Overview

I agree with both @W.A.Rorie and @Grotsmasha, though I'm going to focus my recommendation on the Space Marine Adventures games. My main reason for this is that the hobby aspect of these games is very light: five or so push-fit models (easy to assemble) in different colors (you don't have to paint them if you don't want to) and relatively simple components create a very low barrier to entry. This is especially helpful in using them as a gateway into the larger hobby. The only one of these games that I personally own is Rise of the Orks (you can see my review of the game here). The other games in the series are Labyrinth of the Necrons, Tyranid Attack!, and Doomsday Countdown (the adversaries are in the names, except for the last which features Chaos cultists). If I recall correctly, [some of] these games were available through a mainstream retailer in the UK, but I forget the name. If your nephew shows an interest in whatever game you choose, painting miniatures is the next step. If his interest grows/continues, moving up to either Kill Team or Combat Patrol (or the fantasy equivalents if that's where his interest takes him) is the next logical step. And a plug for my favorite WH40K gateway game: if you can get your hands on either the 2009 or 2014 editions of Space Hulk, those are a great progression from a simple boardgame into the larger tabletop miniature wargames. The miniature assembly is more complicated than the other boardgames, and there are more miniatures to assemble (and maybe paint). There is a lot of replayability in that game, as long as the difficulty [for the Space Marines] is acceptable. The game is long out of print, though, so you may find it difficult to acquire.

As @W.A.Rorie suggested, the smaller standalone games are a great intro, typivally playing faster 30-45mins per game, with minimal maths. The next step from there would be the Warhammer Quest Games. Blackstone Fortress for 40k, and Cursed City for AoS (there is the new Darkwater, but it is significantly more expensive vs. the two previous entries. My favourites have been SMA: Rise of the Orks, SMA: Doomsday Countdown, WHQ: Blackstone Fortress, and Gretchinz for 40k, and WH AoS: Crypt Hunters and WHQ Cursed City for AoS.

... and then you realize that all your efforts will lead to the only logical conclusion: you "need" more models and you resume buying stuff. The plan was to go step by step with increased complexity; which is a smooth way for amnaging the learning curve. Then to keep the momentum you add other aspects of hobbying, so that they also help introducing some new concepts. Modelling and flocking styfoam hills has been for us a great event, very fruitful, as it helped managing the interseason and eased the adoption of some figures and concepts such as being outnumbered (army 1 and 2 cannot be compared on a 1 to 1 model basis, girl) or focussing on objectives that are not just killing all the enemies (Priorities in scenarii...). But it also brought on the table some new questions and challenges: - "Papy, when will we use the full army? - Soon, but it is a little bit unbalanced vs. the other one; it lacks of [insert here any unit/character that may be needed and is not available in your collection] while the other army gets one, you see - Dad, why don't you buy one?" It was not in the budget. And it requires developping another aspect of the teaching: teach the tods how to manage frustration and envy when their own ressources are limited. Because teaching how to play a social game also requires gathering around the table these social abilities ; the educational part I imagine... So what? Well I bought this model for getting a central figure to be used as a general....

Haha, glad I could help. Not sure how but glad all the same.

Welcome to the Club @Mysterion and @Para__Digm

The Space Marine, Space Marine Adventures: Tyranid Attack, or Dawn of War: Onslaught board games may be a good gateway. The are more like a board game then a tabletop game. Not sure if they are available in the UK unfortunately. With my kids, I just have them take a set points (Like 40 pts) and have them fight my 40 points with no terrain. I plan to add some terrain but keep it small points like this to get them familiar with it. Also the data cards are nice for this.

My daughter is still far too young to be introduced to the hobby, but I have a nephew who is 13, nearly 14. We play a lot of video games together, as well as some board games and tabletop football. He has shown an interest in my minis, my setup, and the WH setting, but he is instantly turned off from playing because of the maths element of the game. I have offered to ease him into the game the best I can, but maths is a topic he really struggles with, to the point of anxiety. I was wondering if anyone had been in a similar position and could offer advice on how to introduce him without overwhelming him?

