My eldest son, like all 3-year-olds, is unreasonably impressed by everything his father does. Thus, when he sees me playing wargames or D&D, he wants to play too. He loves tanks, and we learn about World War 2 battles together (Mark Felton Productions on Youtube is great for this). I want to play with him, too, of course – but I want to play. I want him to learn to play ordered games with rules. It’s a great educational opportunity, too – for counting, basic probability, and various other skills. So I make rules for the games we play.
Now, in practice we don’t play long and detailed games of D&D or ASL or whatever. If we get a few “turns” of something done in reasonable order, and he’s enjoyed himself but is beginning to flag, I’m happy to call it a day and play more freeform with him. But I love that we share this hobby, even in a limited way, and the rules help that.
Here are my “Mini-ASL” rules – Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) being the main wargame we get out and push counters around:
(1) As the scenario designer, pick some counters, maps, and setup areas (though be flexible – if your kid wants to line up all his troops on a road halfway to your setup area, it doesn’t matter). You can also set a turn limit, geographic objective, etc. Setup troops.
(2) Trucks can carry one squad each. Guns and Support Weapons must be manned by Crews or Squads/Half-Squads – max one Gun/SW per Squad/HS. A Leader can man a Support Weapon. I haven’t heretofore set a strict stacking, but would suggest ‘1’ Leader and 3 x Squads maximum.
(3) Each player takes turns (I usually let him go first). The phasing player rallies, moves, and fire with all his counters.
(4) Each Routed unit can try to rally. They rally on a ‘1’, ‘2’, or ‘3’. A Leader improves this – a ‘4’ will also Rally with a Leader in charge. A Routed unit cannot move or fire.
(5) All counters except Trucks/Recon vehicles can move 4 hexes in any terrain, carrying their Gun or SW or Passengers with them if appropriate. Trucks and Recon vehicles can move 8 hexes. Moving into a hex with an enemy ends the unit’s movement. You might make special terrain rules – tanks can’t go in Marsh, for instance. When we did a River crossing, loading on to boats took up half a move.
(6) Each Squad/Half-Squad/Vehicle can Fire once (and can fire one more time with any support weapon). Crews do not fire independently of their Gun. Add exceptions as needed: e.g., when we used Char B1s, I let them fire twice – once for the turret gun, once for the bow gun.
(7) A unit must be able to see (have Line of Sight) to a target. There is no limit on range. Line of Sight can be checked before firing. I basically use “real” ASL LOS rules in the very loosest and most basic sense – Woods and Buildings block LOS if the string passes through, etc. So do Hills. Hindrance does not apply. Close Combat (see (10) below) cannot be fired into.
(8) Roll a d6 per shot. ‘1s’ and ‘2s’ have effects; ‘1’ reduces or kills the target (Squad to Half-Squad, Japanese Step Reduction), ‘2’ routs the target (Japanese Step Reduction). Only Ordnance/ATRs/SCWs can target Tanks. Rolling a ‘6’ with a Gun breaks it – a turn must be spent fixing it, without the Crew doing anything else.
(9) The only Terrain Effect I’ve created so far (other than LOS-blocking) was a Fort functionally acting as a +1 modifier on the die. I described this as only a ‘1’ hitting, and routing the Squad, not reducing it.
(10) If a Squad enters the hex of an enemy, Close Combat ensues as an attack in lieu of Firing. Each Squad rolls a d6 simultaneously. A ‘1’ or ‘2’ reduces/etc the enemy Squad. If there are multiple Squads on a side, each gets an attack.
(11) Guns or SWs that lose their Crew/Squad can be picked up by another Squad/Crew which moves in to the same hex.
SEQUENCE OF PLAY
(1) Player A Turn
(a) Rally Attempts
(b) Move, Fire, Close Combat, Fix Guns
(2) Player B Turn
(a) Rally Attempts
(b) Move, Fire, Close Combat, Fix Guns
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