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Author Topic: Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?  (Read 8761 times)

Offline Kernschatten

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« on: December 28, 2004, 03:15:49 AM »
My son is 8, and I am looking to ease him into tabletop wargames. He's not ready for WHFB or WH40K.

Can anyone recommend a cheap, easy, fast wargame? I've been eyeing 15mm games like DBA and Mighty Armies. But I'm not sure of the level of difficulty.

He is of course into the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG. I just can't do it. We play Dungeon Dice Monsters (which is not that bad), Strateego, HeroQuest, and Pirates of the Spanish Main (Very good game. Cheap and fast. We are even going to build a board to play on.) I don't want to try HeroClicks, MageKnight, or D&D Miniatures.
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Offline Hagen_von_Loewenstein

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2004, 12:24:58 PM »
What about "Battlemaster" or "Die Claymore-Saga" as it's called in Germany? It's still a boardgame but leans heavily torwards tabletop, plus I think your little one has just about the right age. The biggest plus is that you should be able to get it really cheap on a "flohmarkt"
Oh, and of course most of the miniatures make a perfect basic army for WHFP-Games to come... did I mention it was licensed by GW? ;)

Offline queek

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2004, 03:55:47 PM »
BattleMaster has been OOP for a decade in the States.

my gaming group got something like 3 of them at $20 a pop when they were discontinued.   :-D

Offline Hagen_von_Loewenstein

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2004, 04:01:59 PM »
Of course it's OOP, but as I said, in Germany (where Kernschatten and I come from) you can often find them on second-hand-markets and such, or you just look around ebay, there was one for 1 € that went away just recently... And even if you don't get all the figures with it, that's an even better excuse to be buying even more WHFB-miniatures ;)

Offline Kernschatten

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2004, 04:19:43 PM »
Quote from: Hagen_von_Loewenstein
Of course it's OOP, but as I said, in Germany (where Kernschatten and I come from)


Ich bin Amerikaner. Es tut mir leid. (My German is rusty from years of non-use.) I spent some time in Köln as an exchange student in 1984, but that's it.

I thought about Battle Masters, and I have a bunch of the knights and halberdiers. Takes up a lot of room though. I know that you can play DBA in 15-20 minutes on a 2ft x 2ft board, I just don't know how complicated it is. I think Mighty Armies, http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/miniature/index.php, is similar in play and just as cheap ($50 USD for two armies including rules).
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Offline Steve-O

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2004, 05:33:23 PM »
How about WarMachine from Iron Kingdoms?  Steam-punkish, somewhat 'Mech based combat.  Pretty inexpensive and the models are pretty sweet.  You can buy the starter set for ~$35, and it comes with 2 'Mechs (called WarJacks) and a caster (your leader who magically controls the 'Jacks).  The starter set has enough points (~300) to have some pretty fun battles.  

It is a fun game, and a nice break from GW products.

http://www.ikwarmachine.com/  <---- for more info.

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Offline LizardKing

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #6 on: December 28, 2004, 05:43:57 PM »
your right there, warmachine is pretty simple, I think that would be a good place to start

-pete
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Offline Imrael

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #7 on: December 28, 2004, 07:16:06 PM »
LOTR  :wink:

Seriously, if you're willing to get into editing rulesets, maybe Mordheim.  Most younger children tend to like "herohammer".

My son started WFB at 9 and coped well.  Knows core rules better than me :)
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Offline Midaski

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #8 on: December 28, 2004, 07:22:26 PM »
I'd echo the Mordheim idea.
My boys were 8.5 and 10 when they started WFB, but they probably learnt most playing Mordheim.
A lot of the principles are the same, and with 500 crowns start up you can keep the warbands fairly modest.
Also you can probably use existing models from your armies so little or no cost!
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Offline Calvin

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #9 on: January 01, 2005, 05:05:03 PM »
I've played a game of my own invention with my little sister.

Basiclay its warhammer skirmish, made easy. Most of the special rules are ignored.

Basicaly you play it as a chain of games. You start off with one hero character. Then you play a sort of role playing skirmish game agians some bad guys that are lurking about a game table hiding in terrain. You find some treasure. Then in the next game the tresure is used as points to get stuff, like some troops or upgrades. You keep doing this till the story winds down.

My sisters first "story" went like this. She was a brettonian mage. Killed some orcs. Finished first part. Got some archers to help her. She went on like that gaining points to spend. She became second level, got some knights, a magic weapon and some men at arms.

