first meeting of high school wargaming club

Nine students showed up (8 boys and a girl) and a teacher (I wasn't expecting an adult!)

6 of them  played an infantry engagement using DH rules
2 played a tank duel  using DH rules
1 painted  painted a viking!

Trying to get three things going at once with brand new players was a bit of a juggling act especially with kids trickling in, setting up terrain, printing rules (I had misplaced my charts at the start and needed to recreate them all!) and trying to get non gamers confident in what they were doing.

The Infantry commanders got a quick overview and were left to fight it out in the streets. They picked up the flow of the game pretty quickly. The Germans anchoring a building in their deployment zone with their MG34 and hustling up a rifle squad to take the central building (both sides objective!) The soviet commander squad got caught out in the open. With some lucky rolls they only lost 2 men, passed morale, and charged forward with a cheer!
I left at this point and checked on the armor duel. . .

Our two tank commanders got a quick and dirty overview and off they went  Germans with 2 Panzer IV G's and a Panzer III L vs a 2 Soviet T-34's and a Soviet Lendlease Sherman.  After less than two moves these young generals were shredding armor, ducking behind armor, trying to outflank eachother and running the aspects of the game (Acquisition, hitting, location, penetration, and the damage charts)    on their own.  When one player ducked into a cul-de-sac in the hill to guard his flank from on oncoming T-34 and still continue to engage the oncoming Sherman I knew I was no longer needed.

Our one intrepid painter helped set up the German infantry and give valuable input to her allies on what should be placed where. But she found the Wargames Factory Viking with a great axe more interesting than the German WWII infantry. She went to work and did a surprisingly nice job on the flesh and hair of the figure and started on the clothing. . .

The time flew by and before I had a chance to slow down it was time to pack up.

The Germans had taken the house but the Soviets concentrated fire on the single rifle squad with long range fire and attempted 2 assaults,both of which were thrown back by snap fire,  The Germans were slowly whittled down until their NCO was the last man standing and he too succumbed to a volley of rifle fire. The Germans & Soviets were moving up squads to capture the house so we called it a draw. But the Soviets had a stronger position.

The Tank game went down to the wire, one tank left for both commanders.  The Germans made a dash around the flank and failed.  The Soviet shell flew wide. Another turn of cat and mouse.  And like an armored six-gun shoot out. They turned and drew down.  When the smoke cleared the T34 drove on victoriously past the flaming hulk of its adversary.

I was pretty nervous, but it worked out better than I could have hoped.

I expected 4-5 kids and ended up with 9  and 2 other kids showed up to say they couldn't make this one but were interested.

 The kids were having a good time cheering and cursing their luck and in the end they were pretty complimentary of the system.  The painter wanted to know if she could keep her figure.  Absolutely!

Hopefully this club can be the start of a new generation of gamers to keep this great hobby alive.

After the break I'll be asking the kids where their interest lies and we'll decide as a group what we should work towards.

I am hoping to have a day of painting and a day of gaming.

The stressful thing was lugging all my miniatures and terrain to and from the school in the front seat of my truck.  No miniatures went missing, but some of them suffered accidental falls. (My Panzer IV tank turret hit the ground pretty hard chipping off a lot of paint and mangling the barrel). I hope to have the students collect their own figures and terrain.