A Race In Time Board Game by History Heroes has players pitting their worldwide history knowledge against each other to get to the finish first. And if your knowledge of historical figures isn’t great don’t worry. The point of the game is to learn about them while having fun.
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Page Contents
What’s In The Box
Inside the Race In Time Board Game Box You’ll find
- Board
- 8x historical cardboard playing pieces
- 8x black playing piece plastic stands
- 120 event cards (30 in each era)
- 120 history hero cards (30 from each era)
- 10 objective cards
- History heroes poster
- Instruction leaflet
Aim Of The Game
The main aim of ‘A Race In Time‘ is to be the first player to get to the finish but there are a couple of ways to play the game.
The first, and less complicated option, is to be the first player to reach the finish line at the center of the board.
The second, more complicated,extended play option is to collect the best 5 history hero cards to create a team of historical figures that would be best suited to achieve an objective randomly selected at the beginning or end of the game.
Game Play Set Up
The board is placed in the center of a table and the shuffled event cards, from each era, are put in the matching area.
The history hero cards are shuffled and placed in easy reach, for all players around the board. Then each player takes one card from each pile, keeping them hidden from other players. Throughout the game, players are not allowed to have more than 5 cards in their hand. As a side note, although the rules say this should happen for both versions of play, the 5 cards are not really used in the standard version.
The objective cards (if being used) should be shuffled and placed to one side.
Put the ‘A Race Against Time’ poster in a place that’s easily accessible to all e.g. a wall
Each player chooses a playing piece and places it on ‘START‘.
How To Play A Race Against Time.
Standard Gameplay
Before each player’s first turn they choose one additional History Hero card from one of the four eras to add to their hand. And the standard gameplay has the youngest player starts first.
The number of moves a player’s piece can move is determined by correctly guessing a History Hero character (from the Era that player is in) using facts and clues from the back of a History Hero Card.
The player to their right picks a History Hero card up from the correct era (keeping the card hidden from the player whose turn it is) to read out facts that give clues to who the character is. The clues become harder based on the number of spaces you want to move… so a 1 move fact is easier than a 6 move fact.
The player whose go it is must choose which fact/clue number they want to answer. And if they guess the History Hero character correctly they move forward the number of spaces associated with the fact/clue. If they get it wrong their turn is over.
If a player lands on an ‘event’ space, the player must pick an event card from that era and must do what the event card tells them. This could have a positive or a negative impact on their position on the board!
If a player passes through a portal they must pick up a History Hero card from the new era they are entering and choose whether to keep or discard it from their hand. A player may only have 5 cards in their hand at a time, so if they keep it they should discard another card.
The winner is the first player to get to the finish.
Tweaks To Standard Game Play
Choosing just one fact/clue can make for a particularly frustrating game to start with, as unless you’re a history whizz, the chances of you getting it correct are slight. Players can use the History Heroes Poster to help but that won’t help answer all the questions.
Our tweak to the game is to allow players to go through all the facts and clues epecially when playing the game for the first time. So start at fact 6 and keep giving facts/clues until the player gets one correct. So for example a player is told fact/clue 6 and gets it wrong. They are then told fact/clue 5, and get that wrong. They are then told fact/clue 4 and get that wrong. Fact/clue 3 they guess the character correctly and therefore they can move forward 3 spaces. If a player doesn’t guess the character once all the facts/clues are given their turn is over. The card is then returned to the bottom of the pile.
The 5 cards held in a player’s hand only seem to have value if you play with the objective cards. So we chose to leave them out.
Using Objective Cards
There are 2 ways to use the objective cards. The first version takes a card randomly at the beginning of the game. The second version has the objective card chosen at the end of the game by the player who reaches the finish first.
Both versions require players to look at the facts of the history heroes they have in their hand and to keep the Heroes they feel have the best attributes for the job. Although if you don’t know what the objective is until the end of the game it’s hard to apply any strategy to card collecting.
Whichever version you choose, when the first player reaches the finish line all players have 30 seconds to prepare a speech explaining why the History Heroes in their hand a best suited to completing the objective. After each player has given their speech everyone votes on who they think would be the most successful (players cannot vote for themselves).
Tweaks To Using Objective Cards
As mentioned we felt that choosing an objective card at the end didn’t seem to add value to the game. Any strategy required in trying to decide which History Hero cards to collect throughout the game only really works if you know what the objective is at the beginning. Otherwise, you’re just collecting a random set of History Heroes and hedging your bets. To be fair, this could be fun for older kids/adults but it does remove a lot of the strategy part of the game and relies totally on players ability to add ‘spin’ to their heroes character ability.
Additionally, we also felt that players should be allowed to choose to keep the History Hero cards that they guessed correctly in order to move around the board. This creates more character choices for players.
What Did we Think Of A Race In Time?
We really wanted ‘A Race Against Time’ to be fabulous as the idea is clever. But the reality is that it feels like 2 separate games have been poorly squeezed together.
That’s not to say the game is bad. You just have to be able to mould the game to suit your own personal reguirements. And that’s partly because the rules are confusing. Especially when it comes to the need to have History Hero cards in your hand. As mentioned earlier they aren’t really required for the standard game.
The game also relies on players having some general knowledge of very specific people in history in order to have any movement on the board. Although there is a poster to help, that just creates a little more chaos, as the poster is large with quite small writing. And this makes it difficult to have around the table where you’re playing. Personally, I would have liked to have 4 seperate large Era character guides which would be easier to pass around between players depending where on the board they are
Having said that if you strip the rules back and focus on the standard gameplay you do have a fun game based around Historical worldwide figures.
And of course there is massive educational value to the game as everyone playing is learning about these key historical characters.
A Race In Time Alternative Rule Suggestions
Athough the rules are a bit confusing the game components have a lot of flexibility so you can tweak it yourself. Below are som of the variations we tried.
Begginers Version
Use this version when most players historical knowledge is limited
- Set out the game as per the included rules but do not keep cards in hand
- Players move based on the fact/clue number that helps them work out the History Hero character.
- Start at clue 6 and work backward until the player guesses correctly
- Use the joker question first as a free hint or to get an extra turn (decide how many jokers can be used at start of game)
- The winner is first to the finish line
Intermediate Version
Use this version when players are starting to remember a good half of the characters facts/clues
- Set out the game as per the included rules but do not keep cards in hand
- Players move based on the fact/clue number that helps them work out the History Hero character but they are only allowed to get one fact/clue. So must choose the level of difficulty/moves required first
- Use the joker question first as a free hint or to get an extra turn (decide how many jokers can be used at start of game)
- The winner is first to the finish line
Advanced Version
Use this version when players have a good grasp of the Historical Hero Characters
- Set out the game as per the included rules
- Use dice to determine how many spaces a player moves and which fact/clues a player gets read to them.
- Players move if they guess the History Hero character correctly and keep the card.
- Use the joker question first as a free hint or to get an extra roll of the dice
- When the first player gets to the finish the player with the most cards wins
Objective Cards
The objectives cards feel like they should be part of a different game or an extention game. Voting in a game is always a tricky one as it’s hard not to let bias come in, especially when dealing with kids. I think they’re a fun addition that can be used as an extra. But I would steer away from using them to determine a winner.