Teaching my 5-year-old Warhammer 40k

This weekend I was working on some customer terrain pieces (seen in photos) and my 5-year-old son Parker asked if he could help (He will be turning 6 in a couple of months). The temperature here has been sitting at about 10 degrees during the day and below zero at night, so working out in the garage was too cold for him, and after a short amount of time, helping me with the terrain was no longer something he was holding interest in... then he asked if he was old enough to learn how to play 40k.

He has seen me and my old gaming group buddies play for years, since he can remember, and he loves watching his oldest brother Brandon (14 now) play as well, so I decided it was time to teach him the basics.

I unfortunately didn't have any 40k guys available to use though, most of my Warhammer stuff is still packed from our move. I was able to find some AT-43 guys though (squad of Therian Storm Golems and UNA Steel Troopers) and we used them as Necrons and Imperial Guardsmen (even though he is only 5, he has a good knowledge of the different 40k races and could easily associate these substitutes for who they were supposed to be).

In an effort to make it easy and basic, for a kid his age to understand and play without having to worry about massive amounts of rules, I really made this into quite a basic version of 40k... I decided it was more important for him to get a feel for the game rather than bog down with rules and trying to figure everything out... So we quickly developed an easy to follow rule system, based on Warhammer 40k.

Everyone could move 4" each turn, then shoot. To make it easy to remember, everyone needed a 4+ to hit and a 4+ to wound, and his Necrons had a 4+ save whereas my guys had no save (I wanted his Necrons to be more powerful, and this was the easiest way I could think of - plus, the only number he had to remember on his dice rolling was 4+).

It worked like a charm, he used his tape measure to move his guys, and quickly picked up on the moving, shooting, hitting, wounding, saving, etc. aspect of the game. Which is essentially the core of 40k rules in it's most simplest form. (I forgot to mention that all weapons in this game had a 12" range).

The photos below detail out game (he won) and as we play more games, I will slowly introduce more rules for him in stages, little by little, so he can slowly pickup the game without feeling overwhelmed.

In the photo above, Parker had his forces setup behind some cover and ready for the charge. The object of the scenario was to take out the radar dish that my troops had hidden behind the larger three-tier hill.

Here is a closeup view of my troops as they move in to protect the radar dish.

Parker got a good laugh as he moved his two small units forward toward their objective and my troops hid behind cover.

This is a good shot my wife took, Parker was pointing at a squad of his with a question about movement.

As he takes my position, I am just too overpowered by his troops and their 4+ save and can't hold out long enough to protect my radar dish.

This was the final shot of the game... Parker's troops took out the radar dish at the start of turn 5. My last two troops were both killed before they could do anything to stop it.

It was a fun time by both of us and I look forward to showing him more in the near future.