such a hard concept to grasp!!
Whoops! Forgot about this thread.
After much thought wrangling the only somewhat time based game concept I can remember playing is the Time-Slip device from the 4x game Stars!
It was a modded device which basically sent a vessel into any place in the game in the FUTURE. Boring game anecdote follows
Essentially the device was nothing more than a teleporter with a cool-down period.
This had two major drawbacks:
1. By the time it had arrived in the designated area it was usually already obsolete. This usually meant that unless it was a super-shield ship or a ridiculously overpowered/under-engined gunship then its affect on a combat was virtually negligible.
Combine this with the incredible amount of planning and statistical knowledge required to play Stars! competently, it usually meant that any help the Time-slipped ship could give you fit comfortably within your opponents calculated margins of error.
2. Anyone who played Stars! tended to be smart enough to just send more ships instead of making an unflexible Time-Ship. Duh
HOWEVER: There were a few advantages, surprising ones:
Nuke a planet - Why waste a potentially devastatingly powerful vessel on a combat when you could hurl it away to an undefended world? This had the effect of CRIPPLING enemy empires by removing planets from their economic base
Nuke a system - Why have a battle at all? Supernova their sun. Chuckle to yourself evily you evil, evil player
Time-Travel essentially removes tech eras from a game. Why? Well....
The problem with time travel is this:
You develop time travel and its corresponding device. What do you do?
Well. If you are simple minded, you'd send back your best unit to help in some combat or rather, right?
...or, if you are me, you'll send back workers to provide resources which allow you to gain time-travel faster
Which means you'll send back workers EARLIER to provide resources which allow you to gain time travel faster
....which means you'll send back workers EVEN EARLIER to provide resources which allow you to gain time travel faster
Which means you'll send back....
Solution
Only be able to send back certain units, in certain places, to certain times. This restricts time travel to 'zones' which would basically end up being fought over.
You know. Like Dawn of War used to be