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My friends daughter has recently been into the GW store and they gave her a guy from the AoS boxed set to paint (I guess they're trying to push AoS now, as it's usually Space Marines they give out). She loves the model and as she now owns one of these guys she wants to get the game to play with it (wicked ploy GW, it worked!).

I know nothing about the fantasy side of Warhammer as I've only ever played 40k, BloodBowl or Necromunda.

All I know, is that the game has caused uproar amongst the WHFB community and a lot of people have rage quit to play other games (I don't blame them tbh). I am worried that if she gets the boxed set for Xmas, then she is going to struggle to get games with it. I've heard the boxed set is quite balanced, and you can play a decent starter game straight out the box. That's great news, but the trouble she will have is that most of her relatives and friends are girls and won't play with her. I'm sure she'll need to go to the store to get regular games, but I think she may struggle even there. I made a rare appearance at the store to play 40k a few weeks back, and there was a poor kid with his wood elves army who kept popping back every 30 mins or so to see if anyone else had come in to play. Everyone was playing 40k though, and his parents eventually had enough and dragged him home.

The rulesets are free is that correct? Do the army books that are coming out differ form the free rules by much?

We live in Middlesbrough, is that a regular occurrence there and in other areas? (not just UK)

I would buy them a starter set from Star Wars X Wing, the new version that has the colours from the new film coming out just before Christmas.

It doesn't need any painting so you can play a game within half an hour of opening the box.

Maybe add a couple of expansions to give some options and a bigger game.

How old is the daughter? That will impact on how many games she will have access to (in terms to heading out to club nights and gaming groups on her own, rather than having to get a lift etc... and as some clubs have a no children policy).

You might also want to check with your local store(s) face book pages to see what events they run; some have dedicated nights to different systems as well as events.

Can't comment on the rules other than to say the main rules are free - I play Kings of War

She's only 11 and is a little hyper tbh, I think she will need parental supervision, luckily her mam is very patient with her and will go down the shop with her.

I've read through some of the posts on here, and they mention it is a really easy game to learn and get into. So that's another bonus, due to her age.

Yes, AoS is a fantastic set and very good entry level into GW games.

AoS is a great game for kids, but that is not much help if there is no one to play with. See if you can find out if there are a few more players around your area first.
Otherwise you might better get her a more popular game (first make sure you test out whether she likes that one or not)

I'd second the suggestion that X wing is a great intro to the hobby for kids and the new starter tieing into the new movie will be very popular.

AoS is... not what I would consider 'very popular' to put it mildly. Being unable to get a game in is a legitimate concern in plenty of areas.

On the plus side snap fit models* and the minimalist rules are good for kids.

(*actually I think they aren't snap fit but are still much less complex than regular GW models)

 Iron_Captain wrote:
AoS is a great game for kids, but that is not much help if there is no one to play with. See if you can find out if there are a few more players around your area first.
Otherwise you might better get her a more popular game (first make sure you test out whether she likes that one or not)

This.

The game itself is probably perfect for her, but it all relies on whether other people are playing.

Gapow wrote:

All I know, is that the game has caused uproar amongst the WHFB community and a lot of people have rage quit to play other games (I don't blame them tbh). I am worried that if she gets the boxed set for Xmas, then she is going to struggle to get games with it. I've heard the boxed set is quite balanced, and you can play a decent starter game straight out the box. That's great news, but the trouble she will have is that most of her relatives and friends are girls and won't play with her. I'm sure she'll need to go to the store to get regular games, but I think she may struggle even there. I made a rare appearance at the store to play 40k a few weeks back, and there was a poor kid with his wood elves army who kept popping back every 30 mins or so to see if anyone else had come in to play. Everyone was playing 40k though, and his parents eventually had enough and dragged him home.

I have a 10 year old daughter who is interested in playing the game as well. I think the rules are simple and the starter box is a great deal - I think a pre-teen could easily handle the game. Games like X-Wing are a bit fiddly and require a lot of chits and counters, while AoS requires basically some dice and a ruler. The rules are free (and 4 pages long), with every released model having a PDF of their related warscroll on the GW website. So I think, in theory, AoS is the perfect starter miniature game.

However, there's two caveats -

1) There isn't a big community for it. In a year, who knows? Right now, it's still recovering from the cancellation of WHFB and with it being so structurally different to other mini games, people are having a hard time understand how to best interact with it. I think this will change in time, but until then, finding other players will be difficult. In my own situation, I'm always up for a game, so my daughter will always have a ready opponent. Almost all of the mini gamers in my city are in their late 30s to 40s, so even if there was a large player base, I'm not sure how comfortable an 11 year old would be in that sort of playing environment.

2) The starter box is a great deal, but past that, the game stops being allowance-friendly. All GW models are expensive, but the AoS ones take the cake (they are opening preorders for a $165 figure next week). It's generally about $50 for a single box of models. Personally, I'm a bit reticent to get my daughter into the hobby aspects of the game because the figures are just too expensive to experiment on. I'll probably buy some cheaper miniatures, or even another starter box, for her to get some assembly and painting experience before letting her start on figures that cost two months allowance to buy.

