Heroes of Timeline (Saturday Review)

In the grand arena, two teams stepped onto the sacred battlefield, chosen by fate to clash in a relentless battle. The indomitable Dragon Hunters, descendants of war heroes who once battled the Dark Flame dragons, faced the elusive ninjas of the Hidden Temple, protectors of the grand Gang Port, who in turn would fight either the unyielding Guards of Witgat, heirs of a mountain tribe that endured the Celestial Fall, or The Institute, the largest team, yet the weakest individually, led by the enigmatic Professor. Each battle intertwined the opposing teams’ fates and further shaped the future of the realm itself. Each clash was another chapter in the endless struggle of the Heroes of Timeline by Oleh Shyianovskyi from Heroes of Timeline Ltd with art from Victoria Novak.

Simple but Deep

I wrote this intro myself, because the game doesn’t describe its setting. Only when you read the descriptions of the four teams that come with the game do you get a sense of what Heroes of Timeline is about: a 2-player tabletop skirmish game in board game form set in a vague fantasy world.

Yet, rather than being a slog fest where you command armies of dozens of carefully painted minis and have to worry about line of sight across the terrain and use rulers to measure distances, the designer of Heroes of Timeline wanted to create a game that is, and I quote, “easy to learn, hard to master [and] explainable in 15-20 minutes, but it has to be interesting even if you play it for years.”

So, no there are no rulers. Instead, a hex grid defines distance and line of sight. Terrain consists only of walls, which players place on hex edges before each battle. All you have to worry about is which direction your character faces and simply follow the hex spaces and count the steps between your character and their target.

The designer also didn’t want any randomness. Let me quote again: “Dice throws and card picks should not decide who wins this game. You should know everything your opponent can do, and vice versa.” So every battle is a matter of strategy and tactics, where all the information is visible to everyone. That makes Heroes of Timeline more like chess, but of course, the designer would never compare their game to the centuries-old classic war game. It would be an unfair comparison anyway, because Heroes of Timeline is really quick to learn and even quicker to play, while still offering enough strategy potential to make every game an interesting challenge.

Unique Factions

As you would expect from a skirmish game, the factions you can choose from are all unique. While they mostly have the same number of warriors, every team member has unique abilities that often complement other fighters in the group. So finding the right synergies and positioning the team appropriately is very important. When team size differs, it’s because the larger group has slightly weaker members, which is compensated by larger numbers.

Teams also have different difficulty ratings, allowing you to choose a faction that is easier to play when you’re new to the game and selecting more challenging factions once you are more familiar with Heroes of Timeline. It’s also a way of creating a handicap for more experienced players. Alternatively, you can choose the team that suits your playing style more or whose background story excites you the most, of course.

Having four unique factions to choose from also means that you can vary each battle. There are enough teams to keep you busy for a while and I wouldn’t be surprised if new factions are released in the future, if Heroes of Timeline finds a sizeable following.

What makes each character unique isn’t just their special actions or their movement and ranged attack distances. Each character also gets a different amount of armour and you equip it to the six sides of a character’s hex base. So if a character has three pieces of armour, for example, you need to choose where you place it. You can’t protect all six edges of the hex. You have to choose if you want to use it to protect against attacks from behind or shield the character at the front. So even before you start the battle, you have important choices to make.

Strategy and Tactics

Otherwise, Heroes of Timeline works very much like other similar skirmish battlers. One player has the initiative and begins the round. Players take turns activating one character until all team members have been exhausted. So choosing which character you activate when is your first strategic choice. Your next decision is whether you approach an enemy fighter and attack them or position your character strategically and support your other team members.

In fact, where in the arena your characters end a round determines how many points you score. There is a small arena control element in Heroes of Timeline. If one of your characters controls the central hex at the end of a round, you win immediately. Otherwise, each team scores points based on how many regions they control and you start another round. The game then ends after five rounds and whoever has the most points wins.

