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I friend of mine has an eight year old son with ASD who is showing an interest in 40k figures, I gave him some old Space Marines to paint and a copy of White Dwarf, he says that he would like to play a game but I'm not sure what to suggest. He has grown very attached to the copy of WD

He is only young so I'm not sure if 40k would be too advanced for him. Does anyone have any suggestions for suitable starting games?

Space Hulk. Combat Patrol. Kill team. Starter set and don't worry about the full rules.

A mate has weaned his daughter (slightly younger) on things like Munchkin.

It depends if it's the 40Kness or the idea of playing games that's most appealing I guess.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
No reason you couldn't sub some GW figs into a game of something like Munchkin I guess?

Maybe something like One Page 40k or One Page Kill Team? All free, so there's no risk of losing out if your son's friend doesn't get into it, if you already have 40k minis then you're set model-wise and as the name implies, the rules are designed to be super-simple.

My son is 7 going on 8 (Aug), and he wants to play 40k all the time (after I got him started on painting).

We "play" it very loosely on the rules. Move 6", shoot. Pick up model and put it into base contact somewhere on the board. Roll dice. Since he likes marines, its mostly "3+ to hit, 4+ to wound, 3+ to save". We roll between 2 and 4 dice at a time usually. Models are moved on an individual basis, we decide if shots kill more than one model with multiple failed saves, etc. All that is to say, "we make it up as we go along, while roughly following the rules". He just likes to set up and move models and tanks (many breakages ensue, keeping both the Apothecary and Techmarines busy).

He picks up and remembers different ROFs quickly, gets "twin-linked", understands WYSIWYG, knows a melta from plasma, "gets hot", and invulnerable saves. He usually also has my entire marine army on the board against 500 points of "insert xenos army here".

Whenever I tried to teach him the rules in more detail, ie. kill team, he tolerated it for about 15 minutes, then wanted to go back to "just playing." He'll get there eventually :-)

Despite how much I hate the company for the way their customer service dept. treated me, I recommend TANKS by Battlefront. I think he'd have a great time and pick up quick.
15mm tanks aren't hard to assemble and he'd have a blast painting them with you.

A friend of mine used X-Wing with his daughter. Simple rules, minimal 'units' and a handful of dice rolls make it an ideal starter game.

I've heard Lost Patrol is an amazing introduction to 40k wargaming. Otherwise I recommend AoS with its 4 page quick start rules. I would stick to GW because it's the White Dwarf which has his attention.

Lost Patrol gets my vote though.

My 7yo daughter has played Xwing albeit only basic ships and stats and enjoyed it.

Cruentus' 40k sounds like the way to go if it has to be SM/40k. Sounds like what GW do for the into games.

I started my son on Song of Blades and Heroes when he was five. He handled the math pretty well, but wasn't able to deal with losing. He's seven now, and we play Frostgrave pretty regularly-he's much more accepting of loss now.

Thanks for the replies everyone, very helpful.

I think I'll buy him a copy of Lost Patrol, seems like it might be a good starting point!

I'll probably start my son with something along the lines of One Page 40k. Or more likely the 40k or Fantasy One Page skirmish games, as they involve less models to manage and make each force more personal.

There was GW’s stripped down rules they were using for the old AoBR set they broke up and were selling via non-traditional lines. Battle of velos, or something like that? Never saw it in person, but recalled seeing a thread here about it.

Might be worth looking into.

I would definitely check out the One Page game systems, they are free, very simple and require very little, plus you can use your minis as well.

onepagerules.wordpress.com/

The big thing is to go for a game with alternating activation- IGOUGO with large armies can easily lead to boredom in younger kids, where alternating activation keeps them involved.

Storm of Sigmar is a nifty wee set

£20, uses the usual AoS rules.

I have tried both Age of Sigmar and Warmahordes on my step daughter, and had mixed results with both.

Warmahordes was good for helping her learn math a little better, as the arithmetic behind the combat system (2d6 + MAT - DEF = result) helped her not struggle so much in school, so that was perfect timing

Later, I introduced her to Age of Sigmar, and she picked up on that one quicker as far as a "game" is concerned. The simplified mechanics of just straight dice without comparing charts or doing math made for a more fluid experience for her, and she enjoyed the game better. She also deployed her army in such a way that I had trouble cracking through it, and she beat me handily.

