Tides of Time: How to Play

Welcome to the enthralling world of Tides of Time! In this game, you’ll immerse yourself in an epic adventure where the flow of time itself plays a crucial role. Whether you’re a seasoned player or a newcomer, here’s everything you need to know to navigate through this captivating experience.

The Basics

Let’s start with the basics. Tides of Time is a strategic card game designed for two players, and a single game typically lasts around 20 minutes. In this enthralling contest, your goal is to create the most prosperous and potent kingdom in the land.

Card Drafting

The heart of Tides of Time lies in the art of card drafting. At the beginning of each round, you and your opponent will receive a hand of five beautifully illustrated cards. Take your time to carefully examine each card; their unique abilities and potential synergies are the key to your success.

Now comes the exciting part – card drafting! In turns, you and your opponent will select one card from your hand before passing the remaining cards to your opponent. This process will repeat until all cards have been chosen, resulting in a full hand of five new cards.

Building Your Kingdom

Once you have your new hand, it’s time to strategically play your cards. Each card has a specific ability that can help you in different ways. Some cards grant you points, while others provide you with powerful abilities that can shape the tide of the game in your favor.

As the rounds progress, you’ll continue to draft cards, carefully curating your hand to build the most advantageous kingdom. It’s important to keep an eye on the cards your opponent is collecting as well, as you can use that knowledge to adjust your strategy and counter their moves.

The Power of Time

Remember, time is a powerful force in Tides of Time. As the rounds go by, some cards will remain in play, allowing you to carry their abilities and benefits into future rounds. This brings a dynamic element to the game, where each decision you make has a lasting impact on the course of the game.

Tides of Time is a game of strategy and foresight. By mastering the art of card drafting, carefully selecting the right cards, and adapting to the ever-changing tide of the game, you can forge an awe-inspiring kingdom and emerge triumphant.

Conclusion

Now that you’re familiar with the core concepts of Tides of Time, it’s time to dive into this immersive adventure. Gather your cards, make calculated decisions, and let the tides guide your path to victory. Are you ready to shape the destiny of a kingdom?

Imagine being transported back in time, becoming a part of ancient civilizations as they thrive and crumble before your eyes. As you embark on this captivating journey, you’ll have the opportunity to construct magnificent monuments, fortify impenetrable defenses, and accumulate a wealth of wisdom throughout the ages.

These remarkable civilizations will etch their legacy into history, even long after their demise. From the depths of forgotten eras to the not-so-distant past, you’ll witness the rise and fall of nations, carried along by the relentless current of time.

What You Get

When you get this game, you’ll find the following components in the box:

• 18 game cards
• 1 reference card
• 1 pencil
• 1 notepad
• 4 Relic tokens

The Main Goal

The main goal of this game is to earn the most Victory Points (VP) by developing your Kingdom throughout the game.

Here’s how the game works: there are 3 rounds and players draft cards from their hands to build their Kingdoms. After the last round, you’ll add up the VPs you scored in each round to get your total score. The player with the highest total VP has built the greatest Kingdom and wins the game.

An Overview of the Cards

When I play this game, each card has a special name that describes what it does. It’s like a secret code that tells you how to score points. Pretty neat, huh?

There are 15 cards in the game that belong to a special group, and each of them has its own suit. But hey, guess what? I found out that there are also 3 cards that don’t have a suit at all. How cool is that?

Now, let me tell you about these suits. There are 5 of them, and each suit represents a different type of location. Let me break it down for you:

• First, we have the Palace. Check out its fancy picture: .
• Next, we have the Library. It’s a place where you can find a ton of books. Here’s what it looks like: .
• We also have the Garden. It’s a beautiful spot with flowers and trees. Just look at it: .
• Then there’s the Temple. It’s a sacred place where people go to pray. Take a look: .
• Lastly, we have the Stronghold. It’s a fortress that keeps everyone safe. This is what it looks like: .

