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Saturday 12 April 2014

To Impart or not to Impart, that is the Question..................

Now I have many younger relatives. Two of them are the progeny of my elder Brother Erny (http://ernysplace.blogspot.co.uk/) and there is no need to subvert their interests to gaming as he has already begun their education, even though they are only 5 and 3 (I hope, feel free to correct me on the respective ages should I be wrong Erny).

My fear is for the eldest of my Nephews/Niece that does not posses such a willing parental influence. The poor boy in question is in his first year of his teens and has fallen in love with Peter Jackson's Tolkien films yet his Mother is exceedingly reluctant to allow him to follow in his Uncle's footsteps. This means that the poor boy has never felt the thrill of rolling dice to crush all his enemies underfoot. Can I allow this terrible situation to continue? Dare I risk the wrath of the Overlord? Well, I'm often asked to look after him due to a cruel twist of fate that has already struck in his young life having lost his Father. He looks to me as an Uncle but also as a male role model and as I need a) ways to connect with him (not that I struggle with this, we both love fantasy stuff, comics and Star Wars) and b) fun things to do when he stays over at Uncle Snickit's house beyond going to the cinema. Whilst I love our cinema trips it does feel like it's not quality time, kind of similar to dumping your kids in front of the telly. I also feel I have a certain duty to help him find a route for escapism as I found at a similar age when I found myself in a similar situation. Am I right or am I confusing my own desire to teach the lad with the duty of care I feel towards him? It's a "teach or not" doozy that would have caused even the greatest teachers of all time some concern.



I don't know, but if I were to go down this potentially dangerous path (my Sister may kill me if she gets a whiff of what I'm doing before it takes root in his imagination) I need to decide upon an introduction that will teach the mechanics of Warhammer (I'm going Fantasy to begin with) whatever version you should wish to play, after all, movement, shooting and hand-to-hand all work in much the same way whichever vintage you choose.

For a short while I had a bad habit of buying two boxes of each version of Warhammer/40k that was released and I happen to own two boxes of the most recent "Island of Blood" Warhammer boxed set. This gives the basis for a High Elf army twice over, so I could paint one set and keep another set back and I've added in a few extra plastic Seaguard from the usual online auction site. This means I've selected High Elves as an "in" for him. Is it right I've pre-seleted an army? Not sure, people's thoughts on this would be appreciated.


I'm going to find a simple paint scheme for the set I'm going to paint, one that won't be hard to emulate. I'll then paint up 15 Seaguard including a Champion and Standard Bearer. This makes 200pts in present Warhammer rules.



Next I'm going to finally get painted up two units of 20 Goblins with spears, they'll have Champions and Standard Bearers too, each weighing at 100pts per unit so an even points spread per side. I've chosen Goblins as they're a good enemy to begin against. I know I own shed loads of Skaven that would also make adequate adversaries but Goblins just feels right to me.

The battlefield will be a 4ft by 4ft board with the High Elf deployment zone in the north, the Goblins deployment zone in the south. A river will run east to west with a single central bridge. In the High Elf  deployment zone there will be a large hill topped with a High Elf tower. The Seaguard's job will be to prevent the Goblins gaining access to the tower. The Goblin's deployment zone will have a few bits of cover for them to use but generally allow the Seaguard decent firing opportunities. The Goblin's chances of winning are small, that's intentional, I'm gambling that a win will spark a desire to play another game some time. When the next game is played I'll maybe add in some Reavers or Swordmasters for the Elves, Wolf Riders and/or Stikkas for the Gobbos, and maybe remove the river. Each game will add an extra element and become harder for the Elves to win.



 Having the second set will mean I can also allow him to paint some minis (but leave at my house to begin with) to re-create the little army and grow it until he has a nice little army which I can, in time, pass to him as his own.

What does anyone think? Am I making it too simple or is it about right for starters? Should I even be thinking of doing it? The gamer in me says yes of course but part of me thinks he should want to do it before I thrust him into this world. The problem is I fear his Mother is actually suppressing his desire to do it, he asked me for some LOTR's miniatures to paint a year or so ago but my Sister ruled I wasn't allowed to. If I go down this route I am openly defying her and will inevitably incur her wrath, it's possible I'll chicken out and not do it at all, I guess the real question is not so much "To Impart or not to Impart?" and more "How brave am I?".

12 comments:

  1. Christ you've thought about it a a lot haven't you. What I'd do is have a chat with your sister and explain the reasons for doing it, which sound pretty noble to me. She obviously doesn't want him turning into carbon copies of her brothers which is understandable but get her on side by letting her know that you set it up so that it's his decision. Next time he comes round have some stuff out and ready to go. Leave it as if you've had a game and just having got round to putting it away. If he's interested, he'll ask about it and it'll be pretty obvious if he wants to have a go. If you explain it that way to your sister as well I'm sure she'll be a bit more sympathetic when she assumes her sensible young lad is going to do the right thing. Good luck!

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  2. The lot of them popped in today and the High Elf book and the Orc and Goblin books were both out. He saw the Elf book and past comment that Elves were his favourite race in Lord of the Rings so could well have gauged it right. As a bonus his 3 year old brother picked up the Orc and Goblin book and declared, much to my amusement and his mothers worry, that he wanted all of these, and these and indeed all of these for his Birthday......................

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  3. Gentle exposure, then let the lad lead playtime. That's the key.

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    1. I think the seed is planted, just a case of letting it grow.

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  4. It's a tricky one. Like Whiskey Priest said, definitely talk to your sister about it. There's the twin perils of geekery (or whatever you'd call it), plus more significantly to my mind getting the lads hooked into a potentially expensive hobby. I've a draft post of my own on a similar topic that I must dust off, but short form would be wargaming - good (or at least stands up well compared to most teenage hobbies), the Games Workshop Hobby - bad.

    And yes, that capitalisation is sort of meant to be ironic (do they still call it that?).

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    1. Cheers Paul, would defo be interested to read the piece you did

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    2. It's here Snickit - http://herebexp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/random-parenting-insight-into-my-hobbies.html - and thanks for giving me the impetus to finally post it!

      I'd suggest trying to work out what your sister's bothered about. You know as well as I do the good sides of the hobby from a "sell it to the parents" point of view (I spent a chunk of the weekend reading up on medieval Chinese history, but that's a post for another day). However delivering your nephews (and niece?) into the clutches of a GW salesperson isn't what good uncles do :)

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    3. Awwwwwwwwwww heck no, they're worse than estate agents! I'd defo want to keep him out of their clutches, if it happens then it will be under carefully controlled conditions. Not that I want to control him, more that I know how GW have evolved to work and they were bad enough back when I were a lad getting into the hobby.

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    4. PS - I will always encourage people to post anything they want to write. I've had a few posts with no comments and they're always disheartening but I firmly believe that if I want to write it then someone else out there is thinking about it too and eventually my stuff will find the ears/eyes that want to read it.

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  5. Just a quick couple of thoughts. The more I think about it the more I'm certain going against the wishes in secret of a parent, any parent but particularly this parent is a bad idea. Openly goign against them is also a bad idea. As much as it sucks without Siters blessing this is a no show.

    As to why she is against gaming? Simple, she has always been anti-geek. Anything with the wiff of geekery must be actively repressed. That the lad is clearly on the geek spectrum just makes the whole thing rather sad. sad and volatile.

    Oh and this isn't a money issue.

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    1. Oh I should add, wait another 2.5 years then it would be OK. If a 16 year old can decide for themselves to kill for their country or have sex they are allowed to play toy soldiers.

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    2. Wanna bet? Control won't be surrendered that lightly just because young adulthood is reached.......................

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