How To Play Trekking Through History

Trekking Through History is a time travel game where you are exploring history over three days. Each day makes up one of your rounds. In each day you spend twelve time or more to gather cards and experiences and add them to your timeline. That is most of the game, whomever has the most points at the end of the game is the winner. And we’ll talk about the different ways to get points next.

Getting Points

You get points in two main ways, though there is a third that I’ll touch on briefly first. Those ways are ending your day at exactly twelve time, filling in your daily travel itinerary, and creating runs of time travelled from oldest to newest.

So we already completely covered the first. That is just ending your day with exactly twelve. Let’s talk about the itinerary next. Each day you get an itinerary that has four different columns. Each column corresponds to a different type of event that you can find in the timeline. So as you select your next event to add to your timeline, you need to get events that will give you the right tokens. You fill in tokens on your sheet from top to bottom. Some of the spots give you points for covering them. Others give you points if you complete a row. And there is one more resource we’ll talk about soon.

The other way is by creating a run for your timeline. When you grab a new card you always need it to be more recent than your previous one you grabbed. If it is, you add it to your run of cards. If it isn’t you start a new run of cards. But you keep the old run of cards as well. At the end of the game you score each of your runs of cards. If it’s a single card you lose three points, two you get zero and then it keeps going up from there.

Turn Order

The final thing I want to talk about is turn order. I talked about the twelve time that you can spend. You actually can spend over that, but you always stop at twelve on the time track. And as I mentioned, if you like it up correctly and stop right on twelve you get a bonus three points.

Each card you take, beyond having the different tokens, is going to make you spend an amount of time. There is a resource you can get, time crystals that let you reduce the time. So what does this have to do with turn order?

Well, whomever is furthest back on the clock, the time tracker, gets to go next. And if you spend time and land on a spot with someone else, you go on top of them. So then the player on top of that stack is going to go next. The time crystals allow you to reduce your time so that you are able to go multiple turns in a row.

Then, at the end of the game, whomever has the most points wins.

What Doesn’t Work

This is a pretty light game and there is a decent amount of luck to it. Especially in lower player count games the cards for the timeline don’t change that much. So it is possible that in the beginning you get a card that is way back in time, in the BCE (Before Common Era) range and then you need to jump up a long ways and create a gap. So as players you are somewhat dealing with the luck of the cards.

What Works

Firstly the simplicity of this game is great. And not only the simplicity, but one of the things I talk about with a lot of games, the speed of the game play as well. A few turns might take a bit more time. And this is because you want to get the right tokens to optimize your itinerary for the day. But for the most part, most of them are fast, and the game as a whole, three rounds, is really fast as well.

But with that simplicity of what you are doing, I really like that they add in the itinerary. If it is just a game of collecting times and putting them into your timeline in order, that is not super interesting. But the addition of the itinerary gives you that one thing to think about that keeps the game from feeling too simple. How do I get the tokens I need to hit that next big scoring objective is pretty commonly a thought in my head. So I am able to plan out my turns a little bit that way.

And the time crystals are fun as well. They are a resource that is worth a point at the end of the game. But it is almost always better to use them in the game. Why, because it helps you set-up your timeline and it helps you get more cards for that run. It’s another simple thing, but manipulating the turn order is a lot of fun with them. And it can lead to some big swings in your advantage if you do it right.

Who is Trekking Through History For?

This is going to be a game that will be light for a lot of people I’m sure. I find it light as well and I’ll talk about that more. But this is a great game for families in a ton of ways. Firstly, the game play is easy enough to play with kids. I think that even pretty young kids could start to figure it out. And easily by the time your kid is eight, this is a game that you could play.

But the other big reason that this is such a great family game is that it teaches history. Each card, on the back, is going to tell you about the historical event that the card is depicting or the person on the card. It is an amazing opportunity to play a fun game and learn.

Final Thoughts on Trekking Through History

I find Trekking Through History to be a very enjoyable game. It is easy to teach, learn, and play. And sometimes that is an important thing for a game night. Add in the history that you learn form it, and that is a great added element to what you are doing in the game. Plus the game offers just enough to be a solid game as well. There is just enough strategy in filling out the itinerary to keep me engaged and just enough manipulation of the time track with the time crystals.

I suspect a number of people would find this game too simple. And I get that, it is simple but it is a game with a very specific focus for why it was made. It is a chance to play a game and learn about history and engage as a kid and as a family. My kid is not quite old enough to play it yet. But I’m excited for the time when I can use this to help him keep learning and have a fun time doing so. There is more to this than the game Timeline, which can do the same thing, but not a ton more.

My Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: A
Strategy (out of 10): 4
Luck (out of 10): 6

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How To Play Icecool Wizards

Immediately it’s pretty easy to see the differences between Icecool Wizards and Icecool. Icecool Wizards is adding in a new element to the game. You are still in a penguin school, but this time a school for wizards. And you are trying to collect resources or knowledge to be able to cast spells.

The basics of how you do that is similar to what’s done with Icecool. You flick your penguin twice each turn collecting resources. And no one is chasing you down. Instead, you and your opponents compete for the resources and the exams. You get both of them by crossing over them on your turn.

Then the game ends when all the resources are gone and players have an even number of turns. You score up the resources you haven’t spent on exams. And you get points for exams. The penguin with the most points wins.

Initial Reaction on Icecool Wizards

Let’s look into my initial reaction to the game here because I think it’s useful to compare it quickly to Icecool. I think that Icecool Wizards, for me, is a step down from Icecool. Mainly because Icecool is a pure dexterity game. There is some cat and mouse, but it’s all about flicking the penguins about.

Icecool Wizards offers some of the same thing, but seems to have built on it in a way that doesn’t make it more fun. It doesn’t make it unfun, but it adds in some to the game. And some of it I think is the smaller board size. It’s meant to be more portable and take up a little bit less space, I guess, but it neuters the ability for some great shots.

I think the fact that it’s all players versus each other versus a one versus all style of game also hurts it. The tension is gone and the excitement of that will they or won’t they hit me is gone. Instead a lot of it comes down to luck so let’s get into some of this.

Luck vs Skill

So let’s talk about what I mean by this. I kind of touched on it above, but the original Icecool is the skill of a player versus the skill of the other players. Can I pull off better shots and avoid the hall monitor better than the other players.

Icecool Wizards is a bit more luck focused. Why, because what exams and resources come out are random. The resources always go into specific spots. And while the game tries to balance that out, with powers, if the resources available on your turn are better than the ones on my turn for completing exams, it’s an advantage for you.

Collecting Resources vs Using Powers

Now it’s time to talk about the powers in the game. There are two types of resources in the games. Ones that you get in the classrooms vs ones you get in the doorways. The ones in classrooms are worse in that they don’t add in extra powers. And the exams they are used in don’t offer higher points.

But the ones in the doorways are interesting. There are four of them, and they offer extra powers. An extra flick for one of them, or adding in more resources for another. You might trash an opponents card instead.

These resources offer the decisions that this game is trying to give you. Do you flip one of them over, it’s still worth a point at the end of the game, but now you can’t use it on an exam. But it’s only kind of a choice because if there’s an exam that needs that resource, I can likely get to it in the next turn and it’s unlikely that someone else will have the exact resources to get it. It might happen, but it’s not super likely.

Who Is Icecool Wizards For?

It’s a tricky question. I think that they were attempting to make a game that offers a bit more balancing of strategy with skill. But I’m not sure it hits on that. So that is making it hard to know who this game is for. In some ways, I think it is making the game for a market that doesn’t exist. If you like Icecool, like I do, I don’t think it’s better. If you don’t like Icecool, Icecool Wizards isn’t adding anything new that you need to play.

Final Thoughts

For me, what I’ll like about Icecool Wizards in the long run is if I can mix it in with regular Icecool. Why, because that is how I want to play Icecool. Either as a race or as the hall monitor trying to catch the students. But this one only works with the former, but I think I can make it work with the latter as well. It’s easy enough to keep track of the doors you’ve done through.

Now, if this is your first introduction to Icecool, I think Icecool Wizards is going to be fun. For me, it is still fun. But it isn’t more fun that I’d pull it off the shelf over Icecool. And when I play Icecool, I generally want to play it with a lot of people. So I think it’s a situation where Icecool Wizards adds in too little and too much all at once. It’s too little because the game is too close to Icecool, and I just want to play that one.

Have you played Icecool Wizards, do you like it?

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Catch up on my Top 100 Games (of all Time) 2023 Edition:

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 40 through 31

40. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

As I always say, I’m not the biggest fan of social deduction games, in fact, there is only one that I like and that’s Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. And a lot of that is because it’s not just a social deduction game, there is more going on. And you always have something to base your conversation off of. A lot of time, in social deduction games, it’s more just taking a stab in the dark as you talk hoping someone will slip up. It’s not until later rounds where it is meaningful.

So, what makes Deception: Murder in Hong Kong different? I think it’s the role of the Forensic Scientist. They send up reports from their basement lab, basically they’re the person who runs the game, and from that lab they give you clues. The murder took place in a “school” the victim was “athletic” things like that.

Everyone else is trying to piece together those reports to figure out who the murderer is. Because it’s someone in the group. And because it’s someone in the group, they are trying to put suspicion on everyone else. But how to the reports help, you might ask? They help because everyone has a set of clues and murder weapons in front of them. So it helps narrow down what it can be. The detectives on the good side need to figure out which combo of clue and murder weapon are the cause. And of course the murder and their accomplice are trying to throw everyone off the sent.

