A Gaming Life
Posted on June 17, 2026 by whovian223
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… Continue Reading “Bottoscon Spring 2026 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: Action Selection, Alderac, Bag Building, Bingo, Bottoscon Spring, Card Games, Card Playing, CMYK, Combat Commander: Europe/Med Master Edition, Cover Your A$$ets, Dice Placement, Ecos: First Continent, Empire Builder: Europe, Garphill Games, GMT Games, Grandpa Beck's, Long Shot: The Dice Game, Lucky Duck Games, Lunch Time Games, Mayfair Games, Mindclash Games, Paladins of the West Kingdom, Pandasaurus Games, Perplext, Push Your Luck Games, Racing Game, Route-building, Scholars of the South Tigris, Sea Salt & Paper, The Quacks of Quedlinburg, Tile-Laying Games, Train Games, Tribes of the Wind, Trickerion, Wargames, Worker Placement Games
Posted on April 16, 2026 by whovian223
This is very late, and I am very sorry. Usually I have written my “New to Me Games” post by the end of the first week of the month. But March was such a cornucopia of new games that I just couldn’t do it!… Continue Reading “New to Me – March 2026”
Category: Board Games, New to MeTags: Action Selection, Anthony Giovannetti, Bruce Glassco, Card Games, Casey Yano, Contention Games, Contracts, Cooperative Games, Cover Your Cookies, Deckbuilders, Eagle-Gryphon Games, Emanuele Santellani, Expeditions, Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends, Gary Dworetsky, Grandpa Beck's, James Ernest, Jamey Stegmaier, Jeffrey Beck, Leonardo Alese, Light Speed: Arena, Lunch Time Games, Real-Time Games, Rogue-like, Set Collection Games, Slay the Spire: The Board Game, Speakeasy, Stonemaier Games, Tablescope, Tom Jolly, Vital Lacerda, Wizkids, Worker Placement Games
Posted on March 9, 2026 by whovian223
February was a slow month for new to me games, even with two days of a three-day convention. Of course, fighting illness off and then actually not playing anything new for the February days of that convention would have something to do with that.… Continue Reading “New to Me – February 2026”
Posted on March 5, 2026 by whovian223
Rob Bottos is a great guy. Not only is he kind and really interesting to talk to, but he also looks after his fellow gamers. He’s run the regular Bottoscon in New Westminster since 2007 (with one year’s break due to COVID) and it’s… Continue Reading “Bottoscon Winter 2026 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: Action Selection, Area Control, Bottoscon Winter, Can't Stop, Card Games, CMYK, Combat Commander: Europe/Med Master Edition, Cooperative Games, Cover Your Kingdom, Czech Games Edition, Dice-rolling, Eagle-Gryphon Games, Earth, Eldritch Horror, Expeditions, Fantasy Flight Games, Fliptoons, GMT Games, Grandpa Beck's, Hand Management, How I Roll - Youtube, Inside Up Games, Kosmos, Lunch Time Games, Magical Athlete, Pax Pamir - 2nd Edition, Rio Grande Games, Roll and Move, Roll for the Galaxy, Sea Salt & Paper, SETI, Stonemaier Games, Tableau-building, Take-That games, The Gang, Thunderworks Games, Wargames
Posted on September 30, 2025 by whovian223
September was a weird month of gaming, mainly because I had a huge number of plays compared to August, but actually fewer games! Part of that was because the final two Sunday game days were dominated by a huge game of Wonderland’s War (details… Continue Reading “September 2025 Gaming”
Posted on September 24, 2025 by whovian223
Some people don’t like “take that” games, where you are actively trying to harm your opponent (not literally, of course, unless you’re playing a game in some action movie against a mad villain who has made this a kill or be killed situation). These… Continue Reading “Stop Stealing My Stuff! – Cover Your Assets review”
Category: Board Games, ReviewTags: Brent Beck, Card Games, Cover Your A$$ets, Grandpa Beck's, Jeffrey Beck, Lunch Time 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$$ets, Czech Games Edition, Devir, Diamonds, Empire Builder, Fantastic Factories, GMT Games, Grandpa Beck's, Jackie Fox, Lepidoptery, Let's Go to Japan, Let's Go to Japan - Grab Your Passport, Lunch Time Games, Mayfair Games, Metafactory Games, Mob+, New Mill Industries, Pandasaurus Games, People Power, Pick Up & Deliver, Prodigals Club, Pushing Cardboard, Rock Hard 1977, Sea Salt & Paper, Sea Salt & Paper - Extra Salt, SETI, Stronghold Games, Trick & Snipers, Trick-taking games, Worker Placement Games, Z-Man Games
Posted on November 15, 2024 by whovian223
Once again in November I was able to attend Bottoscon, the largest wargaming convention in the Pacific Northwest. This year, they managed to get over 150 attendees, which is amazing considering that when they began 18 years ago, they had 32 attendees. The convention… Continue Reading “Bottoscon 2024 Retrospective”
Category: Board Games, conventionsTags: 11 Nimmt!, 6 Nimmt!, Action Selection, Alderac, Amigo Spiel, Avalon Hill, Azul: Queen's Garden, Bang: the Dice Game, Bottoscon, Brew Crafters, Can't Stop, Card Games, Card-Shedding Games, Cover Your A$$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 September 1, 2023 by whovian223
It’s hard to believe August is over and we’re in September now! August was primed to be a big gaming month but it kind of sputtered with me getting sick. Missing a Sunday probably took 2-3 games (or at least plays) away from my… Continue Reading “August 2023 Gaming”
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
This is a blog about board games, with the occasional other post for a bit of spice.