So you’re constantly jockeying for position. The game encourages you to spread out your warriors to cover as many sections as possible, while also wanting you to move towards the centre in the hope that you can end the battle immediately. At the same time, you don’t want to be too close to the enemy and risk being killed. Your armour will protect you, but only so much.

It’s important that you really understand how your team works and how everyone best works together. You also need to understand the opponent’s team’s strengths and weaknesses. You want to take advantage of their flaws and take advantage of your own powers. If you get it right, you will be victorious. If you get it wrong, you will bite the dust.

Epic Heroes

It is amazing how much strategy and tactics every battle entails and that’s what makes Heroes of Timeline such a delicious challenge.

You might decide to send your strongest character into the midst of things and grind your enemy into the ground, but even the strongest hero has weak spots. Every time you activate one of your characters and deal serious damage to the enemy, you can’t rest on your laurels. You constantly need to be on your guard and be ready to defend, before you immediately strike again.

Alternatively, you can play the long game and strategically place your team to make it almost impossible for the enemy to get to you. Controlling the arena over five rounds isn’t easy though, but if you can pull it off, you will be victorious in the end. More often than not though, neither team will score, putting even more pressure on everyone for the next round. Eventually, one of you will break ranks and go for an all-out attack. If you have positioned yourself well, you will be able to fend it off and come out victorious. However, if your opponent has spotted a chink in your armour, you will be helplessly slaughtered.

It is amazing how every battle turns out differently, even if both sides play with the same faction every time. As players learn how their factions work and get to know their opponents, everyone subtly changes their strategies, creating a completely new experience. Even adjusting a character’s armour makes a difference.

If that isn’t enough, you can choose different factions and face a new challenge. The possibilities aren’t endless, but certainly enough to keep you occupied for a long time. Like every game of chess is different, every battle in Heroes of Timeline is also a new test.

Epic Components

The physical components are also a real treat. The dual-layer bases, as I would describe them, allow you to clip armour tokens into the six edges of the hex. The base also has an arrow indicating the direction of your hero, which is important for attacks.

The arena is printed on very thick cardboard, which is cut in a really clever way that ensures the board doesn’t use up a lot of space when folded, while still creating a large area for the battle to take place in. That means the box of Heroes of Timeline is actually much smaller than it would otherwise be, which is great.

The character and team cards are also made from good stock and the character standees and other cardboard tokens are lovely and thick. They will wear out over time, as you clip them into the base and remove them again, but that’s unavoidable. The rulebook is short and well laid out, making the game easy to learn. There is also a video that does an amazing job of teaching Heroes of Timeline. So, yes, it’s all very good quality.

I really enjoyed playing the game and trying out different factions. It’s all really quick to set up and a skirmish shouldn’t last much more than 30 minutes, making this an ideal game to play in between. It’s also a great introduction to the genre, scratching that same itch, without requiring you to learn lots of complicated rules and spend ages setting everything up.

Heroes of Timeline is likely a bit too light for more experienced skirmishers, but if you’ve always been interested in what tabletop battles are all about, then I’d say give this one a go. I really feel it’ll keep you entertained for a long time to come.

Useful Links

• Heroes of Timeline: https://heroesoftimeline.com/
• Rulebook: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0798/8756/5147/files/Heroes_of_Timeline_-_Rulebook.pdf?v=1717258045
• Heroes of Timeline Ltd: https://heroesoftimeline.com/
• BGG listing: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/414994/heroes-of-timeline

Videos

Transparency Facts

I feel that this review reflects my own, independent and honest opinion, but the facts below allow you to decide whether you think that I was influenced in any way.

• I was sent a free review copy of this game by the publisher.
• At the time of writing, neither the designers, nor the publisher, nor anyone linked to the game supported me financially or by payment in kind.

Audio Version

Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/)

Sound Effects: bbc.co.uk – © copyright 2025 BBC

Music by: Bensound.com/royalty-free-music
License code: IIWZGPBOW5ZSCHJC

Ride The Wind by Scott Buckley | https://soundcloud.com/scottbuckley
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Playlist

These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review: