Teddy Bear Wars

[FutureFarm]

I've got a 4 year old who is interested in everything I'm doing (as most little kids are).  I've started designing her some teddy bear armies similar to what Eureka used to sell.  Does anyone know of any very simple rules we could use.  She's good at counting and rolling dice but probably can't think her way into flanking maneuvers or exploiting terrain advantages yet. 

If you're interested in how the bears are progressing, more pictures are posted at compactwargaming.blogspot.com

[LordOdo]

This is awesome! You and your daughter will probably have lots of fun!
For rules you could maybe even look at something as easy as Risk (the boardgame); just make sure you have terrain which can be divided into 'isles' which can be fought over. Sort of island hopping; which makes sense given the piraty theming.

[dadlamassu]

Try here, outline rules in the text.
https://altefritz.blogspot.com/2007/12/first-teddy-bear-battle.html





 I have used modified Zona Alfa rules for a Christmas game
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=128510.msg1629319#msg1629319

[AndrewBeasley]

Have to point you to https://www.ganeshagames.net/product_info.php?cPath=1_6&products_id=13


Sir Uppity Paws for the win!

[FutureFarm]

I've taken a good long look at buying A Song of Fur and Buttons but haven't pulled the trigger yet.  Are there any reviews/playthroughs online? 

[Hobgoblin]

I think it's essentially Song of Blades and Heroes - so individually based skirmish rather than rank and flank.

The core activation mechanic is rolling between one and three dice to determine the number of actions. A success is equal to or higher than the character's quality score (Q), so the lower the Q, the better (2 is best). Rolling two failures are once ends your turn. So if you rolled 1, 2 and 6 for a Q3 character, he or she would get one action and then play would pass to the opponent. The big conceptual thing is the risk/reward balance - aim for more actions at the risk of ending your turn or play it safe by only rolling one die for each character?

An activated character can move, shoot or attack with an action (generally only once per turn for the latter two, although two actions can be combined to give an 'aimed shot' or a 'power blow').

Combat is like DBA - an opposed d6 roll with modifiers, chiefly each character's combat stat (C). The highest total wins; a doubling of the opponent's total is a kill.

That's about it - the action economy and 'how many dice' decision are at the heart of the game. It's a great way to teach small children simple addition and - eventually - simple probabilities. For very small kids, it's probably best to give them a force made of a few powerful characters with good (i.e. low) Q scores so that they always roll three dice and only 1s are failures. Kids don't need to understand the probabilities initially - there's the excitement of rolling dice and hoping to avoid 1s (or 1s and 2s or whatever).

The SOBH engine is really good, and the action tends to be quite cinematic - knockdowns, pushbacks and so on.

[Hobgoblin]

Also, movement uses measurement sticks, which are 'leapfrogged'. All movement is in straight lines (you need two move actions to turn a corner), so it's very simple and intuitive - no messing around with measuring tapes!

[FutureFarm]

Sounds like it might be over her head for a few years but definitely something to remember once she gets older.

[Burgundavia]

What about something cooperative like Sellswords - it is skirmish, but cooperative means you can play with them.