I am considering getting this game for my son for Christmas. He is 8 years old, and enjoys Star Wars, monopoly and chess. At chess he can beat adults who do not play often. Do you think that this game is suitable / enjoyable for an 8 year old?

Thanks,

Dave

If he can play chess, I'd say so. My eight year old will play about half a game before wandering off and losing interest. He is good to remind me to take stress tokens when applicable though. Have you played this game yourself? I'd maybe get him to play a game first and then see what he thinks. the basic rules are easy to learn.

My daughter is 8 and she plays and has her own ships.

My seven year old learnt the game when he was six.

He will happily play for a full six hour session and can easily run half a dozen ships. OK, he comes from a figure wargaming household where he has grown up seeing daddy and his mates fight historical wargames. All kids are different but still....

If he plays chess and monopoly he'll be fine. Start small and basic. Let them watch the online tutorial, an prepare to have your ass whooped

One of the local players is an 8-year-old and his dad. Perfectly suitable!

While it's an exception and 6 years is a lot at that age a 14 year old did come in second place at worlds.

If he can deal with monopoly and chess then his attention span and tolerance for losing pieces should be plenty fine for xwing.

I am considering getting this game for my son for Christmas. He is 8 years old, and enjoys Star Wars, monopoly and chess. At chess he can beat adults who do not play often. Do you think that this game is suitable / enjoyable for an 8 year old?

Thanks,

Dave

an eight-year-old girl beat me this year at the "spiel" venue in Essen/Germany in "Go". several times. may sound embarrassing, but I'm new to the game and she was not, as her father proudly said.

also, it was quite fun that way "Go" seems to be a really complex game, so X-Wing should be playable for 8-year olds, too.

the one thing kids have to learn is "how to lose", as that's something many kids have problems with - but that's something many adults haven't learned yet, too

I am considering getting this game for my son for Christmas. He is 8 years old, and enjoys Star Wars, monopoly and chess. At chess he can beat adults who do not play often. Do you think that this game is suitable / enjoyable for an 8 year old?

Thanks,

Dave

Never assume your child can't understand something. Children learn when you challenge them.

Your son should be fine, but it's important to understand this is not a one time purchase type of game. If your son finds it an enjoyable hobby, there will likely be expansion purchases necessary or the game will grow stale quickly for him.

Also, it may be worth noting that the community for this game tends to be older than similar gaming groups, so if your son looks to ever play the game outside of the home, he will be hard pressed to find players in his age range. But, if he catches on quick, he could help expand that age group by teaching the game himself.

Your son should be fine, but it's important to understand this is not a one time purchase type of game. If your son finds it an enjoyable hobby, there will likely be expansion purchases necessary or the game will grow stale quickly for him.

Also, it may be worth noting that the community for this game tends to be older than similar gaming groups, so if your son looks to ever play the game outside of the home, he will be hard pressed to find players in his age range. But, if he catches on quick, he could help expand that age group by teaching the game himself.

Quoted for truth and accuracy.

Without knowing your kiddo, it's tough to say if this would be a great time and way for him to learn how to have independent hobbies. If there is an FLGS that's within walking/busing/biking distance, your kid could start being able to play with others in a very safe environment. If there isn't, then you may be committing yourself/your spouse to playing a lot too- that may be a bonus.

I will often tell people about this game by saying that it "appeals to my inner 8 year old, who used to have the toys and make 'pew pew pew' and 'crash boom' noises". That being the case, I'm sure that an actual 8 year old should be able to do just fine.

The game does have a fair bit of complexity- it's been sort of layered onto the game as the Waves have come out. Certain rules and interactions have all kinds of interesting effects. The good news is that if your kid can handle the en passant rule in Chess, he should be able to understand stress mechanics. And the various rules interactions can be worked up to over the course of a few play sessions- he won't have to have a grasp of everything all at once.

But! As others have noted: unlike chess, this game isn't really a "buy once and play forever" kind of thing. The game keeps growing in size. Your son won't have to have it _all_, but you'll want to think about how much money you'd be willing to have the kid spending on a regular basis. I mean yes- that's the sort of basic parenting stuff I'm sure you're already thinking about. But it's worth mentioning in this context.

Think of X-Wing as a kind of allowance sink like Magic the Gathering or Pokemon.

I infected my nephews for Thanksgiving this year. One is 10 the other is 8. I'm not sure how they will do if I'm not around to keep it going, but I hear that it made the Christmas wish list. As one of them has a birthday in February, I can at least send over some stuff to kindle the fire until spring break or summer. As they do not have a game store in their town (hurray for small towns... though I'm in the same boat), they will have to create their own group.

Mostly, I was just glad they sat down with me for a non-video, non-phone game. If nothing else, that was worth a lot toward the investment I have been making in X-Wing this year. Time will tell... but any time like this is good time.

My son is 10 and better than most. He plays DnD. It's hard for him to get through a game of X-wing. Still, we have fun muddling through it. I'm sure he will get better.

As a casual game at home with Dad? Totally. An 8 year old at a game shop with grown men who have been playing games like this for a long time? Could be very trying at first. My 10 year old cousin can follow, he grasps the rules, and could even enjoy running limited ships for quite some time. The problem you run into is it can be tough to lose ships for a younger player and to lose consistently (Going back to adults with experience) could be pretty rough. That said I've played the game against some younger kids around your son's age and they do quite well. It is a game and a community that can develop great skills such as: focus, patience, acting cool under pressure, spatial recognition, and even creative thinking in anyone, especially a child as they are so receptive to learning.

