What are some good war games for pc

Blitzkrieg 3 features fully 3-D rendering, something that sets it apart from its predecessors. Ah, Wargame: Red Dragon… Where to start? Do I kick things off with the 21 nations and 1, units in the game that span from to ? Do I mention the plethora of vehicles for land, sea and air?

Or do I go with the incredible sights and sounds that characterize the game? With so many strategic variables to consider, things can go wrong fast, and one tiny mistake can be enough to plunge you into the depths of a crushing defeat. This is war, after all. Every unit is designed specifically to kill another type. That can spell disaster since what was meant to be a battle can swiftly devolve into a massacre all because you or your opponent lacked the foresight or the luck to take some different units and vehicles to the field.

At the end of it all, whether you fight on land, sea or air, this will be no simple affair. The winner is the general who thinks just that one step ahead. In Wargame: Red Dragon, you can take to the field with hundreds of heavy artillery and vehicles. Take part in battles that will have you exploring places like China, Japan and the North Atlantic. However, the developers, Slitherine, opted for a reboot, stripping the game of its original campaigns, adding more, and making these all available as downloadable content DLC.

The end result is that you have the freedom to access precisely and only the war stories you want to play, which is a bit different from your typical DLC setup. In Order of Battle: World War II you can compose armies using the over unique units each with unique abilities and class-specific advantages and put together ground units, fleets and air forces that make use of and benefit from the tactics and technologies historically used by their respective factions in the War.

Those benefits or drawbacks can make all the difference in a skirmish. Also, be careful not to let your units get cut off from their supplies by the enemy, or they will suffer. Make your own history! And why not? The focus is on you. Take control of any of the powerhouses of the world at that period and then lead them to victory against the other big wigs.

Form or break alliances. Decide on your political posture and ideologies. Manage your economy and supply lines. The game will also force you into making some pretty tough decisions—like, do you produce a fleet of tanks now to counter the enemy, or do you invest those resources into discovering new technologies instead that will pay off later, assuming you can somehow survive their tanks for long enough, of course.

Hearts of Iron 4 is a very satisfying war game. Its various conundrums and necessary trade-offs will certainly give the RTS enthusiast plenty to consider in order to avoid ceding one advantage after the next to the enemy. And, like I said earlier, you have freedom to wage WW2 your way.

So, go ahead—make your Italy sever ties with Germany in favour of creating a new Roman Empire with different allies just because the original Roman Empire was so awesome.

Play as several historical figures and take your country and your war efforts in any direction you please. Set at the time spanning from the Battle of Normandy to the end of the war, Company of Heroes does an amazing job of truly presenting the greatest war in recent memory in all its deadly and destructive glory. You play as the Allies represented by the Americans and the Axis represented by the Germans , and this means far less unit variety than most RTS games offer.

But what the game lacks there, it more than makes up for in sheer execution. Visually stunning and characterized by amazing music and realistic sound effects even featuring liberal use of profanity from your infantry units, something that, unfortunately, cannot be toggled off , Company of Heroes faithfully captures the essence of what the war truly was.

The Victory Points system shown top centre, here adds yet another element of challenge to the game. Take to the North and lead your Viking tribes to a new home in Northgard. Lead your Vikings to the newly discovered and promising land of Northgard and establish a mighty colony. As always, though, the land is not without its dangers. Northgard will pit you against marauding packs of dire wolves, draugr undead warriors , giants, other Viking clans competing for the right to rule this rich new land, and the bitter assault of merciless winter.

Your Vikings can fill many jobs Farmer, Warrior, Sailor, Loremaster, to name a few , and no, the Warrior class is not the most important of these.

Alliances with the giants, for instance and resource gathering will figure heavily into your chances of victory. You can forget about mining iron or anything else if you simply run out of firewood in the middle of winter. The full release should put in its appearance later in the year, however, and even at this early stage Northgard is distinguishing itself in all the right ways. Northgard is a beautiful land with quirky, cartoony artwork, a lovely colour palette and diverse natural features.

