Echoes of Time

 

The special sauce in Echoes of Time is how the cards you play usually only take effect in the future. Every player has a player board that is divided into five time slots. You have tiles on your player board representing the passing of time. When you play a card, it is usually placed on one of these tiles. All the tiles slide right at the start of every round. Cards come into play and take effect only when they slide off your player board. 

This is a tableau-building game. In several ways it reminds me of Race for the Galaxy and San Juan. You pay to play cards by spending other cards. The cost of a card is expressed in both other cards you need to discard, and time. The time cost means how far in the future that card will take effect. You play it to the corresponding spot on your player board. 

Depending on the number of players, there will be some source tiles in play. You can use your fighters to capture and to secure these sources. They give you benefits when you capture them and also if you still hold on to them by game end. When you capture a source but do not have enough strength to secure them yet, another player with higher strength can take it away from you. There are different strength requirements for capturing and securing a source. The game ends when all sources are secured. 

The interesting thing about using fighters to capture and secure sources is when you commit such fighters, you lose their abilities. All fighters have some abilities. Some might be always active, some might take effect in specific rounds. However if they have been used to capture or secure a source, you lose these abilities. You fighters are now busy guarding the source. Capturing sources is important, but sacrificing abilities to do it is a real dilemma. When you lose a source, it is not necessarily a bad thing, because your fighters are now released and their abilities are reactivated. The guy who took your source now has his fighters losing their abilities. 

There are two types of cards, fighters and equipment. Fighters come in four factions. Those from the same faction synergise well. Only fighters have strength. Equipment cards gives all sorts of benefits. You often want to play them early so that you get to enjoy these benefits more. 

Sometimes you can speed up time, sliding cards on your player board so that they get activated sooner. Each of your six tiles show a flame icon. The flame is red (rarest), yellow or blue (most common). Some card abilities trigger in rounds of a specific flame colour. This is another way the concept of time comes into play. 

I feel there is not a lot of player interaction in Echoes of Time. Yes, you do fight over the sources, and it's mean to capture someone else's source, but most of the time you are trying to figure out synergies you can make with the cards you draw. You try to play as efficiently as possible so that you will have enough strong fighters to capture and then secure the sources. Sources are not the only way you score points. Fighters and equipment are worth points too. Some of them help you score points during the game. Card effects include drawing cards, playing cards, activating other cards, advancing time, and discounts. The synergies of the cards make this a combo game. The time factor makes this a planning game. Sometimes you want cards to be activated in a certain order to maximise your points. You want to make sure those timed effects happen at useful moments.