Well my 5 year old wanted to play a game of Memoir 44 today and it was buried in the back of the game closet and I'll be honest I was being lazy and didn't want to dig it out and restack everything so I pulled out C&C Ancients which just happened to be at the top of the pile and asked he if wanted to try it as it was similar to Memoir. While he was unimpressed with the "boring board" and lack of terrain in the game he took a liking to the "soldier pictures of the blocks" so said he would give it a try. (Also he really liked the custom wooden dice I had for the game)
While we set up, which is always his favorite as he loves to hold and inspect all the playing pieces, I went over the basic similarities w/ Memoir and some important differences. He really liked the whole idea of battling back in close combat. So beyond helping read some of the more specialized cards and helping him comprehend some of what they might mean in game terms he jumped right in and picked up the basics of ancients warfare faster than I thought he would.
Well long story short his light infantry just brutalized anything that go within range of his spears and arrows, which he then withdrew as I closed with my infantry and cav. He then destroyed my center with a very well played card for his heavy infantry. And to cap it all off he delivered a coup de grace with a unit of his medium cav commander by his general which not only wiped out a unit of my infantry but also succeeded in killing the attached leader. It was a fun game and he did really well ... oh who am I kidding the kid destroyed me at my own game and won 5 banners to my 0
Needless to say a rematch has been scheduled for next weekend, at his insistence because "it was fun and he wants to beat me again"
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