“War, huh, what is it good for?” – Edwin Star, War from the album War and Peace

Well… apparently, it’s good for good times. War games are all over the map. So, to honor our ever-present source of joy and soul-crushing doom, Mac Gamer HQ presents you with a four-star general overview of the best war games for Mac.

Aug 27, 2012  Ten Best Strategy Games For The Mac Feature. While StarCraft set the standard for Blizzard’s sci-fi-themed real-time strategy game, the sequel — coming only 12 years later — provided a. Oct 14, 2019 Are you looking for the best RTS games on the PC or Mac? We have done the research and compiled a long list of quality titles that fit this genre. Ultimately, our team determined the best real-time strategy games for most people are. Nov 14, 2019 10 Best RTS (Real-Time Strategy) Games. We’ve curated this list of RTS games to help you find your next favourite title. Check ‘em out below. Total War Arena is one of the latest and the best real-time strategy games. It allows its users to play in multiple modes and complete each level with a combination of multiple skills.

As always, we’re going for different styles and genres, as well as different price points and system requirements. We aim to help you discover great new games and perhaps one of these will be perfect for you:

Want even more good games for Mac? These are the 100 Top Mac games you can play today.

No round-up of the best Mac war games for Mac would be complete without touching on the big franchises that have left their mark on Mac gaming, so I’ll start with two of the major ones. These are perfect for those of you who enjoy crushing your enemies under the heel of your polished and well-kept boots.

The condition of man… is a condition of war of everyone against everyone – Thomas Hobbes

War is all-encompassing and to give you the taste of blood you crave, the Total War series relies on a dual-engine approach. First, there’s a real-time war theater which allows you to command your troops’ every move on the battlefield. It lets you deploy your soldiers, define your engagement strategy, groupings, pace, and more. In between battles, there’s a turn-based strategy interface (think a very stripped down version of Sid Meier’s Civilization series) that lets you construct the whole of your war machine. Different games in the Total War franchise take you from before the birth of Christ to the end of the Napoleonic period and all over the globe.

MacGamer HQ’s head-honcho Ric is a fan of the franchise’s take on feudal japan, Total War: Shogun 2, but I’m definitely fond of the most recent release, Total War: Attila. Attila takes you to the end of the western Roman empire and puts you in control of one of the Mediterranean or Germanic tribes that carved up former Roman territory, and their enemy’s hides in the process. The game features a skirmish mode, historical battles mode (which lets you relive some epic battlefield confrontations of the period) and a campaign mode. Campaign mode features a dynasty interface that allows you to play the court game of intrigue if you’re the type that likes your war in intimate settings. You can purchase additional campaigns and culture packs if your favorite war-mongering pack of blood-thirsty maniacs isn’t in the base game.

The Wargame series, from Eugen Systems, is a real-time strategy (RTS) wargame that gives you control of Cold War Era militaries across the globe. One of the biggest selling points is Eugen’s effort to bring you as close to the real battlefield as possible, accurately reproducing hundreds of military vehicles, troops, and weapons. The campaign modes have grown with each release and the multiplayer modes are worth hundreds of hours of replay value. A unique aspect of the game is the satellite camera mode which, on its own, is little more than a cool video effect but, in reality, demonstrates the scale of the game’s battlefields.

Wargame: European Escalation, gives the player the chance to control one of the Cold War militaries in Thatcher-era Europe. The game’s sequel, Wargame: Airland Battle, takes you right back to the battlefield in a conflict between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces. But if you had to buy just one, the series’ latest, Wargame: Red Dragon, brings you near the end of the Cold War and adds a variety of the Asian communist states, expanding the theater of war to a truly global scale.

The RTS genre is dominated by war games, but the variety of styles still leaves Mac players with plenty of options for demolishing their foes.

