"Rules for Children" Topic

Am writing a blog to review rules that I play with child, to try and give people an idea of what would be a good 'starter set' to use. Have outlined what WW2 rules / games I am going to give a go.

As is the way with wargamers, although I have at the moment every intention of playing the games I have outlined, I will probably then find my attention wondering of onto different rules. So, any recommendations for rules or games that I have missed that are good for playing with children? Before making recommendations remember that it is to play with a seven (soon to be eight) year old.

Cheers

thatwargamesblog.blogspot.co.uk

We have used the Panzer Kids rules – they work very well; the youngest child who played it was 7 and he did well (kicked my butt at any rate)

My recommendation is to keep things very small and short, attention span can be a problem.

I've tried Rapid Fire and Bolt Action with the kid and they went fine.

Armourfast do a very simple game called Tanks with which to support their range of kits – it even uses the box edges for measurement. Ideal for a young child.

"My recommendation is to keep things very small and short, attention span can be a problem.

I've tried Rapid Fire and Bolt Action with the kid and they went fine."

Which kind of says it all about Bolt Action and Rapid Fire.

I wrote this game recently for my younger brothers birthday:

PDF link

Suits army men and a small table. Skirmish scale – 1 page rules with 3 units: rifleman, officer and a tank.
2 missions types: search and destroy and capture the objective.
We played a game and it worked very well. My brother is 9.

Another game I put together recently is 'Position'; aimed at family play, and simple enough for children to understand straight away. Its essentially a simplified and more free-form wings of war, using squares of paper to draw moves instead of using cards:

link

Just played a game of Rifle and Sabre from the One Hour Wargames book with my 8 year old and was soundly beaten! She thoroughly enjoyed it and for the first time I didn't have to threaten withdrawal of the iPad for her to do some arithmetic. If she wants to have a go with tanks I would probably use Don Featherstone or Terry Wise rules, but the one hour set kept her attention and gave a clear result which she was obviously happy about!

I use the Armourfast rules at our Youth Club. The players (mostly girls) love it.

I committed heresy and painted a Panther pink (with Hello Kitty logos) in the hope of attracting a female player or two. Didn't need to.

Panzer Kids is very good for ww2 tanks.

Echidna Games does wargame rules for children, actually Laserblade is a very nice generic sci-fi echidnagames.com

The UseMe series from Alternative Games are simple rules for almost everything link

I have thought about this. My grandson is a bit too young yet. However I may use a cut down version of maneouver Group. Proably the biggest reason is kids like to play. Maneouver Group is one of the few that you have to turn the turrets to face the target. Kids like to "pretend" sometimes with more enthusiasm than "adults". I would suggest whatever rules you use, you do things like turn tank turrests and even figures to "aim" at there targets. Some adults are to "precious" about there models to actually use them. Obviously Armour Fast or its equivalent and plasic Figure are a must.

I used Charles Grant`s "Battle" rules from the 1960s

My lads have been plating now since they were 5 or so, first simple games now at 15 and 19 quite complicated multi-battalion attack/defence and mini campaigns.

Start slow an build – if you are enthusiastic your kids will take to it. ;)

Mein Panzer Junior, free download from ODGW. Has graduated levels to use as the kids get older/ more adept at gaming. This was how my son (and his friends) got into miniatures gaming. They eventually wrote a set of house rules for infantry.