Bottoscon 2023 Retrospective

This post has been a long time coming, mainly due to exhaustion on my part.

A four-day con is a long con, especially when you are playing a lot of longer games.

All of that would be fine, except then I started work on Monday and found out we had to pack up our offices in three days in order to get it ready for a new floor (as I already explained last Friday).

As exhausting as it was, though, it was a great con with many memorable gaming moments. There were some slow times (mainly due to me and friends gabbing or getting food or whatever) but overall it was a great con.

Bottoscon is the largest wargaming convention in the Pacific Northwest and there are many scheduled gaming events for other wargames, and even a few non-wargames. I don’t know if the non-wargames part is new (the convention is close to, if not more than, 20 years old I think), but there are definitely tons of wargamers played.

This year’s Bottoscon went from Thursday, November 2 to Sunday, November 5, and adding that extra day (previously it’s always been Friday-Sunday) just made it all the sweeter (though also that much more tiring).

One long game I didn’t play, but was set up for others, was Here I Stand by GMT Games.

Maybe one of these cons I’ll break down and do the 12 hours this game requires.

This post is about my game experiences. Apologies in advance, though.

The lighting was not conducive to good pictures.

There are many shadows to be had.

Since this might produce a long post, let’s get started!

I’ll save the detailed descriptions for any new games for my “new to me” games post for November. Just cursory explanations here.

I arrived early each day, so I did a lot of sitting there reading rules or chatting for the first hour or two.

It was a nice time and I really enjoyed it.

On Thursday, I was about 90 minutes early and chatted with a couple of really nice guys until two of my friends arrived.

So we started the day with a game of Terraforming Mars: the Dice Game.

While this is the least of the three games in my opinion, it’s still a fun one and it plays in a quick time frame so it’s a good way to start the day.

I played Inventrix for the first time, and didn’t do too badly.

I lost by 8, but it was still a fun time!

Then it was time…time for one of the three things I had particularly been looking forward to for this weekend.

Dominant Species was in the house.

I haven’t played this game since I first started gaming in 2012 (as mentioned in the Bottoscon Friday Night Shots post). I don’t think I was in the right frame of mind to enjoy it. We also didn’t finish, so probably half of the scoring hadn’t been done yet.

This was an epic 4-hour struggle among the animal kingdom to determine who would prevail in the ever-freezing world as the ice age came upon us.

Playing it now, 11 years into my gaming career instead of just a few months, I really enjoyed this game.

It’s long, it can be exhausting, but it’s so damned fun.

I was the Reptiles, so I was second in the food chain but that meant that my turn was second to last most of the time (and occasionally last if the Mammals took initiative!).

But I was second in the tie-breaker for area majority, which made a difference a few times.

This is a game of massive swings, a huge amount of “fuck you” card play, and you cannot be shy in wanting to really screw the other players (or even just one).

You can be virtually wiped out, but then later on come back to win the whole damned thing.

And it is awesome.

It is also long (our game was just over 4 hours). That is a consideration sometimes.

The Mammals (top of the food chain) ended up coming in first, followed by the birds.

I didn’t come in last!

I actually came in second to last, but the difference between third and sixth place was only 9 points.

I think I acquitted myself well.

I would love to play this one again.

Afterwards, a friend and I played a couple of games of Wurfel Bohnanza, the great dice game that works in all sorts of situations. We were waiting for other people to finish their games.

After dinner, a bunch of us ended up playing one of the worst games I’ve ever played.

I’m happy I tried it, but oof…

Hellapagos has all players stuck on an island trying to survive and get off of it.

It’s billed as “cooperative…up to a point” and that is so true.

In the game, players are trying to gather food, water (if there is enough rain) and wood to build the raft that will get you off the island.

If the food or water starts running out, though, players will have to vote to see who will actually starve or die of thirst. You can also search the ship wreckage for food, water, or other items that might help you.

One of my friends finds this game hilariously fun because it’s so chaotic and zany. I can see that.

I don’t share that opinion, but I can see it.

To me, this was a great experience for having played it once. I was one of the first to die, and I wasn’t unhappy about that!

But any further plays of it will be excruciating.

It was fun with my friends, and a good way to end Thursday.

But never again.

Friday morning, I got there early again and a friend arrived around the same time. He asked me if I wanted to head to Angelina’s Dutch Corner in the New Westminster Quay Market.

Of course I said yes!

Walking along the Fraser River (the regular entrance to the Market was still locked), having the sun rise over the water, was such a peaceful way to spend an early morning.

