Bottoscon Spring 2026 Retrospective

It’s June, so it must be time for the 2nd annual Bottoscon Spring convention!

Bottoscon is a convention created and run by (though the running of it is helped by numerous other people as well) Rob Bottos, a great guy who looks out for his friends and fellow gamers.

That’s because last year, when many Canadian gamers did not want to cross the border for American conventions and experience the shitshow that is the US right now, Rob created the first Bottoscon Spring.

This year, he went even further and did a Bottoscon Winter in February, which will also become an annual thing.

This year, Bottoscon Spring was once again held at the Royal City Curling Club in New Westminster, a nice, intimate venue for about 70-80 people to get their game on.

(I didn’t take any venue pictures this year, so these pics are from last year, but the location and layout are the same)

They also have a great bistro that opened up just for us on the weekend (they’re usually closed at this time).

Many thanks to them for that!

Finally, many thanks to Brendan and Michelle for being very cool friends but also for taking care of us, being amazing bartenders and just being all around awesome.

I even got to play some games with them!

It was also good to have a few beers during the weekend.

I know what you’re here for, though.

How were the games?

Surprisingly long!

But also very fun.

Yes, I had a number of long games so the quantity of games wasn’t as high as last year.

Which might make for a shorter post unless I keep blathering on like this.

But the quality was just as good as it always is.

Every game is going to be linked. Some will be to my review if I’ve done one. Others will be to Boardgame Geek.

Either way, if you want more information on it, click on the link.

Any new to me games will have a short description, but the full one will be on this month’s New to Me Games post in early July.

Finally, you can click on any picture (except game cover pictures) and blow it up if you want to see closer.

With that being said, let’s begin!

I arrived early on Friday morning but things were pretty much already set up.

A friend and I were there and waiting for others to show up, so we brought out a convention mainstay, Sea Salt & Paper (with no expansions).

I also neglected to take pictures of it!

But it’s always a fun card game that works just as well at two players as it does with multiple.

Other friends were at another table and starting to finish up a game, so we walked over there and brought out Long Shot: the Dice Game, that hilarious game of rolling dice and betting on horses (two vices in one!)

It’s a really nice filler game, taking 20-30 minutes, and it’s not too bad at two players, though I think more adds to the fun chaos that the game can bring out.

With that and the other game finished, five of us brought a new to me game called Tribes of the Wind.

This game is a tile-laying, card-playing game set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans are reemerging into the world and trying to clean up pollution to rebuild their villages.

You play a card for the effect on it (many of them have a power that’s dependent on what your two neighbours have) and you are trying to fill your board, sending out your Wind Riders among the tiles, and then flipping the tile to build your village.

Once somebody’s completed 5 villages, the game end is triggered.

More detail later, of course, but this was a fun game.

It also produced my favourite line of the weekend, said to me.

“I hate it when you’re happy.”

There was much laughter at that one.

I won, so I guess I was happy!

After that was a quick round of Scout with four players, but we didn’t finish (only one out of four rounds) before others showed up from their completed games and we decided to play another game that I really like.

Ecos: First Continent is a game that I both love and kind of hate (that’s a bit strong though).

The hate mainly comes from how long the longer game is and how much it can drag after the game end has been triggered.

On the weekend, due to time constraints, we decided to play the shorter 60-point game instead of 80.

It helped that the Harbinger drew the Wild tile almost immediately after the game end was triggered, so there was no dragging this time!

Overall, I do enjoy this game of world-building and take that (where the cheetahs and the antelope play…) and I’m always up for a game.

Sometimes the game ends quickly after it’s triggered (like this day) and some days you’re saying to yourself “why can’t you draw a wild? Scott is already 50 points ahead of everybody else…”

That’s where the love turns to hate.

But taking it all together, I really enjoy this one.

Sadly, I didn’t take a picture of the world we had created!

But it was an ocean world with lots of islands.

