Bottoscon 2025 Retrospective

This past weekend was the 19th annual Bottoscon convention at the Inn at the Quay in New Westminster, Canada.

We’re almost at 20!

The con is run by Rob Bottos, a great guy who has taken to heart what many of us Canadians have thought about crossing the border for US conventions in these strange times, and decided to hold not just two conventions a year (starting in 2026) but three!

Yes, there will be a Bottoscon Winter in late February and the same Bottoscon Spring in June like there was last year.

While I don’t think I’m at the level of considering Rob a friend, I’m honoured to know him and have chatted with him a few times. He runs a great convention, he and the staff of volunteers who help everything go smoothly.

Also many thanks to one of those staff members, Allan, for working to get us a table that worked for our open gaming desires after a bit of an initial mix-up.

He went all out to try and help us, and it was greatly appreciated.

That, and the New West quay is simply beautiful, especially in the morning when we’re heading over to Angelina’s for a wonderful breakfast on Saturday morning.

The convention started as just a wargaming convention and there are still a ton of wargames played, but it has morphed into “regular” (i.e. Euro and other types of games) games as well as some role-playing games.

Just like last year (which was the first year of it), the Boathouse restaurant (attached to the hotel) offered tableside service so we could order a meal while not having to leave our table, which was really cool.

Unlike last year, they had a roaming server so that you could just order a snack or a beer or whatever, even between meals.

I took advantage of that and had more beer this weekend than I have had in quite a while (which only amounted to three, so you know how much I’ve had recently).

There’s also a possibility to sell some games, and for the first time I actually chose to benefit from it. I got to sell 6 games and basically financed my meals for the weekend!

I sometimes play wargames and would like to play more, but this year it was all about the non-wargames for me.

Four days (Thursday-Sunday) of gaming goodness!

What did I play?

Let’s take a look.

First, I want to talk about the games in general.

I played a number of new to me games (especially on Saturday, when Abi showed up on a one-day ticket). I will mention them here but the full write-up on those will be in my November “New to Me” games post at the beginning of December.

Keep an eye out for that.

Also, I will be linking either to the BGG page for the game I mention, or to my review if I’ve reviewed it, so please click on the links!

Finally, the overhead lighting in the hotel made pictures very hard to take. Some will have the shadow of my hand and my phone in them, and others will just be at weird angles.

Hopefully that won’t be too bad, but apologies in advance.

A few of us had arrived early on Thursday, so Cat brought out a quick Reiner Knizia classic card game called Ivanhoe.

In this one, you’re trying to win tournaments by playing cards of the same “suit”, in an escalating fashion so you have to play higher than what was played before.

However, what you’ve already played adds to that, so if you play a 6 and an opponent plays a 7, you only need to play a 2 in order to get higher (because 6+2=8).

Some action cards may let you discard cards or even change the suit that’s being battled, so those are pretty cool.

You’re trying to win a tournament in each colour, but if you win purple, you can choose a colour to win.

This is a fun little game. We played it with three. Not sure how it would work with 2 or 5 players (the max), but I’d be interested in trying it again.

Another couple of people arrived, so it was time for my favourite trick-taking game ever (at least for now), Schadenfreude!

This one is just so awesome.

It was unusual this time because we managed to get Tony to 36 points in the first round, so it was only a 2-round game!

There was a lot of fighting in the second round to try and get second position, so they would win.

I always love this one, and thanks to Marc-Andre for bringing this one out.

If it ever comes to North America, I need to pick this one up.

Finally pretty much everybody had arrived so it was time for another favourite, and one that I haven’t reviewed yet (but that will come soon!), Prodigals Club.

This game is just so awesome, where you are trying to crash your social standing, political standing, as well as go broke.

This game is a perennial entry in my Top 50 (and before that, my Top 25) but I’ve never actually reviewed it.

In this game, over 5 rounds, you are trying to make your friends hate you, make people not want to vote for you, and try to blow all of your money.

How can that be bad?

I love the look of this game and for me, I like how I can feel like I’m making no progress but at the end, I’m doing pretty well.

Maybe not well enough to win, but pretty well in general.

It feels like a bear to set up, but it’s so worth it.

After that was an Alderac classic, Ecos: the First Continent (a review of that is coming as well).

In this game you’re playing cards and then playing Bingo!

Each card you play has a number of elements to activate it, and those elements are drawn from a bag and called out like Bingo.

You mark that element with a cube, and if the card is full, you shout Bingo Ecos!

(or whatever the hell my friend kept shouting that changed every time)

This game has gone really long in previous games, but I played it twice (I’ll mention it again below) and neither one was particularly long.

Maybe we’ve reached equilibrium!

