"Beginner wargame" Topic

Do any of you fine fellows have a suggestion for a very basic wargame to introduce a few 10-12 year olds?

I had thought to get started with HeroClix but having looked at the rules they seem bloody complicated!

I was considering the Perry's new Travel Battle. Also wondering if there are any games that replace miniatures with cards – like Battleground or somesuch a fantasy wargame where cards replaced stands.
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Are there any easy to learn games that they could get started quickly with?

Any other ideas?

Cheers,
Dave

Desperado. You only need a few figures,and the rules can be learned in about 5 minutes.

You need some terrain,of course.

If an SF theme is a must, you can just change "Colt 45" to "laser pistol".

What do you have access to? I've run Fire and Fury for 5th graders with no issues.

ODWG Mein Panzer if they like Tanks is a good starter.

Junior General has a bunch of freebies

Wings of War/Wings of Glory would be another easy one.

Tanks from Gale Force Nine is a decent starter with cards and minis. Pulp Alley is both easy and a lot of fun for kids of all ages. Another vote for Wings of War/ Wings of Glory as it is VERY simple and a lot of fun to boot.

Battle Cry about the ACW is very easy to learn. I learned. It is like Command and Colors Napoleonic except easier. It has 1/72 figures, Command Cards and casualty dice. The dice can be used instead of the cards for actuating units which makes it simpler and is how I played it in my first game a couple of months ago. It uses a hexagon board so no measuring devices are needed. I would recommend it for your purposes. I am 10 years old plus 56, just so you know my perspective.

Commands and Colors (C&C) is a complete game system with everything you need in the box. The rule book is well written and straight forward. The game is played on a hex grid which means movement is simple compared to tabletop games which use some sort of measuring device. The game can be played in one sitting and covers the basic concepts of differing unit types and terrains affect on combat.

The following three games, which all operated from the same game engine, are listed from simplest to more advanced:
1) Memoir '44 (uses figures as opposed to wooden block like the next two)
2) C&C Ancients
3) C&C Napoleonics

ps. I've never played Battle Cry, so can't comment, but it is from the same author.

I agree that some of the Command and Colors games would work.

Tigers and Stalins as well.

Panzer Kids can be had on Wargame Vault.

Neal Thomas Introduction to Wargaming is a excellent book. It covers a good many periods and the armies are relatively small.

FUBAR rules (used D10s for activations), and those little green/tan army men, or Star Wars/other figures.

The free Full Thrust rules, and a handful of small spaceships. The smaller, escort vessels go "pop" rather quickly and satisfyingly, when hit a few times, since they have fewer hull boxes.

If you don't have spacecraft minis, you can either make a few from scratch, and/or use the counters provided in the original Full Thrust rule book.

Memoir 44
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My kids are 8 and 11; I use simple home rules and 54mm platic soldiers. Infantry moves 12" and can't fire. Moves half and hits at effective range on a 6. Doesn't move and hits on a 5 or 6 from 0-9", and a 6 at 9-18." I also have simple rules for cannons. High die gets initiative for the turn.

I also think the command and colors games are good. I too use a very simple home made rules for kids. Opposing die roles, high roll wins. I actually use at least a ten sided die. I taught my son when he was very little to count to 20 and to onow if a number was larger than another by rolling d20 for a game. I'd let him pick the figures and we had a battle. His choice of figures from all eras and scales made for some interesting looking battles.

But, the age range you have, command and colors would be good. Wings of glory and sails of glory are great too.

Matthew

My son plays Bolt Action, Flames of War, and Memoir 44

BATTLECRY. It's very similar to Hex Command Gunpowder.

Two infantry platoons.
Weapon ranges: 6" – 12" – 18"
Hit on 5 or 6 (+1 up to 6". -1 for 13' to 18"
Rifle gets 1 dice.
SMG gets 2 dice.
LMG gets 3 dice.
-1 for target in cover.
Move 6"
Obstacles x1/2.

You could add Hand grenade 6". 2 or 3 dice. Hit on 4,5 & 6.

Introduce a tank or two later.

Done.

Mr. Hemm, those are my kind of rules. And I haven't been ten or twelve for a variety of decades now.

Song of Blades and Heroes or any of the other Ganesha Games variants

You only need about 10 figures total and plays fast and is fun

I like Ian's rules.

Would just modify the movement rates to 2D6", just for grins, to make life interesting.

Only get to roll the die for how much you move, after declaring which guy will move, and in which direction, to further make life difficult. Sometimes, you don't know how far you can go, before someone takes a shot at you.

+1 for the Song of Blades and Heroes family of games.

Airfix Battles

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Here's a three level medieval skirmish game, for free.

One Hour Wargames works great – in a number of periods

No 4 son was an accomplished player at Wings of Glory when he was 9

We taught the neighbour kids (5 and 8) Panzer Kids in about 10 minutes and they had a blast

Joe Moreschausers "How to Play Wargames in Miniature."

I'll second Full Thrust Lite but add get them to make there own fleets out of lego. Just give them lengths to work to for each class of ship.

Robert

Battle Cry (the current AH/Hasbro version) is terrific and dead easy to pick up. Ditto its brother game Memoir '44.

Ogre/GEV is also a good choice, and SJG was selling a reprint of the super cheap paper chit original.

X-Wing is awesome if your kids love Star Wars… Okay, so that's a given. The starter set is a good buy, but if the collecting bug bites it can add up quickly in cost.

Space Hulk is also dead easy to learn and play, but it ain't cheap.

The unfortunately long out of print Battle Masters by Milton Bradley and, yes, designed by Games Workshop, is perfect. A complete set with figures will set you back a bit, but the dice, cards, terrain pieces and mats are often fairly cheap to find separately on eBay, so you can use other sources for figures-- all are fantasy/GW tropes. The mat could easily be self made, as the only real terrain feature affecting game play is the river; otherwise you just need to draw the hexes (or dot the equivalent centers). The printed terrain pieces can also be easily reproduced yourself. You need a tower, but that too is an easy scratch build (heck, the boys might like giving it a try; it's essentially just a tall box).The rules are free as a PDF download from Hasbro's online rules database.

And if you're interested in very simple AWI rules, shoot me an e-mail and I'll send you a PDF of my home brew REDCOATS & MINUTEMEN, which is designed for the plastic 54mm (1/32) sets sold at toy stores and Hobby Lobby. Email address is my member name here, with aol.com as the domain after the @ symbol. (Hopefully that muddles the bots but not you.)

Memoir '44 would be my suggestion.

Thanks all for some great ideas!

FUBAR and TSATF…

I played a game of One Hour Wargames (Rifle & Sabre) with my 8 year old and she had a blast. Start with that and go on to one of Thomas' other books depending on which period they find the most fun.

Junior General has rules with scenarios and paper soldiers.

Have a look at the Battles For Britain series. The paper figures are a pain to cut out but they have good basic rules for beginners.

Bob Cordery's Portable Wargames. Colonial and early twentieth century already published in book form; Ancients and revised twentieth century including aircraft will be published shortly.
See his Wargaming Miscellany blog link
for further details.

DBA in all its varients from Dr Who and backwards in time.