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time – Leo Tolstoy

Another Mac Gamer HQ favorite, Company of Heroes 2 is the sequel to the original Company of Heroes, released over a decade ago. The sequel takes you directly onto the Eastern Front of WWII for a close-up look at the vagaries of the war you’re waging. The Essence 3.0 engine provides a beautifully rendered war theater that utilizes a variety of in-game systems to enhance the realism of the battlefield and encourage victory by skill rather than firepower. The destructible environments never cease to amaze me and the many ways the enemy can be countered with the right units is equally impressive.

The three released DLC packs introduce more armies for single and multiplayer modes (including action on the Western Front), each of which carries their own strengths and flaws. You can pick up the CoH2: Master Collection for a tidy $39.99 and choose how you want to win and on which map to reign supreme.

Paradox Interactive is well known for its grand-strategy simulations. Each of their titles features an adjustable real-time clock allowing you to watch your decisions play out in a matter of minutes or extending the results of your strategic decisions to hours and days. Their games can bring you from the start of the crusades through the end of the WWII; the company’s most recent offering, Stellaris, will even take you hundreds of years into the future for galaxy-wide statecraft. Each game has it’s own idiosyncrasies and loyalists, but they’ll all give you your fix if grand strategy is your thing.

Hearts of Iron 4 is the company’s most war-oriented, giving you god-like command over pretty much any country that existed in the WWII period. An almost ridiculously complex technology system lets you guide your country’s development as you like, while diplomacy systems let you conduct trade, form and break alliances and treaties, and appoint advisors to help you turn the world from a divided battleground into one of your making. The military system provides you with the chance to specialize your battalions. Pause the game, set your plans, bump up the game-clock speed, and unpause and you can watch your grand vision bring the war to a close on your terms, or bring your country to ruin.

It would be hard to find a gamer in the world that isn’t at least aware of Blizzard’s Starcraft 2. The game extends a nearly decade and a half’s long campaign of real-time space war with an RTS system that serves as a cross between the resource acquisition of traditional 4x turn-based strategy games such as the Civilization series and the RTS battlefield play of the Total War series.

Starcraft 2 gives you control over one of three races, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, to craft a mobile war machine from, almost literally, the ground up. Nearly every aspect of your fighting force, from securing resources to front-line battle commands, is under your control and while the battlefield is yours for the taking, it’s also everyone else’s.
While Blizzard controversially released each race’s story as its own game, as opposed to the original which had all three in one package, Wings of Liberty, Legacy of the Void and Heart of the Swarm can now all be bought and played separately. With a variety of playable races, Starcraft 2 can easily satisfy any urge to dominate your fellow man … or alien.

War games in the turn-based tactical strategy genre have been relatively dry as of late, but there are some definite gems if you keep your eyes open. The two below are some of the better known.

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt. – Sun Tzu, The Art of War

XCOM 2 follows the events of the first XCOM release of the new era, placing you in command of an XCOM team living on the run in a world controlled by the alien forces. The open-ended campaign mode lets you pick and choose what to do, and where and when to do it as you regain control of Earth.

The tactical combat system provides turn-by-turn control over 5 classes of warriors that you can tailor to your own strategy. The technology system of the previous game remains, in expanded form, giving you control over how you’ll exterminate your alien overlords. A greater cast of friends, foes, NPC’s, and increased diversity in weapons and gear complete the game’s customization options, giving you total control over your forces in both the campaign and multiplayer mode. With XCOM 2, you are humanity’s last stand, again, after the first last stand against alien invasion forces failed.

Best Real Time Strategy Games Mac Downloads

Easily one of the most highly regarded series’ on Mac, The Banner Saga takes you into a fantasy Viking world for an RPG epic story. A turn-based tactical battle system gives you control of 25 customizable characters, each of 2 different races and 7 different classes, in both the campaign story mode and multiplayer skirmish modes. The narrative is an important aspect of this series and each of your choices over the course of the game affects the rest of your experience in an open-ended story-mode that requires strategic decisions on the battlefield but also outside.

The 2-D graphics call to mind the old-school style of Dragon’s Lair with beautifully animated battlefields and story animations. The campaign mode is currently 2 games deep, with a third episode in development, and since decisions made in the first game carry over to the second, I recommend you start with part one and play through the second.

