Big Battles for Little Hands

A Wargaming Source Book for Children

Authors: John R. "Buck" Surdu Rob Dean
Publisher:LMW Works
Date Published: 2002
Period: All
Scale: Both Skirmish and Tactical
Status:Available through Brigade Games or directly from LMW Works.
Notes: Much more than a game...

Amazon.com:

Big Battles for Little Hands will be available through Amazon.com. The ISBN for this book is 1-889584-10-X.

Overview:

Big Battles is the result of over three years of effort. I came up with this idea while living in Texas. I approached several people about collaborating on this effort, but only Rob Dean took up the guantlet.

Big Battles is meant to be a one-stop shop for children who are interested in wargaming. It includes a tactical set of rules, Milk and Cookies Rules and a skirmish set of rules, Blood and Swash. In addition, Big Battles includes:

• A history of land warfare
• A primer on tactics
• How to paint figures
• How to make terrain
• How to mold your own figures
• Several scenarios to game
• Suggested single-volume histories to read
• Suggestions children's history books
• A note to parents
• And paper soldiers to cut out and use if you can't get metal ones

The book has many photographs, charts, and tables to keep a child's interest.

Both the tactical and skirmish rules have been play tested with children as young as six years old. While a first grader would be unable to read the book, they can easily play the games. (Imagine a history book at 1st Grade level: "See Napoleon fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. See Mack run. Run, Mack, Run.") My intent is for this book to grow with the child; as the child gets older, he or she should get something new from each re-reading. Several adults have told me they enjoyed reading the book as well.

For those of you who bought the first printing, you can download consolidated Blood and Swash charts in .pdf format. All the charts needed to play Blood and Swash are in the booklet, but these consolidated charts are more convenient. You can also download another copy of the Milk and Cookies Rules charts.

Todd Harland-White has added modifications to Milk and Coolies Rules, the tactical rules in the book, for naval actions. Click here for a copy of the charts and here for the scenario briefing.