Primary (or Elementary) Wargaming Club - Founding of Cardboard Carson 31/05/15

[admiraldick]

hi all,

I've decided to set myself a challenge.

The Challenge
I'm a primary school teacher and my experience with running various gaming experiences within school has boosted my confidence; I've decided to take the plunge and set up a miniature wargames club at school. however, the kids in my club will be between 8- and 11-years-old, which is pretty young by a lot of people standards. I realize that the hobby consensus is that 12 is about the youngest age anyone can take up 'serious' gaming. but I think that that is possibly because, as an industry, miniature wargaming has yet to develop in the way that video games and boardgames have. they have simply not tapped into the potential of younger gamer, with suitable gaming systems and miniatures.

there are plenty of parents out there that I think have picked up on this problem. when they have wanted to introduce their children to wargaming, they've struggled to find a ready supply of material to work with or that kids can get excited over.

The Reward
In making a club that is accessible to younger gamers and yet still meaningful and fun, I'm going to try and develop a format that encourages all parts of the hobby within sessions and not simply game play. we'll do terrain making, army list writing, model painting (maybe some simple conversions) and, of course, gaming. this will, I hope, make it exciting enough and engaging enough to keep kids focused.

all of these things will be at a level that is approachable by that age-range. we will be using simple games, simple miniatures and rough-and-ready terrain. it will be educational, challenging, exciting, fun and hopefully start to kindle a passion for this hobby in some future gamers.

The Question
does anyone here run gaming sessions with primary/elementary aged children? either at home with your own kids or as part of a club? how have you found the experience? what were the pitfalls and what were the unexpected successes? do you have any hints and tips for others in the same boat?

it would be really excellent to build up a network of 'wargames for kids'. adults who are trying to find a bit of help with playing games with individuals who are not at adult level can get advice on systems, models and anything else that will help.

[General M@yhem]

Sorry I can't offer advice but I'm interested to see/hear how you get on. I'm a Primary teacher too, and I'd like to know how it goes. Are you going to call it a 'Wargaming' club or use a more neutral title? Will it be a lunchtime club or after school? What's the max number you're looking at? Hope it's a success and look forward to reading about your progress. 

[admiraldick]

Thanks for your support General.

The name is far from set. In fact the whole idea was met with confusion by my colleagues. when I broached the idea with my line manager, she was concerned it might encourage members to form gangs and fight in the playground. I had to point out that that was unlikely.

I would like to call it something relatively neutral, but it still needs to be immediately recognisable as being about push models around. 'Tabletop Miniatures Club' is hardly very inspiring.

Numbers is also up in the air. It's not starting for another three weeks (after half term), so I've got time to find additional adult support. But as an opening idea I would aim for 8, and look at numbers again in a couple of weeks.

Much as it would be nice to fit it all into a lunch break, I don't think that's possible. If however the club is a big success and they want more playing time, I guess it's possible for it to runoff lunch time as well.

All these things are details to sort out over the next couple of weeks. Come the new half term the club should open it's doors. Any advice in the mean time is gladly welcome.

[dijit]

Ive run games of song of blades and heroes at a childrens club i help lead. That worked fine, and the kids were roughly the ages you talking about. Getting your hands on plenty of the Reaper Bones minis might be a good start too, theyre quite forgiving. Ive painted them with 8 year olds. Painting was a huge hit, as was making a castle for them out of carpet tubes.

[fastolfrus]

I've been running a school club for about 10 years.
We are based in a secondary school, but often get younger players visiting (usually siblings etc).
I've generally got about a dozen regulars, mixed ages 11-16, but have occasionally had as many as 28 crammed in (not recommended for comfort).

We currently play Empire of the Dead in the autumn term - seems appropriate on the run up to halloween - then shift over to another game in the spring.
This year we took up Osprey's On The Seven Seas - the boys loved shipbuilding (although we are using second hand foamcore from advertising signs not balsa).
We have modified the rules and re-drawn the map slightly.

Most players are boys, but the few girls that join are often very capable gamers.
We don't play any GW games - the boys decided they were too expensive.

[fastolfrus]

I would recommend trying Peter Pig's PBI rules - our younger players pick them up very quickly.
They have a number of advantages:
- historical game, so parents (and colleagues and governors) will accept that it's an educational project
- you can use any figures, including plastic figures (quite a few of our boys use Airfix etc, but PSC are very good)
- company sized forces, so you don't need lots of figures or vehicles (one box of PSC infantry can provide a full company)

biggest advantage - the game is played on a squared board.
No measuring ranges (less arguments).
If the square includes terrain, figures are in cover (no arguments about LoS etc).

