RE: [FT4] Full Thrust for Four-year-olds

>G'day Noam,
>
>> My older son turned 4 today
>
>Happy birthday to him!
>
>> I'm looking for advice on
>> simplifying FT to a 2 ship (to start) game that wont'
>> overwhelm or bore him.
>
>You don't have to change much. I'd start off with:
>
>a) staring in fairly close (say a couple of range bands apart)
>b) low speeds (so you don't have turns where no one can shoot)
>c) he always gets the initiative (such small children can't wait for
others
>to go first usually)
>d) only you write movement orders he just points where he wants to go
and if
>he can manage he goes there, if not tell him can't quite manage it and
>explain what he's closest option is. After his movement is done then
follow
>out your orders - the fact their ship has already moved gives them just
>enough patience to allow you to get in moving your own ;)
>e) skip missiles and fighters for now (so you may want to use the SSD
from a
>SDB/BDN of another nation instead of the CV's real SSD)
>f) make lots of dying noises when you take thresholds
>g) when he takes thresholds make "oh no I've made them mad now I'm
gonna
>pay" comments
>
>The last two weren't necessary for Lachy, but they were required to
keep
>Janneke hooked the first few times - small kids don't take losses well
at
>the start and have to learn to be good losers... then you've got the
even
>harder task of teaching them to be gracious winners ;)
>
>OK these are all fairly obvious, but to be honest FT really doesn't
need
>that much changing for kids to get a grip and the less you change the
less
>you've got to change back as he gets older/more confident and can use
>fighters/missiles, write orders etc.
>
>Have fun
>
>Beth - who is trying to figure out exactly which "girl soldiers"
Janneke
>meant when she asked for some for her upcoming 5th birthday...

Y'know, Beth, you really MUST write an article someday on "Better
Parenting
Through Wargaming"......

:-)

Jon (GZG)