What do you do when you inhabit a fairy-tale world populated by talking animals and your great and powerful king suddenly comes down with a disease called the Rot, which is not only killing him slowly but also turns him pure evil?

You commit regicide, of course! So says Armello, the debut production of League of Geeks, at least. In a novel mix of table-top fantasy role-playing, strategy, 4X, card and board games, Armello has you setting out as one of four heroes in a tense race for the throne in a world where the Rot wreaks havoc even as high up as the royal palace.

Being a digital board game, Armello is turn-based and also includes dice rolls, and smartly animated cards with which you can cast spells, use skills or lay traps for rivals. The heroes themselves are quite diverse, each having, among other things, a unique passive skill which will affect how you play the game.

Play as one of six races: humans, draconians, high elves, dwarves, orcs, and goblins; all of whom have unique benefits and abilities. Your choice here will affect how you approach both combat and the economy. Having chosen one of these, you can choose further from one of six classes: Sorcerer, Theocrat, Rogue, Archdruid, Dreadnought or Warlord. The world map is further populated with other fantastical races, like giants or the undead.

These unaffiliated races and groups can be conquered or allied with. Age of Wonders 3 includes elements of city-building, resource gathering, exploration, spell casting, research and, of course, combat. You can also recruit powerful heroes to aid your armies. Players can also decide their alignment in terms of good and evil.

Actions you take will push that alignment down either path. Wage war against the many belligerents, each with very interesting, diverse and devastating abilities. That being said, The Banner Saga 2 is best enjoyed if you actually did play the original game. It is, after all, a continuation of the story, and even has an option to let you import your completed save file from The Banner Saga. You are the leader of a traveling band of desperate Vikings fleeing war in the hope of finding safety in a distant land.

In addition to simply telling a good story, the series has a way of forming a deep link between your decisions and the overarching narrative. And you will be called upon to make many tough decisions during the course of the game. Knowing that every little thing you do affects the story gives added weight to these moments, but it also means the game has a high replay value since the story can take so many different turns based on your choices.

Beyond its storytelling element, The Banner Saga 2 offers a turn-based strategy experience that will demand proper planning and foresight on and off the battlefield. The variety of game mechanics also mean that there are many tiny tactical details that are nonetheless very critical to the progression of battle and that serve to keep things interesting. Simple obstacles in the environment can prove to be terrible hindrances or timely helps.

The Banner Saga 2 features a charming 2D art style that reminds you of classic Disney animation. The world of Auriga is dying. Will you be able to escape it? Easily one of the best graphical entries on this list, Endless Legend is a treat for the eyes and is likely to remain so for a while yet, even in the face of changing technologies.

The visuals are also bolstered by an amazing soundtrack. Play-wise, Endless Legend is full of diversity, what with its 8 factions and several other minor entities which, while not directly playable, you can assimilate or conquer to give yourself access to a few special units.

Each side is also driven by its own story elements, a fact that makes the game all the more interesting. For instance, you can place your archers high up on impassable cliffs to really punish your foe with little risk to your own units. All combat must also be resolved within 6 phases, something that really places emphasis on your own tactical and strategic prowess.

You can carve any one of several paths to victory including diplomacy, economy, science and building wonders. The world of Auriga is wonderfully rendered with great detail and a lively blend of colours. From the creators of the acclaimed Age of Empires comes the similarly acclaimed Age of Mythology. A must-play for lovers of mythology, it features the myths, legends, beasts, heroes and gods of 3 civilizations: the Egyptians, the Norse and the Greeks.

Follow the adventures of Arkantos, a hero from Atlantis, as he pursues old foes and tries to unravel the mystery that places his homeland in peril. On the way, Arkantos will find himself treading through the foreign sands of Egypt, and even reaching as far north as the Norse lands, finding that they all share a common enemy who must be stopped at all costs.

