My Kids are dying to wargame, but games aimed at their age and ability level are dwindling, and the best ones to really hook them are out of print. What’s up with this?
On a lazy Sunday morning about a month ago a dream of mine came true. With an uncharacteristically blank calendar, I grabbed a box out of the garage that I had been saving for just the right moment. It was Battle Masters, a Milton Bradley / Games Workshop collaboration from 1992. Ten years previously I had spotted this “98% Complete” copy on eBay for under $100 and, gripped by irrepressible nostalgia, I grabbed it with almost no hesitation. It had the giant, vinyl mat (55×57 inches!), nearly every game piece, and all the miniatures still on the sprue. That afternoon I was walking with my girlfriend and told her about my impulse buy, confessing I had no better plan than hoping I would one day play it with my future kids. Being the infinitely generous and supportive woman she is, she gave me the kids to go with my game, and ten years later looked on, bemused, as the three of us clipped 33 year old models from sprues and assembled two huge armies on the living room floor.
And this got me thinking: Where are the games to bring kids into the hobby today? Assuming most gamer parents aren’t holding on to their oldest games (or re-buying them off eBay before their kids are even born, like a lunatic), what games are bringing kids into the hobby? I honestly don’t know. I spotted Battle Masters roaming the aisles at Toys R Us when I was 8 years old. That is also where I found Hero Quest and Dark World (which I think is a Canadian knock off of the former). These games came with loads of minis, gorgeous boards and terrain, and if you looked at the back of any of their boxes, you saw kids playing them.
The interesting thing is that these games did not need to be good, just accessible. Battle Masters is a terrible game. I know this will piss some people off and likely confuse everyone else, given the fact that I lovingly shepherded this game through two moves and and kept it unpunched for all that time (Ok, I assembled and painted the tower). It is incredibly basic, giving players almost zero strategic decisions. The game mat has a hex grid overlay and all units move a single space per activation (yes, mounted units included). Units are activated by drawing cards from a bespoke deck, and the board is crowded, making traffic jams highly likely. All units have a single stat, which tells you how many dice to roll for both attack and defense. You can count the number of meaningful choices you will make in a game on a single hand.
But here’s the thing: my 7 and 8-year-old boys loved it. If you are not a parent then you cannot understand how happily kids will play truly terrible games. Tic-Tac-Toe, War (the card game), freaking Mouse Trap. With this in mind, these older games put the money where it mattered. Battle Masters came with two full armies featuring a wide variety of heavily GW influenced minis. The Empire army has halberdiers (Men-at-Arms), bowmen, crossbowmen, Knights and Lord Knights (which feel more Bretonnian than Empire) and a canon. The forces of Chaos are highly amalgamated from the evil factions of the time, with knights, warriors and archers, but also orcs, goblins, wolf riders, beastmen and an ogre. Miniatures with shields get colorful stickers for them, with bright, sometimes gaudy designs. It took us about an hour to get everything set up, but the boys can (and have) set up subsequent games on their own. And with the rules being so incredibly simple, they can play it without my help and have already taught several friends.
Who is GW marketing to today? It’s not kids. Above are the only promotional images with people I could find on Warhammer.com. Wandering through Target, Walmart and local toy stores I cannot find miniature focused games aimed at young kids. Sure, Hero Quest has been remastered, but what else is there to bring young folks into the hobby? X-Wing was nearly perfect (my boys learned to play it with some help), but it’s out of production. Star Wars in general has excellent name recognition and cool factor, but Legion and Shatterpoint are way too complex for younger kids. I have high hopes for the upcoming Battle of Hoth boardgame, but knowing the Command & Colors system on which it is based, it might make a better bridge to actual strategy and tactical games than an introductory one.
Do you know of any games that are good for bringing kids into the hobby? My boys would love to play them! Sound off in the comments with any glaring omissions or suggestions.
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OMG taking me back, I loved those games as a kid!
I have started playing Space Crusade with my 9 yr old
I have had good experiences with King of Tokyo.
I have heard good things, I will check it out. Thanks for the suggestion!
Risk Europe is pretty fun actually, and its available second hand for 20-30 bucks. It doesnt have player elimination, and the pieces for the four armies are all different and really cool. Axis and allies is what i grew up on, anything with tons of plastic is probably good. Memoir 44 is still in print too
I haven’t tried Risk Europe but will definitely check it out. I grew up on Axis and Allies as well and should have mentioned it, but I think it and Memoir might be more like intermediate games. My 8 year old probably read the rules just fine, but I bet he would not fully understand them, and my 7 year old would likely not fare well. But these are definitely in the queue!
