Playing with younger players

[Steiner]

I have been a war gamer for years and I have now reached the ripe old age of 41. For the last 10 years or so I have been only playing MTG as it is quick and fast to play with my old pals.

About 2 months ago I was in the store and decided to get heroscape hoping to lure my 5 year old son into the game.

Well it worked we play now (the easy game) at least twice a week and he really enjoys it. I of course have to tell him how many dice to roll but he can count the skulls and shields from there.


Anyone else have any young kids who play?

Regards
Stiener

[Eckels]

Well, I take comfort in knowing that my now (almost) three year old son, will one day be old enough to play heroscape, so this completist addiction will one day be to the beneifit of both my son and I.

He loves the figures, and loves to move them around the map even now, but he's got a long way to go before he understands even the basic game.

But ONE day

[spidysox]

I play with my 8 year old daughter. I bought the game for her about a year ago or so She liked to play alot when we first picked it up and then went through a lull where she wasn't interested in playing at all. However she is back into playing again and we play about 2x per week now. She loves to play the dinosaurs (grimnak and tornak) and dragons and anything that resembles animals (theracus etc...) I really enjoy playing it with her and she does a pretty good job with it, which I am glad because I bought the game for her after all

[Steiner]

I really like that fact that they made an easy game format for it. It makes it a lot easier than monopoly for the young ones. How many other war/ fantasy games are there out there for the under 8 set?

WOTC could snag a whole new generation of players early. Hope they keep the format.

['Scaper Zeta]

I play with my 10 year old brother quite a lot, he has a really good understanding of the game.

I think its really cool how they made the game rules so simple, its really easy to teach new people to play that way especially younger players who may not want to sit around while you tell them the rules.

[Bach]

The hardest part is explaining height/moving through water/ etc.

[Manatee]

I play with my six year-old son all the time. He's good enough that he can (usually) manage a 1000 point army rather well (sometimes he needs to be reminded about a rule or two, usually about adding one for going up in elevation). We played a couple of Basic games, but he was dying to use all of the special powers, so it's strictly the Master game now.

[cowmaster13]

I'm 13 and play with my 10 year old brother. he know the rules fine9but needs some tweaking)

The only problem is when He rolls bad or I roll good(translated: If I killed his figure then he had bad luck and I had good. And its not just killing heroes... its stuff like the drudge )

Any ways our game sessions last about 5 Min. on average

Any way to help this?

[wdgrant]

My son and I play the basic game, and he is 7. I'm hoping he will expand to the advanced in a year or so, but I'll wait until he can enjoy it. Now he just wants dragons and big guys to use.

[1Mmirg]

Most of my games are include my now 8-yr-old daughter, but she was only 5 when we first got the game (and yes it was my Christmas present, not hers ).

She has always played the advance game and knows most of the powers as well as I do (and better than my wife!). She has been through fazes with less or more interest, but she enjoys it.

I help her with some notes or tips sometimes, but honestly, if you are only playing for fun, kids do just fine with the game, I feel.

She loves to build the maps (sometimes what I'll do it make one myself, use it once, and then let her modify it--that is a bit faster) and is looking forward to a game at our local shop here that will include a few other young scapers (though she is the youngest).

My biggest tip is to play low point games and maps that may have lots of features, etc., but aren't too sprawling and time-consuming to play--kids do flag in interest in 1000 pt. games!

I expect you have many years of great gaming to come!

[Phaethon]

My 10 year old son has the rules memorized better than I do. He also has the cards almost completely committed to memory.

My 6 year old daughter has no trouble with counting the right number of dice (including adding height advantage and any bonding from glyphs/Raelin or Taelord). She has trouble remembering to count for height at times...

Both play the advanced game. Once in a great while my daughter and I will start a basic game, but within a turn, my daughter is wanting to use a special power and we switch.

The biggest problem she has is adding up the points. Everything else she can handle (although she doesn't invoke much strategy).

[CheddarLimbo]

I bought Marvel for my nephews in the hopes of getting them addicted. It worked, not only on them but their Dad loves it too! They've already got both Master sets since Christmas.

The only problem we have with the younger nephew (he just turned nine) is that he makes reckless strategic moves, but always gets upset when they don't play out like he'd like. We warn him that what he's about to do could backfire and why, but he usually doesn't listen.

He also whines or celebrates disproportionately when rolling for Initiative. We're like "Hey rolling is rolling...there's no skill. Get excited when you make a good tactical decision, not when you perform a random activity..."

He also still has trouble getting a balanced army together, but that will come with time.

I heard a good suggestion in another thread - some younger players will enjoy smaller skirmish battles, or setting up figures in a scenario position and saying "Okay, which of these three guys should move to kill this figure over here?" And then you teach them to recognize relative strengths and weaknesses.

Little drills like that seem to let the younger players focus on a small piece of the action at a time.