A Gaming Life
Posted on November 11, 2025 by whovian223
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… Continue Reading “Bottoscon 2025 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: 6 Nimmt!, Action Selection, Alderac, AllPlay, Aporta Games, Artipia Games, Bad Company, Bottoscon, Card Games, Card-Shedding Games, Cascadia, CMON, CMYK, Cover Your A$$ets, Czech Games Edition, Deckbuilders, Devir, Diamonds, Dice-rolling, Dire Wolf Digital, Dune Imperium, Eagle-Gryphon Games, Ecos: First Continent, Flatout Games, Galactic Cruise, Gizmos, GMT Games, I'm Out, Ivanhoe, Jackie Fox, Kinson Key Games, Kosmos, Lisboa, Lunch Time Games, Magical Athlete, Oddland, Origin Story, Prodigals Club, Rock Hard 1977, Roll and Move, Schadenfreude, Sea Salt & Paper, Sea Salt & Paper - Extra Pepper, Sea Salt & Paper - Extra Salt, SETI, Stonemaier Games, Stronghold Games, Studio Turbine, The Gang, The Pursuit of Happiness, Tile-Laying Games, Trick-taking games, Vital Lacerda, Worker Placement Games
Posted on June 18, 2025 by whovian223
I love game conventions. Not only do they give me even more of an opportunity to play great games, but it gives me the opportunity to game and chat with many people who I don’t see very often. That’s why Bottoscon is one of… Continue Reading “Bottoscon Spring 2025 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: 2-Player Games, 6 Nimmt!, Action Selection, Alderac, Amigo Spiel, Archaeology - The New Expedition, Bottoscon Spring, Card Drafting, Card Games, Card Shedding, COIN Games, Cover Your A$$ets, Czech Games Edition, Devir, Diamonds, Empire Builder, Fantastic Factories, GMT Games, Grandpa Beck's, Jackie Fox, Lepidoptery, Let's Go to Japan, Let's Go to Japan - Grab Your Passport, Lunch Time Games, Mayfair Games, Metafactory Games, Mob+, New Mill Industries, Pandasaurus Games, People Power, Pick Up & Deliver, Prodigals Club, Pushing Cardboard, Rock Hard 1977, Sea Salt & Paper, Sea Salt & Paper - Extra Salt, SETI, Stronghold Games, Trick & Snipers, Trick-taking games, Worker Placement Games, Z-Man Games
Posted on March 20, 2025 by whovian223
Last weekend was the 10th (maybe 11th?) annual Terminal City Tabletop Convention (though I guess it was interrupted by COVID so not actually 11?). I have to say it was probably the best yet. In previous years, the people running it didn’t do the… Continue Reading “Terminal City Tabletop Convention Retrospective – 2025”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: 2-Player Games, Auction Games, Bombyx, Brotherwise Games, Card Games, Card-Shedding Games, Catch Up Games, CMYK, Cooperative Games, CuBirds, Czech Games Edition, Deduction, Dice Placement, Empire's End, Fantastic Factories, Faraway, Finspan, Firestarter Games, Fives, Garphill Games, Huch & Friends, Kosmos, Living Forest, Ludonaute, Lunch Time Games, Metafactory Games, Mighty Boards, Multi-use cards, Oink Games, Orapa Mine, Pandasaurus Games, Playte, Push Your Luck Games, Rajas of the Ganges: Cards & Karma, Rebirth, Reforest, Repos Games, Resource Management, Scholars of the South Tigris, SCOUT, Sea Salt & Paper, Secrets, Set Collection Games, SETI, Social Deduction Games, Stonemaier Games, The Gang, Tile-Laying Games, Toy Battle, Trick-taking games
Posted on November 15, 2024 by whovian223
Once again in November I was able to attend Bottoscon, the largest wargaming convention in the Pacific Northwest. This year, they managed to get over 150 attendees, which is amazing considering that when they began 18 years ago, they had 32 attendees. The convention… Continue Reading “Bottoscon 2024 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: 11 Nimmt!, 6 Nimmt!, Action Selection, Alderac, Amigo Spiel, Avalon Hill, Azul: Queen's Garden, Bang: the Dice Game, Bottoscon, Brew Crafters, Can't Stop, Card Games, Card-Shedding Games, Cover Your A$$ets, Devir, Dice Hate Me Games, Dice Placement, Dice-rolling, DV Games, Eagle-Gryphon Games, Economic Games, Ecos: First Continent, Fantastic Factories, Fryx Games, Gamewright Games, Grandpa Beck's, Let's Go to Japan, Lunch Time Games, Merchant of Venus, MESA Boardgames, Metafactory Games, Modiphius Entertainment, Next Move Games, Oink Games, Panamax, Pick Up & Deliver, Push Your Luck Games, Qwixx, Rio Grande Games, Rock Hard 1977, Roll for the Galaxy, Schadenfreude, SCOUT, Star Trek: Lower Decks - Buffer Time: The Card Game, Stronghold Games, Studio Turbine, Take-That games, Terraforming Mars, The White Castle, Tile-Laying Games, Trick-taking games, Worker Placement Games
Posted on August 23, 2024 by whovian223
This past weekend was the Dragonflight boardgame convention in Bellevue, Washington. I’ve gone down the last couple of years and used to go down before the pandemic, but this was the first year where most of my Vancouver contingent didn’t go down too. Thankfully,… Continue Reading “Dragonflight 2024 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: Action Selection, Adam Hill, Adrian Adamescu, Alexander Pfister, AllPlay, Ben Pinchback, Capstone Games, Card Games, Catch Up Games, Corentin Lebrat, Czech Games Edition, Daryl Andrews, Devir, Dragonflight, Economic Games, Faraway, First Fish Games, Jackie Fox, Johannes Goupy, Kutná Hora, Lunch Time Games, Matt Riddle, Mistwind, Ondřej Bystroň, OrcaCon, Pavel Jarosch, Petr Čáslava, Pick Up & Deliver, Pirates of Maracaibo, Ralph Bienert, River Valley Glassworks, Rock Hard 1977, Ryan Hendrickson, Sean Epperson, Tableau-building, Thing 12 Games, Worker Placement Games
