Slaying the Furry Dragon... and Maja's First Attempt at Running a Game

Labor Day weekend saw a LOT of recovery time from the craziness of life.  No Day of Sloth picnic.  No Annual IOU game (again!)  I'm rested and feeling better than I have in weeks.  With the busy season at work starting in less than a month, I'm not confident with many of our patchwork systems, but I am confident that we'll overcome any obstacle that I can predict (for now).

The one gaming thing I managed to do was get Maja to set up her Medieval armies she got at Historicon through the Armies for Kids program, sponsored by the H.A.W.K.S.

Chores and homelife distracted us from getting to play immediately, and when we did, the table had been commandeered.

Maja had us set up longways on the table (first rookie mistake) with Houdini the cat as impassable terrain.  Maja nixed the idea that any units the cat knocked over were dead.

Maja's Cavalry got lost in the furry brambles and were trapped. 

Since it's Maja's game and Maja's figures, I told her she should run the game, but looking at the handy-dandy reference sheet was probably going to help.

The rules provided with the set are "Milk and Cookie Rules" out of Big Battles for Little Hands.  They're quite serviceable regardless of hand-size, although the reference sheet  is cluttered for anyone, much less a ten-year old.

Still, with our quick battle, Maja learned three important lessons:

• Don't perseverate on one unit while the rest of your army in languid.
• If distracted, archers can sneak up on you.  
• Cats move.

If there's a homework-free night, we might go over the rules together and she can set up the reference sheet that she feels is full of the important rules.   I might also loan her my copy of Pig Wars (Skirmish is more her jam, but we'll get both Maja and Dad up to speed on large scale warfare.)

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