Getting my daughter into Age of Sigmar

We’ve been struggling to get games in in the evening. I’ve been too tired by the time our youngest goes to bed but my daughter remains keen to play. As a work around today we played in the afternoon. I had been avoiding this as it means involving my youngest daughter who is only 3 1/2.

We repeated the same scenario as last time, where simplified endless spells wonder the board. My daughters teamed up to take on my Nighthaunts and had a great time playing a small 30 minute game.

There were a few moments where my youngest was rough with the models, but she was happy to roll dice when instructed and report the result. She also got scared when the ghosts or spells came after her models but it was an excited scared.

I guess moving forwards I can consider day-time games with both my daughters as a viable option.

Today my daughter wanted to include the endless spell models in our game, so I came up with a quick scenario.

Scattered about the table were five chests. Moving into base contact allowed a player to claim the chest. Claiming the most chests allowed you to win.

Also scattered about the table were four endless spells: Purple sun of Shyish, Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws, Soulsnare Shackles, and one Umbral Spellportal. I simplified their rules a bit. Each spell moves 2D6″ at the start of the turn, with the standard rules for selecting who can move them. The sun and jaws both inflict an automatic wound on models they touch (armour saves are allowed). The shackles prevent any model touched from moving while still in base contact. Any model touching the portal can pick a direction and teleport 3D6″ in that direction.

We both deployed in opposite corners of the map with a few models each and then dashed around the board picking up the chests.

My daughter enjoyed being able to control the spells and particularly liked using the portal to teleport around. After two turns she had three of the five chests and so had won, but we played another turn where I charged into combat to spice the game up a bit.

This weekend past my daughter asked if we had any crafts that she could do. I have had a box of easy to build sequitors since last Christmas. I handed her the box and my clippers and she enjoyed spending about half an hour building the three models. She could follow the instructions no trouble and just needed help to show her how to use the clippers the correct way round to get cuts flush with the model.

Obviously she is very proud of her first models and wanted another game that evening. If you look closely you can see the unit of three gold sequitors in her line-up.

We were fighting to claim the chests, with each chest awarding 1 point in your hero phase if you had a model within 3″. In the end I wiped her out but we were on even points so I called it a draw.

This weekend past my daughter asked if we had any crafts that she could do. I have had a box of easy to build sequitors since last Christmas. I handed her the box and my clippers and she enjoyed spending about half an hour building the three models. She could follow the instructions no trouble and just needed help to show her how to use the clippers the correct way round to get cuts flush with the model.

Obviously she is very proud of her first models and wanted another game that evening. If you look closely you can see the unit of three gold sequitors in her line-up.

We were fighting to claim the chests, with each chest awarding 1 point in your hero phase if you had a model within 3″. In the end I wiped her out but we were on even points so I called it a draw.

Last week my daughter expressed an interest in playing again so last night we had a small game. I simplified the game again so that we both just had two units with no heroes of spells to worry about.

The game went as usual – we met in combat and the nighthaunt were quickly obliterated, but the important thing is that my daughter enjoyed it a lot. Lets see if this rekindles her interest.

It’s been a while since our last game. I’m ashamed to say it wasn’t because my daughter lost interest, but because I’ve not had the time in the evenings for us to play. But yesterday my daughter was very keen to play so I set up a very small game of five Sequestors versus 20 Chainrasp Horde.

We simply smashed into each other in the middle and the Sequestors wiped out the Nighthaunts in about five turns.

For today’s game we had three objectives across the centre of the board. An objective could be claimed in the hero phase if you had models within 1″ and there are no enemies within 1″ of the objective. The objective then remains yours until claimed by your opponent. The player with the most objectives at the end of turn three wins.

My daughter has grasped how the key mechanics work now, although she relies on me to tell her what she needs to roll. Given her grasp of the basics I thought I could add in more unit abilities and spells to make the game more interesting. In this games wizards could cast their warscroll spells (I left arcane bolt and mystic shield out of the game for now). Most units got to use their simpler abilities. Command abilities and “once per battle” abilities have still been left out.

We both enjoyed the game a lot. Most spells failed to cast but the Lord Arcanum healed himself repeatedly which kept him in the game until the end. My daughter also enjoyed channelling magic into her Sequestor’s weapons every turn. I also made use of fly and  ethereal for the first time which makes the nighthaunts far more durable.

As usual our forces simply clashed in the middle. However the addition of ethereal and healing magic meant the combats lasted many more combat phases than they used to. I was able to claim two objectives to my daughter’s zero so I won. Importantly my daughter wasn’t upset that she lost and she still enjoyed the game. I was also glad that she asked me for the game today – even after a two week gap she is interested and keen.

For today’s battle I took inspiration from the Shattered Dominion Objectives. We had two objectives equally spread out along the centre line. The game winner would be the person to be in possession of both objectives at the end of turn three.

The Iconoclast Axe could only be claimed by answering three maths questions asked by the statue (i.e. your opponent). The Trove of Arcane Glory could only be claimed by reading a passage of text to it (i.e. time to do some school reading homework).

This was also the first game where my daughter used the Celestar Ballista and I realised that without its Chained Lightning ability it performs very poorly. I therefore decided on the fly to start introducing some unit abilities, largely as I see fit to make things interesting. I’m not too worried about using every ability all the time. I also introduced spellcasting for the Guardian of Souls.

The actual battle saw the Celestar Ballista, Knight-Incantor and two units of Sequitors facing off against a Guardian of Souls, Chainrasp Horde, Spirit Torment and Lord Executioner.

I deployed the Chainrasp Horde directly opposite the Celestar Ballista to ensure it could get some good rounds of shooting in. The Spirit Torment and Lord Executioner went for the Iconoclast Axe on my left, with the Knight-Incantor moving to challenge it. On my right my Guardian of Souls went for the Trove of Arcane Glory. Contesting him was the two units of Sequitors.

My daughter was able to claim both objectives in turn two after answering three maths questions and reading the first page of her homework reading book. In turn three I was able to take out the Knight-Incantor and seize that objective by answering three maths questions posed by my daughter. On my right the Guardian of Soles eventually died but not before holding out for far longer than I thought should be possible. In the centre the Chainrasp horde took a pounding from the Celestar Ballista and then got into combat with a unit of Sequitors. They won in the end, but not quickly enough to move to another objective.

The game ended in a draw.