So I'm in Bratislava, Slovakia now and about to begin the exciting job of teaching English for the next year. It's been very fun so far and I'm relishing the opportunity to soak in a new culture and get new life experiences.
Big thanks go out to Old Shatter Hands for his networking to get me the job over here and giving me lots of insight into places to go and things to do while here. Props also for his helping me start learning the complex and very multi-layered Slovak language.
Later today I will be taking a bus with my new colleagues out to a summer camp the language school is running for children. During a meeting with the owner of the school, he asked me how I came to know Old Shatter Hands. When I explained that it was through wargaming and explained the basic premise to him, he thought it might be a fun activity to play with some of the kids, if I'm willing to bring the models.
Now I only have my Deathwing and there are only a few of them (27 total). Given that the children are going to have variable comfort and skill levels in English, I'll need to bring the rules waaaaay down from their current level so that we can have fun games but not get completely lost in the combination of poor rules and language barriers :-)
So my thirty second rules ideas are something like this:
- Giving regular terminators a 5+ save, SS termies get a 3+ save.
- Storm bolters are 2 shot. They need 6s to cause a wound (skip the hit and then wound mechanic)
- Assault cannons are 4 shot, needing 6s also. Cyclones are 1 shot needing a 3+ to wound.
- If TH termies get into combat, they need a 3+ to wound (again, combining hit and wound rolls). LC termies wound on a 5+ but get two attacks. Regular termies need a 6 to wound with one attack.
- I'll probably include the run rules so the assault termies can rush up a bit.
- Each team/player has to choose if they want a shooty or an assault squad.
I will be leaving out Belial and the Librarian from the game (or use them as objectives maybe) to keep it simple, which gives me 3 assault squads and 2 shooty squads.
So tell me what you think people. Does this look like a fun game that will interest the kids and give them a chance to use English, without completely confusing them?
Any and all advice is gratefully received.
All the best
Pete
A lot depends on what age the kids are.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered starting from the Kill Team rules, so that each player has lots of little guys to use, rather than one squad each? This also lets you add in objectives if they want to try that. I would also add +1 attack on the charge, as otherwise maneuvering plays little part.
Hey sholto, thanks for writing.
ReplyDeleteThe kids range from 8-16 with most being 10-12. Their language grasp is generally quite limited so I will have to really carefully explain everything and make sure that the rules are written down nicely.
Good point about the +1 charge attack Sholto. I like that rule and it does balance things well. With respect to the squad rules, there would be no coherency and each model could move and shoot individually.
Pete