No look at the top war games would be complete without a look at the First Person Shooters (FPS) that put you right onto the front lines in the muck and the mire of warfare. The three discussed here are just a sample of the FPS war games available for Mac gamers.

I’m better when it’s breathing. – Chris, American Sniper

In truth, it’s hard to find anything to say about the Call of Duty series. After all, who isn’t familiar with Call of Duty’s trademark fast gameplay and shoot everything that moves style. But of all the versions available for Mac gamers, Modern Warfare 3 is the one Mac Gamer HQ head honcho Ric recommends. MW3 is on Steam, features cross-platform multiplayer, a spec ops co-op mode and survival modes. Call of Duty games all have fun campaigns with production values worthy of a Michael Bay film. Yet Multiplayer is where they all shine and MW 3’s cross-platform multiplayer makes it the best Mac alternative.

The entire MW series (CoD4MW+MW2+MW3) is also available on Steam in one bundle that puts all of Modern Warfare in your hands, along with DLC, for a reasonably tidy sum. There’s really not a lot to say about it. It’s Call of Duty, but on Mac hardware. Just aim, run, and shoot people in the face.

Arma 3 puts you in control of a variety of battlefield soldiers and mechanical vehicles of destruction. The single-player story mode puts you in the boots of Ben Kerry for a 3 episode campaign. Single player training and scenarios help you beef up your battle-chops before you enter the sandbox multiplayer mode featuring both official and unofficial community-made maps and scenarios. Unique to the Arma 3 multiplayer mode is the Zeus mode, which gives players god-like influence over other players and the contingencies of the battlefield. A content editor also gives you the chance to design your own maps and scenarios for both the community and yourself. The Mac version of the game is currently in

The Mac version of the game is currently in experimental beta mode so you might want to hold off on buying the game until it receives official support. Then again, if you really can’t wait, you can buy the Windows version and then hype your friends on the Mac beta to help the process along.

A personal favorite of Ric’s and mine, this 3rd-person shooter from Yager Development studios takes you into the darker psychological recesses of war. Taking control of Special Operations Force’s Captain Martin Walker, you lead his three-person team through a single-player campaign in post-apocalyptic Dubai in search of mysterious Colonel John Konrad. I won’t spoil the story for you, but let me just say that it’s different and unique. Call of Duty and Battlefield should both take notice.

The gameplay is good too, featuring some exploration but mostly taking cover and shooting (similar to Gears of Wars games). You’ll find yourself short of ammo, time, and patience often enough that you might end up needing a new controller in this game that, for myself, calls to mind the 1999 film Fight Club, but instead of not being about war, it’s about war. Post-script spoiler alert.

This final entry comes from 11-bit studios and is easily one of the most intriguingly heartfelt approaches to the war genre in gaming history.

Our nation exists because of the people! We exist because of them. – Cidolfas Orlandu, Final Fantasy Tactics

Another personal favorite of Ric’s and mine, this scavenger-hunt game is about choices when choices are too few. Putting you in control of three civilians trapped in a building in a war-torn town, your goal is to keep these people alive amidst sniper fire that keeps you inside during the day, and among thieves and other civilians just trying to survive at night.

Only the dead have seen the end of war – attribution questionable

Resource management, scavenging missions, and housekeeping are central to the survival of your group. Decisions on how your players behave toward remaining survivors affect the morale and health of your characters in the randomly generated world brought to life in a beautifully animated tale of survival and loss in a devastated world.

This is far from an all-encompassing list, but any of these games should provide hours of good times. MacOS war games come in all shades, styles, and sizes and there’s no end in sight to the destruction you’ll reap upon your adversaries. That being said, keep count of your ammo, your eyes on your scopes, and your wits about you and don’t forget to be at least reasonably respectful to your fellow gamers. As Einstein was fond of saying: Say what you want about me and how I play the game, you’ve at least gotta admit that I’m the guy with the rocket launcher.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. – Albert Einstein

Disclaimer: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission (this is how we pay the bills). This commission comes at no additional cost to you.