The game does an amazing job of capturing the style and feel of each of its civilizations, with very specialized units from each civilization that boast exclusive abilities both on and off the battlefield. It also makes liberal use of the various mythologies, which makes for very interesting story-driven gameplay. Add classical monsters and heroes to your armies to give yourself the edge in combat. Progress through various ages of each civilization, unlocking new technologies and powers as you go.

Enjoy the detailed animations within the game. Experience the world in a time when the gods walked among men and intervened in their affairs at will. Get the expansion packs for even more amazing content. Call upon the gods to access their destructive power in battle.

Depicted here is the Meteor power. Enter — Total War: Warhammer. Amidst the turmoil of a brutal civil war, a new Emperor ascends the throne. His goal—unite his broken empire, consolidate his power and then bring peace to the Old World at large by challenging and subduing his warmongering neighbours.

The task ahead is an arduous one, however, as tensions between the Dwarf race and the Greenskins run high, and the Vampires have their own designs on ruling the Empire. Farther north lies the Chaos faction, bent on destroying everything…. Total War: Warhammer II, the successor to the series, is set to be released later this year and promises to be just as exciting as its forerunner. In this game, four races will find themselves embroiled in a conflict to either save or destroy the Great Vortex in Ulthuan.

The games feature a wide selection of available units; brilliant artwork and animations; and an engaging strategic system of play that focuses on city and unit building, diplomacy and intense tactical army manoeuvring. Fantasy meets history on a grand scale in this series, and the result is epic!

Total War: Warhammer II will have even more narrative focus and introduce even more amazing creatures. Warhammer 40K: Armageddon is a turn-based war game with a lot of spirit. The fiction associated with Warhammer is strong in the game, and this is one of its best elements. The campaign goes pretty deep and there are hundreds of units to explore.

That being said, there is still much room for a nail-biting RTS experience. The maps as well as the enemy units are laid out in a very clever manner, often calling for frantic charges, tactical feints to lure the enemy out of the defensive, and many moments of sudden panic as you realize you only have a few turns left to check some unforeseen development that might cost you the game.

In a world where long-distance space travel has become a reality, humanity has spread its influence across the stars and has set up a thriving galactic empire. Then comes the long-distance space trouble.

The result is truly spectacular to behold. This is a game more suited for gamers who are more into thinking about the bigger picture rather than rushing in and handling things on the spur of the moment. Thought and planning outweighs speed and flair here. The AI is also quite robust, leading to many a good challenge throughout the game.

With a game that plays on such a large scale, with thousands of units simultaneously taking the field and vast maps, your choices about what technologies to research, what units to send where and when , and how to manage your economy will prove vital to any hopes of final victory. Play as several notable heroes from the Star Wars franchise, like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, and command your armies both on land and in the vacuum of space.

Take control of either the Rebel Alliance or the Empire and their iconic leaders; then capture entire planets, which will provide you with the necessary money and resources to fund your armies and take the fight to the enemy. Research technologies that will give your units the edge in battle, and place powerful heroes at the helm of your units who can use The Force to their advantage.

Just make sure you have a powerful army with you at all times. Wherever you meet the enemy—on land or in space—a battle will ensue, and you can only use the equipment you already have with you. Science fiction buffs will find quite a bit to interest them here. The game begins in the year Starting off with a single planet, a construction ship, a science ship, 3 small warships and a spaceport in your suitcase of grand dreams, you set out to explore and colonize the galaxy, eventually building up an empire.

Exploring this wide world will prove to be a reward in itself. Another great feature about the game is its interesting spin on ideologies. Will your people be a race of xenophobes or will they be a sociable people who welcome contact with alien races? Will you value pacifism or will you lead a militant people? These considerations will factor heavily into your strategies and goals throughout the game, adding a welcome RPG element to the game and making for great replay-ability.

