I’d highly recommend playing Combat Patrol rules for 40K; short games (I won one in 4 mins on Sunday!), minimal models, and a lack of complex scenario rules make for a fun game.

No personal experience in this.. yet. But I have heard from a lot of wargaming parents that Heroscape is a great game for this sort of thing. Simple to learn, rather self contained, kid safe in that dropping the terrain or minis isn’t a problem and it is reputed to be interesting enough for older kids and parents to play.

Here is a link to an absolutely brilliant little game that has brought me and my friends bags of fun. http://www.warrioronline.demon.co.uk/OTWGames/otwgames.htm
I found this at a local wargames show (Triples) and never looked back. It is very easy to pickup and play. Everything you need is in the box, including some decent minis. There is also a supplement set which expands the rules and provides more figures. Playing cards are used instead of dice. We added a rule that a joker could be used as an “instant death” shot, which certainly added to the fun. For the price you can’t go wrong. Enjoy!!

Kind of off topic because their games aren’t strictly mini-related (but you can always use minis of course), but I’d recommend checking out http://www.cheapass.com for some really cheap and amusing games.

I’ll second Zac’s recommendation of Heroscape, ‘though this time with some personal experience.

The game is a blast to play for adults and for kids, and is a great game for adults to play WITH kids, too.

Plus, if the kids are into super-heroes there’s the Marvel Heroscape set as well.

Hero scape . for the cost , great painted minis , land scapes , good rules. , quick game play and lots of expantion sets. oe of the best games for the buck.

My five year old likes Battlemasters. The rules are simple (I believe Heroscape uses a similar system), but still involves tactical thinking, planning, etc. Another game that both adults and kids can enjoy. (That big mat and all those miniatures is visually impressive, too). It is out-of-print, but you can often find complete used copies on eBay.

Another game I’d suggest is Song of Blades and Heroes from Ganesha games. It’s a generic fantasy skirmish game, based on warbands of about 5-20+ figures, in 15mm or 25/28mm.

The rules are quick, straight-forward and easy to learn, with the ability to add on more special rules/abilities later, if you wish. There are army lists, but you can also generate a custom profile for just about any fantasy miniature. If they like painting, this is a plus, since they can play with anything they feel like painting up. It has rules for mini-campaigns, so you can also run it as a sort of “roleplaying lite” game with an ongoing band of figures, if that has more of an appeal.

The upcoming Monsterpocalypse game from Privateer Press looks to be an interesting entry-level game - prepainted, so the youngsters can get started straight away, and with giant rampaging monsters destroying a city, what’s not to enjoy? Of course, I haven’t seen the game or the figures yet, so it may be pants.

My 11 year old son was originally interested in Lord of the Rings and has now moved on to 40K (despite my best efforts), but my 5 year old lad is eyeing up my Warmachine/Hordes collection (I’m so proud) and has decided he wants to play Everblight.

The main difficulty my sons face is the large cost of starting an army - it is soooo expensive to amass enough forces to fight a decent battle with any of the mainstream games. Which is why I suggested a collectable game like MonPoc - any game of this nature is pretty much playable straight out of the box.

Hey guys (this is Gaz), I’ve got the 40k Macragge boxset actually (I live in Japan and my kids speak Japanese) so I picked up the J version for this years. I’ve got a 4×4 table so a 500 point skirmish would be ideal. I started to show the younger of the 2 the various armies and he liked the look of the Space Wolves :D

I’m really interested in some of the other games people suggested and will definately be picking up Monsterpocalypse (since I love PP!)

Quick question; having near played Heroscape - does it use cards too? The 9 year old absolutely loves Yugioh and a few other CCGs, if cards were integrated that would probably be an added bonus.

I’d second Cosmotiger’s suggestion too. Song of Blades and Heroes is an excellent fast system for Fantasy gaming that requires ~10 figures a side. Despite being a free-form figures war game, during play it feels like a board game. It’ll probably be the first war game I introduce my son to in a couple of years if he’s interested.

Another suggestion is search the web! There’s plenty of free war games out there. Unbridled Fury’s offerings spring to mind.

Out of interest; how easy is the new Elfbowl game?

I would avoid the Warhammers or similar games, as they really are rather complicated, require a lot of bookkeeping & need quite a bit of figures. Games like Battlemasters, Space Hulk, Heroscape or any skirmish game which is not too rules heavy would be much more suitable. Perhaps you could also have a look at this site: http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/ Lots of neat little games in different genres, and all for free.

I’d suggest something board game orientated too, with Heroquest and Space Crusade being personal favourites (if you can get them).

Do they have any preference between fantasy and Sci-Fi?

I will throw my vote in for Heroscape and/or the Marvel Heroscape as well. Lots of booster pack figures to choose from, and very kid friendly. There is certainly an infinite variety of terrain arrangements, and the interlocking pieces keep everything stable while playing. There are stat cards for each figure/unit with point values and special abilities, so there might be some appeal to your son there.

We’re about to try Song of Blades and Heroes ourselves, so while I have no playing experience with it, the rules do seem easy enough for younger kids, while still offering a challenge. And you can play it with minis you already have, which is a big plus.

Song of Blades and Heroes from Ganesha Games would be ideal, plus the download is incredibly inexpensive. The rules come with stats for all the basic fantasy races, but there’s a simple system for creating your own troop types, so you can have the lego men fighting plastic dinosaurs within 1/2 an hour. The basic mechanics are wonderfully simple. Figures have 2 stats in their profile - Quality and Combat, plus they can have special rules to make things interesting. Most of the special rules are esentially exceptions to the basic mechanics, so they’re very easy to learn and remember (and you only need to know the ones that affect your figures).