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Imagine if you were in charge of writing the history of our world. Scary responsibility, right? The quote “History is written by the victors” springs to mind. How do you cover everything? A lot of stuff has happened. Everyone deserves to have their achievements etched into the tapestries of time! In Books of Time, players are rival scribes, so to speak, looking to create three books. One about industry, one about science and the other about trade. How will you decide to tell the tale of Earth’s past achievements?
Books of Time is a Euro-style strategy game by Filip Głowacz for 1-4 players. Like most Euro-strategy games, you’re aiming to score the most Victory Points. (Both throughout the game, and some end-game bonuses.) Board & Dice are the maestros behind this, who in the past have brought us plenty of crunchy titles. Many of them are the T-series, such as Teotihuacan, Tekhenu, and Tiletum. In fact, Głowacz also created Founders of Teotihuacan and Mandala Stones for Board & Dice, so this is his third collaboration with them. But does Books of Time scratch the same satisfying itch? Are you sitting comfortably? Then turn (ahem, scroll down) the page, and I’ll begin…
Is Your Gimmick Sense Tingling?
The first thing you’ll notice about Books of Time is that it comes with ringbinders. Actual metal, clickable ringbinders! And the book ‘pages’ and ‘covers’ themselves are pre-holepunched. Cynics out there might feel their inner klaxons tingling upon hearing this. Quick! Ring the gimmick bell! But wait. A gimmick it might be, but the method in which you use these binders is a stroke of genius!
You’ll take Pages from a public market, then pay pen and paper resources to ‘write’ them into your books! Particular Pages have to go into specific books. The arrangement of the Page order can become crucial for set collection goals. Plus, the way in which you create a spread (the left and right pages, open at once), can lead to some fantastic combos. When you pull off a move like this, it’s so satisfying!
Each player begins with three books, one each for Industry (green), Science (red) and Trade (yellow). Everyone gets the same two starting pages for each book, and they start open in front of you, so you can see two pages. You also start with a hand of six random Pages; you get to ‘write’ (clip) one into a book of your choice for free. You keep two other Pages on your player board, which you can write later for a cost. You discard the other three. This means everyone starts with an asymmetrical set-up.
It’s Action-Selection Time!
There’s also a Chronicle, which is a neutral book. During set-up, you shuffle the 23 Chronicle Pages, remove eight at random, then clip them into the Chronicle. It starts open, on the first pages. Books of Time is an action-selection game, which lasts for 15 rounds. (One round for each of the 15 Chronicle Cards.) On your turn you may opt to activate one of the pages from the current two-page spread in the Chronicle. Then it’s action-selection time. You get to perform one of six possible options…
You can Draw, where you take two pages from a public display, for free. They’ll either be Industry, Science or Trade pages. A second consideration is to Write Pages. This means paying resources to clip one of your Pages into the corresponding book. The cost of the Page equals the space in which it sits along your Player Board. You can hold up to five Pages, and every time you claim a new one, it slides all previous Pages rightwards one space. (Thus, adjusting Pages’ current cost, so timing becomes key!) Once you’ve done this, you then earn an immediate reward (such as free pens, paper, Pages, and so on), according to what’s stated on the Page.
Another option is to Activate Pages. This means you get to perform the abilities shown on both pages of any one of your three books. These range from getting freebies (like pens and paper, or Pages), to trading (pay X to get Y). In the latter case, for example, some are ‘pay 1x pen and 1x paper to move up one space on the Trade Track on the Civilization Board’. Others are akin to ‘Have 2x Trade Pages present on your Player Board right now to earn 1x paper and 2VP’. Then you turn the page, revealing the next double-page spread.
Instead, you can Close A Book. This gains rewards for every page to the left of your current page. (These are the same rewards you would have gained when writing the Page in the first place.) Then you re-open it to the first page again.
Or, you can Advance your marker up one space on the Civilization Board. (I’ll explain this in greater detail soon!) The last option is to Turn Pages. You get to turn pages in (up to all three of) your books. You gain some immediate benefits on the page(s) for doing this – the same as when Writing the Pages in the first place. Whenever you turn pages, you turn them as if reading and progressing through an actual book.
The Chronicle To The Rescue!
The fantastic thing is that the actions on the Pages in the Chronicle always feel compelling. So often they’re crucial towards being part of a combo that elevates your turn from being average into epic! The neat thing is you can take your actions in any order. So you might opt to do your main action first, which then allows you to afford the Chronicle action (or vice-versa).
There were many times when playing where I wasn’t able to afford the action I wanted. But then the Chronicle provided a way for me to achieve it! Having two choices gives you a decent range of paths to take on your turn. This level of flexibility means it’s rare that you have a turn that leaves you feeling, “Meh, that was bland.” I never felt overwhelmed with options, but there always seemed to be something cool I could accomplish.
The range of paths to take in the game is widespread, but you need to adapt to your strategy in the moment. Like many Euros, efficiency is king. 15 turns feels like a lot at the start of the game, but this timer is in place for a reason…
A Trio Of Tantalising Objective Tiles
Clipping Pages into your books is fun from a tactile point of view, but there’s more to it than being a cool gadget. You also start with Objective Tiles – one for each book – and they sit stacked on top of one another, like a pyramid. These Objective Tiles can earn you whopping VPs at the end if you can complete them. Their set collection requirements involve you having certain types of Pages (with specific icons on them) within that book.
