After a long hiatus, I was finally able to go see my sister in BC and play games with her kids. My records indicated that I hadn’t played a board game since February 2020! So I was super excited not just to visit with family, but to also play as many games as we could squeeze in. There’s never enough time, and there were a number of favourites we couldn’t get to, but we did get through a fair bit.

FallCon is an annual Calgary boardgaming convention. This year was number 32! It’s 28 hours of gaming goodness that includes hosted events, a massive game library and open gaming area, an auction and flea market, merchants, and even has an escape room and an Artemis Bridge Simulator area.

Before going further, let me just say how great the FallCon team is. Every team member I interacted with was happy to be there. Every game host taught with patience and enthusiasm. From Brent’s warm welcome at the door that first night to the “see you next year” as I left Sunday afternoon, everybody was smiling and helpful. And the fellow attendees were similarly great. I’ve yet to have an unpleasant experience at the table (knocks on wood), and you start to recognize people from year to year. The venue is also great—easy to get to, plenty of room, and a few food options nearby. It’s just a great way to spend a weekend.

Finally took a summer vacation and went and visited some family in BC. Got a little gaming done the first week, got a lot done the second. Here’s what we played.

Some friends and I were complaining that we never had time to play games. I commonly say that one has to “make time for games,” so I decided to organize a weekend where we would just block the time off and play as many games as want. Since there’s already a big boardgame convention in the fall , I thought booking one in the spring would be best. Since my birthday is in May, that was the month we chose. Not everyone could make it, but we got some playtime in regardless. We played Friday night and Saturday afternoon and evening. Here’s what we played, in alphabetical order.

I had a chance to spend a few days with some cousins, and that meant some dedicated hours of two-player gaming. Most of the games I discuss here can be played by more than two players, but my reviews will focus on the two-player experience. I’m just going to list them in alphabetical order.

FallCon is an annual boardgaming convention that takes place in Calgary, Alberta, over three days (Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning/afternoon; 28 hours total). This year was FallCon 31. I haven’t been able to attend FallCon for a while, but I’m so happy to be back and don’t plan on missing another year, if I can help it. Being the “game guy” in the family, I almost never have opportunities to play games I didn’t purchase myself. So FallCon is a rare opportunity to experience new games first hand.

A huge thank you to the FallCon committee and volunteers for making the convention possible!

Someone at work asked me for some good two-player games. Since this is a whole topic in itself, I thought I’d write a blog post about it. It’s a long one, so get comfortable.

Had the privilege of looking after a cousin’s kids for a few weeks over September and October. They live close to my sister, too, so I also get to spend extra time with them. I was still working, and now that the kids are older there was much driving around, so things were really busy, but I made sure to bring lots of games because I knew there would be at least a few days where we could game ourselves sick. I brought maybe half my collection. It’s hard to say. Two huge suitcases and a box full.

Spent time with some in-laws over Christmas and the new year and got some gaming in. Here’s what we played.

I got away last week and was able to spend time with a bunch of nieces and nephews (ages 9–18). I brought three suitcases of games and we got through most of them. The total ended up being 25 individual games played over 60 times. Here’s an alphabetical list of games we played, including a link to Board Game Geek (where you can get more information on the game) and a count of the number of times we played. This is a long post, so dig in.