by Ambie Valdés

Toby and I got to go to an 18xx convention for the first time! Since we live on the west coast, we decided to go to the Portland 18xx Tournament (there are other ones further away) last weekend. Although it's called a tournament, it's not really a tournament - everyone records the scores of the games they played and get ranked based on that, but most of the people didn't care about the tournament and were just there to play 18xx games and have fun. We were there Thursday through Saturday, and we played 6 total 18xx games.

by Ambie Valdés

This weekend over Memorial Day weekend, I got to attend HeavyCon for the first time! HeavyCon is a convention run by Heavy Cardboard, a podcast about heavier board games (heavy Euros, 18xx games, and wargames). There were 90 attendees, and since everyone was there to play heavy games, it was easy finding people to play pick up games of heavy economic games and 18xx games! Toby and I typically don't schedule games at conventions, and this one was no exception.

Over the weekend (Thursday-Sunday), I had 23 plays of 22 unique games. A bunch of the games were new to me, and 3 of the games were 18xx games (although those weren't new to me)!

Ambie, Cassadi, and Crystal talk about all the games they played at MeepleCon! We also announce our contest winners.

by Ambie Valdés

I went to MeepleCon in Las Vegas for the first time this year, and got to meet Cassadi and Crystal in person! This was the first time all three of us were even in the same state together, so it was a big deal for us. I had an awesome time playing games with Cassadi and Crystal and eating good food.

Since the MeepleCon library was only open from 10am to midnight each day, we took it easy and actualy slept a reasonable amount of time! I had 31 plays of 24 different games, 12 of which were new to me. We also played some craps at night, since we were in Vegas!

When we flew in Thursday night, Crystal and Cassadi were at the airport waiting for us! We got to visit Meepleville board game cafe to take a picture with the world's largest meeple. After giving away Blitzy the meepillow at Blitz Con, I had decided to make some more meepillows for the occassion.

by Ambie Valdés

Over President's Day this year, we decided to host our own board game convention in the Bay Area! My friends and I had been discussing starting our own convention for a while, since we had some difficult times at KublaCon with finding table space to play games. We decided to brand it with Board Game Blitz, since we could! This year, we were able to get a small conference room at a Holiday Inn in San Mateo, and we capped registration at 50 people. I had a really great time playing games all weekend and meeting a bunch of new friends!

Over the weekend, I had 33 game plays of 26 unique games. I got to play with over 20 different people, a lot of whom I had never played a game with before!

One of the awesome things about Blitz Con was that I was able to play a game with Crystal for the first time in person! Crystal flew in for the weekend, and we got to hang out for the whole convention!

by Ambie Valdés

In the previous blog about BGG.CON, I mentioned that there were a bunch of dexterity games set up in the hallway. Just for fun, I took some videos of the games and compiled them together in this video.

by Ambie Valdés

This year was my husband (Toby) and my first year at BGG.CON, and it was amazing. I tried out 53 distinct games, 49 of which were new to me (some were really quick dexterity games). I'm obviously not going to go over every game I played (you can see what I played here, but here are some highlights of the convention for me.

One of the best things at BGG.CON is the library. The library is HUGE. A whole conference room is filled with board games on all the walls, a lot of which are brand new games from Essen! There was also a section in the main hall with a lot of the hot games set up so that people could play them. Because BGG.CON is right after Essen, it was great for trying out all those games I've been hearing about the past month.

by GenCanterpillar

When I was born a couple days ago, I learned that there was a board game convention made just for me! I guess it's more of a can'tvention though. For those of you who don't know, Gen Con is a huge board gaming convention held every year. But there's also GenCant (named after me, of course), which is for all those people and animals who can't attend Gen Con in person.

The first thing I did was get my badge. Apparently I'm a Very Important Guest! I must be, because I'm pictured on the badge!

Ambie, Cassadi, Crystal, and special guest Suzanne Sheldon discuss GenCant, the convention for all those people who can't go to Gen Con!

by Ambie Valdés

As you may have heard in the podcast, I went to Dice Tower Con in Orlando this year (my third year at Dice Tower Con). Out of the two different board gaming conventions I've been to, Dice Tower Con is by far my favorite, just because of the awesome open gaming experience - both in available space and in the amazing library.

This year I didn't go to any of the events (I didn't want to wait in line for an hour), so I spent almost all my time doing open gaming. I also wandered around the vendor area (some demo gaming, some buying games), went to the flea market, and visited the world's largest McDonald's with Flip the Table!

My 'vacation' was exhausting. Over the course of the 5 day convention, I played 56 unique games, 49 of which were new to me (a lot of learning!). Each day I played 10 or more different games. I also got to cross a bunch of games off of my list of 'games I want to play.' Obviously, I can't go over all the games in this blog (well I can, but I don't want to), so I'll just go over some highlights.