Yesterday we decided that Reiley was old enough to play a Real Time Strategy war game with me. She and Wren have been playing multi-player Age of Empires ][: The Conquerers for a long time now, and they’re very skilled at map building and playing in a friendly mode. So Reiley kept up with me just fine. And it’s fortunately not too graphic, especially compared to many, many other games. You get to choose from a variety of actual civilizations, so it’s educational, too (yeah yeah, that’s the ticket).

I sent over a few soldiers to attack her early, and she sent a sneaky counter-attack around the back of my colony. She’s a great opponent, and a really good sport to boot. There’s a little bit of guilt on my part, for 1) letting her play wargames and 2) for not holding back more when I’ve played the game a lot more than she has. But I guess there’s plenty of time for her to surpass her old man (and whip his butt). :>