You're new to the hobby and B&C, and you've already shown me something I didn't know! I had no idea this club was here. I replied to your intro thread, so I won't repeat myself here, but welcome again :)

Hey Parents of B&C! Very neat to have a place to talk to other parents who enjoy the hobby and are teaching the youngins along the way. As the title suggests i have 9 kiddos 7 boys 2 girls, ages New Born - 19, Mostly the boys have enjoyed my new hobby. I'm only a year in but have enjoyed painting with my kiddos at home and at the GW shop. I have posted a introduction here Balancing Life and Plastic Heresy Cant wait to meet and get to know everyone!

I can't recommend starting with the smaller boxed games (Doomsday Countdown and the Combat Arenas are great as they have miniatures for both/all sides). They're very beginner friendly, and only run 30mins or so, which is great for the reduced attention span the younger ones tend to have.

All parents welcome.

That's great work @Bouargh, you obviously put a lot of effort into that, even if it didn't quite work out the way it was intended. I think terrain could be a great way to go - Jr was gifted some Mechanicum terrain which he has loved painting up and we made some scratch built tree trunks a while back too. It all adds to the immersion of the game, the world building. And, of course, it is a lot of fun!

Second game has allowed testing my strategy of progressive introduction of rules with increased complexity. Yet, to be fair, I had to chaage some settings in significative ways to achieve this. First game focussed on simple movement and shooting. Second game tried to introduce HtH and some psychology rules; which meant that units should reach close combat situation at least. As a consequence I have changed part of the army lists too, which caused some small trouble while trying to explain that fairness was not affected. But even there, gods of dice made the thing hard to comply with: indeed, by selecting a highly unreliable army (mine) as an opponent to a highly reliable army (hers), I have forced the omens toward an almost garanteed victory for the learner. But it also hinders my chances to create a situation that allows introducing the new targeted rule as my units barely reached a position suitable to make use of thir toothpikes or fearsome shouts and screams. This is a tough learning: it is better to bet on reliable enough forces to generate the situation you wish teaching, otherwise you miss the goal. I will probbaly have to change again my attack angle and set a force that can lead to the plot setting needed. Another alternative option is to go through a scenario that will chaage the scope of the fight: getting her army ambushed might be an idea worth being explored when I will introduce characters' rules for example... Yet I feel like this step may require a change of approach and get a scenery workshop first: participating in the building her own hills and cliffs may favour a better acceptation of such a different setting.

Hi all. I'm not sure how applicable the things in this club will be for me, given at the moment my daughter is only a young toddler, but I will be reading avidly of your experiences for if/when the time comes that my daughter expresses an interest in the hobby. I don't think it's something I would seek to actively 'push' onto my daughter, because at the end of the day this is a hobby and we all enjoy different things etc. However, I am aware that children watch what mum and dad do, very closely haha! Thanks for having me!