Buy Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

39. Crokinole

Next up is one of the new games on the list. But I should say, it’s new to me. It’s certainly now a new game. In fact, it’s the oldest game on my list. Crokinole is a game of flicking a disc trying to land it in the center of the board. There is a groove there that you can land it into. But if you don’t do that, it’s about trying to get points and keeping your opponents pieces off the board as much as possible.

I like this one as a simple flicking game. You flick with very little thought for objectives beyond get it in to the middle. And while I love the getting up and moving around in PitchCar, Crokinole is fast to get to the table and much simpler in what you are doing. In fact, you can only shoot from a small quarter of the big board. And you can’t get up from your seat. The just simplicity of that system makes it a great game to sit, play, and chat while you’re playing it.

Buy Crokinole

38. Kohaku

Kohaku is the first of two tile laying games in a row here. And I really like Kohaku for how pretty it is, and also the simplicity of game play. You take two tiles on your turn, one scoring and one fish, that are adjacent to each other on the middle board. Then you place them anywhere into a tableau of your koi pond. There’s only two rules while placing, it needs to connect, no starting a new pond. And it needs to not have fish next to fish or scoring next to scoring. Whomever has the most points wins.

But it’s also very pretty, like I said. The newest versions are cheaper and just have cardboard tiles in them. Those are still pretty. The more expensive version, which was the first one they put out, has acrylic tiles to it. And why that works so well is that they can put water on the bottom and then have the fish, dragonflies, lily pads or ripples in the water on the top. So it gives them this depth that looks like looking into very clear water.

Buy Kohaku

37. World Wonders

World Wonders is the other tile laying game, and one of the new games on the list. It again falls into that category of a pretty simple game in what you are doing on your turn. You are paying for a tile to place on your board. Their are restrictions, mainly that it needs to be next to a road or another tile where you can place them. And that’s about it, minus the wonders. The tiles push you up on some tracks, which you want to keep balanced, but it’s mainly about the wonders.

The wonders are all great wooden pieces that are screen printed to all look like different wonders. It’s really cool that way. And the wonders are the most likely way that you’ll get points. As you play out tiles you’ll fulfill requirements to be able to place a wonder. But you can’t just get the wonder. You need to spend the rest of your money to get it. So if you get it early, you might spend more money first before you snag that wonder. But you also don’t want to miss out on a wonder, because again it’s how you get points. It’s a very good system or push and pull that way.

Buy World Wonders

36. Via Magica

Next up is Via Magica, one that I learned about from the Dice Tower group. Though it’s not a favorite of all of them, I really enjoy this gamer’s bingo type of game. Someone is drawing chips from a bag that are all different types of animus that you all use to open gates. So one is drawn out and you can fill in one on one of your three games that matches the type. That’s simple.

It adds a bit to the game when you consider which gates to take. Some of them might make a resource wild for you, so you get more flexibility when opening gates. Or it might let you transfer some animus to a specific color on other cards giving you a head start. Plus they give you points, and you make decisions based on trying to get the most done, but also groups of colors. Because there are bonus points for the first person to get various color groups completed.

It’s a great simple game. The artwork is cute, and it’s one that would work well with most groups of people. Is it the most challenging game, certainly not, but Sometimes I want an easy and fun game to play, and Via Magica is very good for that.

Buy Via Magica

35. Sushi Go Party!

And now another bigger group game. I like Sushi Go Party a lot for a couple of different reasons. Firstly, I like drafting games and how they tend to be games with little to no downtime in them. The most downtime that Sushi Go Party has is when calculating the scores at the end of the round. Otherwise you’re drafting cards all at the same time.

The other thing that I really like about Sushi Go Party is the variability. There are a ton of cards that you can get for the game and that come in the main box, so you can mix it up how it works each time. And it allows you to customize it to who you’re playing with as well. I might want to play a really cut throat version some time, or maybe a more peaceful and zen version another time. With more cards, it can really be set-up for your game group.

Buy Sushi Go Party

34. Meadow

Now a game that looks peaceful, but it isn’t fully. Meadow has amazing artwork and it’s all about building out a tableau in front of you of nature. But the game is a very tight and thinky game with a core mechanism that really challenges you to think through as you play.

There’s a grid of creatures, terrains, and scenery in the middle of the table. And you have four tokens (five in a two player game) that you use to determine which card you get. But the token as a number one it, one through four, and that determines the distances from the spot you put the token and that is the card you get. So there is great strategy for when you grab something, even if you might need it later. Because it might be getting hard to be able to take.

