth a VP anymore!

Changes to Setup

1. Place the VP standee on the middle space of the VP track.
2. Shuffle the two Time Traveler cards of the chosen era and place one face down in front of each player as the first card of their hands.

Changes to Gameplay: Face-Down Cards

After completing the Draft phase, you should have a hand of 7 cards. Choose 1 and place it face down on the highlighted space in your Influence Area (next to the VP Track).

Specifications:

• Face-down cards DO count towards your total number of cards.
• Face-down cards DO NOT have any Influence Value.

Actions at the Influence Area or The Past:

• DO NOT reveal or look at any face-down card.
• You MAY move or exchange face-down cards. Keep them face-down!
• A face-down card that is moved to the Hand or the Independent Stack becomes a normal card.
• Remember: An entire effect must be able to be executed. Otherwise the card is triggered for no effect.

Changes to End of an Era and Scoring

BEFORE scoring: Reveal all face-down cards at the Influence Area.

Victory Points scoring:

• Era victory = 2 VP
• Each Time Traveler = 1 VP

Note: Time Travelers in your Influence Area can give you both influence and VP.

At the end of each era, calculate the difference between both players' Victory Points and move the VP standee that many spaces in the winner's direction. Important: The VP standee cannot move beyond the bounds of the VP Track. It can only be moved to the last space on the VP Track, even if the winning player earns more Victory Points than can be marked.

Next Era: The winner of the previous era starts with the coin on their side.

End of the Campaign

After you have played 3 eras, the player with the VP standee closer to their side wins the campaign. In case of a tie, the player with the coin wins.

Example: Campaign Scoring

At the end of each era, reveal face-down cards before counting up Victory Points.

• Era 1: Your rival wins the era and has 1 Time Traveler: They gain 3 VP. You gain just 1 VP for 1 Time Traveler. The VP standee moves the difference of 2 towards your rival.
• Era 2: Your rival wins again! They have 1 Time Traveler this time, and you have none. Your rival has gained 3 VP, but there are only 2 remaining spaces left on the VP Track. The VP standee is moved those 2 spaces and stops its movement at the end of the track.
• Era 3: You win this era with both Time Travelers in your Influence Area! You have 4 VP and your rival has zero. The VP standee moves 4 spaces toward you and lands on the middle space – ending the game in a tie. Fortunately, you are also the coin-owner: You win.

If you need detailed explanations of the cards, see the following pages. More questions: heidelbaer.de/en/time-division_faq/

Card Explanations: Ancient Egypt

Each card is listed as Influence Value, name, effect.

Important notes

• Other cards ignore the effects of cards with the ignore icon (warning triangle).

• Whenever you select or take a card of your choice or a card of a specific value (e.g. 10) from the Independent Stack or your rival's Hand, you may look at ALL cards in that location. Even if you know that the card you're looking for isn't there.

• Even cards that have no effect (like the Pharaoh) can be triggered.

• If an effect triggers another card, but doesn't move it, it stays where it is. (E.g. the card you trigger using the Farmer card effect stays in your rival's Hand.)

• 0 Shepherd (ignore icon; delayed): Take the card from your Decision Space and move it to your Temporary Space. Next round (after the coin is moved and before any card is triggered): Take the card from your rival's Decision Space and move it to your Influence Area.

• 1 Farmer: Select a card of your choice from your rival's Hand and trigger its effect.

• 1 Fisherman: Take a card of your choice from your Influence Area and exchange it with a card of your choice from your rival's Influence Area.

• 2 Tim Traveler (Time Traveler): Take a card of your choice from The Past and trigger its effect and move it to your Influence Area.

• 2 Tom Traveler (Time Traveler): Take a card of your choice from the Independent Stack and trigger its effect and move it to your Influence Area.

Card Explanations: Dark Ages

Check effects: the condition on the orange bar determines which player is orange; the orange player resolves the effect below.

• 0 Beggar: Take the card at your rival's Decision Space and move it to The Past. Then, take a card of your choice from The Past and move it to your Influence Area. (This can be the same card.)
• 1 Tanner (check): The player with the most cards in their Influence Area is orange: Orange player takes the highest-value card in their Influence Area and moves it to The Past.
• 1 Executioner (check): The player with the highest-value card in their Influence Area is orange: Orange player takes the highest-value card in their Influence Area and moves it to The Past.
• 2 Tina Traveler (Time Traveler): Take a card of your choice from any Influence Area and exchange it with a card of your choice from the Independent Stack.
• 2 Tara Traveler (Time Traveler): Take a card of your choice from any Influence Area and exchange it with a card of your choice from The Past.
• 3 Blacksmith: Take the card at your rival's Decision Space, trigger its effect and move it to The Past.
• 3 Squire: Take a card of your choice from your Hand and exchange it with a card of your choice from the Independent Stack.
• 4 Minstrel: Take the card at your rival's Decision Space and move it to your Influence Area.
• 4 Moneylender (check): The player with the lowest total influence in their Influence Area is orange: Orange player takes a card of their choice from The Past and moves it to their Influence Area.
• 5 Tax Collector (check): The player with the highest total influence in their Influence Area is orange: Orange player takes the highest-value card in their Influence Area and moves it to The Past.

Card Explanations: 1980's

Cards with "Modified Influence Value" show a pink bar; it applies only during scoring and only if the card is rotated.

• 0 Intern: Take a card of your choice from your rival's Influence Area and trigger its effect and move it to your Influence Area.
• 1 Student (ignore icon): Take the card at your Decision Space and rotate it and move it to your Influence Area. Modified Influence Value: 1 added to the base Influence Value of the highest card in your rival's Influence Area.
• 1 Fast Food Worker (ignore icon): Take the card at your Decision Space and rotate it and move it to your Influence Area. Modified Influence Value: 1 added to the base Influence Value of the two cards adjacent to this card in your Influence Area. (This still applies with only one adjacent card.)
• 2 Tony Traveler (Time Traveler; ignore icon): Take the card at your Decision Space and rotate it and move it to your Influence Area. Modified Influence Value: 2 multiplied by the number of cards in your Influence Area. (If rotated this card is not worth a VP!)
• 2 Terry Traveler (Time Traveler; ignore icon): Take the card at your Decision Space and rotate it and move it to your Influence Area. Modified Influence Value: 2 multiplied by the number of cards in your rival's Influence Area. (If rotated this card is not worth a VP!)
• 3 Used Car Salesman: Take a card of your choice from your rival's Hand and move it to your Influence Area. Then, your rival takes a random card from the Independent Stack and moves it to their Hand.
• 3 Sales Rep: Take a card of your choice from The Past and trigger it and move it to your Influence Area.
• 4 Private Investigator (ignore icon): Take the card at your Decision Space and rotate it and move it to your Influence Area. Modified Influence Value: 4 multiplied by the number of rotated cards in your and your rival's Influence Area. (Only count the cards that are rotated, not all Special Influence cards!)