World in Flames is a board wargame designed by Harry Rowland and released in 1985 by the Australian Design Group. It is currently in its 8th edition, World in Flames - Collector's Edition, each new edition featuring changes to the rules, maps and counters provided with the game.
The game is a strategic-level recreation of both the European and Pacific theatres of World War II. The game begins with the German invasion of Poland, and contains rules determining when Soviet Union and the United States may choose to enter the conflict.
Game mechanics
World in Flames game mechanics takes into account many aspects of the World War II conflict. There are three main combat types; land combat, air combat and naval combat. The game is designed in such a way that these different combat types may influence each other. Thus, it is possible that a battle may consist of a number of engagements involving air, land and naval units, even if it is taking place in the land combat phase of an impulse. The rules are designed to be able to cope with different types of activity without invoking new concepts for each situation. For instance, strategic bombing of factories and resources are handled by the same rules that handles tactical bombing, paradrops and naval bombing. Attacks on convoys are handled by the same rules that handle ship-to-ship and air-to-ship warfare.
Major Powers and sides
The game is played with the Commonwealth (consisting of the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Australia, South Africa and numerous territories and colonies), France, China, USSR and the United States of America forming the Allies and Germany, Italy and Japan forming the Axis. China is divided into Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists. Each major power can be played by one player; in practice two or more major powers on the same side are usually played by each player. If there is more than one player on the Allied side, the Chinese communists are controlled by the USSR player.
Major Power neutrality and entry into the war
At the beginning of the game, Germany must declare war on Poland. France and the British Commonwealth must subsequently declare war on Germany on their next move. At this time, Japan is at war with China. All other Major Powers are neutral. Future declarations of war between the Major Powers influences US Entry and US Tension, which are abstractions of when United States of America can declare war. Briefly, aggressive and successful play from the Axis side will hasten the entry of the US into the war. Aggressive Allied play - like declaration of war on neutral minor countries - will slow US entry.
However, these required political actions can be quite different if you play with Days of Decision, which can be used as an expansion of this game. Days of Decision starts gameplay in 1936 and allows for a far greater range of actions in the political spectrum.
Production and industrial output
The ability of a Major Power to produce military units is abstracted by three factors. Production points from on-map factory complexes are combined with resource points from on-map natural resources. For each pair of points successfully combined (by railing or shipping a resource-point to a factory), the nation gains a number of build points equal to its production multiplier. This multiplier represents how well geared the nation's industry is towards war-time production. As the war proceeds, all production-multipliers go up. The build points can be spent to purchase units for land, sea and air warfare.
Turn length, initiative and impulses
The side with the higher initiative roll decides what side will have the first of several moves in a turn. The roll is modified for one of the sides by a +1 or +2 on a ten-sided die, reflecting the side's ability to execute quick and well-coordinated offensives with enough resources. The initiative modifier shifts if one side asks for a reroll or if one side has the first and the last move in one turn. After initiative is determined, the winner chooses an impulse type (see below) and moves his units, and resolves different types of combat according to rules. After the impulse is ended, the impulse marker is advanced on a track with a number determining how likely the entire turn is to end. A die is rolled to see if this is the end of the turn; if not, the other side takes their impulse. The process is repeated until the end of turn die-roll indicates the end of the turn.