The food is also exceptionally good. My waffle was awesome!

Later that morning was my scheduled game of Caesar: Rome vs Gaul, a game that has a second edition (and upgrade kit) coming from GMT Games.

I’ve owned this game since just after the COVID lockdowns (it arrived shortly after they started but I wasn’t able to pick it up until the borders reopened) but I haven’t gotten it to the table.

So it was finally nice to play it!

And I discovered that a lot of what people say about it seems to be true.

I was the Gauls against Caesar’s Roman legions, and a large part of my game was trying to lay influence out, occasionally taking an offensive action or two to try and pick off a couple of isolated legions.

There’s the “Gallic Turtle Strategy” but I don’t know how to do that. And it sounds kind of boring anyway.

Meanwhile, the Romans just roam all over the place, but they have to be efficient or they won’t be able to get their VP as fast as they need to.

In my games with Michal on VASSAL, he ran me over using both sides, so obviously the Gauls can do stuff if the Roman player, well, sucks.

This was a 3.5 hour game and I really didn’t end up doing a lot.

It was fun to get it on the table, but I’m really interested in seeing what the revisions to the game bring to it.

Obviously I can’t say that this is definitive after only one play (especially considering I’m not that good at wargames anyway), but it was not the most fun experience that I’ve had playing a game.

My opponent was cool, though. Nothing about the experience can be laid at his feet.

I think it’s totally the game.

But I’m glad I played it!

I ended up conceding going into the final turn because there was no way I could stop him from getting to 12 points (the Roman victory level).

Otherwise it would have been longer!

After that, I joined a bunch of my friends for some new (to me, anyway) small and quick games.

First was Saboteur: the Dark Cave. This variation of Saboteur I’ve never played.

It was interesting, but we misunderstood a couple of rules which harmed the game as far as being fun.

Essentially this is Saboteur but with teams and a (possible) traitor.

Instead of digging to find the treasure, you’re digging to try and find a way out with the gold that you have.

Depending on the number of players, there may be a traitor or not. The faction cards are dealt out to everybody and then you start playing cards like you do in the original game.

You’re basically just trying to get out with what you have, but you could find a gold vein and get another gold. This does require you to reveal whether you’re on the other team or not, though.

We misunderstood the four corner goal cards. We knew that one of them was the way out, but for some reason we thought there was gold on the other three.

Nope!

You’re just looking for a way out.

No more gold (other than the gold veins).

I’d like to try it again with that understanding, because it wasn’t actually that bad of a game.

If you like the original game, this is a nice twist.

(and now I can just copy and paste this into the “New to Me” post!)

Then it was time for multiple games of Codenames: Deep Undercover.

This is the “adult” version of the game, with adult-themed words as possibilities.

(Warning: the picture for this entry may have words that you don’t like on them)

If you know Codenames, you know this one.

Just know that you may be offended!

I guess this is fine, but I really don’t see the appeal to these “adult” versions of games, unless you’re going to do it as an actual adult activity or something.

“Dear Penthouse. I never thought it would happen to me. I went to my normal boardgame night, but this wasn’t a normal boardgame night…”

Otherwise, maybe it’s good for a giggle? If you’re into that sort of thing?

I don’t know.

It was fun. I don’t mind Codenames though I’m not a huge word game fan.

It’s also very quick and there can be lots of laughs or groans (not in that way! Get your mind out of the gutter!)

“Dear Penthouse…”

Anyway…moving on.

After I went and grabbed dinner, I came back and they were setting up Flash Point: Fire Rescue, a game I haven’t played in years.

Would we be able to save the family and keep the house from burning down!

As the Driver/Operator, I did my best! I was shooting water all over various quadrants of the house.

But sadly, it was to no avail.

The house collapsed after we had rescued five of the seven required people (we left the animals out of the game).

This is actually a really fun 6-player game if you like cooperative games.

I should break my copy of it out again at some point.

We ended Friday night with a 3-player game of Ark Nova, one of my favorite games.

I went for the “enclosures next to this gate have +2 size” map, hoping to maximize it.

And it almost worked!

I was just 4 points off the lead, but it was nip and tuck the whole way.

(And I somehow managed to not take a picture of the final map. I guess I was tired)

Saturday morning came quickly, and it was time for my last scheduled game.

Those of you who have followed this blog for a while know that I have all of the Last Hundred Yards wargames from GMT Games, but I just haven’t gotten them to the table.

They’re a bit complicated and I haven’t had the room to really spread out and learn the game.