Necromolds! It’s fairly simple, and when the monies die… They’re made of playdough so you get to smash them. Kids love it.
Great suggestion!
Came here o mention Necromolds.
Such a brilliant introduction to tabletop miniatures games, and you can choose different levels of complexity.
Was going to mention this one. Its a perfect intro wargame that kids would love cause playdough!
One Page Rules?
Definitely something they could play, but I was speaking more to a complete boxed set experience. They would never see that at a store and know they could play it, and I would have to help them source minis, but it would definitely be a good intro actual tabletop wargames!
Try Necromolds, cool concept of skirmish wargame where your army is made out of play doh from character moulds! Basic version is more complex than battlemasters (which I now have to see if my old one is still in my parents loft!) but accessable for older kids, and had expansions that add extra rules.
A lot of love for Necromolds on here, gonna have to try it!
Yes. Necromolds is so much fun and makes a terrific gateway into tabletop minis gaming
The only game I can think of is necromolds. Unfortunately while it’s new, they keep pushing back the restock time, it has moved from early 2025 to late 2025 so far
So many folks recommending this, I gotta get my hands on it!
I’m curious if you have considered Gaslands or Hairfoot Jousting? If they managed with Xwing it could work.
I am keen to follow the thread and see if there are any more suggestions, my 3 and 8 year olds are getting more and more curious about my collection
Gaslands seems so fun, but I wonder if the boys could keep from playing with the cars during the game. This was the biggest draw back with X-wing. “Once the game starts the ships stay where they are” was a constant refrain.
CoraQuest is a fun re-implementation of HeroQuest that’s very accessible to kids (the art is all drawn by kids, including the designer’s own daughter, and it doesn’t take itself even remotely seriously).
As a fellow kid owner of Battle Masters, Spearhead seems like the closest attempt GW has made to do a Battle Masters style game. I’m not sure it’s as accessible as its predecessor, and it’s still built on top of Age of Sigmar, but it’s at least a streamlined (for the best) variant of the base game. I think 40k has a similar variant (combat patrol?) but the Age of Sigmar models seem to draw a lot more interest from younger kids than Space Marines.
I will definitely check out CoraQuest, thanks for the rec!
I doubt I will be getting my boys a spearhead or combat patrol any time soon, but I don’t actually know when they will be ready for those sets. Even so, they still aren’t complete games, but more like half (or one third, if you count the rulebook and anything else outside of minis). Still, they are meant to be easier onramps.
Heroscape. It’s not prepainted any more, but it’s still a nice simple minis based board game perfect for kiddos and back in print again
Absolutely getting this within the next year or so!
Interesting point about the Heroquest re-release is that it’s now labelled as 14+ rather than 10+ despite being the exact same game, which I imagine would stop many parents from buying it for a 7-9 year old (as many of us were when we first played). I know it was my introduction to gaming at the age of six or seven, and having introduced my daughter at the same age, I can confirm that it’s still a fantastic introduction to miniatures and gaming in general.
I understand labelling as 14+ makes it easier to pass safety regulations if there’s small parts, but could this be part of the reason why simpler big box games aimed at kids aren’t being released so much these days? After all, by the time kids actually hit 14, they’ll no doubt be ready for something more complex already.
The labeling thing is something I have been mulling over a lot recently. I got a box of plastic space marines, super glue and an x-acto knife before I was 10. I sliced my fingers a lot, when I wasn’t gluing them together, but I still have all of them. I agree that a lot of this stuff is really meant for younger kids, but it is prohibitively difficult to get appropriate labels and it bugs me.
Castle Risk was what I played before Axis and Allies. In guessing your kids are almost ready for Axis and Allies, though with the early edition rules. Been playing Lord of the Rings Stratego with my 6 and 9 year old, as an intro as well…
They will 100% be forced to play Axis & Allies one day… I gotta check out Castle Risk!
The Jerry Hawthorne dungeon crawlers are great games to play with kids (ie- parents gaming with their kids). They use a spiral bound book for their dungeon crawler maps (with story, special rules and set up on the opposite page).
I don’t think I saw any gateway games like that when I was younger (and playing Space Crusade)
The games are Stuffed Fables, Aftermath and Familiar Tales (Familiar Tales uses an app, the other two do not)
These sound really cool, thanks!
