Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.
2017/03/23 23:54:26
Subject: Re:Introductory Wargame For an 8 Year Old??
The Lion Rampant rules are excellent - simple middle ages combat with (for older gamers) a lot of depth. I highly recommend them as a good gateway as they allow a lot of fun, simple mechanics and games rarely last mpre than 30 minutes to an hour. Available via Osprey or amazon.
Always looking to meet SE London gamers for Saga, Frostgrave.
JSF wrote:... this is really quite an audacious move by GW, throwing out any pretext that this is a game and that its customers exist to do anything other than buy their overpriced products for the sake of it. The naked arrogance, greed and contempt for their audience is shocking.
I would try a game like Zombicide or similar...where they don't have to measure movement and can paint the miniatures if they want. Miniature board game would be easier and if they enjoy it maybe in a few years intro them to TT games. Plus Zombicide is co-op so you and the child are fighting on the same team
2017/03/27 13:36:24
Subject: Re:Introductory Wargame For an 8 Year Old??
A couple of years ago, I wrote the first draft for a game called New Little Wars inspired by the spirit of HG Wells's original. My boys were 9 and 12 at the time and really enjoyed it. It's a very simple rules-set that designed to encourage the children to think up their own new rules, playtest them and develop them further, with games typically never taking more than 20 minutes (the average attention span of an 8-year-old, I found). At their urging I made a video:
It's not a great video, but it does explain the basics. If anyone would be interested in seeing the draft, just PM me your email address.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/03/27 13:36:36
Eilif wrote: Song of Blades and Heroes is a great choice. I've run it for 8 to 70 year olds and nearliy everyone likes it. Fast, simple and consistently engaging.
My 5 year old an I had a blast with "Starcrashers"
And of course the entire IronHands site is full of great gaming and hobbying stuff.
Just wanted to thank you for this introduction. This site is amazing! I can't wait to get some Starcrashers on the go with my boys! It looks like great fun, a lot of these game do. Thanks again.
Eilif wrote: Song of Blades and Heroes is a great choice. I've run it for 8 to 70 year olds and nearliy everyone likes it. Fast, simple and consistently engaging.
My 5 year old an I had a blast with "Starcrashers"
And of course the entire IronHands site is full of great gaming and hobbying stuff.
Just wanted to thank you for this introduction. This site is amazing! I can't wait to get some Starcrashers on the go with my boys! It looks like great fun, a lot of these game do. Thanks again.
You're very welcome.
I did a brief blog on our club's forum (while our proper blog was down) of building the game and playing it with my son.
https://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=128 Also has sources for cheap ships and modifying the game slightly for hex map if you have limited space.
It's been a couple weeks but I wanted to add two more great choices for wargaming in the 40k universe and in a fantasy setting. Can't believe I didn't think of these earlier...
1) For the 40k figs you've already got "Grimdark Future" (formerly One-Page-40k) is a great free ruleset that captures the feel of the 40k universe with a really simple ruleset. https://onepagerules.com/portfolio/grimdark-future/
2) For Fantasy, consider Magic The Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers.
It's essentially the same game as Heroscape, but set in the MTG universe with the addition of planeswalkers who have spell cards. Easy to learn and fun to play. Also quite cheap on Amazon with each set being only about 14 bucks.
Not sure how much it will be supported in the future, but the 3 sets currently released offer plenty of options, espeically if you double up. It's also compatible with Heroscape if you happen to have some or find some used.
I played the basic Heroscape rules with my 6 year old son tonight and he loved it.
My son is 7.5, and he is really enjoying Warmachine. I'm just starting, so we're working on it together. He uses my 40k models, I use my Scyrah models... we play Battlebox games, basically, and we have a blast. We haven't gotten full on into the rules yet, but we throw dice, we check off the damage boxes, move models around and have a good time.
He beat me on our custom scenario, last time we played... boxed me out of our objective zone and won. Punk.
If your little one is interested in smashing robots together, Warmachine can be played with 4 models pretty easily.
I introduce my little nephew of 8 years to the all might of WHFB 7ยบ edition. We play 2-3 times the little scenarios of battle for skull pass so he learn how to check tables, run, fight, move units, etc... and then we played with 0 special rules of the units, but following the rules of the manual: Banners, Champions, Duels, Reorganization, General, etc...
But my nephew was a mini-me so he is an special case.
I can't recomend enough HeroSpace. Really, its a wonderfull game and the fact that they are prepainted to little childs its better. The problem its that today its a little difficultd, but on Ebay you can find some masters sets... a little pricey.
I recomend to tabletop games with a cooperative feeling like Descent. Childs like to play in group more than to play a versus. At least in my experience.
Dakka does have White Knights and is also rather infamous for it's Black Knights. A new edition brings out the passionate and not all of them are good at expressing themselves in written form. There have been plenty of hysterical responses from both sides so far. So we descend into pointless bickering with neither side listening to each other. So posting here becomes more masturbation than conversation.
ERJAK wrote: Forcing a 40k player to keep playing 7th is basically a hate crime.
Next week, I will be teaching one of the eight year olds in my Kids Pathfinder game how to play Kings of War.
But the kid... well, he used the word Orrery in a sentence about the Mantic Terrain Crate (he wants one for his Wizard) - so he may not be the best example to judge from. (He has already read the Kings of War rules, and appears to understand them - this will be more of a practice rather than a tutorial.)
The Auld Grump - the kid is frighteningly smart.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/04/28 21:05:12
Kilkrazy wrote:When I was a young boy all my wargames were narratively based because I played with my toy soldiers and vehicles without the use of any rules.
The reason I bought rules and became a real wargamer was because I wanted a properly thought out structure to govern the action instead of just making things up as I went along.
2017/04/29 12:53:55
Subject: Re:Introductory Wargame For an 8 Year Old??
I play lots of boardgames with my 7 year old twin boys, and we've recently tried some wargames. We've played X Wing and Memoir'44, and I think I'm going to try Song of Blades & Heroes with them soon, probably with LOTR figures.