The rulesets are free is that correct? Do the army books that are coming out differ form the free rules by much?

The army books just consolidate the free rules for each unit with a few scenarios and optional rules that an 11 year old girl probably wouldn't miss. They're mostly fluff. You do not need the army books at all.

Monopoly is worse for counters and chits than X Wing.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
I would buy them a starter set from Star Wars X Wing, the new version that has the colours from the new film coming out just before Christmas.

It doesn't need any painting so you can play a game within half an hour of opening the box.

Maybe add a couple of expansions to give some options and a bigger game.

This.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Monopoly is worse for counters and chits than X Wing.

I hate monopoly with a passion, never finished a game, always someone who gets all the good stuff and everyone else rage quits!

Thanks for the feedback so far. It's confirmed the two things I was wondering about

1) It's a great game for her to begin with, and boxed set would be a great start
2) It's not played much at the moment.

I don't think she'd like X-Wing, doesn't seem to be into Star Wars at all (yeah I dunno what's wrong with her either!)

If she likes painting them, and you think she'll like the game (it's pretty easy to pick up), then go for it. You'll be able to get about 20% off if you shop around, it's not a big seller. It's probably better to buy from the store if she's likely to play there though, it's only fair.

Gaming wise it's fairly usable out of the box, so she'd only need an opponent who can borrow one of the armies.

You can always make up different rules to suit who is playing, or more her onto another game in future if she grows out of the rules or can't get an opponent.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Monopoly is worse for counters and chits than X Wing.

Monopoly has money, tiny houses, and player pawns (and I guess a few decks of cards, if they count). My copy of Monopoly includes an 8 page rulebook, large print.

X-Wing, in the base box, has a dial for each ship, a slip on id bit for each ship's base, a half dozen turning rulers, a range ruler, 9 different chits representing 9 different things, a bunch of cardboard asteroids, and if including cards, two packs of cards in two different sizes with at least 5 different backs. The rulebook lists 16 different components to the game. Oh, and two rulebooks - a 4 page quick start and a 28 page standard rulebook. I'm sure that about half of this stuff is situational and only used in specific scenarios (that's how Battles of Westeros was, with its 4,000 different chits - FFG likes to release games with enough cardboard to kill a rainforest).

One thing to bear in mind is that minis aren't tied to a ruleset. So if you/your daughter like the AOS minis then the set is definitely great value and the game itself is decent enough, and then there are any number of free or very cheap rulesets out there you could use the figures with, from the very, very simple (good for non-gamers) to the more complex (good when you want a step up from AoS).

If you want to supplement the game with cheaper minis, check out Mantic, Perry (for humans) or Reaper (for all kinds of very cheap characters and such in their Bones line).

Why don't you play the game with her? A good father-daughter bonding hobby. You get the Bloodbound and she gets the Stromcast.

It's a fun game with rules you can learn in 5 minutes.

Give them a 20$ movie gift card atleast they will have a story that lasts longer then 15 minutes.

As someone with a 9 year old it is a great entry game into war gaming. The rules are simple as stated and the models in the starter set or incredible. It does tend to lean Stormcast in the games I played but that's nothing a few additions to the Khorne end can't solve. When I built my AoS set my son spent several days playing with the models and rolling dice even by himself. Setting up death matches between The Mightly Lord of Khorne and a Bloodsecrator vs Lord Relictor and Celestant. He has a blast with it. I enjoy it as well and found another adult gamer in my area that enjoys it as well. I hope to set up some demo games as once people play it they will enjoy it. It may not be there favorite game but it is enjoyable and is cheaper IMO from the big blocks you needed in WHFB. As a gamer of many games this is a nice game to just roll some dice and have some fun without a 50+ page rulebook to comprehend and retain. Not as complex as Infinity or even 40k, simple and refreshing like X-wing.

Having said all that its like buying a kid a 1,000+ piece lego set. Either their parents will hate you for the time they have to invest in building and painting it or you have to go into it knowing that is going to be the case if it is for your kid. I guess I lucked out and am as happy to build, paint and play them as my kid is at wanting to play.

Ive got 3 boys pre teen to teen aged and all 3 play the game with each other and with me..cant recommend it enough.
That being said,the one thing to keep in mind is that building and painting are the other half of this game/hobby...so,yes if shes into those aspects too then I think it would a great gift.But if not then it may not hold her attention long term.Its not just a game,its a hobby.

 Bottle wrote:
Why don't you play the game with her? A good father-daughter bonding hobby. You get the Bloodbound and she gets the Stromcast.

It's a fun game with rules you can learn in 5 minutes.

As stated it's a friends daughter I'd gladly play the game with her, but we live in different towns and I probably only see them once or twice a year. My sister who lives with them asked me for some advice about the game, as it is all Maria talks about at the moment. She's been carrying the Stormcast Eternal every where with her (nice going GW).

