Tabletop WW2 war gaming
Flames of War is a miniatures game for company level World War II battles. Players command one or more companies and their supporting units and attempt to complete the mission objectives.
The rules are published by the New Zealand company Battlefront Miniatures. The game is designed for 15mm or 1:100 scale models, which are available from Battlefront and competing manufacturers. Armies may consist of infantry, gun teams and tanks. You can also have air support. A normal game will take 2 to 3 hours. A game of Flames of War is typically played on a 6' x 4' board, though larger and smaller boards can also be used.
The rules cover the entire period of World War II, but games are normally classified as Early War (EW), Mid War (MW) or Late War (LW). Although infantry units did not change their equipment that much during the war, tanks and anti-tank guns changed dramatically over the period. Thus you will normally have games between two forces from the same period.
In addition to the rules book, players will use Intelligence Briefings to choose their force. The Intelligence Briefing gives details of what units were used together historically, and the points limit for each unit. (Warhammer players will be used to Army Books or Codexes serving the same purpose).
Normally each player will pick a force up to a given points limit. Traditionally this would be in the 1500 - 1750 pts range. Flames of War version 4 was released in March 2017, which changed the point system. In version 4 the suggested points limit is 100 points, but at the time of the version 4 release intelligence briefings were only available for the Desert Rats and Afrika Korps.