Undercover Junior is 6 and a half and looking for some dice

undercovergeek · November 23, 2013, 12:16:52 PM

So, after watching her fly a Hurricane round and round in War Thunder i got to thinking its about time we advanced past Spongebob Hangman and into some proper wargames. I have visions of facing her across the battlefield in a few years and i would like to get her into it - if i lose to the Minions and Spongebob's Pineapple house, fair enough,but at least i tried

Have any of you guys introduced the juniors to board gaming at this age, and wheres a good start?

eyebiter · November 23, 2013, 01:15:29 PM

.

undercovergeek · November 23, 2013, 01:18:18 PM

I was thinking a bit more "war" than that

GJK · November 23, 2013, 02:24:29 PM

At age 6, my boys were playing a bit with the good old "Army Men" but mostly they just weren't interested in anything that wasn't a cartoon or a furry puppet at that age. As they did get older, my youngest son enjoyed playing Memoir '44 (I say "playing" - "playing with" is more like it) and "our" wargame which is what we all probably played - setting up army men and then rolling a marble to see who got hit. My oldest son never got in to the wargame theme at all but does enjoy super-heroes and action comic stuff so we played Marvel Heroscape (I think it was called) and Heroclix stuff.

My brother has 3 daughters and his vain attempt at teaching them any type of gaming ended once they discovered that boys live on this planet with them. Now he locks himself in his "room" and plays solitaire PC games for 5-10 minutes a week.

bayonetbrant · November 23, 2013, 02:41:41 PM

Tank on Tank
Hold the Line
Manoeuvre

You can also grab a Stratego board and back out about half the pieces and start with that.

If she's played Risk, go get Dust (the original), or A&A, or War! Age of Imperialism and play a proper upgraded game to start learning.

BanzaiCat · November 23, 2013, 04:19:30 PM

A good way to get them into it early is to try a few eurogames - my daughter loves Ticket To Ride, for example. Cool bits tends to bring little ones in, but you might need another year or two in them before they can really comprehend and think ahead.

Like GJK's experience, my son loved Mem'44 and played with the bits a lot. He was about four or five and I'd let him do that (under my supervision of course - those little pieces are a booger to find if they get lost).

Also, my kids liked the Lord of the Rings game that was put out some time ago (http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Games-LORD-RINGS-Tolkiens/dp/B00008X37W). That's for ages 4 and up, and it's not a bad game to play with them.

Another one might be Attack! by Eagle Games (http://www.eaglegames.net/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=EGL800), or even Risk. Risk is how I got started back in the mid-70s.

undercovergeek · November 23, 2013, 04:29:40 PM

cheers guys, it was risk for me too - i might sneak it under the christmas tree

BanzaiCat · November 23, 2013, 04:35:41 PM

There's so many versions of Risk, though - I'd go with the basic one, unless your undercover jr. is into something in particular that the series addresses.

undercovergeek · November 23, 2013, 04:58:53 PM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on November 23, 2013, 04:35:41 PM
There's so many versions of Risk, though - I'd go with the basic one, unless your undercover jr. is into something in particular that the series addresses.

ill probably go for vanilla

bob48 · November 23, 2013, 05:48:49 PM

Too many small components in Risk - I'd go for Space Hulk ;)

Toonces · November 23, 2013, 05:58:49 PM

My 6-year old has enjoyed playing Castle Ravenloft with me and her brother. It's COOP so that helps; playing non-competitive games seems to work a bit better.

Nexus Ops...I think I played that with my son when he was about 6. I house-ruled it a bit; I think we played straight up points and didn't use the cards too much.

Games with plastic figures/monsters seem to be key to playing with younger kids.

W8taminute · November 23, 2013, 08:08:46 PM

I introduced my daughters to simple wargames like risk and axis and allies when they were 6 and 4. We used to setup the boards and all the little men and just push them around making noises and sound effects. I wasn't really trying to teach them the games. My focus was on getting them hooked on the little tanks and ships and the joys of pushing units around on a mapboard. Every once in a while I'd suggest we throw the dice and see what kind of numbers came up. I figured they would get some basic arithmetic lessons from the die rolls in addition to teaching them that the high roll wins and what the results are.

My oldest daughter who's now 11 enjoys reading more so than board games. My youngest who's 9 will always try any board game I bust out at least once. She liked Memoir '44 and Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear. The latter definitely appealed to her more for some reason even though that game has counters and no mini figures to play with.

My advice geek is to keep at it. Don't rush into teaching your kids all the nuances of a 1267 page World in Flames monster but instead break down the wargames to their simplest elements. You'll have to reduce your expectations a bit and be content with making pew pew noises while pushing troops around the map. But the trick is to make board wargaming seem like a lot of fun. Once they're hooked on some gateway intro wargame you can slowly start teaching them how to really play.

bayonetbrant · November 23, 2013, 08:55:02 PM

2 bits of Risk advice: if you can find 2210, it's worth it as you can place vanilla risk as well as the special sci-fi rules that make the game even better

Failing that, try to track down a copy of Mission Risk, which includes the mission cards that let you change up the base game with secret missions that let you win the game without steamrolling the map.

Arctic Blast · November 24, 2013, 01:03:20 AM

Having turned my nieces and nephew into gaming kids, the only piece of advice I have geek : Stick with what they like. Sure, try some simple wargames. But if those don't work, don't force it!

Oh, one more piece of advice : go for the throat. By all means, help them as much as needed, and make sure they know what their options are (even when those options are bad for you). When it's your turn, crush them. If they figure out you're taking it easy, they'll bail. One of my most rewarding moments playing games with the kids was when one of them beat me for the first time where her own strategy. It was pretty awesome...though I briefly regretted teaching them to talk trash. ;D

Now, as for games, if you want them wargaming they need to learn to attack viciously. You need Survive! Escape From Atlantis and King of Tokyo. Both are all about slapping down the other players...Hell, Survive! might be my favorite board game ever. Both are simple enough to figure out quickly, and vicious enough to also be fun to play with your buddies when you feel like getting the verbal knives out.

I also second Toonce's recommendation of Ravenloft (Wrath of Ashardalon is good, too). Because they're co-op, you can help them along as needed without any trouble at all. One tip : Hide the monsters until they're encountered. The look on her face will be worth it when you drop a huge goddamn Dracolich on the board for the first time. ;D Mice & Mystics looks like it ight also work as a co-op dungeon crawl type game, but I personally haven't played it. I also like Flash Point : Fire Rescue for co-op.