I have also played with her 2 of the D&D board games, Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon. She really gets into that since it is a cooperative game, and I think she prefers playing as a solo hero (or two) rather than a full army.

I got her into a Tyranid army for painting purposes, but haven't got her to play 40K yet as I am afraid the rules and special rules would bore her while trying to learn them. Plus, she said that she doesn't want to get more models for her Nids until she gets painted what she has - if only I had that same patience!

In any case, I would recommend teaching them with a game that you are familiar with, so you can help out with the rules when needed. My step daughter has beat me in all of our games except for one, so even without knowing the rules, she already does have a strategic mind and likes to put things in cool formations on the table. Each kid likes things for different reasons, so just remember to pick something that fits with their personality and attention span. And be sure to have fun!

 Nevelon wrote:
There was GW’s stripped down rules they were using for the old AoBR set they broke up and were selling via non-traditional lines. Battle of velos, or something like that? Never saw it in person, but recalled seeing a thread here about it.

Might be worth looking into.

Oh yes, Battle For Vedros is an amazing idea!

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:
I friend of mine has an eight year old son with ASD who is showing an interest in 40k figures, I gave him some old Space Marines to paint and a copy of White Dwarf, he says that he would like to play a game but I'm not sure what to suggest. He has grown very attached to the copy of WD

He is only young so I'm not sure if 40k would be too advanced for him. Does anyone have any suggestions for suitable starting games?

Lost Patrol, Space Hulk.

Easy- 8 year olds have the attention span of a puppy, If you don't keep their attention on the subject for 5 minutes, you'll not keep it. Less is more with your little guys.

can't belive no one said https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroscape

My daughter liked Goramorka when she was that age.

How would blood bowl be? Niece showed interest on painting and was wondering if I might be able to introduce her to gaming side as well but 40k might be too tough. Blood bowl popped up as alternative. Let her paint her team(whichever she likes) and play with them.

 davou wrote:
can't belive no one said https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroscape

Was going to be my suggestion as well. Super simple, but introduces concepts like moving, attack dice and defense dice. Armies are mix-and-match, so play whatever you feel like at the time. Beautiful, customizable boards, like playing with legos.

Couple of downsides. No painting (unless you consider that a good thing). Also, it is probably getting more difficult to find nowadays.

tneva82 wrote:
How would blood bowl be? Niece showed interest on painting and was wondering if I might be able to introduce her to gaming side as well but 40k might be too tough. Blood bowl popped up as alternative. Let her paint her team(whichever she likes) and play with them.

My daughter liked that too.

However, now that she is a tween, she isn't into playing any games with her Old Man. Be ready for it!

I can only echo the sentiment of a lot of fellow members that some of the new all-inclusive boxed games from GW fit the bill. Simple, finite, game in a box. Easy to set up, break down and store. Most are great values too.

Deathwatch: Overkill would be a good one, simple AoS type rules, 40k models. Not a lot of models to handle but has great storyline / expansion

Get the rules for space crusade use current miniatures, success guaranteed!

I'm going to go against the grain here a bit based on my experiences.

There are a lot of board games that would fit the bill that use miniatures, but full on mini games the best I've seen so far is bolt action hands down.

I would caution against GW games in general simply because the miniatures don't hold up well to handling by children. Lots of little spiky bits and stuff that will break, plus their rules are very gamey which is fine except they're hard to grasp intuitively, you just need to learn them.

Bolt action however has to my surprise proved to be very easy to grasp for my little ones and their friends. The rules (paired down a bit by myself granted), are great at representing common sense things like where to move, using Cover, long range shots, etc... The order dice also keep each round moving quickly and involving both players. For some reason there is always a fight over who gets to be the order dice picker each round as well, apparently it's an envious job.

The fact that every rule I've chosen to use can be explained using narrative language or real world examples makes it both more engaging and easier to understand.

Plus, for the oldest one we break out my 40k minis sometimes and it works just fine. I've even made a d8 version of the rules so as to cover a bit more of the variations of units found in sci fi or fantasy as opposed to the strictly historical nature of the original rules.

TLDR: bolt action!

Check out Tanks. It's very simple, very fast to play, and very easy to wrap your mind around.

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
Get the rules for space crusade use current miniatures, success guaranteed!

I've dug out my old Space Crusade box with a view to re-painting or upgrading the miniatures and then using it as a gateway drug for my eldest son...