to think that 8 is too young to start playing 'Warhammer'?

[MimiSam]

My DS wants to start, but I thought it was something more appropriate for older chidlrem , even teenagers...

Both my sons have been going to Games workshop from when DS1 was 9 or 10 and DS2 10.

Both my children (now age 11 and 15) are polite, helpful and well mannered, they get dropped off there and picked up and we know where they are, they are not hanging around street corners, I do not see it as "violent crap" as the last time I looked neither of my children had made any attempt to wipe out an alien race in real life, and neither has set off on a quest to destroy a ring instead of going to school,

The building and the painting of the pieces are something they take pride in, the only thing I would say OP is (as others have said) it is not a cheap hobby.

DS aged 10 has been playing this for just over a year. Some of the models have very small parts and are quite delicate for younger children I think.

It is partially strategy, moving figures on a table and deciding who to target and partially luck rolling a load of dice to see if the enemy has taken damage, is immobilised or killed. That is the extent of the actual violence in my opinion. It is no different from chess/risk.

DS doesn't paint, I am the idiot that does that. If your DS expresses an interest in the painting this site CMON can give you painting tips. You can even find a few of my painted things under my username on there if you fancy a look Some of the paint jobs are absolutely fantastic, I could only hope to be half as good!

Ebay/charity shops etc are you best friend for warhammer it is bloody expensive to buy from the shops/proper on line store!! Talking £100s to £1,000s if you get full armies and cases etc.

Be careful about buying the starter box set of 40k (the space warhammer) as I'm pretty sure there is a new version planned for summer. Also check online for some good retailers who at least 10% cheaper.

Just agreeing with everyone else really, my DS1 was 8 when he started, loved going to the shop for the Saturday/Sunday game sessions while I sat in a cafe reading the paper got on with useful stuff.

It is expensive so Ebay is a good source or friends with older children who are growing out of it.

He's 20 now and ds2 is 7 and starting to show interest in his kit - he's not sharing!

Oh - and he prefers strategy games to console type games and has started writing strategies for the Traveller series (no idea what I'm talking about here). Very good with numbers, lateral thinking and problem solving. and polite - the nerds staff in Games workshop are sooo polite.

Esta, Warhammer is about tactics, game playing, art (painting) - violent crap is not a fair term at all.

DS 1 (9) and DS 2 (7) play, paint and spend time working out their strategies and neither are vile or aggressive (while playing ) - plus it's far better for them than computer games, or some passive activity where they don't have to actually think.

Not at all - imagine playing chess with pieces you've painted yourself and a bit of luck involved.
It's fantasy violence, similar to what's in the Hobbit - aimed at a similar age group.

Whether their pocket money can keep up with the hobby is another question!

Both of mine have done it. DS2 more than DS1. I got loads of free stuff though from free cycle for DS1.

DS2 now 12 has just about grown out of it - he bought a lot of stuff with pocket money and birthday money. Kept him occupied. He loved painting the figures and went to a war hammer after school club at primary. He also went to the war hammer shop every time we went into town and received painting and gaming lessons.

cailindana

I won't be making that mistake again. I agreed to have a go at the game. First flush of love and all that. I lasted 30mins before declaring it the most boring 1/2 hour I had ever spent

I do go with him to the miniatures convention/exhibition thingy every year though

Another Warhammer widow here. It's completely harmless though, unless you count damage to the bottles of wine my DH and his friend get through whilst playing.

We have a DS and I suspect DH will be indoctrinating him well before the age of 8.

Just to add my tuppence worth here - if he has friends who are also into it it will be brilliant, it will consume their weekends and your dining room table.
Do ask for plenty of advice from either your local GW store or indipendant stockist - they know everything! I should know - DH is one...
Also - Warhammer has some awesome strong female role models ;)

DH gets second hand figures on ebay to strip off and repaint, so that might help with costs.

Did you know that some people make a living out of selling really well painted marhammer figures? People pay loads of money for them and commission them and stuff.

My DH has pointed out that the most recent rulebook is quite badly laid out which makes it seem more complicated than it is.

Our DD (3) has expressed an interest in painting "mintures" with Daddy. Luckily she also likes going to look at wool.

Sardine how does your DH strip off the paint?

And do you all just leave your kids at the shop for gaming sessions or is a parent expected to stay (although I'm not sure I'd mind staying anyway, I used to play a fair bit of D&D)?

Just want to add to all the positive stories.
It helps encourage reading, classical probability, and problem solving.
Its also very good for attention span. These games can take hours to play to the end.

I'd also agree with the educational aspect - watching the kids going through the army books looking at who beats who is quite a high level understanding of maths probability for a 9 or 10 yr old, and the game is basically chess with random variation from dice.

(I do remember being in Games Workshop store some years ago when some yoofs yelled through the door "You lot will so never get laid") :o

I also want to add positive feedback. I had a pretty negative view of this stuff (warhammer, ad&d etc) since I only saw what was in the press.

However, I didn't realize that this was my DH's passion when he was a child/teenager. He still has a whole bookshelf of manuals for Wahammer and AD&D. We're talking thousands upon thousands of pages of rules etc.

As far as he is concerned, this hobby really improved a number of abilities he later used in his career (theoretical physicist and hedge fund trader/partner). It improved his memory and ability to rapidly digest large amounts of information. It sharpened his numeracy, problem solving and understanding of probability. It also taught him to judge risk vs reward. In his view, the hobby was also much more of a positive factor than the rubbish teaching he got at his comprehensive!.

The problem is he now plays Total War strategy games on his computer in his spare time so he remains just as nerdy at 35 as when he was 10!

All the Warhammer widows on this thread prove that they do, eventually, get laid.

i think its fine, my boys have had a go but didnt like it particularly, my eldest is more interested tho.

we have a shop locally and you can go in and they do a 'free' taster session where you get to have a little figure and paint it, they liked that! and so did as i it killed some time on a wet, miserable day!

My little flowers ( 10 and 13 ) have been playing WH with their cousins for a couple of years, painting figures, measuring, bickering, more measuring, more bickering ... All good geeky fun

Ignore the killjoys, it's totally harmless and improves their fine motor skills no end.

We all used to play D & D back in the day and there was no shortage of ill-informed doom-mongers bleating about that being ultra-violent devil-worshipping and what have you then as well, and none of us have ever taken a battle-axe to anyone, so there!

As the wife of a 30 year old Games Workshop addict, he says 8 is a bit too young for the full on game, complicated rules etc. There is a boardgame version scaled down that he could find on ebay - Space Hulk. It's a great place to start. No reason not to get him a box set of figures and paints though so he can start painting.

Herbwoman stripping paint is easy. For metal you cna use paint stripper. For plastic/resin you can soak it in Fairy power spray.