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Hey there just curious as to how old the youngest player you ever faced in a larger scale tournament as we have all seen the young kids at FLGS tourneys but have any of you ever seen any at larger scale events and how did it go and how did you find them. I ask this as I attend some fairly large tournaments in the UK and I'm 15 and I'm often asked how old I am or will have people check me for literally everything to make sure im not cheating. Do any others often see this or am I just unlucky to have this.

Thanks

I played some tournaments at 13. Lost most of them, pretty badly, but I played.

I played a doubles tournament years ago where Panic and I (probably about 30/32 at the time) played a father and son team, the kid being around 12.

It was actually a little annoying as he really hadn't a grasp on the rules, but we let him kill lots of models and ONLY JUST lose

Yeah sounds pretty similar to how I started too I just got on the losses and kept trying



Again I often feel as though that is people's biggest issue with younger players is that they often have a more limited understanding of the rules I don't usually run into this issue as I've been playing the game for 9 years but that one always surprises people as well and yes that means I started playing at 6 don't regret it though

 ArbitorIan wrote:
I played a doubles tournament years ago where Panic and I (probably about 30/32 at the time) played a father and son team, the kid being around 12.

It was actually a little annoying as he really hadn't a grasp on the rules, but we let him kill lots of models and ONLY JUST lose

That's really nice of you, TBH. Letting him have fun, even if you kind of thought he was annoying. Lord knows how most other people would react.

Sqauwky wrote:
Yeah sounds pretty similar to how I started too I just got on the losses and kept trying



Again I often feel as though that is people's biggest issue with younger players is that they often have a more limited understanding of the rules I don't usually run into this issue as I've been playing the game for 9 years but that one always surprises people as well and yes that means I started playing at 6 don't regret it though

I meet people of all ages who don't have a good understanding of the rules at all ages. Never bothers me, I just explain things to them as we go along, and try to cut them a little slack if they're tactics were revolving around a heavily misconstrued rule. (Unless it's very clearly the 'I didn't learn the rules, so I'm assuming that everything I know is correct and all my stuff is the best'. I had a player in early 6th edition try to convince me that all of his Space Wolves got a 3++ invuln because his Warlord took Saga of the Bear.

Twelve.
The little fella ran Dark Eldar and was really impressive at judging distances, decimated all the mid and close range armies he faced, was seriously weak against Tau though.
Wish I could have faced him with my Wolves but I wound up with the Tau player.

12.

30 year age difference (to me).
I played a 15 year old and beat him soundly on objectives because he didn't fully understand the mission. It was only his 5th game ever (he started the day before).

Usually it's only half that difference. There aren't many 45+ year olds playing non-historicals in my area.

Im 16, although I have never played any tournies, but I think that is moreso because of my area, as it would be a very un experience I think.

Not sure how old exactly but he was school aged. He posts on these forums pretty sure he's at University by now.

One of my opponents in a very small local tournament was literally a child. My guess was that he was in elementary school still. It was a 1500pts tournament in 3rd edition, he only had 900pts of models, and he asked if I wouldn't mind dropping some stuff from my list to make it a more fair fight. I refused. He still won.

Our youngest was about 10. He still plays, though infrequently because his mom is kind of a difficult woman but he is like 17 now and has found out about girls. Dunno if we'll be seeing as much of him.

 gummyofallbears wrote:
Im 16, although I have never played any tournies, but I think that is moreso because of my area, as it would be a very un experience I think.

I often enjoy most of my tournaments I mean I still get the odd person who tries to cheat assuming that as I'm so young I obviously don't know the rules which usually is quickly corrected


Another issue I find is that many tournament worthy armies are quite costly for a younger person I worked to pay for my tourney list and it's not even that expensive compared to other lists I've seen but it's still far from cheap

Also kudos to my dad for most of the time being happy to drive me there stand around all day and watch people play a game he mostly has no idea how it works

I was 10 when I first started playing 40k. Went 1/3 in my first tournament but ended up winning best painted by virtue of having the only fully painted army.

I've played against kids as young as 12 at tournaments in my area. I know a lot of people assume younger players are obnoxious and don't understand the rules, but many of the kids I've played were pretty sharp, few of them even beat me to my surprise.

I only had one kid, 13-15 I believe, but it was kind of annoying because he had no grasp of the rules whatsoever and wouldn't listen to things I told him. I'm genuinely thinking it was his first game ever, tournament play being the worst possible choice to start playing. I didn't want to hold his hand the whole way, as this was for a sizable prize, but I felt bad just letting him flounder. Tried to help him, got told off by his dad (who had no clue how to play) for trying to make him lose even though I was just explaining core aspects of the game like the mission (relic) and saying things like "if you don't do something about this squad by the end of the game you won't get the objective" and "remember, if you shoot rapid fire you can't charge" and such.

I imagine not all younger players are like that, but that was my experience with one.

 kingbobbito wrote:
I only had one kid, 13-15 I believe, but it was kind of annoying because he had no grasp of the rules whatsoever and wouldn't listen to things I told him. I'm genuinely thinking it was his first game ever, tournament play being the worst possible choice to start playing. I didn't want to hold his hand the whole way, as this was for a sizable prize, but I felt bad just letting him flounder. Tried to help him, got told off by his dad (who had no clue how to play) for trying to make him lose even though I was just explaining core aspects of the game like the mission (relic) and saying things like "if you don't do something about this squad by the end of the game you won't get the objective" and "remember, if you shoot rapid fire you can't charge" and such.