I love how you’re using those cards to build a world, too.

It has quite the table presence!

I actually won this one too, which is very rare.

We had a bit of time to kill while waiting for others, so a common classic filler was brought out.

Cover Your Assets!

This one is always fun, but there’s not much to say about it that’s not said in the review.

It’s just a wonderful go-to when you have a little bit of time.

Thursday was a day that I took the Skytrain in to the convention but came home at the end of the night. Friday and Saturday, I stayed at the hotel.

Since I didn’t have a lot of time left before I wanted to go, three of us pulled out Cascadia, another great game that takes about an hour or so.

This game is probably not going to be in my top 50, but it’s still a wonderful game that has a perfect time frame and is fun to play.

The habitats you create are so unique and sometimes the decisions on what tile to take are so tough!

After that, I left for home, ready to spend the rest of the weekend with some late-night gaming.

I dropped the wife off at work and headed back to New Westminster Friday morning, after having breakfast at Wendy’s.

I got there early Friday morning and people hadn’t really started arriving yet.

However, one friend had so we popped out a great filler game, Sea Salt & Paper, this time with both the Extra Salt and Extra Pepper expansions!

I haven’t reviewed either expansion, but those will be coming when I get some more plays.

This was my first play with the Pepper expansion (and second with the Salt expansion) and I have to say I like what it adds.

The “events” that affect all players but can then be taken and then affect just you are pretty cool. They’re nice mitigating effects for the game, making it easier to catch up (or harder to stay ahead).

After that was my chance to get to the table a game that I’ve played once, but have played the app many many many times.

Dune Imperium is an awesome deck-building, worker placement game.

I love the app, but sadly the game hasn’t hit the table that much, so I’m very appreciative to Shrikant and Michelle for playing it with me.

I haven’t played the game on the table enough to incorporate the expansions (plus the two players needed a rules teach, or at least major refresher), so the expansions didn’t get played.

One day!

I’d love to get this to the table more often. I really like the deck-building aspect, and this was a close game!

I made a major error at the end which cost me the game, but it’s always fun.

Friday was a day of longer, heavier games than Thursday, so of course the next one that came out was another new favourite of mine, SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

This is now my fourth play of the game, and I really, really enjoy it.

So much that I reviewed it (linked above).

This is a game where you are exploring the solar system, launching probes, scanning the stars, trying to find traces of old alien life on the planets. Hell, you can even land on Jupiter! I have no idea how that would be possible, but let’s go with it…

Anyway, it’s basically a game of you playing cards or taking actions that will help you do all of that stuff, and it’s another one where you can’t really spread yourself too thin or you won’t get many points.

There are always two (out of five available) random aliens to find and you don’t know what they are until one of each kind of trace for that alien has been discovered.

This time, for the first time in four plays, we managed to get a different one I had never played before.

I just love the various things you can do in this game.

I have mentioned a couple of times that in my first three plays, my scores kept getting worse rather than better.

I actually won this game, but more importantly to me (I love to win but it’s not a tragedy if I don’t), I actually got my highest score!

I didn’t get worse!

After that, a bunch of us came together and pulled out another favourite trick-taking game, the classic Diamonds.

We have the first edition where you can steal diamonds from anybody rather than just whoever has the Thief card before it moves, and it was a rollicking good time.

Check out the review for how it works, but suffice to say that poor Michelle had her diamonds stolen a lot, though I wasn’t far behind in that category!

Finally, after dinner over at the Quay (the Thai place there has wonderful sausage-fried rice), it was time for another game that’s fun but for some reason takes us way longer than it should.

And which I haven’t done a review! That will have to change sometime.

The Pursuit of Happiness is a game where you are trying to live the best life you can.

As you progress from being a teenager to old age and eventual death, you’ll be taking and playing cards in front of you that will be everything from a favourite activity that you can do, to a project you want to take on or an item that will give you pleasure.

You can also get a job or find a beau (both of which will cost you time that you could use doing other things, but they give great benefits as well).

We played with the Thug Life expansion, so you could even avoid all that and do other criminal activities to get you money.

Like hijacking something!

We also played with the Community expansion, which adds some cool stuff that sadly I didn’t get a picture of.

This is a fun game, but for some reason our recent plays just seem to take forever.

The box says 60-90 minutes, so I’m wondering if it’s a player-count issue (we played with 5).

Anyway, it is a fun game as long as you don’t have a problem with eventually dying, like we all do (die, I mean. Not have a problem with it).

That was a wrap for Friday night as by this point we were all exhausted, so it was time to either head home or head up to our various hotel rooms and try to get some sleep.

Of course, I stayed up way too late taking my online gaming turns and reading, but that’s my fault.

