"Five Core Company Commander with my son" Topic

My son is ten years old and only knows about Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and as I wanted him to play some WWII games with me I started to tell him about it. Then I thought that the best way to show him would be by watching films just like he did with SW & LOTR, and then I wondered what films could I watch with him.
I have saving private Ryan, Iron cross, a bridge over river Kwai, dirty dozen, etc, but none of those seemed me appropriate for him. Finally I chose Kelly's heroes and it was a success; he laughed a lot with Oddball, but also knew about artillery support and friendly fire (Mulligan's) as well as troop morale, and also that you need to be real close to kill a Tiger with a Sherman ;-)

Well, after the film we played a WWII game at company level. For this game I chose Five Core Company Command by Nordic Weasel because I think it is perfect to play with kids. All measures are done with a six inches stick, you only activate three or four stands per turn from an army of twelve or less stands, there are no tables or modifiers and you only need to look for ones or sixes on a D6 rolls, and still it allows you tactical decisions and gives some tension, all in less than two hours.

Full report here: link

Cheers,

blacksmith It's been a long time since I enjoyed an AAR as much as that, brilliant!

Great to see your son joining in and obviously having a blast. IMO Five Core Company Command is such an excellent set of rules and perfect for introducing newbies. Quick, simple and straight forward without feeling that the game's tactical dimension is been compromised. Just enough friction without ruining the decision making…like a lot of innovative ideas it took me a little while to come to terms with the systems 1 and 6 rule but I now think its brilliant way of adding a chaotic feel while still remaining in command….
Your son shows an excellent tactical awareness already! I've two young boys and I really do hope they'll appreciate their dad's wargaming as much as yours obviously does

I really liked your table too. Are the minis 10mm or 15mm? The hills look great. Looks like their simply made but very effective I have to say. If Just Jack is looking on I hope he takes note :)

BTW great choice of film. I just love that movie

All the best and make sure you post the next encounter :)

Good for you, Javier.
My lad plays World of Tanks and he says wargaming isn't realtime enough for him.
:(

All in less than two hours… hmm, you've got my attention.

Edit: enough so that I bought the rules.

Great AAR of what looked like a blast of a game, as well as choice of film to interest your son. Too bad he lost, and it looks like not only did he have fun with you, but wants a rematch! My money is on your son to win, especially if he gets some panzers with his forces. By the way, was that your daughter on the computer in the background? If so, you should attempt to interest her in the games with her brother and give a whole new meaning to "Family Game Night"! Again, well done and I am glad you and your son had a great time together! Wish my dad did the same with me when I was growing up…

-Scott

Glad you had a great time with the rules! (And thanks VTSAOgamers for buying. Let me know if you have questions)

I think you made the right choice on the movie too. I recently watched "Where Eagles Dare" with my 7 year old and he loved it :-)

I should add that you should be able to use smaller Crossfire scenarios without too much fuss.

Javier,

What a fantastic fight, I love it, and I'm so happy to see more folks picking up 5Core Company Command. I absolutely love the rules, and it looks like you and your son do too :)

And I love seeing the 10mm Minifigs; those are the exact same troops I'm using in my campaign, but yours look so much better.

I look forward to your next battle.

V/R,
Jack

Interesting pick. I'm leaning towards A Bridge Too Far myself since it was my favorite when I was that age! My boy loves sci-fi, but WWII gaming is something new to him. I was going to do Flames of War but it's taking a while to collect and paint the forces..

Humm.. I think you're on to something Javier!

@War Panda I already answered you in my blog. Many thanks for your comments. Most welcomed.

@LesCM19, my son plays lots of computer games (Now he's with Minecraft and Mount & Blade Vikings), but he also likes painting and pushing lead with dad.

@Buck215, next game he will have 3 T-34 as he told me he wanted to be Russian, have tanks and be the attacker.

@Weasel, that's a nice movie too that I had forgotten, thank you!

@Just Jack, I follow your blog and your BATREPS are an inspiration for me, thank you.

@Tgunner, my son picked A Bridge too far this morning and watched it, though he made a break in the middle. He said WWII was better than Fantasy!

A Bridge Too Far is fantastic but yes, a lot of those movies are very long :-)

Have a snack break in hte middle and they should work well.
(or three for The Longest Day)

I'm probably the poster child for the undiagnosed ADD adult and I probably was ADD as a child… but I NEVER had a problem sitting through A Bridge Too Far and it is a LONG movie. LOL!!

In fact, I remember very vividly racing home from elementary school, rushing to my parent's room (my brothers took over our family room) and flipped on to HBO to see if it was on. More often than not it wasn't… but there were times when I could catch it and my parents had to drag me out for supper.

But yeah, point taken. There is an intermission in the original version though!

I don't blame him. It's a great movie that really motivates you to collect, paint, and play with the little soldiers. A Bridge Too Far is what finally got me to make the jump into Flames. Company Commander will save me from the massive painting chore that Flames asks for!

I don't want to polish my halo too much, but one of the big things I try to do is to get you playing as quick as possible.

More often than not, I'll get 10 stands of something painted, then I'll give up because I'm nowhere near having enough figures done to actually play a game.
I wanted the "50 dollars and 2 nights of painting" level to be the highest barrier of entry as much as possible.

(People who ,unlike me, actually know how to paint well may take longer)