"Starting after school wargames club - advice?" Topic

So I will be ordering a bunch of the Mantic Christmas boxes – £25.00 GBP for 50+ models of various types.

link

I am out in Cambodia, so need opponents. I note the school my daughter goes to has after school clubs so am going to see if I can get anyone interested.

Thinking of splitting the cost – £15.00 GBP gets you a pile of fantasy models and the shared paint set. If you like it you can later on pay £10.00 GBP to get the sci fi. Or could simply give them the whole lot to start with.

Thinking of limiting the size to 6 (assuming I can get that many!)

As a point of comparison the other clubs charge $50 USD-$100 to do things like maths, chess, arts and crafts, football etc.

Plan is as follows but would like some suggestions.

10 weeks, 10 sessions

Week 1
Play Dwarf Kings Hold using my models (they might even be painted in time for the January term…)

Week 2
Assemble some of their models, possibly play a quick game…

Week 3
Paint some basic forces

Week 4
Put them to battle…

Then after that see how things are going. If DKH is enough maybe stick with that and continue building forces, or break out a sci fi skirmish rule set and do the other half of the models.

Painting wise I should have enough do as examples, going for three steps (with models showing each step), spray, base colours, dip. Wondering what to do for matt varnish though, can't get the sprays here I normally use.

So other suggestions on how to run things? Each session is I think 60-90 minutes minutes, though I might be able to get longer, not sure how it works there.

Would be looking for a free, engaging sci fi skirmish set with no more than a dozen models a side that plays in under an hour.

As the boxes also come with a orc buggy with gun a free multi player racing game of some sort would be good!

Two Hour Wargames free downloads: twohourwargames.com/free.html

Chain Reaction 3 from the above link would work well.

Not sure if vehicles are in the game though :-(

I would start them off with more games before moving on to painting and assembling and stuff. Get them interested in the gaming and then see if there is interest in doing the modeling stuff later. You will not get as many kids interested in that as the gaming.

Another thing would be to do historical gaming. You can get the figures for about the same price and as an extra selling point to the school you are teaching some history if you do a little lesson thing before the game.

If it does well then you can do a wargaming club the next year. If the school doesn't have a problem with it just being wargaming then Bob's your uncle and you don't need to worry about it.

It's very tough doing this kind of thing if you're the only adult involved. I suggest that a useful first step (albeit a difficult one!) is to get some commitment of practical help from teachers and/or other parents. They don't need to be experienced gamers, just willing to share the load!

We had a club at our school. There were about 15 or so members aged 14 – 18. We played an imaginations campaign game set in the ancient world. It was utterly brilliant fun. Figured were a mix of old Minifigs 25mm and some 1/72 plastics. Nobody cared what they looked like it was the campaign and the battles that mattered.

My advice would be to choose a period, ancients, C18th or Napoleonics spring instantly to mind and buy a whole load of 1/72 plastics. Use ebay if need be for bargain lots. I'm not even sure I'd bother painting them or I suppose you could spray them, red army, blue army, white army, green army, or whatever. Run a fun campaign that's simple but allows for tact and diplomacy and choose some simple easy to grasp quick play rules for your battles.

It's no good having rules that take four hours to play if you have two hours before the children must go home. Obvious I know but…

Have fun, keep it fun. Painting and modelling can come later. Those who are interested could take some figures home to paint as their elite guard or something.

LOTR is great for a school club because the kids know all about it from the films. I'd buy a load og GW LOTR figures cheap on ebay and play the LOTR SBG rules. I know a few of the kids at my school play it and enjoy it. If they want something more tactical they can use the same figures and play Song of Blades & Heroes.

Sorry to disagree with you Timmo, but I can't see any teenagers these days being interested in playing Napoleonics or C 18th.

I am out in Cambodia, so need opponents.

If your motivation for doing this is to find opponents for yourself, i.e. to have a good game against, then personally I would forget it.

MM

Yes fair enough, LOTR sounds great, mix it up with medievals, I just wouldn't be too precious about it (not suggesting you are either!), if some have LOTR figures great but if others had 1/72 Saxons or Vikings does it really matter at this stage?

Taught TTGs in two middle schools for four years.

