The never ending war of lizards and rats continues down in the wargaming hole (my basement). I had the pleasure of getting a few games in with my son on my week off. I wish I could say something profound or praise the system or elucidate some epiphany–I can’t. One Page Rules Age of Fantasy continues to be a thoroughly accessible and adequate system devoid of particular thrills but simple enough for my son to digest.

This matters, still, because he is still growing as a tactician. He now has a full unit of riders that can hit like a truck when they make contact–he… consistently holds it back because he’s afraid of losing it.

He’s not wrong, is actually the problem. The unit is ludicrously fragile. It’s pointed accordingly but it means that he’d need to paint many more in order to really build out the cavalry assault he wants. Unfortunately, painting cavalry sucks, and now that he understands that he has been opting to paint literally anything else.

That’s not to say he isn’t getting better. OPR serves as a reasonable foundation to learn. He has gotten better at objective play and marshals his resources better the more he plays. He understands the value of his gators and is starting to grasp the value of harassing my units with his geckos.

From that, I derive joy. I really do. The system itself? I find myself wishing it were a little less lethal such that you felt more like you were commanding an army and less like you were commanding a set of glass cannons. I’ve learned I should not charge my ratmen warriors into battle–they’re likely to kill themselves. They’re pure fodder, which… feels bad. I get that it’s a horde army but you’d think a horde would do more than screen.

I’ll likely transition us to Dragon Rampant later this year. I felt that our games of Xenos Rampant last summer played better overall and I think the same will carry over to the sister fantasy ruleset when it comes out. I’m perhaps too harsh–I’ve enjoyed the games with my son and I’ve really enjoyed painting the miniatures with him. There’s plenty here to enjoy and for a free ruleset there’s little reason to complain. Again, as I say every time I visit this ruleset on the blog, if you want a good starter ruleset for your kid, One Page Rules delivers.

Just know the real value there is what is should be: spending time with your kid. I’m blessed to have a child that enjoys this stuff and if the cost is a year or so spent playing a passable ruleset, it’s a price worth paying.