I think its good because:
i) its fun
ii) it teaches the warhammer game system (ie. phases, points, combat mechanics)
iii) gets them into painting and collecting figures
iv) eventualy they'll want to use bigger armies, but by that point they'll have learned the game basics from your little ones.

And in case I forgot anything:
Little kid: good guys
Old guy: Bad guys (orcs)
Because you've left out the special rules things are a little unbalanced, so you will need to go easy or hard depending on the cirumstance to keep the game fun.

Hope you can all under stand that, I'm not very good at making much sence today.
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Offline PygmyHippo

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2005, 04:39:58 PM »
Kernschatten:  You might want to try http://www.100Kingdoms.com/

I did some commission painting for them a few years ago for their website/online catalog/banner advertising campaigns (some of their Simian, Bushido, Avalon, Panthera and Hive figures).  The founder of the company was inspired to create his own game system when he realized that the hundreds of rules and awkward unstoppable-force vs. immovable-object scenarios that are found in GW games would put off many new players (specifically, he mentioned it was designed so that he could get his wife to start playing wargames.)  It's a pretty straightforward rules set, the rules are discussed and amended in their forum based upon user input, and best of all the rules are free for download.  The only things they sell are the miniatures themselves, and many of their figure lines are sculpted by famous sculptors (Sandy Garrity, Jason Weibe, et al.)  Their Simian and Bushido lines are especially nice.  The figures are also reasonably priced.  Of course, you can use whatever figures you wish, and since the rules are free, there's no risk.

http://www.100kingdoms.com/forum/hk_kingdoms/rules_menu.cfm

Marcus

Offline Hagen_von_Loewenstein

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2005, 07:25:44 PM »
Quote from: Kernschatten

Ich bin Amerikaner. Es tut mir leid. (My German is rusty from years of non-use.) I spent some time in Köln as an exchange student in 1984, but that's it.


Ooops, don't know where I took that from then...  :oops:

Offline Clarkarias

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2005, 07:49:26 PM »
I'd agree with Mordheim or LOTRs for kid friendly GW games.  

Something else that might work would be any Heroklix games or the Star Wars miniatures game.  The rulebooks for those games are generally quite simple.

Or see if you can find a copy of Heroquest.  I was playing that when I was 8.
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Offline General Helstrom

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #13 on: January 04, 2005, 07:52:43 PM »
Heh, the Space Hulk version of Hero Quest was wat got me into Warhammer! Really neat little game, just found the old box under a pile of rubbish, turns out we never played it correctly... Still it was good fun :)

It's a bit off for a wargame though as it used a square grid board rather than an open table.
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Offline Kernschatten

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #14 on: January 06, 2005, 07:01:16 AM »
Thanks for everyone's input.
We play Heroquest now.
I have the Mordheim rulebook, never got around to playing it. I will have to look into that.
Space Hulk would be good, but a complete set off eBay in good condition will easily set me back $60 USD.
LOTR, I would like to give it a try, more models to paint.... :bonk:
100 Kingdoms seems to have some fans over at TMP, I will have to look at the rules.
I'll take another look at WarMachine.
Anything with pre-painted minis (HeroClix, MageKnight, etc.)  is out. Seems very wrong to me......
Thanks again!
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Offline PANTHERLORD

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Mage Knight
« Reply #15 on: January 21, 2005, 12:01:51 AM »
I think you should get him in to mageknight! It is a fun game, and is what got me into Warhammer.  It is very easy to learn, and all the stats are on the models.  There are very few special rules.  my little brother evolved from it to 40k.  He could also do Mech Warrior or Hero Clix.  If he's into sports, get him SportsClix.  These are all WizKids products.
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Offline Naked Ninja

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #16 on: January 21, 2005, 04:36:59 AM »
My little boy is 4. We are currently playing crossbows and catapults and I'm looking forward to starting HeroQuest and Battle Masters in a few years. I'm planning on making some movement trays for Battle Masters that slot the appropriate amount of slottabases into them so I can use existing painted troops for the games. I think It'll probably tale me a few years to get that little task done ;)
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Offline Clarkarias

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Kid-friendly Game Systems/Rulesets?
« Reply #17 on: January 21, 2005, 12:54:07 PM »
See if you can find the game "Seige"  I LOVED that game as a kid.  Using the cannon to actually shoot down castle walls!!
Actually, forget Karl-Franz. I want rules for Thyrus Gorman on a dragon. - Rufus Sparkfire