Last night after her science fair I decided to introduce my 9 year old daughter to Fed Com. We played a simple fleet scale duel between a Fed FFG and a Klingon F5. By game end she had a good grasp on most of the basics of power allocation, movement and ships systems.
I let her fly the Klingon as it is a slightly less complicated ship. She took full advantage of those nice broad Klingon firing arcs to pour a withering fire into my #1 shield while leaving me fresh shields to fire at.
She did refer to disruptors as "destructors" - very apt, that is sure what they did to my ship. And asked "What's a Klingon?"
The good news is she liked it enough to want to play again!
I hope to teach the owner of a local coffee shop how to play this week. The hardest concept to get across was the result of each turn being divided into 8 impulses, each of which was in turn divided into 4 sub-pulses. When do I get to shoot again? When do I pay energy to move again? But she caught on quick.
Anyone else have experiences with teaching new players they want to share?
I got my clock cleaned by my kid...
Moderators: mjwest, Albiegamer
During the initial playtesting, I was the Scoutmaster for my son's Boy Scout Troop.
Once every three or four months, they'd have an overnight lock-in. Everyone would bring their favorite game and they'd spend the night playing games.
I brought several copies of the Klingon D7 and the Federation CA (as those were the two ships they were most familiar with) and then thought them how to play the game (and got in several rounds of noob-type playtesting - a two-fer!)
With them paired off in 7 groups of 2, it took a while for my son, Joe Butler, and I to get them past the basic difference between FC and other "turn-based" games - but soon enough they were blasting away.
Of course, their favorite tactic was fly straight, fire, fly straight, fire, fly straight, fire everything, watch both ships blow up!
After the first round, they swapped ships then went again...
after that, they swapped enemies and flew some more.
The kids ranged from 11 to 15, but soon enough they began to get the idea and would maneuver for a more advantageous position, or to turn a weakened shield away, etc.
All in all, it was a fun experience - although it was a bit more difficult to keep track of 14 novices than it would have been with one or two... or even 3.
Once every three or four months, they'd have an overnight lock-in. Everyone would bring their favorite game and they'd spend the night playing games.
I brought several copies of the Klingon D7 and the Federation CA (as those were the two ships they were most familiar with) and then thought them how to play the game (and got in several rounds of noob-type playtesting - a two-fer!)
With them paired off in 7 groups of 2, it took a while for my son, Joe Butler, and I to get them past the basic difference between FC and other "turn-based" games - but soon enough they were blasting away.
Of course, their favorite tactic was fly straight, fire, fly straight, fire, fly straight, fire everything, watch both ships blow up!
After the first round, they swapped ships then went again...
after that, they swapped enemies and flew some more.
The kids ranged from 11 to 15, but soon enough they began to get the idea and would maneuver for a more advantageous position, or to turn a weakened shield away, etc.
All in all, it was a fun experience - although it was a bit more difficult to keep track of 14 novices than it would have been with one or two... or even 3.
Commander, Battlegroup Murfreesboro
Department Head, ACTASF
Department Head, ACTASF
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MajerBlundor
- Lieutenant SG
- Posts: 123
- Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:47 pm
Same thing happened to me!
This week I introduced my 8-year old son (9 next month) to FC. He likes aliens so took the Klingon D7 and I took the Fed CA.
Well, being new to the game he charged right into close range and I promptly missed with my photon torps (bad die rolls) and didn't do very well with my phasers either. I managed a few internal hits including a disruptor and he was a little discouraged but I told him the fight was nowhere close to finished.
He then managed to get on my six and pummel my ship with excellent phaser shots and overloaded disruptors. He repaired his damaged disruptor and hit me again while I was seriously damaged with weapon and power problems (he did very well with his damage rolls!!!).
As for tactics he didn't know the usual "sabre dance" approach but he's an excellent Warhawk player on the PS3 and fully understands dogfight tactics. He used his superior turn mode to good effect as a result.
He's definitely hooked and has been pouring over the Romulan ships for our next game. He's also very pleased that he can beat dad in Warhawk AND Fed Commander!
(And Street Fighter IV for that matter!)
Tim
This week I introduced my 8-year old son (9 next month) to FC. He likes aliens so took the Klingon D7 and I took the Fed CA.
Well, being new to the game he charged right into close range and I promptly missed with my photon torps (bad die rolls) and didn't do very well with my phasers either. I managed a few internal hits including a disruptor and he was a little discouraged but I told him the fight was nowhere close to finished.
He then managed to get on my six and pummel my ship with excellent phaser shots and overloaded disruptors. He repaired his damaged disruptor and hit me again while I was seriously damaged with weapon and power problems (he did very well with his damage rolls!!!).
As for tactics he didn't know the usual "sabre dance" approach but he's an excellent Warhawk player on the PS3 and fully understands dogfight tactics. He used his superior turn mode to good effect as a result.
He's definitely hooked and has been pouring over the Romulan ships for our next game. He's also very pleased that he can beat dad in Warhawk AND Fed Commander!
(And Street Fighter IV for that matter!)Tim
Scoutdad is way ahead of all of us on teaching novices how to play. He has even developed the mind-meld as part of the training process! 
Sorry, Scoutdad. I couldn't resist a good joke...
I brought several copies of the Klingon D7 and the Federation CA (as those were the two ships they were most familiar with) and then thought them how to play the game
Sorry, Scoutdad. I couldn't resist a good joke...
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