Best Real-time Strategy Games Mac

Please understand that I only mention games because I believe they’re interesting, good, and/or fun. Never because I received a free copy or to earn a small commission.

This article comes from Thomas Trono.

There are many lists of the best RTS games, and many of those lists a packed with the classics from the 90’s and early 2000’s. These legends have quite rightly earned their place in the real-time hall of fame for all time, but this status quo sees the same titles appearing time and again, with little new to say about them. It can leave newer releases in the cold.

The rise of MOBAs has challenged the RTS scene quite significantly over the past decade, but that hasn’t stopped some worthy games rising to the top ranks to earn their own place in a future generation's hall of fame.

Recently Released RTS Games

Well this is embarrassing. We've reviewed THREE new RTS titles since the start of the year, and none of them seem to have been good enough to warrant a place in the list below, for various reasons. We'll list them out below just for posterity, but beware these arn't considred our favourites right now:

• Warcraft 3: Reforged - still the subject of much controversy, this is a classic example of how not to manage expectations. The game is still quite good, and the remastered assets are quite pretty... but really only people who've never played Warcraft 3 are going to get anything out of this. Veteran fans are advised to steer clear for now.
• Commandos 2 HD - the first of two remasters being done by Kalypso Media, this is a much loved real-time stealth/action game you'd think would be easy enough to get right. You'd be wrong.
• Praetorians HD - This is the second remaster and technically the strongest new entry of the three, this is an RTS that's been handled well in terms of porting, but sadly as a game just doesn't really fit well in terms of modern design. It's a bit buggy in places but not as bad as the above, and generally is probably one title that didn't need bringing into the 21st Century. Shame.

What are the best RTS Games?

• John Wick Hex
• Close Combat: The Bloody First
• Driftland: The Magic Revival
• Bad North: Jotunn Edition
• Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
• Tropico 6
• Offworld Trading Company
• Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak
• Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault
• Age of Empires 2
• StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty
• Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

John Wick Hex

Developer: Bithell Games
Publisher: Good Shepard Entertainment
Buy From:Epic Games Store

I know this is going to cause some controversy, but I'm having a real tough-time with this one, ok? Hear me out - My thinking is, John Wick Hex can't be a turn-based game because there's no defined set of time for the turn to play out in. You choose an action, whether it be walking, or firing your gun, and time advances however long it takes for that action to play out. Meanwhile the game still plays out around you at it's own pace regardless of what you're doing, and your action could end part-way through a enemy playing out their action. It's not like BSG Deadlock, where a fixed amount of time passes in between issuing orders. So yeah, for now until we hear otherwise John Wick Hex is an RTS games. Kind of. Don't @ Me - it's not like there have been many RTS releases of note recently.

Identity crises aside, this is a very inventive and addictive strategy game where you play as John Wick, from the movies, in a prequel story set before the first film. You don't actually need to know much about the films for this to work - mastering the rhythm and the dynamics of the game's 'time-line' system is fascinating enough, and there are a surprising amount of tactical options to approach any given situation. This probably one of the most decent tie-in games we've seen in a long while.

Close Combat: The Bloody First

Developer: Slitherine
Publisher: Slitherine
Buy From:Steam, Direct

This is quick one as we'll talk more about this on our sister The Wargamer's list of excellent WW2 Games when it next gets updated, but this is a real-time tactics game that released recently from Slitherine. It's the first 3D entry in the iconic Close Combat series from the 90's, and puts you in charge of a fictional Company of the US 1st Infantry division through their exploits in Tunisia, Sicily and Normandy. It's pretty good, although there are still some technical hiccups that need to be ironed out. Still, an optimistic start to a new era of Close Combat games.

Driftland: The Magic Revival

Developer: Star Drifers
Publisher: Star Drifters
Buy From:Steam

It's nice to see a new face finally make it onto this list - Driftland was in Early Access for a couple of years before it finally released in April 2019, and it seems that time has been put to good use. This is an innovative RTS that follows in the mould of the classic Majesty franchise - where indirect control is the order of the day. You are a Mage whose realm is on one of many shattered pieces of the world floating around, and you must develop your holdings and expand onto other ones by connecting them together.

