Mechanic: Mini Time Agent

Mechanic Premise:

There's been a horrific and protracted world war, and in the aftermath civilizations have fallen while others triumphed. The new status quo favors some factions more than others. Shattered empires, prosperous rebellions, and desolate remnants. But time travel promises to unwin battles and rewrite history.

Many historic events and revolutionary technologies have lead to the current timeline, any of which can be undone.

The prosperity of the world changes depending on if particular technologies are invented or uninvented, or particular revolutions/wars are undone.

Each important event and each significant technology is represented by a card on the table that can be flipped over to alter the timeline.

Each card grants some factions income bonuses & detriments, VP bonuses & Detriments

Ex. Gorglex Slave Rebellion: Gorglex empire -8 income, Arn Federation - 5 income, All other races +2 income.

Lore: With aid from the Arn Federation, Gorglex slaves rebelled against their masters in a bloody conflict that saw significant losses on all sides. Other species benefited from increased arms demand and decreased political pressure.
If Flipped over, effectively +8 to the Gorglex, +5 to the Arn, and all other races -2.

Card effects have asymmetric impacts across game factions

One faction starts the game far in the lead, and doesn't loose much per card uninvented, but every card uninvented hurts them so the longer the game goes the more fires they need to put out.

Lore: This faction was the ultimate victor of the war, who won from a thousand small victories.

One faction starts far behind but can jump by leaps and bounds by uninviting lost battles and key tech their enemies used against them

The Oda Nobunaga of the war - From riches to being dethroned in a few pyrrhic battles.

Some cards start in play, already invented and conferring their bonuses and detriments, abilities and effects.

It is possible to run a game with a variety of different lore scenarios, depending on which cards start in play and whether or not they start invented or uninvented.

One of the cards that starts in play face up every game is the Time Travel technology card.

The game ends when Time Travel is uninvented. Factions win/loose based on their strength in the new timeline.

Some cards (tech) have ongoing effects

Hyperdrive -> Adds movement bonuses to units
Time Travel -> adds the ability to send agents back in time

Any stat adjustments (income) tied to Time travel is effectively permanent and un-malleable by other players because revoking it ends the game.

Misc. thoughts:

Use card flipping events to illustrate the inequity of existence:

Unwinning a war doesn't simply mean the benefits are reversed, it creates a different outcome entirely.

Instead of removing the 5 income for faction A and removing the -5 income for faction B when the card representing A's war for independence is flipped over into nonexistence, perhaps the back of the card reflects a new status quo: -7 for A and +10 for B. In this narrative B gets a lot more value out of maintaining their slave race.

Cards confer points AND income, which players can spend to perform actions and acquire workers/pay dividends/18xx it up

Launder faction income through inventing/erasing technologies to the players?

Players take on the role of private time-fuckery firms, charging Nations to rewrite history or selling them diagrams of technology they never knew they had already invented before it was uninvented.

Perhaps players are independent from the factions instead of playing as them:

Players could be competing investors, buying warbonds in factions before messing with the timeline to make those bonds valuable.
Or perhaps each faction offers Pax Pamir style allegiance? Pull important cards out of the timeline into a personal player tableaux for faction allegiance? Hurting them for self gain. (Like a card version of King is dead)
Or just a simple hidden role card that gives a listing of which factions each player would like to see succeed.

Investment portfolios - 18xx Style?

Factions are investible, and their portfolio value rises and falls as their historic events are done and undone
Players buy into one or another civilization, and try to make their portfolio the most valuable at the time time travel is uninvented
Buy/sell/trade, but unlike stock a faction isn't affected by our purchasing of resources/agents... their value is based on which historic events have occurred or did not

Endgame - Study in Emerald style?

Players have secret teams, with different agendas.
When game ends (time travel uninvented, or specific event undone) player on winning team with most points wins alone.
If the winning team also contains the player with the fewest points, that team looses and the player with the most points on opposing team wins instead.
Two different ways to end the game, each signaling potential victory to one of the secret factions

What if it matters when a tech was invented? Cards referenced when in the time line they were played? (If hyperdrive invented after guns, different point adjustments than before second world war?)

Merging Study in Emerald with Investment:

When time travel uninvented, players cash out their investments against each nation's standing (first, second, third place, each with different multipliers)
The player with the most money wins... unless they share their heaviest investment in their portfolio with the player with the least money.

If so, then the player with the most money with their heaviest investment in a different Nation wins instead.
Tie break on equal investment goes to the strongest nation.

Ex, Alex has the most money in the game and would win, but he owns more total shares in Russia than any other country. Dave is the player with the least money, and although he has fewer shares than Alex, is also primarily invested in Russia. Therefore Alex looses, and the player with the most money not invested in Russia wins.

Motivates players to help struggling players in their portfolio, or start pouring their investments into less successful Nations.