'Age of Steam' is one of my favourite games. There is no time that is bad time to play it. I just wish I had more people to play it with.

My children have looked at 'Age of Steam' as that game they're not allowed to touch. My eldest son, plays other games with me like 'Dungeon Twister', 'Einfach Genial' & 'Ticket to Ride' amongst others. He picks up rules very quickly but he is still a child and isn't ready for the harsh realities of 'Age of Steam'.

But the cries continue, "When can I play that game?", "I like train games". For some peace and quiet, I decided to have a look at AoS to see if I could adapt the game to make it palatable for a 7 year old. This is what we played.

(I'll add any notes in italics, and please add any suggestions you might have)

---Age of Steam Junior---

There is no cash in the game. Players still receive income from goods shipped but there is no need for the gold and silver tiddlywinks.

Otherwise the game is set up as normal, and goods are placed as according to the map.

Decide player order by placing counters in order of age (starting with the youngest). Each subsequent turn the first player token is moved to the back and the others are moved up.

There are no shares to be issued (There is no cash). There is no player order auction. Thus the turn order action no longer exists.

In player order, each player picks a special action. Locomotive works as normal.

In player order, each player can place up to three pieces of track (Engineer can place four as usual), if a player wants to place a complex piece of track, replace an existing track section or place a tile in a river or mountain hex, that costs them one of their tiles. (I have to check the rules but I'm assuming anything placement costing $3 or more will cost a player an extra tile). Links are placed as normal. Urbanisation and First Build work as normal.

In player order, players move goods as per the normal game and move their markers along the Income track. A player can choose not to move goods once and increase their locomotive marker. Each player has the chance to move two goods cubes per turn. First move works as normal.

The production phase works as normal as does the production action. (Might look for an alternative as the production action is not popular with my children
).

There is no income reduction.

The turn marker is moved on.

2 players - 10 turns
3 players - 9 turns
4 players - 8 turns
5 players - 7 turns
6 players - 6 turns
(Looking for an alternative for 5 players as each other number of turns allows each player to have an equal number of first turns. 5 players is awkward)

The player with the most income at the end is your winner.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

So.... thoughts?

I played this with my seven year old his six year old cousin and they really enjoyed it. They liked actually building the tracks. There were a couple of arguments over stolen cubes but these two argue over who is going to be the Red Power Ranger.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm happy to hear them. And at some point I'll put together a Word Doc with better formatted rules and perhaps a new game mat with these changes in mind.

I look forward to hearing from you.

James

I'd toyed with the idea of money but it's that element that causes the most tension. I don't want the children going bankrupt and they don't really 'get' the auction phase. So it was easier to remove it completely.

The rest of the game is more or less intact. Goods are still moved as normal. And Income is now used a sole victory condition.

I wanted to keep the game as close to the full game as possible for when they're a bit older, then I can introduce the rest of the rules and not worry about them having to learn a completely new game structure.

Thanks

James

Your AoS Jr. is charming, James. Very nice.

Thanks for the kind words John.

I'll post the new document soon. As Winsome/Warfrog haven't posted the rules online I'm basically listing the changes from the full game, rather than putting together a full ruleset. They should make sense to AoS owners.

I'm also going to put together a new gameboard to hold goods cubes & player tokens. With no need for the share track and a shorter action track. I think I may be able to get everything onto a single A4 sheet. Hopefully it won't be too crowded.

James

My daughter was sick this afternoon and she asked me to play AoS(it's the truth!). We tried your AoS junior and we really enjoyed it. She was happy to play with the special actions and she learned fast that locomotive was very important. It was fast, long enough for children.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the variant. I've been able to introduce a couple of the expansion maps recently, which work with minimal modifications. My eldest son who is now 8, has really enjoyed playing it with my wife & I and is getting his friends interested in coming over and playing it.

It's also getting him interested in my other heavier games. Although the thought of putting together 'Power Grid Jr' or 'Rise and Decline of the Third Reich Jr' gives me palpatations

James

I like your idea the junior rule!!1
I can't wait to play the game with my daughter!!

Nice job!!

Thanks

Played Age of Steam Junior with my daughter last night... she loved it! We had a great time! The rules were simple so we were up and playing in minutes. I think this may be the one of the best kid-friendly railroad strategy games around (I already think AOS is one of the best strategy games anyway). I'm looking forward to trying this three-player, with my other daughter. The two-player game, while fun, seemed too short. I wonder if this would benefit using half of the board, per fubar awol's two-player variant rules listed here at BGG. Otherwise, I don't think I could have bought a better railroad strategy game for kids. Thanks!

Using half of the board for the two-player game might increase competition for routes (and make the game more tense). Unfortunately it my shorten the game even further. Any thoughts? We'll give it a try this weekend.

I think it's a better simplication than Railroad Tycoon

One note on building, the "Cost" of building complex/mountain/river seems too high--you are limited to 2 hexes when you have to build complex track, which seems like a very harsh penalty, especially if you need three tiles to complete a link.

One idea instead would be to allow always building of 3 (or 4 in case of Engineer) and the cost being paid as $1 on the income chart for every one of these tiles. You'd probably would want to start on $3 to give the players money to build complex track on the first turn.

What's the "game play weight" of this variant? Still heavier than Ticket to Ride (for example), I assume?

How confrontational is this variant? More or less than Ticket to Ride, for example?

Thanks for the continuing interest in the variant.

In reply to recent comments:



I really, really like this idea. I'll be giving it a try this weekend with my boys. If it works OK I'll update the ruleset, which I'm doing anyway for the expansions.



I've never had an issue with length of play with the variant. We tend to play with 3 on the basic map and France. We tend to be finished within an hour. One of the advantages of doing away with finance.



I'd probably go with Light Medium. The lack of the financial element makes everything much easier. But there is still advance planning for cube deliveries.



There is cube stealing so beware if you have a child that mightn't like it.

My eldest boy is a gamer in the making and enjoys this aspect. He knows that when he puts one over on Dad, he did it on his own.

My younger boy has Asperger disorder, so we tend to play a lighter, friendlier variation of the game where we point out good moves. He doesn't mind not winning as long as nobody 'gets him'.

James

Wow, you just described my six year old son, who flies into a nuclear tantrum in certain gaming situations. He's also quirky in other ways. Hmmm.