Reply To: Wargaming and Parenthood – A Tricky Mix

[Shaun Travers]

I decided to get back into gaming in 2010 after a long hiatus when my children were 2 and 4.  I started playing some games solo and blogged about them.  That was 6 years ago and  I still mostly game solo but do get in the occasional face to face game.

I started playing on 2’x2′ boards hidden away in some map drawers, originally as that was the only size that fits in the drawers, and also so the children  could not get at them.  I have not become very attached to that size table and play 15mm ancients, 6mm battalion/company WW2 and Skirmish 20mm WW2.

I also have a stack of old boardgames that I thought I would start playing too, but was so enamoured with playing with my miniatures that I could not bring myself to  play with cardboard counters.  A game I have always wanted to play – Steve Jackson’s One Page Bulge – I had setup in the map drawers for nearly three years before I finally played it earlier this year.  I have played a couple more boardgames since then but this year my focus has been elsewhere and so miniature gaming has slid a bit, but hopefully back at the normal pace by Christmas.

 

The children and I play the odd game here and there – the oldest I have played One hour Wargames when she as 8, the youngest Zombicide a few times earlier this year (he was 7).  We are likely to play some more games of various types – the three of us recently played a co-op 20mm WW2 game on a 4.5’x5′ (have not had a chance to write it up yet).  My next games with them I am hoping to setup a modern day THW Larger than Life/Pulp Alley type game focused on short table top games to find clues/objects/treasures that link together to solve a mystery.  They both love Scooby-Doo so something like that, but with each scene a table top encounter.

For the last three years we have also got in about about a dozen games of Warhammer Quest together (I posted one game with them here:

http://shaun-wargaming-minis.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/warhammer-quest-simplified-with-my.html )

My oldest (daughter) is nearly 10 and has expressed interest in painting some figures.  i was given a stack of plastic Warhammer Fantasy a few years ago and so I am hoping to set here loose on them sometime.  I don’t really paint much myself, and tend to purchase pre-painted, but have done a little bit here and there.

The blog is here: http://shaun-wargaming-minis.blogspot.com.au/

The 1000,000 post from a few years ago explains the setup a bit more and has a picture of the map drawers that are in the lounge:

http://shaun-wargaming-minis.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/100000-posts-and-retrospective.html

 

So my children made me go in unexpected directions (2’x2′ gaming) that I have found I love, and also provide gaming ideas as well.