This morning, my four year-old daughter demanded I teach her a "wergame". I asked her if she wanted to play with tanks or ships, and she requested ships.

I took Afrika Korps off the shelf, largely because I remember being shown the game when I was her age. She commented, "That's a really old game!" I don't know how she knew.

Well, of course the normal rules were too tough so I decided to make my own version, something really simple.

It was an I-go, fight, you-go, fight, set-up. We each had five counters with a movement factor of five (no terrain limits, stacking limit implication of one). Her goal was to get to Alexandria, mine to get to Benghazi. Being a savvy girl, she knows who the Nazis are, and she knows they're bad guys.

Combat was also simple: Happens between adjacent units, roll a d6, 1-2 you die, 5-6 they die, 3-4 no effect.

So we maneuvered into position. I got the first blow in, but on her turn, she got a string of four kills and destroyed my forces, winning the game.

Next time, I'll bring in cumulative combat factors, maybe ZOCs. Strike Force One, eat your heart out. ^_~

(This was first thing in the morning, so forgive her Einstein hair)

How come I haven't read a sessions report on this yet???

Awesome

My 4 yr old wants to try " the jungle game" (ASL) and has hair just like that too


Im going to try this when I get home , I was going to try using a d6 + the units combat str and highest wins, but this one is more consistent and easier to grasp

have some GG

(dang took me a while figuring out how to send you geekgold, and I just realised there is a tip icon....)

Thanks so much! I think it's important to ease them into concepts so I started with movement and the need to actually be *adjacent* to the enemy to attack. When she's got that, I'll add +1 for each extra adjacent unit or something.

I don't know, is it wise to add rules each time she plays? I guess children learn pretty fast.

It's not much of a game as it is, though I'm sure she's enjoying the physical experience of pushing counters on a map as much as anything else.

But, in my experience, kids learn as fast as you're willing to teach them.

Cute! I bet she'd still beat me. I got my youngsters hooked on Battle Masters and Space Hulk, but I'm afraid they'll spill juide on anything with "SPI" on the box. I wonder if my Titan counters are the ones printed with waterproof ink...?

Kids sure do learn fast! Take a look at a really first-rate gaming session report (an entertaining read!) over in the 'Friedrich' game forum...The 4-player game was played by a fellow and his wife, and their two sons, ages 6 and 9. Also included are some excellent ideas for playing with younger players, including reacting to suboptimal moves (which can be a challenge in itself) and placing the hand cards face up on the floor below the table so the small child's hands do not have to cope with fumbling through dozens of cards.

And, I am gratified to hear your daughter happily supports the real Empire, and not the wannabe world-conquerors!

You're a cruel, cruel man, fooling your daughter like that.

You have a lovely Einstein, congratulations.

Time to introduce her to Go!

and that pic is now in the listing for AHs Afrika Korps, so go give it a thumb

This is great, you know, because some people never figure that one out.

Gah! She requested tanks. Tanks!