Throughout the game, you’ll have opportunities to remove the top Objective Tile from a stack, revealing one beneath it. They get ever-tougher to achieve, but the end-game points they provide are higher, too. Green Objectives involve having different symbols in your Industry book. Red Objectives involve you having identical symbols in your Science book. Yellow Objectives involve you having certain symbols in a specific order within your book. (This latter one is why you might want to Turn Pages at certain moments, to Write a Page at an opportune moment!)
The Objectives are a gamble, because you can only score the Objective at the top of your stack. If you completed the easier version of it at the end of the game, but not your current, harder one you have revealed, you score nothing! Some players will thrive off this. Others, who don’t like the concept of wagering, might not like the idea of ending up with nothing.
These were a brilliant challenge to keep abreast of throughout the game. From the off, they’re an instant goal for you to try and work towards. Unlike other games (such as the Objective Cards in Wingspan), these felt worthy of the amount of effort you invest. They return a substantial amount of end-game points, which 100% impacts a game-changing score. (If you can achieve level 3/3 for them, that’s a monumental 54 points! As a comparison, completing them at entry level 1 returns 25 points.)
I enjoyed these Objectives not only because they’re asymmetric. (There’s 12 – three in each colour – and you play with one of each colour.) Rather, it’s their high-risk-high-reward vibe that excited me. I saw them as a personal challenge to try and complete all at 3/3 for difficulty! (I still have not accomplished this at the time of writing, so my ego is still in its cage for now!) Of course, for the super-efficient gamers out there, the dream is there to see. Building books that provide both epic action combos, as well as completing these set collection goals! That’s easier said than done, though…
Keeping Track Of Your Civilization
So, what’s that Civilization Board all about? It is a grid of three tracks, one for each of your Books. You have markers at the bottom of each row and you’ll look to try and climb each track. Every time you do you can earn rewards, getting better and better the higher you climb. Or, you can forgo the bonus and instead bin off your top Objective Tile, because hey, you’re aiming for the stars! The bonuses you earn can be VP lucrative, though. I guarantee you’ll play your second game a little different once you witness how these Tracks pay out!
Reach the top spot of a Track and you’ll earn extra VPs at the end of the game depending on how many Pages are in that Book. These reminded me of tech tracks from other Euros, such as the tri-coloured temples in Teotihuacan (another Board & Dice game). Often, the bonus they provide helps fund a future action. Got to love those combos, right?
Art, Components, And Iconography
The component quality in Books of Time is solid, as we’ve come to expect from Board & Dice. The ring-binders are robust, which is crucial given how often you need to clip and un-clip them. The fact that the Chronicle comes with a lectern for it to sit upon is a neat touch. Yes, some might see this additional cardboard as a further extravagant gimmick. It has a practical purpose, though. It angles the Chronicle up so all players can see the current Pages.
The Pages are similar to Tarot cards in size, and you end up needing a surprising amount of table space required for a four-player game. With any game that carries a substantial table footprint, so too can it be a challenge to fit it back in the box! It is achievable, but this is a precise task, requiring patience after the game’s conclusion!
The game is language independent, which means there’s iconography to digest. It’s simple enough to grasp for seasoned gamers, but it might scare off newer players. A breakdown of all the icons are in the rules Appendix, as well as on a Tarot-sized player aid. A good half of each Page shows Aleksander Zawada’s artwork. The Science Pages all feature famous folk known for their scientific discoveries. Of course the likes of Einstein, Pythagoras and Copernicus are present, but it’s not all caucasian males. Jane Cooke Wright is on one of the cards. She's an African-American lady who made epic contributions towards chemotherapy and cancer research. There’s also six pages in the rulebook that explain who these characters are, and their accomplishments. It’s great to see a variety of genders and races included. Cycling back to ‘History is written by the victors’, it’s pleasing to say that no, no it is not, in Books of Time.
Final Thoughts On… Books Of Time
Books of Time provides replayability-galore, with new challenges to overcome every time you play. 15/23 shuffled Chronicle Pages see to that, and the asymmetrical Objectives. Modular set-ups like this are always a big appeal for me! Board & Dice always tick this box with their Euros.
One thing I expected to see – because the Board & Dice catalogue have spoiled us before – was a variant of the rewards on the Civ Board. It’s not crucial, but that kind of modular aspect could provide further unique strategies. But that is the most minor of quibbles...
Player interaction is minimal, here. The majority of what you’re doing falls under the bracket of multiplayer-solitaire. The one level of interaction is the public offer of Pages. In one game, donkeys (a symbol in Trade) were in high demand for various set collection goals. Cue the cursing around the table of, “No! You took my donkey!” when someone claims it from the market. In a lower player count you have more control over the Pages offer, between turns. But on the flip-side, that results in there being fewer players who can flush through Pages. (This is painful if you’re trying to cycle through the deck for a certain icon needed to complete that Objective.)
I love how you end up creating Books with mini tableaus that evolve over time. But to reach that point, you need to juggle the Pages, themselves. The abilities on the Pages are often a seesaw balancing act. Many of them are all about trading one thing for another, which – with good planning – funds your next turn. This reminded me a little of Everdell in some ways; this turn gets you resources to afford the next turn, and so on and so forth. The game gives you 10VPs as a starter, and yes, you can spend points to gain things!
Strong visual art. A clever gimmick that provides superb, refreshing gameplay. Multiple paths to victory, without being an insane migraine-inducing board game headache. I’m struggling to find faults, here! I had the most marvellous time playing Books of Time.