Especially since I had to get up at 6:30 to make our 7:30 Angelina’s breakfast appointment.

But the food is worth it!

After breakfast, we all adjourned back to the game room and it was time for some serious gaming, especially since our friend Abi (from our usual Sunday game days) snagged a one-day ticket for Saturday to be able to join us.

He hadn’t gotten there yet and another friend had just bought Bad Company from the sale, so we popped that out onto the table.

It’s a really fun game, but I totally forgot one of the rules that really affected the game.

As I mention in the review, the active player rolls four dice and chooses which two pairs to make, and then activates those gang members.

Somehow I forgot that the other players only get one of those pairs!

So our first game was kind of a bust, though the game is quick enough that we quickly set up and played again.

The results weren’t too much different, but the game was much more fun.

I always enjoy playing Bad Company, so playing it twice was very pleasurable.

Abi had arrived by then, so suddenly my monthly “new to me games” post became much longer to write this month, and there are still three weeks left.

The first to hit the table is the old classic, now reprinted with gorgeous production, Magical Athlete.

This game is ultimately a roll-and-move game, so it shouldn’t be fun, right?

But it is!

Wow, so much chaotic fun, laughs, and all of that stuff, just because each racer has their own power.

You run four races, each with a different racer, and start rolling the die.

Hilarity ensues.

Look at the Skipper above. Whenever anybody rolls a 1, turn order goes back to you, skipping everybody else!

That’s good news for whoever is sitting next to you.

I really enjoyed this one, and it’s only a 30-minute game so it could be brought out a lot.

Hint hint…

At this point we had six players and another two quick games were needed.

The first is also a favourite of mine, The Gang!

Yes, that cooperative poker game where you are trying to deduce who has the weakest to strongest hands, guessing the order.

This one is always good and we had a blast, even with a couple of people who don’t know poker that well.

We ended up losing in the fourth round, unfortunately.

Ironically, that round was also one of the funniest (for me, anyway). We had the above layout (the last card wasn’t useful). Scott had a pair of 5s and I had a pair of 9s.

We kept fighting for the “6” token for having the best hand!

Thankfully, we not only lost before that, but we had a helper card that would have let us resolve it (Scott could claim that his was the highest (the picture above was taken before that bonus card came out) so we would have been fine).

This is always a blast.

Another filler before we separated was a second game of Cover Your Assets!

This one was just as enjoyable as the previous one, but we were actually playing with the Advanced cards that let you swap your top asset with another player’s (two of those are in the deck) or move somebody’s bottom stack to the top or vice versa (two of those).

This has been played a lot this year.

Finally it was time for the highlight of my convention gaming, a game that I’ve been wanting to play for a long time but just never got the opportunity.

I was either playing something else or it came out when I wasn’t there.

Lisboa is a Vital Lacerda game so you know it’s going to have fairly simple rules but have a whole ton of stress in trying to decide what to do and when.

Essentially, you are architects summoned by the king to help rebuild Lisbon (Lisboa) after a series of disasters.

You’re trading favours with the King or a couple of other officials in order to do some building, or maybe find out what they really want you to do (in other words, getting a royal decree), building shops in the marketplace streets or maybe even getting ships and selling goods to various international markets for tons of cash.

I’ll talk about it more in my “new to me” post (we’re already at 3000 words and I still have a few more games to talk about!), but this was an awesome game and I am really glad I finally got to play it.

Not only that, but it’s a complex game that I actually almost won, which really never happens in the more complex ones.

I usually need a few plays before I’m even in the running.

It’s a fun game even without that, though.

As a palate-cleanser, we needed some shorter games that didn’t require quite as much thought (and a couple of players were going off for dinner).

I’m Out (also known as 13 Leaves) is a really cool card-shedding game where you are playing cards to the right or left of the row that’s out there, in descending (on one side) or ascending (on the other) order.

However, if you can’t play, you have to take a card from what’s already been played.

And if somebody plays a pair (or even worse, a triplet!), all further plays on that side must have the same number of cards.

The game ends when somebody runs out of cards.

Not much to the game. It’s very light but it’s also enjoyable.

Another game that I had been wanting to play since I heard about it is Origin Story, the trick-taking card game from Stonemaier Games.

But there’s more to the game than just tricks.

Each player is a superhero, though what their major power is isn’t revealed until the final (5th) round.

Instead, players will have a minor power on their player board, and will add story cards to it each round to give them more powers.

These powers will do things like “give you an extra VP for each stamina used here if you win two or fewer tricks” or even “when I lead, turn over the top card of the deck and that is the led suit. I win if either that card or my own card would win the trick.”

On the fifth round, instead of gaining a story card, you choose which of your major powers you’re going to use.