This is one where I know even I take a bit on my turns. There is a lot to think about and that’s part of what is great about the game. It’s a real puzzle that is hidden in a box with very pretty artwork.

Buy Meadow

33. Flamecraft

And speaking of games with pretty artwork we have Flamecraft. Flamecraft is a resource gathering and contract fulfillment game. All of it with adorable artwork from Sandara Tang. But there is more to this game than just the pretty artwork and the fun artisan dragon theme.

In Flamecraft, you are collecting resources and fulfilling contracts. But the game does a lot of other fun things. Mainly as you gather resources you’re adding dragons to shops. So they become more powerful and can help you gather more resources faster. I think that’s an interesting challenge and twist of the game as you build up those shops.

Buy Flamecraft

32. Mansions of Madness: Second Edition

Now a game that has fallen a ways, Mansions of Madness: Second Edition. This one is mainly down here in the 30’s because I’ve played other games that I love, so a few games have moved down. But also because I haven’t played it recently, so it’ll go up if I get it played again before the next time I do my Top 100 Games.

But this is a Lovecraftian themed game in the Fantasy Flight Arkham Files line. This one has a bit more of a localized feel as you play through it. And the app helps with the game allowing it to add in interactive puzzles and change up the map each time you play so scenarios, while the story might not change, feel different.

And the game just does a lot in it. I mentioned the puzzles, but the stories are good. And because of the variety of tiles and monsters in the game, you can really get a wide variety of stories. Often times they take place in houses, but I’ve explored other areas, such as city streets and the shops on there. And it is a longer game, but because it’s cooperative and you all have that one goal, it works well. The immersion into the story and into the game certainly helps as well.

Buy Mansions of Madness

31. Super Fantasy Brawl

Finally, rounding out this section, we have Super Fantasy Brawl. Super Fantasy Brawl is an arena battling board game where you are trying to knock out your opponents characters for points, and complete objectives, for points. And it’s up to five points, so it’s a fast game. And I think it balances everything in the game really well.

I like the action selection system a lot. There are three action chips, each of a different color. You pick one card from each color to active on a turn. So you might be activating the same character multiple times, or it might get split up between characters. But you can also use them for defense. It just refreshes at the end of your turn, so that means that you’ll be missing an action on the offensive.

And I like how knocking someone out just means that they can come back in with a card play the next round. So I can’t knock out all your characters and just win that way. But you also can’t figure knocking characters out, because you need to do that to break up them getting a goal. A check for a goal is at the start of your turn, so your opponent always has a chance to stop it, which is a really good system.

Buy Super Fantasy Brawl

Upcoming Streams

Let’s run through the stream structure like I normally do. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game, or with this time of year it’s my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. And join me next Wednesday for games 30 through 21, so hitting the half way point. It goes so fast, and now I have so many games that I want to play.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies or For Northwood, which was on the list today.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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Pros

• Theme looks cool
• Nice Mech minis
• Price
• Good Rules explanation
• Pilot/Mech mechanic

Cons

• Shipping
• Previous Kickstarter didn’t succeed for it

Page

This campaign does so much right for me. Though, there are some concerns for some backers mainly because they can’t guarantee that VAT will be paid. But the page itself is laid out amazingly well. Yeah, you get the shots of the minis and everything shiny that you are going to get, but they have a massive rules section. It might not tell you how you do everything in the game completely, but it gives you a clear direction with it, and that’s way more than can be said for most Kicktarters. They do a good job of laying everything out and making it look like a really good game and campaign.

Game

So there’s one main thing about the is game that really interests me, and a lot of other things that look cool, but a bit more normal. In the game you have your pilot for your mech and you have your mech. Each pilot has four skills, and each mech matches up to two of those skills. The pilot aboard and mech board sit next to each other and you can see how that lines up, and depending on your combo, you’ll get a different feel with a different pilot each time for the same mech. I think that’s not extremely unique, but really cool and something that makes the game feel interesting and like it can grow a lot.

I also like that you can upgrade the mech in the game. You don’t start with weapons, you’re just a lowly mining mech or something like that, and you have to start out by collecting resources to get your weapons before you can even think about going and fighting mutants. This gives the game even more feel that it’ll be replayable over time because you don’t know what upgrades you’ll be seeing or what different set-ups you can create.

Back or Brick

So would I back this game, I’m changing up the verbiage there because sometimes I just can’t back a game for money reasons, but would I back this game? Yes, for me this is a Back not a brick. This game has a cool theme, and I like that it isn’t just run in there and punch stuff, you get to build up your mech the way that you want it. To me that is more interesting than it would be just as a dice chucker. Plus it seems replayable, and if it does well, I would guess we’ll see more mechs and more pilots to create an even greater diversity in the combinations.

So for you, is this a back or a brick?

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