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My 10 year old nephew, extremely bright boy, really wants to play Warhammer 40k. I had him paint a starter set of space marines and he loved it. Every time he comes over he begs to play. I've with him using 300 pt lists that I created for both of us and he did ok.

Is he old enough?

What set should I get him into? I play Choas Space Marines. I was thinking Orks for him. Is there a better set? why?

Perhaps I should take him next time I go to my play group.

Sounds like he loves it. If its alright with his parents then you should be fine. DnD is supposed to be for 12 year olds so I would think Warhammer 40k might be there.

However, that being said you should gauge if you could bring him to a game store. I know the players at certain stores in my area are very vulgar and say stuff that no 10 year old should hear.

I would give him a rundown of the armies and ask what he likes.

I am biased because I am an Ork player and they are very easy to paint imo.

Ask him what he wants to play! Have him go on the GW site and look at all the models and see what he likes. I am 21 and most of my gaming group is from 12-18, I would say if he can grasp the concept of the game and enjoys it have him play! Its better then MMORPGs in my opinion.

As an Ork player, I would recommend orks for a young player, they are fun, unpredictable, and most importantly they get to roll TONZ of dice.

How comfortable is he painting, does he enjoy painting? If not I wouldn’t recommend an army that has lots of models. If he likes painting go for a horde army!

If he can hold a measuring tape, he's old enough to play.
Have him pick out the one model he thinks looks awesome and build an army around that.

My son is 11 and we are new to 40k
I had him go onto the GW site and look at everything like the other poster mentioned
Also I am trying to keep the game semi basic and slowly introduce new rules each time play and add to what we know
I even create situations where we will use a rule and learn it
He has taken to it very well so far

I have a 12 year old who is into Dark Angels, an 11 year old who finally settled into Nids and a 7 year old who plays space wolves.

If your nephew enjoys it, go for it.

My daughter is 7, and has been playing and painting for about a year. She has a pretty good grasp of the basics.

Keep the games small. Let THEM pick the army (or they will get bored of it fast) and slowly work up to the more complex rules.

As long as you keep it simple to begin with, fairly short to accommodate a kid's attention span and fun they will have a blast.

Getting them to come up with a story for the army also gets them engaged. My daughter's Nids are the result of my wife's obsession with nature documentaries, for example.

Personally, I've heard worse things coming from people playing Pokimon card game. I would treat them like an adult new player. Still small games, so they can test out how to use their force, learn tactics, and good sportsmanship.
I wouldn't throw games or slant advantages in their favor to keep them playing. if they play someone else they will probably rage quit. I'm not saying losing is good, but losing allows a player to really enjoy those times they win.

As for picking an army, I agree with most of the posters. don't think about what is playable think more about the models. If they like their models they will spend a lot of time painting them. The main reason painted model do better than unpainted is because you've given your models an investment. That investment translates to even naming the figure and even creating a background story for them.
Unpainted models might as well be sticks glued to a base.

This is a hobby, no matter what their age is (they could be 5 for all I care). I'm an Ork player and I have to say I love my Orks more than I love the codex. So that's my 2 cents.

Great points everyone... Thank you.

I'll go through the factions with him and see what he likes.

The bad language comment is true on both accounts its prevalent at the Warhammer tables and Card game tables. But, my play group is me and couple buddies in one of our basements... pretty safe.

Sigh... entry to the game is so expensive.

Offer them non-gw models, specifically ones which are cheaper, to choose from as well, and give them advice on which armies they'd work well in.

Or better, start them on GW stuff, and THEN offer them other peoples' stuff instead to expand with, where plausible.

TBH, i recommend you let him play with your forces. at 10 it may be a passing interest for him. IF he keeps it going for more then 2 years offer to buy him a battleforce or something

One thing to avoid would be bits of the fluff.
Some older WH books came with a "for mature audiences" warning on the cover. Chaos is full of adult themes.
DE might be another area to avoid too much time with.
Until later on, but just to be aware of.

As for gaming, my stepdaughter spent a long time playing Diablo 2. She was around 13 at the time.
It has a lot of similar themes, with bodies exploding, and suggestive demons. All she really commented on was the weaponry, as we lived up the road from a royal armoury, with lots of them on display.
Card games helped with her maths skills. Give them something to focus their attention, and it'll help teach them where school might not.

Sure he's old enough.

Anybody with the physical ability to move the models and the mental capacity to understand the rules is old enough to play.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Sure he's old enough.

Anybody with the physical ability to move the models and the mental capacity to understand the rules is old enough to play.

You forget maturity. Not everyone wants to play a 10 year old at the local gaming club.

Thats more something to discuss with the gaming group.

And I've met 5 year olds more mature than many in their 30s.

Ahh Money, then I would suggest you start with just the codex of the army they like. Proxy figures buy putt a piece of cardboard on the models base with what figure they represent. Try to fit the size of the model as best you can with the unit they want to field. It'll save you a lot of money and give them the opportunity to change their mind.

Once they settle on an army, buy slowly (or have their parents buy slowly). Getting a figure for doing chores or eating their veggies. Let them paint it up and slowly start to exchange the proxies for the true figure.

If you are like me, you have a ton of figures you aren't using, mostly from other games that probably don't exist anymore.

Again this is a Hobby Game and it's called building an army not having an army. I think if I ever finish painting my Orks I'll probably stop playing (probably not) but in 25 years, I've never finished painting my army and the chance of this happening doesn't seem likely since I still have close to 2k of unpainted unprimed figures

I started playing 40k when I was 8, a 10 year old with good reading comprehension and experienced player to mentor them on the rules should have no trouble picking it up. The game system is really not that complicated.

As far as choosing if you have the large rule book I'd encourage them to read the backgrounds of each army and look at the models and let them choose whichever one appeals to them.

I know a couple of 10 year olds in the hobby and they learn quick and have a great deal of fun doing it, at least in my local store the language is not that bad and we dial it back with young'uns around. so long as they are supervised and made to Finish painting stuff before they get anything new and get set goals like having a fully painted 500/1000/1500/2000 point army. also it really helps if there are people of roughly the same age there +-2 years.

the most important thing is to have them supervised and give them high amounts of attention and teach them how to play without playing for them because they would hate that more than anything.

over all it is a great hobby for the young given that IMO the perfect age to start is at around 10-13 as it would certainly give your reading and maths a good boost along with hopefully some common sense. also maybe make a couple of friends while doing it

Check out Gitsplitta's threads about his sons. He has two kids, affectionately referred to as Thing 1 and Thing 2 here on Dakka by those that follow his threads. Gits and Thing 2 (whom is 8 now I believe) just played in a 40k tournament two weekends ago, and the two of them teamed up to play. Thing 2 did the movement and dice rolling, Gits suggested strategy and made sure the rules aspect was going well. Thing 2 (and by extension Gits) had a blast doing this.

You should be fine.

Tried to get my older brother to play me at 2nd Ed when I was 4 years old (I knew the rules, he didn't) after I picked up the rulebook for 50p at a carboot sale. Hooked me ever since.

Can anyone send me to a link of a good overview of the armies?

I've discussed the gaming issue with my wife (a nongamer) and our consensus is that our son can begin gaming when he is old enough to read the rulebooks and prove a working understanding of the rules. Of course, his ability to continue gaming will be contingent on his acceptable behavior while there, behavior at home, performance in school, etc.

We both thought that was a reasonable way to do it.

Armies overview is here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Warhammer_40%2C000_Armies_Overview
It's is in the Articles section at the top of this site.

If anyone wants to contribute, there are a lot of gaps ....