Here's what I learned:

1. Keep all kids occupied. Divide them into two teams, each kid in control of a unit/model.

2. Have lots of sturdy, simple terrain. Use simple, painted plastic figs. Things will get broken. Trust me.

3. Keep rules fast, simple, and fun. IGO/UGO doesn't work so hot as the other side gets bored not having anything to do. Alternating Activation with simple movement/combat resolution works best. You don't have to sell these kids on any one company or system.

4. Have prizes (figs/dice/pictures) and lots of pictures/artwork. Rewards and Eye-candy are a must.

5. Find the popular genre and start there, be it Fantasy, Sci Fi, Historicals. It's an easier in if they're already partial to it.

Pictors is spot-on: Start with games. Big, fast, fun, awesome games. If they have a good time, they'll come back.

Fact is, most of them won't continue to the more involved aspects of the hobby. They're there to have fun and be with friends. Give them a positive experience.

Always play to teach – never play to win.

Give the misfits/outcasts loads of attention. Pop cruelty/sore losers early on so their example won't spread.

Store and transport your stuff in two big plastic tubs. Easy to load, easy to carry, easy to remember.

Above all… have fun. Genuine enjoyment is contagious and there is no substitute.

Good Luck.

Historicals (WWII) was my first choice. But shipping to Cambodia is mad, it can triple the cost. Mantic gives free shipping and the box I would hope gives enough variety to try different things as well as allow some modelling at low cost. Also I would hope having ownership of the models will a) stop me caring about them breaking stuff and b) give them something to show for their time.

Would not ship from an ebay seller to Cambodia either, even more expensive, plus too much opportunity to not receive items.

I had considered a multiplayer game to start but… I have come here with a strict weight limit and my wife and daughters stuff came first I have a few board games (stuff like super dungeon explore which is not suitable for much) and a few paints to paint said board games. You can't get easy access to stuff for painting and there is next to no access to anything useable for a wargame. Well not true there are the bags of Chinese plastic toy soldiers on sale in some road side stalls.

So instead was thinking a limit to numbers involved, 3 simple 2 player games to start with, hence something like the mantic box and games like dwarf kings hold (simple dungeon bash).

There is zero prospect of any assistance, most of the clubs after school seem to be run by people for profit, not betterment, indeed when I tried discussing this with another couple of parents they were most concerned with what they could charge.

If we do play any sort of skirmish game I suspect the terrain will be from the many aquarium shops scattered around town…

>>>>>>>>>>
I am out in Cambodia, so need opponents.
If your motivation for doing this is to find opponents for yourself, i.e. to have a good game against, then personally I would forget it.
>>>>>>>>>.

I have zero expectation of actually getting to play anything myself…

Everything Dentatus said…. esp 1-4.

Quite possible with Mantic minis… but you may want to write your own rules, etc… big, fast, and fun, with the newcomers in mind.

Have you got a ten sided dice and a few sheets of paper.

If so work out a simple skirmish system that breaks everything into a round percentage chance of doing something, with simple modifications.

and Do not discount knock off large army men figures, if you can find some paint and some varnish you can create a decent squad action game.

Keep everyone involved, and act as an umpire / dungeonmaster in the game, make your kids think, but do not tell them how to think, let them make plans, draw plans on sketch maps, etc.

What works for them might not work for you but it should give you a good experience.

And ask here again if you have any more questions, and some photos of action, and after action reports!

"Sorry to disagree with you Timmo, but I can't see any teenagers these days being interested in playing Napoleonics or C 18th."

The students in my history club were quite happy to play 18th and 19th century stuff. We did a pretty fair mix but they played War of Spanish Succession, Napoleonic Naval stuff (that was one of their favourites) 7YW, Texas War of Independence and a few colonial things, Sudan for one.

They always had a good time.

Ditto on Dentatus' recommendations. I painted everything for playing when I did this w/ my 7th graders.
Very few will move on to the assembly/painting.
Also, buy some spare dice…they go missing very easily

Dentatus has it right--I've run an after-school gaming club at a middle school for 4 years now (this year, I've got clubs going at two middle schools). You can do up to 5 vs 5 games and have them go well but anything bigger than that gets loud and less fun (3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4 is probably best--but I've run games with these kids having 9 vs 9).

