GenCon 2012 + 7 year old HS player

[solomani]

Hi guys,
My 6 year old (will by 7 in 2012 GenCon) loves Heroscape and I have always wanted to go to Gencon since the early 80s when it was the D&D convention. *So finally planing on going next year. *My son knows the rules inside out and has committed to memory the stats of most of the game units - we've only been playing for 2 months - so I think he would be up to playing in the tournament. *Though I expect he would be demolished against a pro how suitable are the tournaments? *Are they generally friendly? *Any issues with me "sitting" in and giving advice or is that a no-no?

Thanks in advance.

[Tornado]

Bring your kid and have some fun. The Heroscape community is amazingly friendly and cool. Gamers are usually good people but the HS crowd has it in spades. As far as being a coach or adviser while your kid plays, may receive a mixed response. I for one would not care but I think it would be possible that someone might take a slight offense to it. If you limit your advice to pre-game set-up and OM placement, then I think most people would be cool with it.
As far as getting crushed by veteran players, well your mileage may vary. It will come down (as most games do) to the event style, match-up, map, glyphs, dice rolls, and of course execution. A strong build will go a long ways. The main thing is to have fun and I have no doubt that you both will.
Just go in with little expectations and you will have a blast.
See you at GC 2012 :)

[MegaSilver]

I would be fine if you gave him pointers during the game, since I may do that as well. :)

But it all depends on who you are facing; which means you should ask the permission of the TD and/or his opponent.

[lonewolf]

I would be fine if you gave him pointers during the game, since I may do that as well. :)
The last kid I gave pointers to ended up beating me, I am done with that! ;)

[Tornado]

I would be fine if you gave him pointers during the game, since I may do that as well. :)
The last kid I gave pointers to ended up beating me, I am done with that! ;)
I may be looking for a mentor LW, if this whole coach thing gets approved. :)

[lefton4ya]

At this past gencon there was a 7 & eight year old brother and sister who their dad went back and forth between to help them out (the younger girl more than the older boy). They had more "fun" armies that were not as competitive so they did not do so well. The best you can do is give them advice, but if they would rather play a "fun" army or go try to put a marker on every card each round instead of better strategy, even if you explain does not have the best chance of winning, if they don't take your advice they still can have fun.

Everyone is friendly and there are a lot more 18+ players than kids, but kids can have just as much fun, unless they are extremely sore losers. I have even given pointers to kids in the middle of games (when they are behind not while winning ;)) as I would rather them learn from mistakes than wonder why they did so bad.

[solomani]

Thanks all for the feedback. Think GENCON is a lock. Was planning on PAX but my son seems to prefer boardgames over video games. And I didn't see a lot of kids at PAX. But looking at the GENCON vids for this year I can see plenty of both young and old.

[Neo]

I'm hopefully going to GENCON as well, and I wouldn't mind you giving advice to your kid, but I think that I you keep playing until then, he won't need coaching.

[Scapemage]

I'm hopefully going to GENCON as well, and I wouldn't mind you giving advice to your kid, but I think that I you keep playing until then, he won't need coaching.
But then again, you are a minor.

Also, yeah, you've got 11 months of playing. He'll surely be a lot better by then.

[Neo]

I'm hopefully going to GENCON as well, and I wouldn't mind you giving advice to your kid, but I think that I you keep playing until then, he won't need coaching.
But then again, you are a minor.

Also, yeah, you've got 11 months of playing. He'll surely be a lot better by then.
Yes, and?

[Scapemage]

I'm hopefully going to GENCON as well, and I wouldn't mind you giving advice to your kid, but I think that I you keep playing until then, he won't need coaching.
But then again, you are a minor.

Also, yeah, you've got 11 months of playing. He'll surely be a lot better by then.
Yes, and?
I'm just saying that minors might feel more comfortable with this kind of thing because it might have happened to them before. Not saying it has happened to you.