Big Battles for Little Hands: A Wargaming Source Book for Children (BBfLH) by Buck Surdu and Rob Dean is now available from Brigade Games (www.brigadegames.com) and Amazon.com. The ISBN for this book is 1889584-10-X. BBfLH is the result of over three years of effort. BBfLH 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, BBfLH 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 or plastic ones. Milk and Cookies Rules can be used for ancients, pike and shot, horse and musket, and modern (WWI, WWII, etc.) games. Similarly, Blood and Swash can be used for ancients, pirate battles, horse and musket, and modern skirmishes. (The kids who live downstairs from me use Blood and Swash with their Lego pirates.) 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 from www.bucksurdu.com. Back to Dispatch December 2002 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com