One of the difficulties that wargamers face when selecting an appropriate set of rules for World War 2 is that there are almost too many to choose from. The wargamer is spoilt for choice.
The large amount of information available from this period has contributed to this situation. Each source has a different opinion about tactics, army organisation and capability of different equipment.
Whilst difficult enough at times to get agreement on factual information about equipment, it is impossible to get consensus on opinions about troops quality of different nationalities.
Playability
As with any period, every wargamer wants a different level of playability and realism.
Complexity is often confused with realism, but this is not always the case.
Level
There are rules available which cover every level. The lowest level is skirmish, where one miniature figure represents one person.
Scale
1:72 scale. The popularity of this scale came about from the readily available Airfix kits. This scale was originally chosen by manufacturers from the UK as it was the popular scale for OO gauge model railways. Manufacturers from Europe usually used the 1:87 scale which was the popular scale on that continent for HO gauge model railways.
In the last few years , the popularity of Flames of War and the accompanying wide range of miniatures from New Zealand company Battlefront Miniatures has seen 15mm (1:120 scale) become very popular.
6mm (1:300 scale) and the closely related 1:285 scale is useful for large scale actions, particularly involving armoured vehicles.