Heroscape! This was the game that got me into tabletop gaming as a kid and they just did a new edition last year. Prebuilt minis with tons of diverse fun themes, cool modular hex terrain that lets you build your own maps, it’s a blast!
A lot of people saying this! I never played it, but it seems to have really stuck with folks, like these other games. I gotta check out the new edition!
To be fair with the Warhammer Alliance programme GW are supporting hobbyists of an age only a year or 2 older than your kids. In a digital age we are seeing more presence of wargaming from the Warhammer world on phone and console/PC which has been massive at making the Warhammer hobby more mainstream.
There used to be a wealth of great self contained board games such as Space Crusade (my personal jumping in point), Space Hulk and Warhammer Quest (which is 30 years old this year so….you never know!)
But honestly, you’ll find Warhammer stores are aimed at new hobbyists with samples of painting and games you can try in the shop. But I’ve found the Introduction Sets for 40k and Age of Sigmar have been a great gift for friends and family who wanted an all-in-1 box. Push-fit Minis, paints, tools, board, dice and easy rules. Job done.
Good luck on your wargaming venture. Fingers crossed for a new Warhammer Quest (although the current one Cursed City is really nice).
I would absolutely pay all the money for a new Warhammer Quest for my boys. I had not heard of Warhammer Alliance, but I have been in loads of Warhammer stores and I know they are doing amazing work bringing in new hobbyists. In general, they seem to be focusing on people over 20. I have brought my boys into multiple stores and the staff seems universally uninterested in engaging with them at all. My point about the kids games was really about whether or not they could purchase it and decode it on their own, if need be. My parents had zero interest in miniature games, and even most board games. If I convinced them to buy me a game, I needed to learn how to play it myself. I convinced them to buy me Battle Masters and a copy of Rogue Trader when I was about 8 years old. One was an instant classic and the other I mostly like for the art.
I recommend 1775: Rebellion. It’s got a massive map to fight over and I believe the newer edition has plastic soldiers (though I prefer wooden cubes!). My boys started playing it when they were eight and ten. The mechanics and rules are really very straightforward.
I actually played this during lockdown on TTS with a buddy. We ultimately decided it wasn’t for us, but we love our ranks of minis and such. However, this could be a great game for the boys, and one that would give me a golden opportunity to start teaching them about the Revolution, a favorite historical setting of mine. Thanks for reminding me of this game!
Bloodfields by Titan forge. We tried it at UK games expo. Definitely reckon kids could play it. But my 12yr old is set on his Tyranid combat patrol for now
I have heard good things about Titan Forge!
Check out necromolds. 12/10 game. Designed with multiple rulesets for beginner, intermediate, and advanced gamers. Super fun game
It’s on the short list, now. This comment section loves it.
Heroscape?
It’s a good ‘un!
Why not take a look at zoontalis. I remember paying it at UK games expo two years ago. It’s a skirmish size game but the rules are straightforward
Thanks for the suggestion!
Stuffed Fablea for a HeroQuest type game.
HeroQuest has a version called First Light that is designed to be a more accessible entry to the game.
My Little Scythe, whilst not a traditional war game, had the PvP, battling and area control commonly found in war games.
A more left field choice is Flick Fleet. A flicking game of space battles that is way more fun than you’d think.
Loads of rad suggestions here, thank you!
Battle masters is currently being revised with a King Kong spin link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/restorationgames/battle-monsters-godzilla-x-kong
I would also recommend heading over to https://boardgamegeek.com/
They aim to log every boardgame ever made. You can find loads of kids games on the site.
Once you find a game you like I would go to https://boardgameprices.co.uk/
Where you will be able to find online stores with prices and stock.
This is some excellent info, thanks! I’m well acquainted with BBG, but never heard of this game. It looks gorgeous!
My kids like mice and mystics. We have heroquest and my little scythe. Not tried them on super dungeon explore yet.
I gotta check out Mice and Mystics
Snap Ships Tactics is the other “kids wargame” that I have found. It doubles as a Lego/Erector type of toy as well!
I have never heard of this, but my youngest loves building lego and other construction oriented things, thanks!
So I know it’s a 40 year old game and many seem to market it towards older folks who have been around since those days it came out, but Battletech is a good game I got my son into. We started when he was 11 and been playing it since, even painting the mechs together. The Alpha Strike version of the game is far simpler than the full tabletop hex based system. But it’s a good introduction with fun strategies. And just the Alpha Strike box is all you need to start, it comes with a good number of minis to start playing as well as cardboard map pieces.