Posted on March 21, 2024 by whovian223
It’s a few days after another great convention experience, so let’s talk a little bit about Terminal City Tabletop Convention – 2024. This year, it was held at the Vancouver Convention Centre which is right on the water in downtown Vancouver. It’s a beautiful… Continue Reading “Terminal City Tabletop Convention Retrospective – 2024”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: Amalfi: Renaissance, Ape Games, Aporta Games, Bad Company, Blob Party, Bombyx, Brotherwise Games, Card Games, Card-Shedding Games, Challengers, Delta, Dice-rolling, Empire's End, First Rat, FloodGate Games, Game Brewer, John D Clair, Kanban: Driver's Edition, Lookout Games, Loosey Goosey Games, Lunch Time Games, Of What's Left, Oh My Goods, Oh My Goods - Longsdale in Revolt, Pandasaurus Games, Party Games, Pegasus Spiele, Resource Management, Rise to Power, Sagrada, Schadenfreude, Sea Salt & Paper, Set Collection Games, Stronghold Games, Studio Turbine, Surfosaurus Max, Sylex, Tableau-building, Track Movement, Trick-taking games, Vital Lacerda, Wizkids, Worker Placement Games, Z-Man Games
Posted on January 9, 2024 by whovian223
Another year, another OrcaCon has passed. I first went to OrcaCon in 2020, but then some world-wide event that I can’t seem to remember stopped me from going again until last year. I wish it would come to me. Anyway, this last weekend was… Continue Reading “OrcaCon 2024 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: 2-Player Games, Action Selection, BLAM Games, Card Games, Claim, CMON, Daily Magic Games, Dice Drafting, Dice of Crowns, Dice-rolling, Engine-building, Far Off Games, Fire in the Library, Funforge Games, Gizmos, Guild Academies of Valeria, Helvetiq Games, Hit Me!, I Found Bigfoot, Kompromat, Matches, OrcaCon, Our Family Plays Games, Pegasus Spiele, Port Royal, Puppy Pile, Push Your Luck Games, Quantum, Quined Games, Schadenfreude, Set Collection Games, Splito, Studio Turbine, Thing 12 Games, Trick-taking games, Tricky Dicks, Vanuatu, Weird Giraffe Games, White Goblin Games, Wryknot Games, Xia: Legends of a Drift System
Posted on November 14, 2023 by whovian223
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… Continue Reading “Bottoscon 2023 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: Ark Nova, Bottoscon, Caesar: Rome vs Gaul, Codenames: Deep Undercover, Dominant Species, Flash Point, Hellapagos, Here I Stand, Last Hundred Yards Volume 2: Airborne Over Europe, Merchant of Venus, Saboteur: the Dark Cave, Starship Captains, TEN, Terraforming Mars, Terraforming Mars: the Dice Game
Posted on August 31, 2023 by whovian223
Dragonflight was my first convention ever, back in 2015 (I think). It’s held at the same hotel in Bellevue, Washington, as OrcaCon is held (though the hotel rooms are a lot more expensive, being in the Summer instead of January like OrcaCon). Thus, it… Continue Reading “Dragonflight 2023 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: Action Selection, Alderac, Archaeology - The New Expedition, Area Control, Artana Games, Capstone Games, Card Games, Cascadia, Cover Your A$$ets, Czech Games Edition, Deckbuilders, Deduction, Dice Placement, Dokmus, Dr. Finn's Games, Dragonflight, Ecos: First Continent, Eldritch Horror, Fantasy Flight Games, Flatout Games, Grandpa Beck's, Herbaceous, Indie Boards & Cards, John D Clair, Prodigals Club, Renegade Games Studios, Rio Grande Games, Rise, Route-building, Set Collection Games, Social Deduction Games, Space Cowboys, Speakeasy Blues, The Resistance, Thurn and Taxis, Tile-Laying Games, Unlock: Heroic Adventures, Valley of the Kings, Z-Man Games
Posted on March 15, 2023 by whovian223
It’s Wednesday and part of me is still coming down from the high of a weekend full of boardgames! For the first time since March 2019, the annual (until COVID, damn it) Terminal City Tabletop Convention was held in my hometown of Vancouver this… Continue Reading “Terminal City Tabletop Convention Retrospective – 2023”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: Action Selection, Alderac, Alexander Pfister, Aporta Games, Bad Company, Bingo, Bot Factory, Card Games, Christian Kang, Contracts, Czech Games Edition, Diamonds, Dice Placement, Dice-rolling, Eagle-Gryphon Games, Ecos: First Continent, Eilif Svensson, Eric Mosso, Franz-Benno Delonge, Gamelyn Games, Garphill Games, João Quintela Martins, John D Clair, Kenneth Minde, Kristian Amundsen Østby, Lookout Games, Lunch Time Games, Mike Fitzgerald, Oh My Goods, Peter B. Hoffgaard, Plumpy Thimble, Renegade Games Studios, Scott Almes, Set Collection Games, Shem Phillips, SJ MacDonald, Starship Captains, Stronghold Games, Terminal City Tabletop Convention, Thunderworks Games, Tile-Laying Games, Tiny Epic Galaxies, Transamerica, Trick-taking games, Vital Lacerda, Wayfarers of the South Tigris, Winsome Games
This is a blog about board games, with the occasional other post for a bit of spice.