JeffCon 2025, set once again near the peaceful shores of Lake Kachess, offered a perfect balance of thoughtful strategy, sudden betrayal, and boisterous laughter. From intense auctions, to questionable European troop movements, to hostile takeovers in the corporate jungle, this year’s game lineup brought variety, excitement, and memorable moments.
Games Played:
- 7 Empires
- Big Boss
- Combo!
- Dual Gauge
- For Sale
- Lost Temple
- Medici
- Mosaic
- Star Wars Unlimited (Twin Suns)
- Take Five
After JeffCon, all participants cast their votes to select the best games played at the multi-day event. The game receiving the most voting points is awarded the prestigious Gaufre d'Or, earning a place of honor in JeffCon history. This year's top three vote getters was closer than ever, with three strong contenders vying for the top honors—each offering a distinct experience—from Renaissance commerce to cutthroat geopolitics and high-stakes corporate maneuvering.
This year's winners were:
Medici – Gaufre d’Or Winner
Although new to our group, Reiner Knizia’s Medici quickly proved why it’s stood the test of time. Nearly 30 years since its original release, this classic auction game still delivers sharp, engaging gameplay. Players bid using victory points to acquire lots of goods—cloth, spice, fur, dye, and grain—to fill their cargo ships.
The core tension lies not only in securing valuable lots, but in timing your bids and tracking commodity majorities across rounds to earn bonus points. Each round brought with it a mix of strategic auction bid brinkmanship and bidding drama that kept everyone fully engaged.Bid too aggressively and you risk sabotaging your own score; play it too safe, and your rivals will sail past you on the scoreboard.
The game shined bright at a six player count, with strategic bidding, bluffing, and "press-your-luck" moments creating engaging tension each round. Despite some quibbles with the problematic board layout and color contrasts, Medici was highly praised by all for both its accessibility and its highly interactive bidding rounds.
7 Empires – Gaufre d’Argent Winner
7 Empires takes Imperial and Imperial 2030, but transports players into the age of colonial empires and shifting alliances. Unlike most area control games, the armies and cities on the map don’t belong to individual players—instead, players invest Influence in empires and manipulate their actions to serve personal goals. The board becomes a chessboard of intrigue, with shifting loyalties, mutual interests, and inevitable betrayals.
Each turn, a player selects an available empire (among England, France, Spain, Ottoman Empire, Russia, Prussia, and Austria) and chooses an action from that nation’s rotating action queue. Deploy troops, expand cities, wage war—or score points. The catch? The two most recent actions are off-limits for each empire, creating a rotating pool of options that rewards forward planning and tactical opportunism.
The game truly captured the chaos and calculated opportunism of real-world politics. Some empires are positioned better than others, but this imbalance created a rich, asymmetrical landscape for players to exploit and maneuver through. JeffCon attendees noted that 7 Empires nailed the vibe of geopolitical screwage. Alliances were temporary, strategies adaptive, and the table-talk glorious. It’s a game where you remember not just who won, but who left your best laid war plans in ruins.
Big Boss – Gaufre d’Bronze Winner
Big Boss was all the more enjoyable thanks to our shared love for the classic—and venerable—board game Acquire, designed by the legendary Sid Sackson. This homage captures the spirit of that timeless game, blending familiar mechanics of financial investment, stock acquisition, and corporate mergers with a slick, modern twist. Players start with a hefty bankroll and a hand of industry cards that map to locations on the board. On each turn, they can acquire new cards or play one to place building blocks, found new companies, expand existing ones, or spark high-stakes mergers. Stack higher, drive up stock prices, and maneuver for maximum payouts. With only 100 buildings in play, the game moves briskly—just long enough to plot a bold takeover, yet short enough to leave you wanting another round.
Unlike Acquire, Big Boss favors speed and fluidity. There's no majority shareholder bonus here—just cold, hard cash based on timing and leverage. The map’s snaking layout added a spatial puzzle to mergers, and the limited, unique card set made drafting and timing crucial. It’s a game that rewards adaptability and manipulative finesse, where your actions not only enrich you but bait others into enriching you further.
It played especially well at six players, with tension, surprise expansion, and opportunistic stock grabs making every turn feel alive. While Acquire has reigned for years as the heavyweight champion of long-form economic strategy, Big Boss steps into the ring as a leaner—and meaner—contender, delivering a tighter, punchier experience in the same thrilling category. We have a new champion.
We’ll see you next year—with fresh games, sharper bids, and undoubtedly even spicier tabletop vendettas.
Because, fellas—we’ve got a fever. And the only prescription... is more JeffCon.
Bring on 2026.