So I know it’s a 40 year old game and many seem to market it towards older folks who have been around since those days it came out, but Battletech is a good game I got my son into. We started when he was 11 and been playing it since, even painting the mechs together. The Alpha Strike version of the game is far simpler than the full tabletop hex based system. But it’s a good introduction with fun strategies. And just the Alpha Strike box is all you need to start, it comes with a good number of minis to start playing as well as cardboard map pieces.
I somehow missed the boat on Battletech, but I bet my boys would love playing as giant robots!
Necromolds is the perfect recommend for what you asked but might also consider the latest remake of crossbow and catapults a bit of strategy and lots of physical toy aspect to it.
If C&C is what I am thinking of I remember wanting it but never actually getting to play it!
I’m going to make a case for 1490 Doom. 3 miniatures per side with a really light ruleset. Everything you need can either be kitbashed, scratch built, or 3D printed. You could even go cheaper and just printed paper craft terrain and standees for the miniatures. If you want actual minis, there are so many plastic/resin options now from Non-GW companies. Once they learn the rules game are about 30 minutes. I’ve played 3 times now and it was pretty fun.
This sounds awesome, will check it out!
Look into Necromolds. You’re welcome.
Dungeons & dragons. Built layouts with lego and now lego even has figures and red dragon. I know I have 1st 2nd gen stuff so it was much easier when it first came out.
Dungeons & dragons. Built layouts with lego and now lego even has figures and red dragon. I know I have 1st 2nd gen stuff so it was much easier when it first came out. Oh and many collector cards from shows and movies and all non sports stuff.
My 7 y/o is hooked on SmallWorld. It is a fantasy war board game that is simple to learn, but has an amazing amount of variability from game to game. I highly recommend it.
Star Wars Battle of Both comes out next month I believe. It is Memoir 44 modified to be faster and more family friendly. Looks great.
GW has some mass market titles that they bury on their dedicated website. In the US these are found at Barnes & Noble. Some are more kid friendly than others, and all are lead in games to their regular line. The stand out is Blitz Bowl, a scaled down and simplified teaser for the eternally popular Bloodbowl.
GW has some mass market titles that they bury on their dedicated website. In the US these are found at Barnes & Noble. Some are more kid friendly than others, and all are lead in games to their regular line. The stand out is Blitz Bowl, a scaled down and simplified teaser for the eternally popular Bloodbowl.
Try the GW “light” games sold at Barnes & Noble
Necromolds
Snap Ship Tactics
Heroquest: First Light (at Target, Walmart, etc.).
Heroscape
Battle masters and Hero quest were both great. Also had Dark tower back in the day. These days playing Descent and Warhammer ( Brettonians, Beastmen and Chaos Space Marines)
The old Star Wars Miniatures by WoTC was how we got into gaming as kids, and though it took us a bit to learn, it helped out with math skills a bit in the long run. Dont forget, too, that you can always use “house rules” to simplify mechanics they cant quite grasp yet. They might even find it fun to make up their own rules to make a game their own. I know we did!
I just got my 7 year old into Battletech. We are using the Starter Box and Target had an Essentials Box – which is another starter box but with different Mechs. It’s a simplified version of the traditional rules (and different from Alpha Strike mentioned above). It’s been great. The 5 year old is also very excited to try it.
I think it’s the best intro to wargaming out there at the moment, and is especially intriguing to those who have played/ seen the MechWarrior videogames.
While not a full blown strategy game, using poker chips instead of minis, and pretty expensive for a board game the Elder Scrolls boardgame that came out recently was an excellent starting place for my 7 year old nephew to get used to playing this sort of thing.
OMG! we had 2 battle master games where I and my three brothers would pull out both battle mats, all of the figures, dice and cards from both sets and have EPIC Saturday battel royals.
The Warhammer underworlds series and the Halo skirmish are both quick playing and accessible complete experiences that I haven’t seen mentioned yet. Cursed City was also excellent.
I think he most wargame-y for me would be crossbows and catapults. As a solo player when I was younger, I didn’t play the rules. But getting it for my kids was an eye opener. 6inch movement for the little plastic dudes, terrain (destructible), and of course the eponymous crossbows and catapults flinging stones all over the house.
World of TanksMinitures game has been good to get my boys into moving Minitures and thinking about objective play. The model count is remarkably low (similar to X-wing).