Light Adventure & Wargaming for Youngsters?

Started by Nefaro, August 09, 2014, 06:59:48 PM

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Nefaro

My nephews have been begging to play a (light) "wargame" title before they go back to school.

I'm leaning towards War! Age Of Imperialism for some old-fashioned big board game with lots of pieces to throw into the grinder.  Conquest of the Empire went over fairly well a couple months ago with them although the game lasted longer than I had hoped.  At least with War!, you can set a definitive time limit and tally up the victor pretty easily when it is reached.

I'm sure they'd also enjoy Sails Of Glory but I've not even opened it yet.  And it would likely be more difficult to teach them since they probably have little knowledge of the finer points of fighting a sailing ship, even though the Basic game is probably relatively basic and they enjoyed playing Wings of War last year.  Now that I've pointed that last part out, I realize they're probably already halfway to learning it, being familiar with the basics of the card movement. 

The major hurtle is that the youngest one is quite young, not yet 8, but also very enthusiastic about playing them.   He's pretty crafty on most things and picks up the rules and strategy well, but his reading skills are obviously thin.  He can't get enough of them, so I keep indulging his gaming addiction.  >:D  Another is 13, and there are occasionally others between those age ranges who want to join in. 

I see there is yet another version of Shogun out (aka Samurai Swords/ Ikusa) and I really enjoyed it when I was young, so that will probably be another for the future. 

If you guys have any other suggestions for games of this type without too much reading (card-driven stuff is generally out), I'm all ears.  Genre doesn't matter much - it doesn't necessarily have to be a light wargame.  I'm always up for some fun Adventure Games too, although many of them are card-driven with lots of reading involved (hence my query to you).  There are likely some good ones that I don't even know about, but you do.

Capn Darwin

Rocket Scientist by day, Game Designer by night.

Nefaro

#2
Quote from: Capn Darwin on August 09, 2014, 07:57:26 PM
Have you looked at LnL's Tank on Tank?

I'm actively avoiding hex & counter stuff with them for the moment.  I have Eisenbach Gap for when the time is right, but that probably won't be for awhile.  Also, it usually ends up being 3 to 4 players with this specific bunch and if one believes that they're not getting much playtime compared to others it can go sour quick.


One of the titles I recently picked up for the purpose was Super Dungeon Explore but I haven't yet glued the minis together.  Hell.. I now feel compelled to paint the hordes of them.   :o  Oddly enough, the teenager is probably the one who would enjoy the cartoony video game vibe most.  It's straying off the beaten path for me but since I could play the "console", controlling the bad guys, while the rest of them can team up and plot my demise as a group.  So it should theoretically work pretty well and offload some of my teaching burden in the process.

So I'm guessing that this kind of 'One-Vs-Many' games would be ideal, too.  Dunno yet, will have to test that theory out.

bayonetbrant

I would absolutely start with Tank-on-Tank or Manouevre before Eisenbach Gap.  EG will take a little while to truly grasp.

If the kids know Chess a bit, you could transition to Manouevre pretty easy.
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Nefaro


Jack Nastyface

If you want to keep things small-scale (ie: mano-a-mano), I would perhaps recommend a game of Melee.  I played a couple of games of Melee at DragonFlight in Bellevue WA, and was surprised at how well it still holds up as a light gaming experience.  The rules (and new counters and maps) are available for free, and if you wanted to extend the gameplay into either solo adventuring (for the 13 year old) or team play (for all three), you could probably find a few "build your own adventure" type modules out there.
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GJK

Force on Force.  Super simple to play and cheap to get in to...get the rulebook, spend $20 on 1:64 scale figures and load up on some d6's, d8's and d10's and you can create endless skirmishes.  I played this over the weekend with my brother and my 15yr old (who absolutely loves the game).  You could even play with the army men figures and Lego's that your kid(s) probably have already.
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Nefaro


bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Nefaro

#9
Quote from: bayonetbrant on September 22, 2017, 11:42:58 AM
so what did you end up playing with them?

No hex & counter types.  Still don't think that would quite fly.

Although GMT's Sekigahara went over pretty well awhile back.  Scuttlebutt said it's a great 1v1 strategy game without too much rules minutiae, but still enough thinking involved to keep most anyone happy.  They were right.    :bd:  More recently was 878 Vikings, which was also well received.

He's actually been pestering me to run a tabletop RPG lately.   

Bit torn because I know they'd prefer Star Wars, but I'd prefer something with more straightforward dice mechanics for the first time.  Still.. they already kinda know the setting, so that could save some familiarization time.  Decisions..


As for anything with hexes, for starting off, I'll probably go back to an early plan - Command & Colors system.

Did you go on a Necromancer roll today, Brant?   :D

bayonetbrant

Quote from: Nefaro on September 22, 2017, 01:46:48 PM
Did you go on a Necromancer roll today, Brant?   :D

whatever gave you that idea? :-"
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

BanzaiCat

Nef, it might be too late now, but you might consider Axis & Allies. Any of the iterations.

Battle Cry would work, too - I have the 150th Anniversary edition, which is pretty good. In the same vein, Memoir '44.

All are simple and quick to play.

Nefaro

Quote from: BanzaiCat on September 26, 2017, 06:16:03 AM
Nef, it might be too late now, but you might consider Axis & Allies. Any of the iterations.

Battle Cry would work, too - I have the 150th Anniversary edition, which is pretty good. In the same vein, Memoir '44.

All are simple and quick to play.


I got burned out on A&A ages ago.  Played the shit out of that in my childhood & younger days.

More recently played Conquest of the Emipre and War! Age of Imperalism with them, which are similar.  They were popular, although often a bit too long.

If I had my choice of any of those old Milton Bradley series big box games (A&A, Fortress America, etc), I would choose Shogun/Samurai Swords/Whatevah it's named now, as a favorite.  But I've played most of those so much that they're not high on my list nowadays, and the old Shogun game only occasionally gets a new version (with a new name) before quickly going out of print again.

I'll probably just stick to the ones I already own.  Got plenty games that work great with youngsters now, so haven't been looking lately.

BanzaiCat

I got burnt out on it too, but the different iterations are very interesting. Try either A&A D-Day or A&A Guadalcanal for something more focused (not necessarily tactical, but definitely more tactical than the global war versions).

mirth

Quote from: Nefaro on September 27, 2017, 07:10:34 AM
I got burned out on A&A ages ago.  Played the shit out of that in my childhood & younger days.

Same. It was good for teaching some basic S&T though and it began my life-long hatred of the D6.
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