Lightning War is a set of rules for 1/285 scale World War II microarmor miniatures and infantry. Its design goal is to represent armor, infantry, and artillery in an accurate but playable game system. There should usually be at least one player per side and a neutral Referee, though in some games the Referee may play all the forces of one side against the players.

Scale

Each turn represents a few minutes. Each model represents one vehicle; each infantry stand represents a squad or a heavy-weapons team. Scale is 1"=50m. (Optional rules for a platoon-level game are presented at the end.)

Vehicle Charts

Each vehicle has a datasheet. Guns and unarmored vehicles have similar but smaller charts. A vehicle's chart shows the data shown at right:

Units

A Unit in the game is a squad to battalion-sized group of vehicles and/or infantry. At some points in the rules the word "unit" will be used to refer to a single vehicle or gun -- such cases should be clear when taken in context.

Each side of the battle will be given a Table of Organization and Equipment (TO&E) which shows the organization of their forces and which units are subordinate to which. At the lowest level shown on the TO&E (usually platoons or companies) the Referee will classify all units in the game by their Battle Skill, Initiative, and Morale Levels.

Battle Skill reflects the unit's training and experience; Initiative indicates their command structure and their speed and ability in understanding and implementing orders and reacting to situations; Morale reflects their ability to continue functioning after taking losses.

A unit or collection of units moving in formation and under the same orders is called a Detachment.

Game Phases

Morale