Our local rniddle school (7th and 8th grades) recently staged an event that they celled 'Wellness Day'. Yes I know the name is silly, but the event had a serious purpose. The idea was to expose the kids to a range of different hobbies/activities/interests that would be entertaining and educational. It was hoped that the event would provide alternatives to some of the destructive things kids can drift into when they are bored.

I heard that the school was looking for volunteers to put on demonstrations so I signed up to demonstrate wargarning. I should mention that I had two motives. I wanted to support the worthwhile goals of Wellness Day, and I wanted to expose the little tykes to the excitement of studying history.

Sadly, students in my home state are taught a politically correct version of history that could bore the paint off the walls. This article is an account of how I got involved and designed a game appropriate for the occasion. My purpose (I always have a purpose) is to persuade some of you to contact your local schools and make them the same offer. You might just spark an interest in some kids that will be an important, positive influence in their lives.

Here's how it went. My offer to demonstrate wargauning was eagerly accepted by the school. Since this was going to be a little different from anything I had done before, I decided to step out of character and plan ahead. The three big issues were:

1) Design a game that can be taught to, played, and enjoyed by eight 13 year olds in 45 minutes.
2) Nail down the logistics of getting tbe figures and terrain tbere and back, resetting the game between classes, identifying and collecting any game support rnaterials needed. Arranging the needed facilities with the school.
3) Delivering the whole package in a way that would lead to at least some of the kids getting interested in history.

It was fortunate that I did plan ahead, because all of those isues required some attention. If I had attempted to run a game 'off the cuff', it just wouldn't have worked.

Game Design

These were young kids who never gamed before. What can be done in 45 minutes? 1 decided tht the game would have to be visually spectacular, but tactically unsophisticated. . I have hundreds of 25mm Vikings and Saxons. They are individually mounted, but set in plastic movement trays of 28 figures each, so that they can be moved with a single hand motion. I told the school in advance that I could only fit in 8 kids per session, so I divided the armies into commands of 3 warbands, one for each kid.

For rules, I made up a set that borrowed heavily from DBA. For those of you who don't like DBA, remember that I had to teach the game and complete it in 45 minutes. To de-bug the game design, I playtested it 4 times in 2 evenings with rny regular gaming pertner. That was critical. He recommended several changes that I think made the difference between success and failure in the actual event. He also volunteered to help me put on the game. If you decide to do this, having two adults running the gune is important. I kept the terrain simple, just a flat plain with one long low hill on each flank.

Logistics

I visited the school before the event to make sure they understood the space and table size I needed.

I'm a father of 2 teenage boys, so know the difficulty they have keeping things straight. With that in mind, I attached a small color coded label to each unit so that each player could see at a glance which units were his.

Carefully packing 700 25mm figures, the terrain, 8 rulers, 8 dicecups , 8 sets of dice, a tape player and tapes (my games always have a soundtrack), was more of a chore than you might think. Even with my friend helping out, we still had to make 2 trips from my van to the room where the game was to be held. The dicecups were actually little square tupperware containers. The kids were taught to hold the cups in one hand and cast the dice into it with the other. With kids crowding around a table covered in figures, that's the way to go with dice. Trust me.

We arrived at the school very early, just to make sure we had time to recover from any unexpected events. We had a little introductory speech prepared. There were 3 sessions. After each session we would both be re-setting the game. When the next group arrived, one of us would give the intro speech while the other completed the setup. It was a little hurried, but it worked.

Getting Them Interested

The game was open to both boys and girls, but since the kids got to pick their own events, all but one of ours were boys. We made the table nice with a green cloth, the hills, and a smattering of trees. When the 700 figures were arrayed in their two lines 4 ranks deep, the whode effect was impressive, if I do say so myself. When the kids walked in, the sounds to Conan the Barbarian playing and they were ready to be swept bscic to 9th century England.

In the intro speech we described wargamig briefly, told than in very broad terms how the game worked and told them they would learn the details with our guidance as they played. We told them to handle the trays rather than the figures to rninimrze the chance of damage. I must say that these kids were better behaved and more careful than some adults I've gamed with.

I had prepared in advance a little info packet for each kid. The info had a cover sheet with a picture of a Viking battle scene. Inside was info in how to get into wargaming, a copy of the rules being used in the game, a sample website on that period of history geared to their age group, brief desciptions of the Viking and Saxon military systems, and an account of what it might have been like to be in a battle. All was written with the teenage audience in mind (more vivid than scholarly). Illustrations of Viking and Saxon warriors were spread around on the pages. I made one packet for each player, but didn't hand them out until after the gune. Kids are easily distracted.

I brought all of my books on that period and displayed them on a ledge next to the game table so that kids who were knocked out of the game could browse through them. The Osprey books were especially good for that although in the event most of the kids who were eliminated early stuck right to the table to watch the action.

Each side had four players. We were doing the battle of Ashdown. I made each player a little laminated plastic card with the name of the historical person he was playing, and a biographical sketch where information was known, or a little something interesting about that type of person in those armies. I made enough of those so taat each kid could take his card away with him.

Using old Prince August figures and a hammer, I made a bunch of casualty figures to mark the progress of the fighting. The consensus among the players was that they were 'cool'.

For those of you who are teachers, here are some of the comments I overheard:

'This is the first time I ever wished a class wouldn't end'.
'Can I stay here next poriod instead of going to the next event?'
'Where do you get the rules/figures/books?'

Those lads were completely absorbed in the game. At one point the teacher who organized the event walked in to observe and they didn't even know she was there. She commented later on how focused they were on what they were doing.

Would I do it again?

Absolutely, and I hope some of you will consider making a similar offer to your local school district. Every kid who turns to constructive scholarly pursuits through your efforts is one less kid who will grow up to mug you.

Rules for Refighting Ashdown