On 10/11/2019 at 11:06 PM, Herowannabe said:

2.0 has one HUGE kid-friendly element that 1.0 never had: Quickbuild cards. List building is a lot to take in, especially for new/younger players, but with Quickbuilds most of the work is done for you. All you have to do is pick the ships/pilots you want to fly and then start flying.

I forgot these were a thing with the new edition, and since we’ll be doing nothing but home games for a good bit I think this will work perfectly for our “pick up and play” style. We’ll see if it goes anywhere from there.

27 minutes ago, Flavorabledeez said:

I forgot these were a thing with the new edition, and since we’ll be doing nothing but home games for a good bit I think this will work perfectly for our “pick up and play” style. We’ll see if it goes anywhere from there.

Don’t forget for anything converted you can find quick build PDFs on FFG’s website. So all ships are playable in the format

On 10/12/2019 at 8:39 AM, LUZ_TAK said:

Soooo, between 5 and 6 is a good spot to begin?

I have big plans in my mind about watching Rebels with the eldest and then popping the Ghost mini on the table...

I did had the chance to watch my wife reaction to the Luke/Vader scene in ESB.

That was my experience with my nephew. At 5, I wouldn’t trust him with the fragile ships. At 6 we did some quick-builds and he took right to it, managing dials, finding the right template, figuring out actions, the whole bit. We literally played 3 games over 2 days. I bought him the core set and he’s been playing with his Dad (who’s a tech guy and digs the app) ever since.

https://xwingtmg.com/86/involving-your-children-in-x-wing-volume-2/

On 10/14/2019 at 8:19 AM, Flavorabledeez said:

I forgot these were a thing with the new edition, and since we’ll be doing nothing but home games for a good bit I think this will work perfectly for our “pick up and play” style. We’ll see if it goes anywhere from there.

Try Infinite Arenas Quick Build Squad Builder: http://infinitearenas.com/qbsb/ . These work great for choosing lists with my son. We get in about 1 game/month (I also end up playing Pokemon three times/month but still worth it). Credit to @J1mBob .

On 10/14/2019 at 5:19 AM, PartridgeKing said:

So I tried with my now 4 year old daughter a couple of months before her birthday. She really enjoyed the tactile aspect of rolling dice, matching shapes, using the templates and seeing the ships move, but was obviously a bit too young to quite understand the dynamics of the game as a whole. Mostly she just wanted to do as many red manoeuvres as she could because red is her favourite colour

However it is a start that I intend to keep up!

When I started with my 4 year old, we didn't use dials. I just put all of the maneuver templates on the table and let him choose. We also didn't even worry about stress. We just got down the basic move, action shoot, repeat rhythm. It made everything much easier for him.

We introduced dials and red and blue actions maneuvers a little later. Then we added critical damage. Now he is 6, he painted a YV-666 a few months ago and most recently he designed and we built his first ugly together. I think the trick is to take it slowly.

38 minutes ago, Whalers on the moon said:

When I started with my 4 year old, we didn't use dials. I just put all of the maneuver templates on the table and let him choose. We also didn't even worry about stress. We just got down the basic move, action shoot, repeat rhythm. It made everything much easier for him.

I think that's the right way to do it, and is the plan going forward, at least for a while. How did you find the actions, ignoring some of the more complicated options at least, worth starting with from the start or add them in after flying for a bit?

1 minute ago, PartridgeKing said:

I think that's the right way to do it, and is the plan going forward, at least for a while. How did you find the actions, ignoring some of the more complicated options at least, worth starting with from the start or add them in after flying for a bit?

That probably depends on the child, but when I explained his options, I blew through most everything and only really emphasized focus or re-position. He really likes bombs, so reload worked in there as well eventually.

Also, if he chose to fly a bomber, I usually let him choose which bomb he wanted to drop. He loved this for a while (especially after he ioned me into a proxy mine with a Y wing).

1 hour ago, Whalers on the moon said:

When I started with my 4 year old, we didn't use dials. I just put all of the maneuver templates on the table and let him choose. We also didn't even worry about stress. We just got down the basic move, action shoot, repeat rhythm. It made everything much easier for him.

We introduced dials and red and blue actions maneuvers a little later. Then we added critical damage. Now he is 6, he painted a YV-666 a few months ago and most recently he designed and we built his first ugly together. I think the trick is to take it slowly.

This looks like great advice! Txs!

My daughter is 6, and son 4.

I have tried playing basic games with them. Give each the same ship, no upgrades, no terrain, just let them pick their moves and roll the dice.

Son really doesn't grasp the dial yet. (so the @Whalers on the moon advice to just use the templates is really good)

Daughter kinda understands the dials, but she still doesn't grasp that both ships move next turn. So she tends to fly to where an enemy is, instead of trying to plan where it might go.

But for the dice they both do quite well. I tell them how many of which type to roll, and they just roll. But they get that they need to roll "suns" on the hit dice, and that they are cancelled by "arrows".

I also just give them a stack of shield tokens each, instead of working with hull and shields and damage cards. So they roll dice, cancel out what needs to be cancelled and lose shields. Once all shields are gone, someone wins.

I did once make the mistake of trying to fly an army against them.

Gave each of them 4 or 5 ungeared ships vs my army. My plan was to just let them have fun, while I try to practice positional play on the table. Unfortunately I gave them dials, and it just became a massive traffic jam on their side of the table. (will show foto if I can track it down). Was ok, but much less fun for either of us than I had hoped.

In general (for my kids at least) at 4 its still too complex to understand. At 6 they get some of the basic concepts, but don't expect them to give you a challenge to practice against.

They do love rolling dice for me though. So involve them like that. And let them hand you templates when you need them. (although my son tends to build little "roads" next to the board using the templates and hates when I disrupt it)