The squares make it easy to compare to chess, which is socially acceptable (and not usually associated with playground gangs)

[warlord frod]

As an avid gamer I have always felt it was important to promote this great hobby. As a schoolteacher I have found the hobby is a great help to me as I use it in the classroom.  I have used a civil war game to teach my Jr. High History classes what it was like to fight brother against brother, friend against friend.  I have used my Roman Legions to tell the story of the rise of the Roman Empire. I have used “Chain mail” Jousting rules to increase my student’s interest in Medieval Europe.  Gaming and toy soldiers have sparked many a paper on Hannibal, World War II, Vietnam etc. I have used Role-playing to create a world where every room was locked with a history question and have had students beg to play after school.  I can honestly say I have successfully used my hobby to help students learn. 
   School clubs have long been considered a creative way to further student learning. A game club provides an excellent opportunity to develop student skills in a variety of areas. I have repeatedly demonstrated this in the schools where I have taught. I started game clubs for grades 5-8. We had as many as 20 members and met once a week.  When you consider the skills we use in gaming you can see why it can help young people become better students:
1.   Problem solving skills – how to over come an opponent, what will be the best strategy in a given situation, What forces can I bring to bear?
2.   Reading skills – Rules, charts, scenarios, not to mention background reading about a particular battle or time period.
3.   Math skills – figuring odds, estimating, measuring along with basic addition and subtraction.
4.   Research skills – Who where the Louisiana Tiger Zouaves? What did their uniform look like? What kind of elephants did Hannibal bring across the
        Alps? The possibilities are endless.
5.   Creativity – Painting toy soldiers, building scenery, creating story lines for role-play just to name a few.
All this and good healthy social interaction! When you approach a school administration with these facts its hard for them to say no. I can tell you it can be done and it makes better students while promoting the hobby we all love.

The younger the kids are the simpler you need to make the rules is all I found necessary to make it work.

I Highly recommend this article over at the Jr. General site. It has been very helpful to me.

http://www.juniorgeneral.org/howto/seminar.html

[Oldben1]

I am a high school teachers as well.  My son is 7 and we've had some luck with some gateway games, especially Heroquest(I printed the components off the Internet) and the board game Dungeon!  Both would be easy to buy or reproduce with easy rules.

 I've also seen some success with WOTC star wars miniatures and even Heroclix at that age group.  Most younger boys like superheroes.   All you would need are some of the flat maps, good for classroom storage.

[General M@yhem]

Any update on how this is progressing?

[admiraldick]

thanks for your interest General.

no progress as such so far. I'm looking to try and have an initial meeting next week (after the half term break) to gauge the children's interest in the idea.

I've decided that the first game we'll try and give a go will be Legends of the Old West; it's fun and straight forward and despite the fact that I already know my children don't have the faintest idea what a cowboy is, it doesn't take too much imagination to get behind it. also, I'm pretty familiar with the rules. because I'm working with younger than average kids, I've decided that the first batch of miniatures we'll use will be plastic cowboys and Indian toys. they are bigger and so easier for smaller hands, require no contruction (or repair) and still lend themselves to painting if and when we get round to it. and perhaps most importantly of all, from my perspective, they are cheap.

if that goes well (or terribly) other games that I've been looking into are Chain Reaction and A Song of Blades and Heroes. another way in which the club could develop is switching out 'toy soldiers' for pre-painted collectable figures, the kind that are made for D&D or Pathfinder these days. they're relatively common and so getting hold of surplus shouldn't be too costly.

I'm going to introduce the hobby in stages, so we'll just start with playing the game. then we'll realise as a group that they can paint the models . then hopefully they will cotton on to the fact there isn't quite enough terrain for all of us, and decide we need to spend some sessions building more (it will be very rough and ready, but it will be their own). we probably won't introduce playing a different game until after the summer (unless they really, really need to).

[admiraldick]

some small progress.

it's the half term holidays here, so I needed to make sure I got underway with this project otherwise it would never get off the ground. having settled on LotOW as the rules and plastic figures as the models, terrain was the next big step. to that end, I spent yesterday knocking out some Old West buildings as quickly as I could, and I'm rather pleased with the design I came up with. bare in mind that these are unfinished, unpainted buildings with an aesthetic that is deliberately 'child-friendly' rather than realistic. here are what a few of them look like.



however, the part that I'm most proud of was my solution for the perennial problem of club storage space.



ductape hinges and a polystyrene 'plug' to hold the building's shape. not a complicated system, but one that works. it also allowed me to play around with more sophisticated build shapes.

[warlord frod]

That is the best idea I have seen in a long long time. I often made my buildings out of papare for our club meetings because they could very easily be replaced. I never thought of making them so they could be stored flat. They seem to lok quite durable. Please post pictures when you get them painted. Great stuff 

[dadlamassu]

I played "war" games with my own children using slightly simplified or home made rules.  Now I run games for my grandchildren age range 3-8.  Again I use simplified rules.  The main simplifications are to reduce the rules as far as possible to a couple of sides of A-4 paper, keep everything simple with very few or no modifiers at first then start introducing things later.  Be prepared to justify why it is harder to hit a target in cover etc as the kids experience is on TV and cartoons.

I have also run similar games at conventions in Scotland for about 30 years.  Some of them are on the website:  http://www.morvalearth.co.uk/Misc_Games/other%20games.htm

The latest one is Skull Island http://www.morvalearth.co.uk/Skull%20Island/Skull_Island_Intro.htm  and includes downloads of all the rules and bits and pieces we used.

Best wishes and it will be a lot of hard, but very rewarding, work!

[admiraldick]

@warlord frog: glad you like them. I wanted a design that was quick and easy to make and that the children could easily reproduce when we needed more terrain. I'll make all the complicated buildings, such as the sheriffs office, water tower, hotel and so on, and they can make the straight forward shops. I will try and paint up some of the buildings this evening. hopefully, I can post some images tomorrow.

@dadlamassu: those look really interesting. I'll enjoy taking a good look through it all. thanks.

[General M@yhem]

What a great idea. really looking forward to hearing how you get on next half term. All the best!.