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I love this thread.

Congrats James. I just had my second 3 months ago. Get as much sleep as you can now!!

Sy2pie. I love it. I think the educational benefits of war gaming and just gaming in general are often overlooked.

My 3 month old has no idea of anything at the moment. My 4 and a half year old LOVES daddies models. He loves to push around my predators, roll dice and destroy the bad guys (I magnetize my guys and he loves blowing them apart).

He thinks the predators are awesome and the razor backs guns are too small but loves that he can put models in there to hide.

He hates guilliman (good boy) and is surprising gentile with my flyers. Painted his first model last week (more paint on him than the model but whatever) My favorite model ever.

Greetings Dakka Crowd!

I was proud to have shared my very first tabletop game of 40k with my 4 year old son last year. I have been a fan of the 40k universe since being introduced to it back in 1990 with the original Space Hulk board game, but never actually played the tabletop wargame until recently. I have always been keenly interested in the setting, and have played many of the computer games and own many of the books based on it, but just never got around to actually playing the original game it was all based on. I decided to give it a try with the introduction of 8th addition, and was pleased to find that my son enjoyed the experience and was interested in playing more.

Needless to say we each now have armies close to 2000 pts (I may have went a little overboard with my son's birthday and Christmas!). I was not surprised with my son's choice of Orks for his first army, as he already enjoyed the Orcs from the Lord of the Rings films. The orks also work well as a beginner army since he does not have to worry too much about much strategy other than advance and crush the 'umies! Despite their currently underwhelming state, I chose Deathwatch for my first army due to having previously run a Deathwatch RPG campaign using the system put out by Fantasy Flight.

My boys (6 & 4) like to play with Daddy's toys. I used to have a nice collection of Orks but now Its more like a shoebox full of bits. They still get them out for a bash around every now and then, still playable. I figure in a few years or so it might be a good project to reconstitute the bits into their own custom built ork force. If they're interested.

I try to keep them away from the good (expensive) stuff for the time being.

My oldest has painted a few goblins and likes playing odd little games. Kiddihammer rules. Dice-off for everything, make it up as to go along type stuff. Keep it quick and fun you know.

Had my first last August so she's a bit small for the hobby yet. But, I've been trying very subtly (read: not subtle at all) to introduce her to the lore; reading novels and army books and all that.

Can't wait until she's old enough to kick my ass at 40k.

Oh yeah my kids are very interested in my models (mainly very OOP and, errr hem fan-made epic so they're very not allowed to touch). So early on (3ish?) I picked up a bunch of garbage rhinos and abused predators for cheap off eBay and let them go to town on them with tempura paint and they have a blast. Just run them under the tap and dry and ready for next time. Now that the eldest is older (7) he's really into star wars Armada and we have an absolute blast playing together. It's wonderful to see him thinking things out how best to destroy my fleet.

Just got word from the kids on the game tonight...


A few months ago, we lost four of the players, bringing us down to a lot more manageable eight players, because they were playing football...


Football season is over... those players are coming back - and have been kept up to date by their peers. (Over for grade school, at least - I don't know about high school.)


They are... young jocks....


That play role playing games....


And none of the kids think this is strange....


Has the world really changed that much?! :O


(The part that I found surprising is that apparently they have been asking the other kids for weekly updates - they really have been looking forward to getting back to the game.)


The Auld Grump - one plays a wizard!

My 5 year old Twins play with a bit of help we usually do 3 LRBT v 5 Carnifi. and they know you want to stay away from Melee and vice versa.

My daughter played 40k for like 3 months then decided she didn't like it. She was 12 and playing 6th edition Orks. She liked the game but did not want to start all over with another army.

Have been teaching friend's kids how to play 40k, and it's interesting to mentor at that age. One of the great things about 8th edition is the BS table, it's very easy for them to calculate the odds of hitting something. They always know what to roll and have keen senses of target priority based on things like cover / stratagems / chapter tactics.

A recent game of Starcrashers with the kids.



Was a good time. The 4 year old played (with my wife's help) for the first time. Starcrashers is a great game for families and those without alot of gaming experience.

An invasion of short people with paints and miniatures is due in... five minutes.

The Auld Grump - some of them are almost ten years old now....

My Dad was a pretty big gamer when he was single - or at least without kids. He got lucky - out of 4 kids, he got 2 RPG players, a tabletop gamer and a war gamer.

My oldest is 3 and is very interested in daddy's 40k models. I've bought him a couple of those quick-build intercessor kits and painted with him (mostly helping him spread paint). It's a 50/50 if the 'pew-pew guys' will be shooting each other or having their intricate family relationships explained (this is the daddy pew-pew and this is the mommy pew-pew..)

He saw some tactical marines and now wants the 'baby' pew-pew guys