The Sword and the Flame by Larry V. Brom was originally issued by Yaquinto Publishing in 1979. Revision 1, containing minor changes, was released by Greenfield in 1986. Supplement 1 came out in the same year, expanding the scope to include the French and Indian War, the Boxer Rebellion, and the campaigns of the French Foreign Legion. In these editions, one figure represented one man, but movement, morale and combat is by the unit, the basic European unit being the 20 man platoon. Unit movement is determined by die roll, different types of units under different circumstances rolling differing numbers of six-sided dice.
Random card draws decide which units move first, and also determine the effects of fire and combat.
The Ouargistan group started out using The Sword and the Flame rules, but soon modified them for faster play with larger numbers of figures. Special rules were added for vehicles, ships, buildings and special situations, usually changing from scenario to scenario. Over the years the modifications grew so numerous that only the basic structure of the game remains, but it is a good structure, and has provided the basis for a great deal of fun over the last 20 years. The third edition of The Sword and the Flame from Greenfield changed the basic concepts somewhat. Each figure represented 10 men and the figures are mounted on multifigure bases.