A Quirky Little War

Of course, it would be an 80 degree day that my son would (finally) decide to take a handful of his army men outside to play. Despite the heat, I wanted to join in the fun and fortunately, I was invited to as soon as I finished work for the day.

What started out as playing with toys evolved by his own suggestion into a full-fledged game - albeit with some shifting rules of the kind common with 7 year-olds, but also an interesting initiative mechanism I would have never thought of. The young general commanded Army Tan, while your most humble and unbiased correspondent commanded Army Green. The rules appear below the pictures.

The dastardly Tan tank well hidden. 

The main body of the glorious Green Army advances against the despicable enemy.

A sneaky and underhanded Tan mortar - clearly an individual of dubious character.

The feline kaiju known as "Archimedes" approaches the Tan vanguard.
All shudder in fear of his fuzzy foot.

The devious Tan general contemplates his next move.

The Rules as They Were Played

The armies: Each player gets 5 figures and a tank.

The setup: All figures and tanks are to be well camouflaged at the start

The turn:

The Older Player asks the Younger Player to spell a word (in our case from this week's spelling list for school)

If the Younger Player spells the word correctly, they may take an action. If the word is one which has caused the Younger Player difficulty previously, an extra action may be awarded as judged fair by the Older Player.

If the Younger Player misspells the word, the Older Player may take an action.

After the action has been resolved, play continues with the Older Player asking the Younger Player to spell another word. The same word may be reused as many times as desired (or necessary if you're preparing for a spelling test).

Actions:

• Move - Generally as much or as little as desired and does not seem unreasonable. After movement, camouflage may be reapplied at no additional cost.
• Fire! - A ranged attack made using sticks and twigs gathered from the detritus on the lawn is thrown from a reasonable distance proportional to the player's skill level to attempt to knock down opposing figures.
• Melee - Close combat - move figure into contact with enemy. The enemy figure is knocked over. Any tank touched in melee is automatically destroyed.
• An enemy tank cannot be attacked until all infantry are knocked over.
• Medic! - Any 1 knocked over figure may be returned to standing.
• Cloverfield -  aka the nuclear option. According to the International Standards Committee of 7-Year-Old Rulesmakers, this option may only be employed by the Younger Player and at their discretion once per game. The Younger Player rips up a bunch of clover from the lawn and drops it from a height above the enemy soldiers. Any figure (not a tank) touched by the clover is knocked over.

Winning the Game: Destroy the enemy's tank. The enemy's tank cannot be attacked until all enemy infantry are knocked over.

Notes:

• Knocked over figures may not move, fire, or melee.
• The prone pose figure is impossible to knock down in ranged combat and therefore can only be defeated in close combat. This should be given to the Older Player as they cannot make use of Cloverfield.