After a nice dinner of spaghetti and meatballs from the bistro (ok, actually I ate during the game, but it sounds better the other way), it was time to bring out the first long, brain-burning game of the weekend.

My first experience with Trickerion was rather brutal.

A 2-player game where the person who taught it to me had just bought the game so didn’t really know how to play either.

I left that exchange never wanting to touch the thing again.

Over time, and with having started this blog (that play was before I started writing), I decided that I should give it another shot to see if it was as awesome as so many people I respect (like the Heavy Cardboard crew) talk about.

I finally got the chance this weekend.

First, the teach was much better this time.

I know that’s not saying much, but if the first teach was as tall as the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, then this one was Mount Everest.

Secondly, I actually kind of liked it!

It’s very much a brain-burner where you do have to plan ahead (which is not my forte).

It ended just as I predicted it would in the penultimate round.

I had just scored a bunch of points in that round, moving far ahead of everybody else.

But I said at the time that I think I had blown everything to get to that lead and that two of the others would overtake me in the final round, bumping me down to third.

Sure enough, that happened!

Still, it was a fun game, where you are learning magic tricks, gathering the ingredients for them, and then performing them on the stage for points.

I wasn’t quite ready for how much my brain hurt after this one, but it was a good hurt.

While it probably would not go into my Top 50, I would definitely not mind playing it again (just not in the same weekend, which was offered!)

After that 3.5 hours, it was time to end the night with something cool and refreshing, to offset that burn.

Maybe a potion of some kind?

Yes, Quacks of Quedlinberg (which is now called Quacks, but we played the original) made it to the table for the first time since 2020 for me.

This is a push your luck game where you are drawing chits from a bag, moving around your cauldron, and hoping that you don’t exceed 7 “extra” (i.e. bad) ingredients.

Those are the white chips.

The game goes over nine rounds and you get points based on where your last chip ended up each round.

If you busted, you have to choose between getting points or money to buy more chips.

If you didn’t bust, you do both!

The game has a nice catch-up mechanism in that, depending on how far ahead the leader is, players will be able to move their start point further up the track.

Doesn’t always help, but it’s a nice thought.

I enjoy this one, so it’s always welcome on my table.

After that, it was getting late and I had a 30-minute drive home, so it was time to call it a night.

Saturday morning, I had my only scheduled game, and I was able to get my Combat Commander: 20th Anniversary Edition to the table for only the second time!

Yes, after playing tons of it on VASSAL, this was only the second time on the table.

Against the same opponent!

Leroy, who volunteered to help me break it in at Bottoscon Winter, was up for a rematch of the thrashing he gave me in February.

This time we broke out scenario 17, Little Stalingrad, an epic fight between some hearty Canadian elite troops and some elite German paratroopers.

I was the Germans this time, and unfortunately Leroy had some really tough luck early when I was able to kill both of his leaders on the left side of the board.

Even with that bad opening, though, he started making headway and I had not kept any reserves back.

He definitely had a chance if he was able to punch a hole through my lines in the building and exit off the board.

I was able to move a few of my guys off, bringing them onto the board at the next Time trigger and they ended up reinforcing the rear because a couple of Canadians had gotten through.

Not to mention appearing right in the same hex as one squad that had reached the board edge.

They quickly succumbed in melee.

Leroy was great, even when Time triggers seemed to happen to him like clockwork. We had a lot of fun with this one and finished in only 90 minutes!

I love getting this to the table.

VASSAL is fun and very handy, but physically drawing the cards adds such a nice layer to it.

Other friends were still in a game of Ark Nova, but a couple people I haven’t seen in quite a while, plus Brendan, were wanting to break a game out so I volunteered to teach one of my favourite games.

Then I went to the bathroom and came back to discover that we were playing Empire Builder: Europe instead.

That’s the way conventions sometimes work!

Last year, we had played Brendan’s old copy of Empire Builder (which is North America) and this shiny new version of the game with a different location came out late last year.

How can you resist a route-building train game where you get to draw on the map with crayons?