It sounds like the game would be ideal to introduce her to the game. I'll play her at xmas, as no doubt I'll see her when I get back from visiting family. If the rules are simple enough, maybe my sister will give her a game haha.

I have a friend who games down the store reguarly, he said there's a few players always on the look out for games. If you contact the store manager, he will set up a game for you. I guess that's better than that young lad popping back hopefully every 30 mins with his gaming case, hoping someone had turned up

I get the impression there's usually someone looking for a game at a store, though it's quite likely to be the same people. Not that that's a problem.

Now let's try something radical...
Buy and paint both forces.
That way you or she can turn up, with the rules, toys and warscrolls ready to go.
(PS I don't work for GW, and I would choose two WHFB armies!)

Huey11 wrote:
Now let's try something radical...
Buy and paint both forces.
That way you or she can turn up, with the rules, toys and warscrolls ready to go.
(PS I don't work for GW, and I would choose two WHFB armies!)

I'm a terrible painter, I'm more of a collector and gamer. I've had models for 15yrs I haven't got round to painting yet. I don't think I have finished a single mini since I started playing.

Maria enjoys the painting side of the hobby. I have offered to glue all the mini's together for her, so that they are ready to play with, but she might enjoy that too. I know I loved opening a new boxed game and seeing all the sprues

Dear God no. There's a game my wife's been wanting to get called "Mice and Mystics" that might be something she'd enjoy more.

I would never voluntarily get anyone of any age or relationship to me into GW games.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
Dear God no. There's a game my wife's been wanting to get called "Mice and Mystics" that might be something she'd enjoy more.

My kids love Mice and Mystics for the (admittedly well done) storyline, but I absolutely hate the game because it is a drawn out series of combat encounters that go on too long, there's too many of them, and most of them contribute nothing to the story. For instance, roll enough cheeses on the dice and suddenly, you get a combat surge, where another (often harder) combat encounter appears in the room. Move to another room, combat encounter. Some rooms you need to defeat a combat encounter in order to trigger a second combat encounter. In a best case scenario, it's probably 7-8 combat encounters that takes a minimum of three hours, with story at the beginning and end only. If someone gets that game for their kids, I'd recommend modifying the rules to reduce the number of combats. We played without the cheese wheel when possible (no surge encounters from dice rolling, and my kids won't play a game they spend three hours and lose) and ignored non-essential encounters.

My kids did okay with Descent 2nd Edition. It's actually a lot more fun than M&M, but I have to play the Overlord and go easy on them. They haven't seen all of Star Wars yet, so we haven't tried Imperial Assault, but I suspect they'd do okay in that as well. And Super Dungeon Explore, which I haven't played, seems like it'd be a good choice. Arcadia Quest is competitive, so my kids probably wouldn't play it... until the kickstarter just announced a Pets expansion and I know I'll have to get it for the owlbunny alone.

I think those games would be in the same bracket of "Will she find a local opponent to play". The GW store is pretty close to their house.

There are a couple of local gaming stores, but they're all into Warmachine and Magic the Gathering

GW do suck at the moment, it's all about making money than giving a toss about having a community and being an affordable thing. (hey it's a business I suppose)

 jonolikespie wrote:

On the plus side snap fit models* and the minimalist rules are good for kids.

(*actually I think they aren't snap fit but are still much less complex than regular GW models)

Definitely not snap fit, and I would not in any way describe them as less complex to put together than other GW models. Sure the reavers are mostly three parts, but I definitely had some head scratching moments putting some of the Blood Warriors together, and the Khorgorath was no cakewalk either. I think they're really well designed (mold lines well hidden) but it would be a huge stretch to say that they're "much less complex" in my opinion.

This reminds me of the glorious Christmas when my aunt got me Heroquest. I was hooked into fantasy games ever since then. Luckily my parents played with me at the dining room table quite often.

I would recommend if you agree to make it a family hobby and give it full support with painting, spray paint priming and perhaps even terrain building.

I'd definitely go for it. The store will probably run beginner lessons to help her learn the game, and meet people to play against. It is a great game to play, and if she enjoyed painting then it's great for that too. I know people are quick to bemoan gw, but they often forget that for brand new hobbyists, they are a great way to get into it and get a game/advice on the hobby in a (normally) friendly place.

As a fan of Warhammer and Age of Sigmar,,,I still would not recommend introducing the game to your friend's daughter unless she has siblings and parents interested in playing/expanding from the starter box. The hobby as a whole is just too expensive that I think there are better priced miniature games that provide a more complete experience with just the starter box. Usually this would be co-op games...such as Mice and Mystics, Super Dungeon Explore, or DnD. I play DnD with my nephews and nieces (oldest 9 and youngest 6) and they have a good time with it. Maybe she just like fantasy miniatures and the game they can be used for is not as important. Try playing AoS with the free rules/warscrolls with proxy figures/tokens.