Timeline: History of Russia
Timeline: History of Russia Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview and Goal of the Game
Each player plays for themselves. On their turn, players try to place one of their cards in the correct place on the time axis. If a player makes a mistake, they discard the card and take a new card from the draw deck. The player who first gets rid of all their cards becomes the winner.
[Diagram: a "Time axis" arrow runs across the top with five event cards placed along it; the spaces between the cards are labelled "Gaps in time".]
Setup
Players sit around the table.
- Shuffle the deck of cards with the white-bordered side facing up and place it in the centre of the table.
- Each player takes 4 cards and places them in front of themselves with the white-bordered side facing up. Players may not look at the reverse side of their cards until they play them.
- Place 1 card from the deck with the black-bordered side facing up in the centre of the table. It becomes the first point of the time axis, to which players will add their cards.
The youngest player becomes the first player. Play then passes clockwise.
[Diagram: example setup for 4 players, showing the draw deck, the starting card of the time axis, and each player's four cards.]
Playing the Game
Players place their cards on the time axis to the right, to the left, or between cards that are already placed.
For example, the first player may place a card with the white-bordered side facing up to the left of the starting card if they think the event happened earlier than the event on the starting card. They may place it to the right of the starting card if they think the event happened later than the event on the starting card.
[Diagram: the first player places a card to the left or to the right of the starting card, depending on whether they think its event came earlier or later.]
After a player has placed their card, they turn it over so that the black-bordered side faces up, in order to check the date.
- If the card was placed correctly and the event really did happen in that gap of time, the card stays on the time axis (1). The player's turn ends.
- If the card was placed incorrectly, the card is removed from the time axis and placed on the discard pile (2). The player then takes the top card from the draw deck and places it in front of themselves, white-bordered side facing up, next to their other cards. If the draw deck has run out, shuffle the discarded cards with the white-bordered side facing up to form a new deck.
[Diagram: a card placed correctly stays on the time axis (1); a card placed incorrectly is moved to the discard pile (2).]
The turn then passes to the next player clockwise. The next player may choose where to put their card: to the left of the cards already placed in the centre of the table (A), to the right of them (B), or between them (C).
Leave a little space between the cards on the time axis, in case a new card needs to be placed between two of them later.
Example: Olya plays second, and the card in front of her has already been placed. Olya may place her card to the left (A), to the right (B), or between two cards (C).
[Diagram: example showing the three possible placements A, B and C around the cards already on the time axis.]
The game continues until one or more players have placed all of their cards on the time axis. See the section "End of the Game".
Special Situation
It may happen during play that a player places on the time axis a card with the same date as a card already placed (two different events happened in the same year). In that case the two cards must lie next to each other, but their order on the time axis may be any order.
End of the Game
At the end of each round (each time the turn returns to the first player), check whether any players have no cards left in front of them:
- If all players still have cards left, begin a new round.
- If, at the end of the current round, only one player has got rid of all of their cards (while the other players still have cards), that player is declared the winner.
- If, during the round, several players correctly placed their last cards, each of them takes one more card and plays it, and the game continues until only one of them correctly places their card within one round. That player is declared the winner. The other players do not take part in this final round.