"Flames of War Questions" Topic

What is the scale of the game, what do units represent on the board? U know it's 15mm but what does distance represent. Are they historical simulation rules or competitive gaming rules, that happen to us WWII miniatures. Base if Men equal a squad. 1 tank is 1 tank?

I understand it's based on a tournament type format. Are the rules usable for a more traditional historical scenarios type wargames?

Scale is:
small arms = 16"
MGs and short-barreled guns = 24"
Typical tank guns = 32"
Special cannons = 40"

Trying to expand beyond that will just give you a headache. Definitely competitive gaming rules IMHO. A vehicle is a vehicle, but a stand is more a fire team than a squad. So most armies have 2-3 stands per squad.

I've played a few tournaments, countless pickup games and a few scenarios where we ignored points. For our group, tastes and available time it works well. YMMV.

ok, that's the range of the weapons, not the scale. What I mean is 1" = 50 meters as an example.

There is no set ground scale.

A figure equals,one man, so a base is a half squad or a fire team depending on the way the force is represented.

A tank equals a tank.

The scale is not defined, deliberately. The aim is to fit both pistol ranges and 155mm artillery on the table.
It has been called "logarithmic" on that case.
So pistols have a 4" range, while 155mm artillery can have a 80" range. A 2pdr AT gun will have a 24" range.
We are to ignore the inconsistency, because in game terms it works.

Using this same logarithmic scale, a pair of hub to hub Sherman tanks are on game scale really 10 yards apart.
Take 10 Sherman tanks hub to hub and the math puts them NOW 100-150 yards apart.

There is no strict ground scale.

Its geared more towards the pick up and play style.

You can play historical scenarios and a lot of people do, but the "default" is army lists and a sort-of-competitive atmosphere.

1 model = 1 tank/man but the men are mounted on bases with multiple figures.

FoW is a set of gaming rules.

Thanks guys I get it now😎

As Winston sates, its a logarithmic scale. So the farther apart things are, the ground scale grows exponentially. Things right next to each other are probably within 10 yards, 16" is probably about 300-500yds, 32 is maybe 2000yds, and 80" is miles. Its an abstraction and a pretty clever one.

Yup. As good a simulation as there is at this scale these days.

"Yup. As good a simulation as there is at this scale these days."

Far from it.

Indeed Mark has commented on house rules to make FoW a bit more realistic

I play it straight up and with modifications. For my house rules I have hidden movement, opportunity fire and use an alternating platoon activation system (instead of IGOUGO). I'm currently finishing my infantry for a possible game in January. It will be half-size (all base half size, all measurements converted to 1/2 inches). So even with a large (3000pt) army on a 4x6 table, the flanks of both sides will be quite open.

@jdginaz

What would you suggest? I have not found a better game for this scale of play (i.e. 1 tank = 1 tank, but infantry based in groups).

Incidentally, I have never found a set of rules that my fiddling with didn't improve

What would you suggest? I have not found a better game for this scale of play (i.e. 1 tank = 1 tank, but infantry based in groups).

I think you already have it; unit activation rather than one side goes, then other side goes. Overwatch so that the active side can be done-unto as its units do things (really thats a fundamental requirement of IGoUGo systems).
And one more thing, spotting the targets. This I think is very important. The fundamental advantage of infantry is not the difficulty in being killed, but concealment. Any rules that do not allow for this just a game, nothing to do with reality.

EC- IABSM.

They positively encourage you to fiddle.

EC-Both IABSM and CoC are very good at simulating the problems faced by unit commanders in WWII.