After five rounds whoever has the most points is the winner!

Again, more detail in my New to Me post, but this was a solid game that I really enjoyed.

Oddland was a weird game that I’m not sure what I thought about it.

It didn’t help that we played it wrong, but I’m not sure if I would have been a fan even if we had played it right.

You’re essentially jointly building a world by playing map cards that will overlap 1 or 2 squares on a previously-played map card (or you could just put it adjacent to a card, though one or two squares need to join).

Then you’ll place an animal on one of the squares. All adjacent squares of the same type, even on multiple cards, are considered part of one “territory” and no other animals can be placed on the same territory.

Each animal will score based on the criteria on the animal card in play.

We played with the The Big and the Bold expansion, which adds two new animals but since the rulebook is not online, I’m not sure exactly what we did wrong.

I think with the expansion you’re supposed to remove a couple of animals from the game so you still just have 7?

I’m not sure.

Anyway, it involves a lot of chaotic planning and other players messing with your territories and I was not a huge fan of it.

But I wouldn’t mind playing it right once more, just to see if that makes a difference.

I doubt it, though.

Finally it was time for the second Saturday highlight: Galactic Cruise!

I’ve been playing this game on Boardgame Arena but this would only be my second play on the table.

Galactic Cruise was definitely inspired by Lacerda, so it was cool to play another Lacerda-esque game after playing one of his.

This play just ramped up my love for this game.

Players are trying to get the most points or prestige by scheduling cruises around the solar system, building ships and attracting three types of guests to have the time of their lives.

You know what made this game even better for me?

I actually won! Usually, as much as I love them, I am terrible at these games.

This time, however, all stars pointed in the right direction, I didn’t have any money problems (I have that problem a lot on Boardgame Arena), and things just flowed.

I also got my best score ever, which was also good.

This is just such an an enjoyable game, and a great way to end the night.

We finished right at Midnight, so it was time to call it a day and head home or up to our rooms.

Sunday, I did not want to get up so early for Angelina’s again, so I got up a little later and walked across to the local Subway, which was nice.

After checking out, it was time to finish up the convention with a few games, including one I promised to a friend of mine.

Yes, it was time to get our rock on, with Rock Hard 1977.

This is such a fabulous game, and once I again I did terribly.

I was not a successful rocker, though I did manage to accumulate my statistics well enough that my first record deal was at the 2nd royalty level.

So that was cool.

I messed up slightly by having two of the random gigs stick together when I turned them over, meaning that we were one Gig short and all mystified about how we could only be in November but we didn’t have any Random Gigs left.

Once we figured that out, one player ended it at the end of November anyway so it was moot!

I really do like this game a lot and always love to have it hit the table.

I’m really looking forward to the expansion because some of the cards are starting to feel samey (especially the Managers, because we’ve played 4-5 players multiple times and there are only 6 in the base game).

Until that time, though, this will continue to stay in my collection.

We had a nice break after that to play 6 Nimmt, which is always chaotic fun.

Trying to avoid those bulls can be difficult!

There are always lots of laughs for this one.

For a last game, we were looking for something cool, and we finally settled on a second play of Ecos: First Continent, thinking that it would take up the time until I had to leave.

For the second play in a row, though, it didn’t end up taking that long!

Thus we had time for another quick game.

Which is a game I haven’t played on the table for a while (though I’ve played a few times on BGA), Gizmos!

Gizmos is a great engine-building game that, once again, I am terrible at.

But it’s lovely putting machines together and trying to get chain reactions to trigger.

I’ll play this one any time.

With that, it was time to wrap up another Bottoscon.

Hugs were exchanged, and it was time to head out.

Another fun con, though I have to say four days of gaming is truly exhausting.

But worth it!

My only regret was that I wasn’t able to meet up and chat with Grant from Pushing Cardboard.

I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what he looked like. On Sunday, Rob called him out so I finally knew. I was stuck at our table (literally, it was impossible to get out with all of the bags on both sides of me) but when I was able to, I went looking for him, but he had already had to leave.

Next time, Grant! I hope you can come in February, or at least next November.

Another one is that a guy offered to do some teaches for Advanced Squad Leader: Starter Pack Number 1, but I was so tied up in other games I wasn’t able to take him up on it.

Hopefully next time!

The rooms at the Inn at the Quay are very nice. Small, but for a single person, they are good.

And the view over the Fraser river is phenomenal.

I’m really looking forward to the February “Bottoscon Winter” 3-day convention, and if anybody would like to join us at any of these, let me know!

I’d love to meet some fans.

That will be my next convention, followed only two weeks later by Terminal City Tabletop Convention.

It’s going to be a fun Spring.