"What period for kids?" Topic

What periods have you had particularly good luck in introducing kids to wargaming? What rules did you use and what did you use for figures?

My daughter really liked WizKids Pirates, but my son has since dismantled all the ships and scattered them to the four winds. My girl will be eight next month and I thought it might be good to introduce her a little to more gaming.

I am getting the Battletech Introductory Set as I know kids LOVE the mechs – had previous experience with that and a former girlfriend's kids. I prefer skirmish gaming, naval and air games (she might like WoW also), but I think linear fighting styles might be easier for kids to grasp initially (like ACW or – dare I say it? – Napoleonics).

Anyway, just wondering what's worked for you.

My daughter enjoyed painting fantasy figures when she was 8. I never got her to play though. I tried to get her to paint some ancients, but when she saw they had human heads she quit.

My kids have been painting dwarves, skeletons and chombies and we play a slightly modifed version of Savage Worlds (they are Cowgirl, Pirate Girl and Indiana Jones).

We have also had one game of fantasy impetus, but the attention span of the two youngest wanes after 60-90 minutes so games need to be short.

My gladiator game went down well with my daughter and her friends [aged 8-9] when they were doing Latin in school. She now likes assembling and painting 1/76 plastis tank kits…
At a similar age my son liked Wild West games.
My Year 6 [10-11] classes liked a simple ECW game I devised for them to accompany their history lessons on that era.
IMHO, young children – and most older ones – have no great grasp of military formations, ranks or period tactics. But they like personal combat between individuals in whatever historical/fictional setting currently appeals to them – but this enthusiasm may not last long before it is supplanted by something else!
You can also try linking games to the history they are doing at school, with the same caveat.

How about the Teddy Bear line from Eureka?
There is someone on TMP has did a few Great AAR with his daughter playing.

My daughter had fun playing "Guts" from freewargamerules but it's all funky when I click the link now. Very basic but good for a starter. She had my Vikings and I ran skeletons & zombies, kind of "13th Warrior" with the undead. She played it out, so about 2.5-3 hrs of game time. It had the fantasy element and since she was fighting monsters it's all good.

I use an even more simplified version of TFL SP for both acw and awi skirmish.

Its been a campaign of select children's books, halloween costumes and much more but I think I have their attention in those periods. American Girl helped get my daughter interested early and the Magic Treehouse series were a favorite of both the older two. We drive 30mins to school every morning so we also picked up a couple of the books on CD's as well as biographies, they really enjoyed that. My oldest son at 7 was very proud of George Washington information he knew.

Even though they both attempt painting and enjoy it, we most commonly use a couple boxes of 1/72 soft plastics (the kind where a crapload costs $9). We based them on extra single bases inside the Warlord ECW boxs, works well. As I get more painting done we'll move over in that direction.

Star Wars and fantasy medieval (Battlelore) have both interested my daughter (wh is just about 8). And today she asked if she could paint some figures (I found two old dwarves and one is well on his way to looking like Santa Claus.

Gnomes, Teddy Bears or Frogs all are nice minis. Teddy Bears (eureka) and Gnomes (brigade) are both easy to paint and sturdy which are plusses for that age

Mine was knights etc. & Robin Hood. We could visit the various castles in the region, saw the Sherwood Great Oak and joined Eng Her.

One went on into Warhammer, the other discovered football big time……!!! B ut they did enjoy a battle or two ofWAB on the way,,,,,,,,,

I expect the first games I will try my kids on are Memoir '44 and Song of Blades and Heroes. Got a few years to wait yet though as they are 3 and 1 1/2 x 2. The oldest is showing an interest and she helps me paint terrain sometimes.

I've been thinking about trying to do a kids Viking game. Vikings have name recognition, unlike Byzantines, Franks or Almoravids, who the kids have never heard of. Maybe I need to see what sort of painted plastic fantasy figures I can find for them to fight.
Grelber

If you can tie it to a movie they like its always good, so if you have vikings do a how to tame your dragon scenario for instance.

Robert

Napoleonic of course.

Or WWII
Or Star Wars
Or Knights
Or Ancients
Or what ever intrigues that child

I think a skirmish game would work better than a game where you have to keep all your toys in an organized formation.

Mech Attack would work well as an easier than Battletech giant robot game.

Memoir '44

Play to their interests. My grandson likes cowboys, pirates, knights, Vikings, and WWII. His favorites are ECW and AWI.

The rules change a bit if they want to paint armies. The 18th Century to Napoleon can be a tough starting point, for example.