I imagine not all younger players are like that, but that was my experience with one.

Yeah I see this quite a lot as well lots of younger players at my local GW who seem to have no idea how playing to the mission works also one who seems to think that me bringing an imperial knight when hes got a wraithknight 3 units of wraithguard in wave serpents in OP and not fair then I said fine ill remove the IK so I did and then just won on objectives after he tried to force me into playing kill points so I said to roll for mission instead so if it had ended up on KP fair enough but I'm not gonna play KP by choice against that list


My first monetary prize tournament I actually was competing for top table in my last game after having played 5 wraithknights in my first game (etc rules here) and followed by a second game of riptide wing + heavy retribution cadre + drone network (marker drones) both of which were large victories for me


I must say the worst one by far is the school league my third game opponent was a notorious cheat and had won by basically cheating his way past our less experienced players and then wound up against me lets just say by turn 3 he was on the brink of erupting with rage as I basically dismantled his whole army without taking any casualties in return. Again with the school league I notice the experience difference because as of yet I have never lost a game at the school league and each time I bring a increasingly bad list to try and handicap myself...

I notice a lot of anger and dislike towards kids (teenagers?) my age in my area, and I guess I finally understand why

 gummyofallbears wrote:
I notice a lot of anger and dislike towards kids (teenagers?) my age in my area, and I guess I finally understand why

Most people get annoyed at me because I am absurdly lucky with my dice rolls.

There was a 9 year old girl playing in the wargamescon 2015 champs event. I didn't get to play her personally, but my travel mate played her dad and got the scoop.

I find it interesting how I usually dislike playing with children. It's weird since I'm 15, and I should have no issues playing people 1-4 years younger than me, but I prefer games where everyone know the rules, stats and things like that. That's one of the reasons I don't play at GW stores anymore.

I've mostly found the opposite is true. If a younger player knows the rules, they tend to keep to them pretty strictly. It's the older folks I catch "slipping up".

Case and point: I played in a Kill Team tournament against a 10 year old. He knew the rules and his dad was there to give him on the spot corrections just in case. It was a fairly competitive game.

My last game of the tournament I played an older gentleman who purposely brought an older edition of IA-13 and ran an illegal R&H list, argued with me for 5 minutes over whether the spikes on my Rhino were considered hull (all his dudes could see were the tips of the them, mind you), and tried telling me Flame Templates don't Ignore Cover because they dont have the rule listed on the weapon and got mad when I pulled out my rulebook.

Don't even get me started on X-Wing and M:tG.

I think maybe 14. The kid has serious potential, too. He had a fairly solid grasp on how to run Wolves fairly well.

The only tournaments I played in were ages ago in 2nd Ed. , and then I was the youngest IIRC. 16 or 17 maybe?

Its been a long time since I saw anyone but the one I mentioned. It's actually a bad sign for the hobby though. As in many business models, the most important customer is the newest customer. Ifyou're not generating them you're going to see what happened with Dungeons and Dragons. They nearly lost it all to Pathfinder with the way they went about things and as soonas someone is smart enough to make a great rule set with remarkably similar models and excellent fluff which can "also be played with Games workshop or any model line" that people can latch onto I think GW is going to see it. They kind of already have with X-Wing and WarMachine. They are drifting into boutique land.

So I would love nothing better than to see a whole flush of new blood. Price is just too tough an issue for too many.

 Jancoran wrote:
Its been a long time since I saw anyone but the one I mentioned. It's actually a bad sign for the hobby though. As in many business models, the most important customer is the newest customer. Ifyou're not generating them you're going to see what happened with Dungeons and Dragons. They nearly lost it all to Pathfinder with the way they went about things and as soonas someone is smart enough to make a great rule set with remarkably similar models and excellent fluff which can "also be played with Games workshop or any model line" that people can latch onto I think GW is going to see it. They kind of already have with X-Wing and WarMachine. They are drifting into boutique land.

So I would love nothing better than to see a whole flush of new blood. Price is just too tough an issue for too many.

I think, to a degree, this is what the Battle for Vedros and the Revell 'Build and Paint' ranges are aimed at.

No, I don't believe so.

Those are for the ultra young, teenagers and the like have no problem getting into the hobby, at least near me.

What do you mean by ultra young? I was thinking 8-11 year olds that used t swarm GWs. It's something to help build them up for when they find Warhammer.

I was very primed for 'The Hobby', I used to make farm yard/railway dioramas, play toy soldiers, board/computer/adventure book games, make airfix planes at Christmas... when I found GW it was exactly for me. I often wonder, if I didn't have these interests in my childhood whether I might not have picked up GW with such interest in my tweens. I eventually got introduced by a schoolmate, perhaps BFV / Build n Paint could have got me in if I didn't have a schoolyard contemporary to push me?

Well, by ultra young I mean exactly 8-11 (ish)

Certainly that is somewhat defined by the people I have seen around my area.

I feel that teens more my age (15-early adulthood) are the people the GW is trying to indoctrinate, and they do a good job at it. The game is complicated enough that it turns away young kids (8-13), but its complexity is enough for teenagers to understand.

From the players I have seen around here, AoS is more for the kids

I started playing (fantasy then 40k) when I was about 12 or 13, played till I was about 15 or 16. Somewhere around 5th edition I believe.

Now, at almost 27 I've decided I need to play again.
And I can definitely say looking back on what I remember playing, I didn't grasp the rules entirely, let alone tactics of any sort. I never had problems with anyone though, and most people seemed to be fine with it..probably because I was an easy win for them.