I did much better planning my routes and selecting delivery cards this time than I did last year.

I don’t think this game is any easier than the other one, so I must have gotten better.

Right?

I came in second, and over 75% of the way to the $200 million that triggers endgame, so yay me!

However, it was 5 hours long, so there is that.

We had a full complement of five players, so I’m sure that contributed to the length.

This weekend is going to prompt a post in the next few days about long versus short games at conventions.

Keep an eye out for that.

Anyway, with that done, it was time to get to what I had originally been promised!

I haven’t played Paladins of the West Kingdom since 2024 (I know, that’s a rarity with a Garphill trilogy game) so I certainly didn’t mind being asked to teach and play it.

Though the time since the last play did require some catching up on my part, refreshing myself on the rules.

After seeing me paging through both rulebooks (we played with the expansion, because it makes the game so much better) and trying to set everything up, Brendan bought me a beer as a thank you.

So thank you, Brendan!

That’s why he’s amazing.

Anyway, I finally got things set up and the teach done (the others also needed a refresher because it had been a long time for them too), it was time to play.

And I discovered why this is the West Kingdom game that actually fell out of my Top 50.

It’s still up there, just outside and looking in.

It’s just too long at four players.

This one did only take 2.5 hours, so it was actually short compared to other games this weekend and shorter than I feared it would be (I thought we’d be pushing 3+ hours, because it has before).

For me, it is a really fun game though. I love the mechanisms, how all of them require a certain level of one attribute and then will give you a bump in another attribute.

The expansion integrates pretty seamlessly into it, though the other players pretty much ignored it.

I didn’t.

But I also didn’t win.

Not a tragedy!

I enjoyed getting this to the table again.

After that, my brain was fried again, so while the others stayed and played some light games, it was time for me to head home.

Yes, only three games played on Saturday, but that still took up 9 hours (plus teaching)!

You should definitely look forward to that upcoming post.

Sunday morning dawned and after a great Wendy’s breakfast, it was time to see what was on offer for the day.

Another friend had mentioned wanting to play Scholars of the South Tigris again.

First time in a year!

This is one of my favourite games, so I’ll never say no to it.

It’s also a very long game, or can be.

This game clocked in at almost 3 hours after the refresh/teach (the expansion was a teach), but part of that was also because I was helping Rob and a friend of his get back up to speed on Combat Commander.

Being one of my favourite games, I will never avoid talking about Combat Commander, so I loved that!

But it did add to our setup time.

I love this game and I love the expansion to it.

The expansion actually makes tucking cards interesting.

The dice rolling and using them for actions, and how every action either wants the number on the dice, the colour of the dice, or both (sometimes) is just such a great puzzle.

I really enjoyed this one and I’m glad I got it back to the table again.

We didn’t have time to get Palace of Mad King Ludwig to the table (I had wanted to, but maybe on a Sunday coming up), but we did have time for a quick and uproarious game of Cover Your Assets.

This game never fails to entertain.

Playing pairs of assets and then trying to defend them as the steaming hordes try to steal them, it’s never not fun.

Poor Scott.

Even people who generally don’t like “take that” games seem to enjoy (or at least laugh at) this game.

We were all laughing so hard that somebody actually came over and commented on it.

What a fun way to end the convention.

Yes, that was the end of the convention!

It was time to get back to the regular grind of life, until the next one in November.

It was sad leaving, but the memories of three great days, meeting and chatting with so many people (including all of the laughter during Empire Builder, because it’s been forever since I’ve gamed with those guys) were really uplifting.

Really looking forward to November.

Thanks, Rob, for all that you do for the gaming community in Vancouver.

If all of this sounded really cool to you (and it should have!), why not join us in November at the Element Metrotown for Bottoscon Fall 2026.

A new venue, but also a bigger con!

Tickets are on sale here.

Maybe one day SDHistCon won’t be on the same weekend so I can get my friend Zilla Blitz to come up from Minnesota.

(And look at that…500 words less than last year. Told you it would be shorter!)