Hi, I am bouargh and my girl is 8 y.o. or almost. She has been hooked by the painting part of the hobby. And even if she is not exactly that precise and clean, she has determination. Long time has been spent wondering about trying a game or not. Which we did last weekend. Yet not with 40k but with WFB (6th Ed). My purpose was to get first something she manifested interrest for on the table. Yet my 40k miniatures are equally painted and might be used sooner or latter (and I have more nice scenery too). But the setting of WFB is also more kid friendly that space opera warefare that reminds a lot about news and modern era horrors (from a 8y.o. girl perspective). Most learning can be be extended to any gaming introduction attempt though: Use of painted miniatures only (she is fond of dwarves) that she mostly selected herself because she like them An equally fully painted antagonist army but that will leave enough random actions and uncertainity so that I will be penalized while she will play her units as she feels like. Night Gobs + snots were perfect. It is important that the game leave room for the youngster to win without giving the feelign that the tutor is loosing on purpose Get a full table with scenery (again the outlook matters) Start with a small game with simple units but not too small - 1000 pts, 40"x40" Set an army selection with limited types of units so that rules are kept simple and introduced one by one. take time to explain main features of units and trun sequences prior to start. Go in the details live. First round will be long. Proceed to a cleaning of all unnecessary advanced rules - for example no General/Army Standard leadership, no magic, no flyers, no army rule selection restriction (for her side at least)... Keep it short - 2 h max inc. chocolate and snacking pause Victory was hers. I even hadn't to force myself. I made some stupid deployment decision, animosity blocked half of my army all the time and randomized impacts were on the 1s side of the dice rather than of the 6s. Her dwarves were quite resilients and her guessing of distance poor but largely compensated by lucky artillery dice results. Now it will be important to set the next step. My initial though is: it is key to consolidate the base cas. Maybe repeating the game again with the same armies but changing deployment zones. Now that she saw the dirty Night Gobs tricks in action, she might start including anticipation in her play. Key I guess is to set a kind of regularity into the learning pace: Not too much but enough to allow the seed to grow. PS1: Other side benefit: WFB is in inches while my metering is in cm: it helps stimulating her with mental calculation exercises. Quick wins... PS2: I might anyway make an attempt with 40k, but probably not before 6 months or so; Big tanks are appealing too; but too much info might be nefastious, so it is better to wait a little bit for a while.

I use my whfb imperials and orc to represent armies rome vs. goons.

That is awesome.

My son has moved up to secondary (high) school this year. All of a sudden, art classes have taken a huge leap forward and his homework assignment for the last two weeks was to create a colour wheel. Not just draw or paint one but to 'create' something's special. Having told me about it, I asked him what he thought he could use for his homework. His first thought was 'minis'. Uh oh. This wasn't going to be a project he could do in an hour... Jr submitted the idea of a mini divided into three primary colours, three more of secondary colours which them move into a tertiary ring of nine minis. 'That won't be cheap,' I said, 'let me see what I have in the loft'. A while back I had bought an eBay lot of used marines I thought I could use for painting practice of conversions or stuff. So we set about sorting through a pile of bits and he started gluing them up. <Pict issue> Then we went through my paint stash and selected his preferred colours I gave them a spray of Corax White <Pict issue> and we got cracking <Pict issue> It ended up being a bit of a rush job as we went away to the seaside for the weekend but we got it done. The teacher was really pleased with the effort he put in and he loved putting his hobby into his school work. I was happy to take on the role of assistant, priming and getting (some of) those basecoats on. I wonder how else we can work Warhammer into school work? Dice rolls in math...?

Hi, I'm Grotz (Jono), and my lad is 14, and has a casual interest in the hobby. He will predominantly only participate in shorter boardgame play, and has zero interest in the creative side of the hobby. He has a bit of the 'tism and since hitting double digits is largely only interested in non-fictional things, and a particular interest in modern historical war infantry weaponry. Of all the board games, he prefers Blackstone Fortress as the "bad guys" and making it as hard as possible for his mother and I.

Hello! I am Rusted Boltgun, father to one Junior Boltgun, aged 11. We play Space Hulk v.1 Kill Team '21 40k 10ed (or at least we will when we get there) Jr is developing his own homebrew Astartes chapter - a slow grow project, it develops when he picks up the brushes every couple of months. For Kill Team we have Ork Kommandos, Phobos Marines, Scouts and Vespids painted up. Plenty more squads and terrain left to paint. For Big 40K I am slowly growing Astartes and Ork armies (with smaller GSC, Tyranid and Votann forces in future).

So I am W.A.Rorie and I am (Step) Dad to 6 boys. My wife has one biological (adult) son with her ex husband and they adopted the other 6. I will going to be starting the process of legally adopting them shortly as their adopted father has passed away. I have no kids of my own. My sons are: 12 years old (Eldar originally Genestealer cult but did not want to pursue it and was given an Eldar army from one of Gaming clubmates) 11 Years old (Blood Angels) 11 Years old (Ultramarines originally wanted Deathguard but decided against it ) 10 years old (Necrons) The other 2 boys are 7 and still too young.