In my household, Doctor Who is pretty much the best programmes on TV right now. My daughter loves the show. She’ only five and the Daleks are like the coolest bad guys ever in her opinion. It just so happened that we have a weekly publication here in the UK called ‘Doctor Who Adventures  magazine‘ and they gave away these small 28mm scale figures of Daleks , Cyberman and Sontarian warriors freely in past issues. They are made out of plastic and pretty brittle making them worthless adversaries for the Doctor but great for a potential  tabletop strategy game! All you need are the miniatures and a fistful of 6 sided dice! There are no templates involved. As I said even a 5 yr old can understand the rules.

It makes a perfect little game using my dice set from Warhammer 40k. Obviously the rules have to be simplified alot but enough to keep little ones amused for 30minutes. Here’s how I devised a simplistic set of rules…

Firstly there is very little in the way of moving or cover just to strip down the rules to its barest. The game is about making shots and eliminating the other side. Simple as that really.

One round consists of one player choosing a squad of three models and designating which opposing squad he or she is targeting.  Daleks essentially are all powerful and can shoot twice in one round. A shot represents one die which rolls 3 or above to hit. Sontarian and Cybermen units only shoot their guns once.  If a model is hit, it takes a damage roll and this I use a normal Warhammer 40k dice with the hit and arrow symbols on them. If you haven’t got those I suggest odds and even numbers on a normal 6 sided die.

To make the game a little more interesting, a different coloured Dalek in the pack represents a leader who gets three lives.

What was recently done was that Doctor Who Magazine recently put out a pack of 12 scale Weeping Angels. Those familiar with the series know these a a particularly nasty aliens made of stone who move and get you if you blink or look away. This proved a little more tricky to devise rules that could be understood by a five year old. The best I could think of was that the Weeping Angels can move to attack your opposing squads. To do this a Weeping Angels squad of three must roll 5 or more. If susccessful you can move the Angels in front of a chosen opponent’s squad. That squad are now unable to fire indefinitely as they have to take a ‘Bilnk test’ in each new round.  Again this is using the 40k Hit’n'miss target dice. If failed, you are allowed to remove a model from your opponent’s squad. The Angels can only be destroyed by another squad in the usual way.

I hope that explains these simple rules for kids to play this game.

Drop me a comment if you have any questions.

Disclaimer: Please note that this game is not a product of the BBC or endorsed by the BBC or  Doctor Who Licensing.