Beginners and non-IGO-UGO activation

[shandy]

Hi

recently, our ten years old nephew and his dad stayed with us and we played two games of Sharp Practice (Wars of the Roses variant). Interestingly, they both liked it very much! The dad is a board gamer but, apart from X-wing, plays no war-games; the kid was introduced to Ganesha Games rules last year.

I admit that this is anecdotal evidence, but it seems that there is no 'natural' preference towards IGO-UGO by beginners. They accepted the card driven activation mechanics as a part of the game and were happy to play along and make the best out of what happened. It seems that there is no need for conservative rule mechanics just because you play with beginners as long as they have fun and feel like they can actually do something.

For me, this was quite an insight - I enjoy the likes of TFL activation, but wasn't sure if it would be too much for people who don't know anything about wargames and have enough trouble understanding the basic concepts. Well, I'm happy to be proven wrong!
Have a look at our games at http://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2014/08/17/fun-for-young-and-old/

Cheers,
Shandy