Now, let’s set up the game:

First things first, we gotta shuffle all the cards. Once they’re all mixed up, we each get 5 cards. These cards are our starting hands, like our secret weapons. The rest of the cards go in a pile, face down. This pile is called the Draw pile. Ready to play?

Let’s put the pencil and notepad aside.

How to Play the Game

We play the game in three rounds. In each round, we pick cards from our hands to build our Kingdoms. Once a round ends, we calculate our Victory Points based on the scoring objectives on our cards. After the third round, we add up all the Victory Points to determine the winner.

Round 1

Both of us will choose a card from our hand and place it face down on the table in front of us.

Once we’ve both chosen a card, we’ll reveal them by turning them face up. These revealed cards will stay in front of us to form our Kingdom.

Now it’s time for us players to trade the cards still in our hands. We’ll choose the next card to play just like before. And we’ll keep going like this until we’ve played all of our cards.

When the round is over, we’ll each add up our Victory Points. We get these points from the objectives on our cards in our Kingdom.

To keep track of our scores, we can use the notepad and pencil that came with the game.

Let’s Look at an Example:

I got some awesome cards in my collection! Let me tell you about them. First up, we have “The Roof of the World.” It sounds like a cool place to visit, right? Next is “Ancient Divide.” This card seems like it’s full of history and secrets. Then we have “Kings Nest.” It must be a pretty powerful card with a name like that. “The Eye of the North” is another card in my collection. I wonder what mysteries it holds. Lastly, we have “The Vestibule.” I’m not sure what that word means, but it sounds fancy. Pretty cool, huh?

When you have the card called The Roof of the World, it doesn’t give you any victory points, but it does double the number of cards in your most numerous suit. So, if you have 4 , it’s as if you have 8 of them!

Now, let’s talk about the Eye of the North. This card is worth 6 victory points. It’s special because you only have 3 out of the 5 different suits in the game. For each missing suit, you gain 3 victory points. So, in this case, you gain 3 points times 2, because you have 2 missing suits, for a total of 6 points.

And then there’s the Vestibule. This card is worth a whopping 12 victory points. How come? Well, thanks to The Roof of the World, you have 4 cards. And for each one of them, you gain 3 victory points. So, 4 times 3 equals 12 points. That’s a lot!

Now, let me tell you about Kings Nest. It’s a very special card. You and your opponent both have 1 card. But when you play Kings Nest, you win all the ties. So, because of that, when you have Ancient Divide in your hand, it gives you 7 victory points.

Finally, after you add up all the points from the first round, you have a total of 25 victory points. Not bad, huh?

Relic of the Past

Once the players have finished scoring, it’s time to gather all the cards from their Kingdom and bring them back into their hands. You need to make a decision here – pick one card to keep in your Kingdom for the entire game, and choose another card to discard from the game completely. Remember, you and the other players will reveal your chosen cards at the same time.

To keep track of the cards that stay in play, use the Relic tokens to mark them. This will serve as a helpful reminder that these cards remain in your Kingdom and retain their suit and abilities throughout the game.

The cards you’ve chosen to discard should be placed face up in the game box. Don’t worry, you won’t be using them in the following rounds.

Now it’s time to replenish your hand. Draw two new cards from the Draw pile so that you have a total of five cards. With your hand restocked, you’re ready to move on to the next round.

Round 2

So, here’s how Round 2 goes down, just like Round 1, but with one little twist: when the round is over (after you’ve tallied up your Victory Points), you only pick up the cards you played in Round 2. The Relic of the Past from Round 1 stays put in your Kingdom.

Everything else stays the same. After Round 2, you should have 2 Relics from the Past on the board and 5 cards in your hand.

Round 3

Round 3 is just like Round 1, but it wraps up after you calculate your Victory Points.

The End Game

Once the 3rd round is done, you add up your points from all 3 rounds to get your final score.

And here’s the big one: the player with the most Victory Points wins!

If, by some crazy chance, you and your opponent have the same amount of points, it’s a tie and you can play it back (Let’s go for a rematch!)