I'm thinking of picking this up to play with my 8 and 6 year old boys. The last sort of game I've played like this was Heroquest when I was a wee lad.

Do you guys think this would be suitable for this age group, they both love Star Wars and can play X Wing TMG with stripped down rules (no upgrades etc). I'm also a bit worried about my ability to interpret the rules and convey them to my kids.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

1) Make sure you get the game really figured out before you try and play with the kids or their first impression is going to suck. You don't want them to remember IA being Dad searching endlessly through the Rules Reference Guide on how to do something. I recommend playing a full campaign with some adults first to work out the kinks.

2) Play the campaign with the kids, not skirmish. Skirmish has too much to think about, but with the campaign they have one guy with a couple tricks. Skirmish means 4-6 deployment cards, each with special abilities, with a handful of command cards on top of it.

3) Have them only play 1 character each (legendary +10 health) on the same team against Dad the evil imperial, and they will be all super-powered up. Just take your time, and help them pick upgrades.

4) Always do the upgrades AFTER you play a game, not BEFORE. Doing upgrades can be tedious, and it helps the spirit of a new game if you can just jump right in. Right after a game is over the heroes are much more familiar with their weaknesses and what they could use to help them than after some time has passed.

If you pick up the Core Set AND Twin Shadows, I'd play with Twin Shadows first. It's only a 4 mission campaign. So you could do it in a day/weekend with the kids. But you obviously need the core set for the tiles/figures/cards to use Twin Shadows. With Twin Shadows you could just easily get the model of Han Solo, R2-D2 & C-3PO, and Kayn Somos. Saving you some money. That way you guys can use the models over the card board tokens. Kids love to see the actual models (even if unpainted) more so than any card board token...heck most adults including myself do too!

Also, you get Biv, which I think is a great hero for kids to use. He's got the ability to shoot far, but also do damage up close. Plus he's got a BFG! And with the core set, you got Gaarkhan and Diala (wookiee and jedi) to choose from and if you have video game kids, you get Fenn and Mak who are like the "Call of Duty" characters they play being sniper/gunman. So they enjoy that too and can relate to that character.

Agree, in a more "balance" game, you want to use 4 heroes, but for beginners and wanting to make it a bit easier for kids, do the Legendary states by just using 2 heroes.

Lastly, treat this as a more D&D campaign where you play a DM role. You can change the landscape as necessary and aren't "trying to win" as the Imperial Player. Though after a few games, it's okay to let reality sink in and whip them in the butt badly during a mission or two. Just so they know, losing can happen.

Good luck and have fun!

~D

I ran a Skirmish intro at a local comic event a couple of months ago, and ended up playing with a bunch of (I'd guess) 7-11 year old kids, boys and girls, all super into Star Wars. I ran a custom, small, fairly symmetrical map, with 30 point squads and no command cards (Luke, Gideon, MHD-19, 2 x Rebel Troopers vs Royal Guard, eOfficer, eProbe, 2 x Stormtroopers).

Many of them had the patience and engagement to really enjoy it. They played in teams with me or one another, discussed strategy, and could sometimes help to resolve combat dice and so on. The biggest problem I had was that the timescale of the game felt a bit long to them; about half of the kids wanted to start a new game each round so they could use the AT-ST or Chewie.

I wonder whether the campaign, with its narrative focus, might be better for kids; I just can't get into its complexities myself. But I had a blast and I think I cost several families a lot of money at the next birthday.

hmm, I play the skirmish quite a bit with my 6 and 8 year olds. The campaign is what gives me fits. I can't figure out where the full rules for threat are and how to redeploy my imperials. I've found the skirmish to be way easier to pick up and play, whereas the campaign is such a pain to set up and take down. Is there any way to make the campaign more enjoyable, easier to play?

I have all the skirmish maps printed out so the kids just pick out their armies and then throw together some command cards ( we started without the command cards, but now they won't play without them)

hmm, I play the skirmish quite a bit with my 6 and 8 year olds. The campaign is what gives me fits. I can't figure out where the full rules for threat are and how to redeploy my imperials. I've found the skirmish to be way easier to pick up and play, whereas the campaign is such a pain to set up and take down. Is there any way to make the campaign more enjoyable, easier to play?

I have all the skirmish maps printed out so the kids just pick out their armies and then throw together some command cards ( we started without the command cards, but now they won't play without them)

That's cool, whatever works for you!

The first time I played campaign I HATED it, and then I did nothing but play skirmish. Then I got the campaign app in my signature and it changed everything.

These games are great to teach a number of skills from maths to some basic life skills like resource management.

My son is 14 now and we have been playing X-wing, Armada and before that 40K.

My daughter is turning 11 and she loves the campaign aspect of the game. The narrative story line and such, she writes her own fan fiction on what happens in our games.

Imperial Assault allows us to play together as there are elements that we all like.

Thanks for the advice.

Do you recommend the kids playing 2 heroes each or keep it simple with 1 each?

Thanks for the advice.

Do you recommend the kids playing 2 heroes each or keep it simple with 1 each?

1 each for sure.