Agents in Time

Agents in Time is a time travelling game in which players begin with a team of two Agents, and are charged with flitting in and out of parallel time lines trying to achieve Objectives dictated by cards drawn at the start and during the game, all the while avoiding the Xanadu Time Patrol and ideally ensuring they keep overall control of their misdemeanours through time...

Part worker-placement, part abstract strategy, and part 'take that' (and part educational for those with a passing interest in history!), Agents in Time has a number of unique mechanics which make it unlike many other games, whilst still being familiar and easy to pick up.

Using a modular board of 36 hexes (Timespots), centered around a Main Timeline, the game plays out in a series of turns in which players Assign and Recall Agents, Paradox and Resolve minor and major events across time, claim Objectives, and more than likely trip over other time travellers...

A unique scoring tracker keeps a tally of both your Black Spot count (Blot) and Paradox Point totals, and the aim of the game is to complete Objectives and reduce your Paradox Score down to zero, but you start with a number of Black Spots (Blots) on your scorecard, and need to gradually erode those down to zero as well, because those Black Spots (Blots) will also hold up your Paradox Score (the latter can’t go below the former, but the Blots can push your Paradox score back the other way). How come? Because in order to complete your objectives you have to 'flip’n’ripple' various Timespots (hexes) which in turn creates further paradoxes and causes your Blot count to start rising (and those of your opponents if they’re on the same space, or adjacent to you!) – And how do you get your Blot count down? By ‘fixing the timeline’ and putting things back again (called a Resolve action), but this could also benefit your opponents, who will similarly lose Blots for your good deed!

—description from the designer