Then it wraps all of this up in a package of pure, fast-paced action. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2 hits hard and fast. You either keep up or get beat down. That said, Dawn of War 2 does a good job here, with the addictive rush to collect loot, level up units and customize characters that make RPGs so much fun. The RTS element of the game really shines through in the intense multiplayer mode where you get to build up your base and churn out your own units in order to take the fight to the enemy.

The game revolves around capturing and holding nodes which yield resources, and this means players will be constantly at loggerheads as they attempt to maintain control over these nodes and achieve ultimate victory. The fights become brutal and fast-paced, and Dawn of War 2 does a magnificent of really getting you involved in them with great graphics, animations, music and sound.

The three belligerents, appearing fundamentally similar at first glance, possess a number of significant differences, a fact that becomes increasingly obvious as you progress along their individual tech trees.

The Aeon Illuminate, the Cybran Nation and the United Earth Federation all boast units with distinctive abilities that add strategic variety to how you can play the game. There is a way to counter any and all of the weaponry and technologies that each faction can use against you, if only you can answer with the right units.

Building a versatile army will be of utmost importance. Simply mounting an assault with a veritable swarm of seasoned warriors and advanced weaponry is no way to go about defeating your foe, however. More on this topic: war. A gamer with a primary interest in interactive narrative and arcade-style game design. If they ever adapted Hamlet into a side-scroller beat 'em up, I'd be in heaven.

Gamer Since: Wargame: Red Dragon The battlefield is entirely at your disposal. Log in or register to post comments. More Top Stories. Top 15 Online Multiplayer War Games. The thrill of combat, the sound of blazing guns and artillery fire, battle on land, sea and in the air - nothing quite compares to a great war game.

There are a plethora of strategy games out there. Some fall outside the realm of war, but for the most past, they are by far and large aimed in the direction of battle.

From fantasy to reality, these are the Tanks, the true Beasts on the Battlefield One of the best and most famous tank battles is one you can watch here. Powerful and mobile vehicles that can take and dish out large amounts of damage, tanks are a must use for players in various games.

Here are 15 of the best games where you The choices out there can be overwhelming, so I made a list of the 15 best military Whether you want to battle knights, robots, monsters, or even other players on your PC adventures these games are right for you! Some of these games are old, some are new, and others are fun no matter when you play them.

So grab a snack as we take a look at 30 of the best war games ever made for PC As a whole, Battlefield does these three things quite well, but maybe you want an They say that war never changes, but in games, it usually does. Games today cover a vast swath of conflicts, either Looking for free military shooters? Look no futher, here are 11 of them! From Call of Duty to World of Tanks, military games come in all shapes and sizes these days! Regardless of your playstyle and or preferred system, there are a plethora of military games available.

The best part? We've been engaging in war games since we were kids and though they are violent, they are also extremely fun. God of War was already so polished and the PC Port does a good job of holding up to that standard. While there are a few caveats that I've mentioned, these are all easily fixable with a patch. In the end though, God of War remains an utterly brilliant action-adventure, where the former is as good as the latter. The bond between Kratos and Atreus is wonderfully handled, nuanced, funny, and heartfelt.

A sentiment that speaks to the overall narrative, an engaging slice of Nordic mythology that also paves the way for the sequel - God of War: Ragnarok - due later this year on PS5. Really though, all you need to know is that one of the best games of the last decade is now available on PC.

Kratos, the god slayer, gets a new look, fresh tools, and a Norse pantheon to cut down in this dramatic, exciting shake-up of the classic God of War franchise. Its visuals create immersive arenas to battle the living and the undead in over 40 hours of story gameplay. God of War still holds up brilliantly, and this PC version adds the bells and whistles to rival even the latest and greatest in PC gaming.

Strap yourself in and enjoy one of the best third-person action games of the PS4 generation. God of War on PC is more than just a great visual upgrade for an already stunning game. You see their relationship everywhere in the game.