Bad Dad?

[jamesjohns]

I'm playing WITP AE, my 11 year old son asks what I'm doing and wants to try it.......I let him...........he wants to play it again.......

I just started him down a path of darkness......a path of hundreds of hours of wasted time and money commanding electronic battleships and fighter squadrons to do his bidding.....I feel like a bad dad because my first thought was, wow, he wants to play a real wargame that requires brains not reflexes.....my second thought, yes I have a new opponent!

[:-] I am a bad father, my wife doesn't know yet, but I am in serious trouble[;)]

Good news, I have a chance to beat him. His plan is to launch everything that floats, yes even AK's because they have machine guns you know, to attack the "enemy base" Tokyo in April 1942.

In fairness I got Tactics II when I was 12 and played it nonstop, lead to hundreds of hours wasted commanding Panzer Armies and Paratrooper Squads in Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich, PanzerBlitz, Squad Leader, and on and on....

[Feltan]

This isn't bad parenting.

This is carrying on tradition. Something totally different. Your wife might not understand, but all of us do.

Regards,
Feltan

P.S. Besides the pending attack on Tokyo with AK's et. al. will build character and humility as it did for all of us at that age.

[witpqs]

Cool! [8D]

[Chickenboy]

Atta boy! Be sure to beat him soundly while you still can! [:D]

[zuluhour]

I still have my tactics II (squares, not hexes) except I lost the atomic weapons card. Now that made for a shorter game!

[jamesjohns]

Tactics II with squares, same here! Lent it to a guy in college years ago, never got it back really wish I had it again great first wargame

[dr.hal]

Now you know why I never had kids! I didn't want them to walk down this dark path...

[geofflambert]

My dad would beat my brother and I at chess, until he couldn't anymore. I was never much good at it but I could beat my father and defeated my brother once or twice. He went on to get a rating in the international chess whatever thingie of between 1900 and 2000, and beat a couple of grandmasters on different occasions. My brother invented something that got called the Lambert's Gambit, which if I recall correctly was a response to the Bishop's Opening. That happened to be my opening of choice. I was greatly embarrassed when at a high school tournament I was beaten and afterward my opponent said he used the "Lambert's Gambit". I asked him if he had noticed what my name was, then explained it to him. [:@]

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

My dad would beat my brother and I at chess, until he couldn't anymore. I was never much good at it but I could beat my father and defeated my brother once or twice. He went on to get a rating in the international chess whatever thingie of between 1900 and 2000, and beat a couple of grandmasters on different occasions. My brother invented something that got called the Lambert's Gambit, which if I recall correctly was a response to the Bishop's Opening. That happened to be my opening of choice. I was greatly embarrassed when at a high school tournament I was beaten and afterward my opponent said he used the "Lambert's Gambit". I asked him if he had noticed what my name was, then explained it to him. [:@]

You should have just eaten him. The rest of your opponents would have let you win. [:D]

[witpqs]

Tactics II with squares here, too!

[geofflambert]

Well, I ate something. I think there were black feathers involved.

[geofflambert]

Back to my superior sibling, he started collecting chess sets while a teenager and his collection was rather impressive. He had the usual stuff like an onyx set among many others. But the best ones, I think, included the teak/ebony set which was awesome. He also had a jade set where the kings were about 8" tall. The best, I think, was made out of resin, kind of like meerschaum with a leather board. The pawns were all legendary characters (Japanese) with samurai swords and the like.

I forgot, he had a set made of ivory which would probably be illegal now, maybe then, I'm not sure. I think it had an African theme, Zulus or other Bantus, maybe some Watusi.

[bush]

I have two daughters and neither of them seemed to know what I was talking about when I mentioned what I was spending so many hours on. I think one of them may have a clue now, but it would not hold her. My wife and both girls are impressed by what I do with my leisure time - but they would never embrace it.

[Jellicoe]

Having children was part of the plan to grow my own opponent. Made slightly harder by the fact I have a daughter. A few more years before the plan reaches maturity, although she does know who Admiral Jellicoe was....

[LeeChard]

Don't forget, once you've soundly defeated the young lad you must present him with a trophy so his fragile ego
doesn't take a hit [8|]

[Canoerebel]

My dad and I began playing chess when I was about eight years old. He thrashed me each game for years. Then, one day, I beat him. It brough tears to my eyes. I felt bad about beating my father.

[Panther Bait]

When he was 4, my oldest son saw some of my Naval Reference Books (Naval Institute Press type books) on the shelf and loves anything mechanical. We've taken him and his younger brother to see the submarine Albacore in Portsmouth, NH and Battleship Cove in Massachusetts (which according to him still ranks as one of his best days ever). He occasionally asks to go see the Intrepid down in New York.

So when he saw my old Avalon Hill Naval War card game on the shelf one day, I couldn't help but pull it down and start the teaching process. He's six now and finally gets the concept of gun size and ammo cards, although we're still mostly playing with hand cards on the table, rather than hidden.

Mike

[LargeSlowTarget]

Last week my nine year old son watched me playing and asked some questions. Then he left and came back half an our later with a handdrawn sketch of a map with lots of arrows and explained his masterplan to win as Japan. In short, take Kodiak, the Galapagos, Cape Horn and the Falklands to establish refueling bases in order to send the entire Japanese Fleet to bomb and bombard Washington DC into devastation and submission. My offspring is not lacking ambition, have to be careful when playing him in a few years[:)]

[Canoerebel]

Cape Horn. Falklands. Washington, D.C.

Your nine-year-old son is John III???

[&:]

[John 3rd]

Hey Now... [:-]

My near 12-year old son is playing Uncommon Valor. Once he masters the AI then he and I are going to play each other. When he is competitive there then we will move on the AE. How 'bout that??!!