So a scheduled game of Last Hundred Yards: Airborne Over Europe was just the answer for that!

I got to learn the game and, even better (or maybe worse? I’m not sure) was that we ended up playing in two teams because the scenario had two companies on each side.

The Germans have two companies, and one of them comes in at the 15 minute mark. I volunteered to play that company so I could watch and learn a bit before actually taking part.

But, on the other hand, it was kind of boring watching it instead of actually playing.

It was very informative, though, as I was able to learn the system and then, when it came time for me to enter the board, it was a lot easier.

It’s a really intricate system of tactical World War II combat. Still kind of abstracted, but not nearly as much as Combat Commander (which you know I love).

We called the game because it had been taking a long time and there was another game scheduled for that table.

I really liked it, so I hope to actually get a full game in sometime.

That was a 3-hour game, so I grabbed some lunch and then it was time for another 3-hour game!

Well, 3.5 hours.

Yes, it was Merchant of Venus time.

The game that brought me back into gaming in 2012 after a long hiatus.

This game is always tons of fun if you have the time for it.

You’re merchants in a galaxy where some kind of cataclysm has happened so all of our races’ home solar systems have been lost.

You are exploring the galaxy trying to figure out which race is where…and then buy and sell their goods!

This is, of course, Eric Summerer’s favourite game, and I can see why.

It’s not a favourite of mine, but I do love to play it.

Any game where your second play (and first full play of it) is a 4-hour game lasting until 2:00 am and you are stuck for half that time running back and forth between two systems because you played stupidly and can’t afford to do anything else, yet you find yourself still liking the game and wanting to play it again (whew, that’s a mouthful) must be a good game!

I came in tied for 3rd (which is amazing considering it’s money, but we both had $1274 in our banks), but it was a fun time!

During this game, during a lull when somebody was away from the table for a little bit, my friend took me to meet somebody I’ve been dying to meet for a while now.

Friend of this blog and noted game designer Brian Train!

He was doing some demos and playtesting of a bunch of different games, but we had a nice (though short, unfortunately) chat and it was such an honour to meet him.

I’m sorry that Sunday got too busy that I wasn’t able to sit down with him and do one of his playtests, but I hope to do that next year.

We ended the night after some dinner with a rousing game of Starship Captains.

This would be my second play of it, after Terminal City Tabletop Convention in March, and it was just as fun (though I didn’t do nearly as well).

It’s really fun being in a funny Star Trek universe, captaining a ship of misfits as you are trying to go out and complete missions or battle pirates.

The game was a bit frustrating because I was having trouble feeling like I was actually doing anything useful.

Yet I was only a few points back (in 3rd place, but only a few points) so I must have been able to do something.

My ship ended up being heavily damaged, but I did get the tech that gave me a point for each damage token on my ship (which means that offsets the negative points for being damaged).

That helped a great deal.

I’m still kind of on the fence about this game. It was fun, but I hope my third play of it doesn’t feel as frustrating as this one did.

Finally it was time for Sunday morning, an abbreviated day because I left around 3:30.

But I still had time for a couple of games.

We started off with a rousing game of TEN.

This push your luck set collection game is actually really great for a quick game when you are waiting on other people, and it plays five which is even better.

We were having trouble getting quality cards (I think it was badly shuffled…sorry, guys!) but we still ended up with 15 points.

I say “we” because it was a 3-way tie!

And Shrikant won because he had more currency than us, but only because he also had a Bust token.

My final game of this wonderful con was a 3-player game of Terraforming Mars.

I ended up playing Saturn Systems, which is a corporation that likes Jupiter tags.

I also went heavy into space cards for titanium and stuff like that.

I ended up doing very well, winning with 96 points!

I played a shit-ton of cards (I will make that an official word one day).

We always play with Colonies and this was no different. Those are always so great. We didn’t have the game-breaking one that gives you a bunch of money, though.

And Mars was terraformed!

With that, it was time to leave (some friends and I tried to get a game of Wurfel Bohnanza in, but time was running out and it was going slower than anticipated).

Four days.

Four whole days!

Exhausting, but exhilarating.

Next year is also going to be four days, so I’d better get my training in.

It was great to see some friends I haven’t seen in a while, and get some great games played.

It was also great to schedule some wargaming, which I don’t get a lot of time to do!

Now that I’ve played them, I hope to get my copies to the table one of these days.

If you’re in the Lower Mainland up here in beautiful British Columbia, or even just in the Pacific Northwest, I highly encourage you to come next year.

It’s always a blast.

And maybe we can get a game in?