"Need super simple rules for special needs son" Topic

My son has been collecting 54mm WW2 miniatures for the past year. He paints them beautifully and likes to do set-ups and dioramas. Now he wants to play a wargame. The problem is that most games are way too difficult to comprehend since he has special needs. He's 15 years old with autism and his reading/math levels are about 3rd grade. Any suggestions for a simple game so we can use his men in combat? The rules don't have to be historically accurate, just fun!

Thanks in advance,
Matt

Easy. Make your own. Nothing more than a 6 sided dice and a 12 inch ruler for movement.

I guess I could make up my own, but I was wondering if there were any rules that had already been written.

Actually, yes there are. Let me look.

Not the ones I was thinking of but simple enough for fun!

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For skirmishing in many periods, use a 50% chance to hit, e.g. flip a coin, or odds/evens (1-3, 4-6) To-Hit on a D6.

Should work reasonably well for most things, since "effective range" is supposed to be where you have a 50% chance of hitting your target.

12" ruler, as mentioned, or shorter measuring sticks/templates.

Lots of figures and terrain.

I used to play games like that with my son, when he was younger, and we had a lot of fun with them.

Might look at this site. Rules used in middle school.

juniorgeneral.org

found simple rules here

link

Five Men In Normandy can be reduced to very simple play. Available at Wargame Vault from Nordic Weasel.

I second Junior Generals website. Lots of material there and it is free.

Rob Dean and I wrote a book some years ago, called Big Battles for Little Hands. It is a "wargaming source book for kids." It includes a history of land warfare, how to paint figures (your son may be beyond the techniques we describe),, a printer on tactics, and other nuggets. In it are a set of skirmish rules and a set of "tactical rules." Both have been tested with kids as young as five or six. The tactical rules, Milk and Cookies Rules (not Beer and Pretzels) have been used in convention games for young children for many years. I think the book is still available on War-games Vault. If not, On Military Matters may still have a couple of copies. It sounds like this might be of interest to you.

Try these:

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I introduced my nephew to these simple rules over the holidays, and he picked up on them very quickly.

pz8 has some one page rules, but can't remember if there are any for skirmish. might be worth a quick look.

Junior General is probably your best bet. Very simple rules. The WW2 rules are skirmish rules.

If reading pips on dice or numbers is an issue, buy some blank dice and paint half the faces red and the other half another color. the red faces would be "hits" the other "misses"

great idea, buckeye.

Might do well with a fixed target number.

"4+ to hit, 4+ to kill" and then just give some weapons extra dice.

If you want to pop me a PM with your email, I'll pop you a PDF copy of FiveCore, so you can see if it's any use. You can boil it down quite a lot and there's no math involved.
Just ignore all the extra junk.

Also would vote for Junior General Fun and simple.

For beginning you can use Heroscape dice and rules, there are even WW2 units (Airborne Elite, Sgt. Drake Alexander).
Basically die has 3 red attack symbols (sword), 2 defence symbols (shield) and one blank. Attacker roles number of dice and defender has to cover attack symbols. Cover and range could be modified with adding or removing one or two dice when rolling.

There is a free set on the ODGW website called Mein Panzer Junior, very easy and the price is right.

I would recommend either Weasel's stuff (five core, five men, ect)

Crossfire may do nicely. no tape measures to fiddly with, all hits are 5+, 1 2 or 3 hits. you roll 1 less dice if you are cover of any sort. player interaction is high, so whenever dad moves his troops across open fields, son can punish him! Turn order is pretty much do whatever you want until you get stopped.
Highly recommended.

Crossfire Lite. Fits on a single page. No tanks or arty.
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Then graduate to the almost as simple, but much more customizable Fivecore stuff from Weasle. Can't go wrong!

this yahoo group has grants battle practical wargaming. the rules are written for beginners and can be used for infantry only or include tanks and artillery if you wish.
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