Keep the rules simple--Chain Reaction is one of the rules sets I use, as well as Rapid Fire for Rookies (VERY simple WW2--and you could probably use those Chinese figures to do battles--and the rules are free off of Valiant Miniatures' website) and the ubiquitous WH40K (buy the plastic Bauhaus/Imperial bags when Prince August is running a free shipping sale or somesuch and Bob's your uncle--use them as Imperial Guard and renengade Guard or Chaos cultists).

While some kids may be able to handle it, most (at least US kids that I've seen) don't handle plotted movement up to their early teens, so stay away from that, and figure assembly has not been one of the better events I've held, so I'd stay away from that as well.

Good luck!

Rob

Don't discount the cooperative style of play you can get with Chain Reaction (all the kids on the same side vs the game mechanics). Even with 10 kids or so, it'll still work (played a convention game with 18 people vs zombies, each player ran 1 mini).

For something quick, someone took index cards, folded them in half, clipped out wings, and colored them to look like bi-planes. Had some Canvas Eagles games with middle/high school kids. Can't remember where I saw pics, though :(

You can play KoW with cereal packet cut to unit movement tray sizes. Cut cardstock to the appropriate size the minis would occupy and you can write the unit's name and even stats on each unit. You can start play immediately that way.

As models are built you can, say, place a single model on each movement tray (to help visualize it's a dwarf spear regiment). Add more minis as they are built/painted. The players will be motivated as they see their armies grow from flat rectangles into three dimensional forces.

Just one approach.

You could start with Jr. General and the paper troops.

juniorgeneral.org

You could get them into painting by declaring painted figures that replace paper one get a combat bonus i.e. elites, though you may need to set some standard for the paint job.

Consider Space Hulk or Space Crusade ???

Not for sale in Cambodian shops or available shipping free…

I bought several RISK sets with the historical figures; divided them into regiments by colour and fought some games using simple Featherstone rules – you could just as well use some from junior general website.

For army-level games I used top-down counters from historical warmaster yahoo group and the Neil Thomas rules.

If my Gladiator Game (published in Battlegames) is any use to you, email me at arthur1815@yahoo.co.uk and I'll send you an electronic copy of the original document. You could probably adapt it to one to one combat between Cambodian warriors/legendary characters. A game for two children; I've found 9-10 year olds can master the rules and play with minimal umpiring after one introductory session.

Good luck, whatever you do.

Sounds like fun.

Let them construct some small age of sail vessels out of cardboard, or construction paper. You can do that out of soda or cereal boxes, and they look pretty decent.

Small vessels like sloops and cutters, or little merchants are pretty easy to do. You can use 18th century figs, or small plastic pirate figs, if you can find those.

Masts and bowsprits can be made out of wooden dowels, sticks, etc.

Balsa wood is a good option for the decks, and you can pin the cardboard hull sides in place, while the white glue dries. Of course, you could just use some of that foam board, or thicker cardboard instead, if desired.

Use some of the free rules, like Limeys and Slimeys, etc. for the battles.

Everyone can make a small vessel in a day, or two, and then play with it at the the meeting.

Buy a bunch of those plastic figures from the roadside stands, slap a little paint on (or not) simple terrain (rocks, twigs etc.), buy or download, some simple PDF rules (I like Ganesha games)and there you go!

When dealing with kids I have found you have to keep it fast, fun and unexpected. Kids of all ages (0-100yrs old!) love to discover things so I always have hidden events or objects for players to find during the course of play. Prizes are also a good idea even if it is a soda, or a piece of gum! Also, if you are dealing with more than about a dozen students, you are going to want some help running games in the long run.

Good luck on your project.

I also have used Junior General with children from 9-17 and they are easy to understand, play fairly rapidly and are fun.

The site has paper models you can print or they give recommended 1/72 figures for the scenarios. I took a few scenarios from the same time period and merged the rules very easily into a single set. The 1/72 figs are quite forgiving to children and can handle rougher play.

Warlord do free shipping on and off if you want ww2…… They also do army sets, plastic figs and bolt asction is not an igug rule set. Played it with some kids at warfare a couple of weeks ago and it ran very well…