Expansion packs will be needed as time goes on but honestly you could get him into the game and have enough stuff not to get stale at under $150-$200 depending on what he/ the two of you like(s).

EDIT: Also welcome to the boards.

My son stared playing when he was 9 and came in 24th at worlds this year (he's 11 now).
Totally worth giving it a shot.

This game is relatively cheap when you compare it to other tabletop battle games like Warhammer and Warmachine. And each expansion you buy adds more value to the ships you already own that can use the new upgrades.

Armada isn't really expensive either if you buy the components online for discounts. I managed to buy the Armada Core set for 25 bucks a couple months back when Jet.com was running a deal. Bought an ASmk2 off Amazon for 16 bucks. Deals pop up if you are persistent. Coolstuffinc is running some deep discounts on a lot of stuff right now too.

We're all newbies to the game, but I play with my (almost) 6 and 4 year olds, the 2 year old is allowed to watch.

The 4 year old quickly gets bored and would rather just fly the ships around.

The 6 year old does well for a game and a half, then he starts just picking the same move for all ships, which never goes well. I'm adding "features" as we go, ramping up to the full rules.

Turreted ships are easier for them, even the basic scum Y-wing. "Get close" is a simple concept. We played a 2 Z and 1 Y (scum) vs 2 TIE and 2 FO this afternoon, it went quite well.

I've got a line on 2 used IGs, should be a good step up for them, and I'm sure they'll enjoy having bigger, menacing ships.

I have been playing with my son who is 8 since July. He understands the rules very well, but his biggest issue is that he can start to get confused on what maneuvers to do after the initial fight starts. He has been going with me to our LGS for our weekly game, and I am working on getting him a competitive build that he can run consistently well on his own. He can get bored sometimes, but most of the time he sticks with it for an entire game. The guys that I play with are very patient with him, and I am there to take help or take over, if needed. The biggest thing is to start slow and build from there as your child starts to pick up on the intricacies of the game.

9 year old plays a whole match, actually also has beaten me a few times (do not take super-efficient squads, that will be frustating for children).

6 year has tested once, considered it fun. Does probably not keep up a whole match.

4 year old and 2 year old watched for a while several times.

And as said above, the game is a bit of a money sink. But not that much actually compared to other hobbies like computer games or sports.

It's not a game you easily play on your own (although there are some guides how to play it alone to some extent).

So first question would be: With whom would your son play the game with?

Does your son already know people who play the game? (I guess letting your 8-yr old go to a tourney/casual night at a game store, full of strangers, on his own is a no-go)

Do YOU want to play the game?

To keep the game interesting, he'd want to have a fair collection and it depends wether you secretly want to play & invest in it too or that your son would be the only one investing. How far you allow him to go is a thing for you to decide.

But it mostly depends on the number of opponents and spare time wether this game is worth the investment: If he loves the game and plays it alot, it's much more worthwhile to get more ships, but if he can seldomly play it (bc no time or no people to play with) then investing in it wouldn't be worthwhile.

The more he'll play it, the more he'll like it, the more ships he'll want (unless he is a collecting nut like me and rarely plays)

I bought some collections and some new ships at bargain prices in the hopes of teaching my 4yr old in time. Now I'm trying to teach my wife and some friends, but I don't have other experienced people to play it with, so I don't play it as much as I would like. It's because I'm selling my large MTG collection I'm ok with my ships collecting dust, but otherwise it wouldn't have been wise to spend so much money in one go.

My niece at 11, who never really plays any board game, had sudden Ah-Ha moment midgame and went on to thoroughly thrash me, when we played..

My son is currently 10, he started playing at 8 and has made top 4 in Store Championships and nearly made the cut at our Regionals. So in short, yes this game can be good for younger children. Now that all depends on the child as well. My son plays with a few kids at the game store on Tuesdays and doesn't like it because they goof off too much. So it is all in your perspective and what you want to get out of the game.

Case in point, my 6 year old son plays as well, granted much simpler games with mostly generic ships, but he has fun. He isn't ready for the 'full' game with all of the upgrades and pilot skills. So we shorten those games to make them fast and fun and over in 20-30 minutes. Basically fly ships and roll dice.

So the short anwser to your question is yes, but make sure to gear it to your child. If he can handle all the polits and skill and upgrades and and have fun with the big kids, great. If not and a shorter, more watered down game just to roll dice and fly spaceships can be fun too. Plus, its Star Wars!

Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice.

I got my son the core set for Christmas and he has pretty much ignored all his other presents and wants to play constantly. We had to go to our local games shop on the 27th to buy some expansions - A wing, Y wing and 1 tie fighter (their selection was limited).

We started simple and introduced the rules one at a time and he gets a higher squad point allowance to me but he is really enjoying it.

Dave

DJ, thanks for coming back and letting us know how it worked out. It is all too common on internet forums for someone to show up ask a question or two and then after folks try to help out the original poster is never heard from again. Here's hoping you and your son become regulars around here.

My boys are still playing as well. Since my boss' boss gave them ships for Christmas, they now have favorites too. The 4 year old loves his Punisher, and I've learned that his instincts are really good and not to follow that Punisher around. The 6 year old loves the K-wing he got.

If anything, with young kids, you should consider magnetizing your ships sooner, rather than later.