Turn of Time

You play a Lord of a Season, bringing seasonal changes to the world. As time goes by, one season replaces another in seasonal order; Spring is followed by Summer, Summer by Fall and Fall by Winter. However, you want to turn the time your way to have your season dominating the world.

When all your season tiles have been played to the game board or you have a majority of season tiles in one area, your season dominates the world.

The players take turn to play season tiles to one of six hexagonal areas, each of which has six season slots. The six season slots are arranged in a circle where each slot is adjacent to two other slots. The six areas are also arranged in a circle where each area is adjacent to two other areas.

Within an area, season tiles must be placed in seasonal order. Between areas, season tiles must be similar. If they are not, the later season will replace the earlier (e.g. Spring will replace Winter).

Besides placing season tiles, a player may turn one area clockwise so that new seasons end up adjacent to each other, resulting in one replacing the other. To really twist the time, a player may turn all areas counter-clockwise, resulting in several seasons replacing each other. However, since this turn is twisted, earlier seasons will replace later (e.g. Winter will replace Spring).

Once a season is banished from an area, it may not easily return, so the players will gradually increase their local dominance until a global winner emerges. To win Turn of Time, you must find the turns that brings most of your seasons to the board while blocking your opponents' opportunities to replace your seasons.

The unique mechanism of Turn of Time is the so called circular relation between the players where A is stronger than B, B is stronger than C etc. This mechanism, in combination with the revolving game areas, opens up in-numerous strategical paths. Should you accept being banished from one area to expand in another? Should you place your seasons so that they can attack easily or so that they are difficult to attack? Will the benefits of turning one or several areas outweigh the benefits other players may receive? Will you even be able to foresee all turns in the game if all areas are turned? You must find the answer yourself!