It's not for everyone, and there are some other minor niggles that will need to get worked out over time, but Driftland willingness to be bold and experiment does it justice, and anyone looking for a new fantasy RTS game need look no further. Read our Driftland: The Magic Revival review for more.

Bad North: Jotunn Edition

Developer: Plausible Concept
Publisher: Raw Fury
Buy From: Discord, Steam

Self-styling itself as a 'micro strategy' game, Bad North is the poster child for minimalist design facilitating tight tactical decision making. Evoking the best bits of games like FTL, this game sees you taking your modest force from island to island, protecting them against waves of blood-thirsty marauders. As you progress through the game you can earn coins to level up your troops, recruit new troops and find powerful items to aid you.

At the end of July 2019 Bad North got a major content update known as the Jotunn Edition. This is a huge content update, changing everything from meta progression, to adding new items, to gameplay and difficulty, and more. It's been folded into the main game and is now the 'definitive' version of Bad North.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Developer: Mimimi Productions
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
Buy from: Steam, PS4

This isn't a new release but we feel it's definitely worth mentioning as Shadow Tactics is a wonderfully tense real-time tactical/puzzle game that will challenge not only your creative thinking, but also your combo and control skills. This is a stealth-based game that follows in the hallowed tradition of classics like Commandos, but also taking queues from modern contemporaries like Assassins Creed. With a very powerful and engaging narrative, you must guide up to five characters through vibrant and varied levels. Subterfuge is key, and 'fighting your way out' isn't really an option.

This is a wonderful homage to a forgotten genre of strategy games, but one that stands proud as it creates its own legacy. The attention to detail on the maps & characters makes this a story you genuinely want to experience right through the end, with characters you can 100% get behind. The tactical puzzles you are presented with map-to-map will challenge your creativity and handling of the characters to the very end – and at no point does it feel like a chore.

Tropico 6

Publisher: Kalypso Media
Developer: Limbic Entertainment
Buy From:Steam

Ah, Tropico. The Banana Republic sim, the Castro sim, the tin-pot dictator sim. Tropico 6 represents a clean slate in the series' history - originally under the helm of Surviving Mars studio Haemimont, (who were responsible for Tropico's 3-6), Limbic Entertainment have now taken over control of everyone's favourite dictatorship. This is a refreshing twist on the city builder that puts players in the aviators and oversized cigars of not just one, but an entire dynasty of male and female despot wannabes. Starting in the twilight of the Imperial era, the player’s role is that of the manager of a new colony on a Caribbean isle, who eventually earns their independence and then proceeds to navigate the literal and political waters of the World Wars, the Cold War, and into the modern era, with the player choosing such roles as either a socialist dictator, or crony capitalist.

Tropico 6 is a great game. It hits many of the right notes, and has that “just a little longer” feel that will keep you in its sandbox (and coming back) for quite a while. It’s an easy pick for fans of sim games. And of course, there’s always the benefit that you can lord over the lives of hundreds of virtual people with as iron or velvet a hand as you desire – and that’s always a good time!

Offworld Trading Company

Publisher: Stardock
Developer: Mohawk Games
Buy From:Direct

Offworld Trading Company is an object lesson in RTS design. It’s a competitive strategy game in which there is no actual direct combat. And no units. Inspired by classic Atari game MULE and systems like Age of Empires’ Marketplace interface, Offworld Trading Company has players compete by cultivating the economic portfolio of an ambitious, hostile company.

Players are tasked with choosing which resource(s) to harvest to produce income which they can use to, ultimately, buy out their opponent's companies one by one. To this end they are aided by intermittent auctions, the ability to freely buy and sell any resource in the game as well as attack their opponent's production with Pirates, EMPs, nuclear warheads or temporary takeovers of their operations. Ultimately, OTC is a game of efficiency, coupled with prediction and daring. It is, in every sense, the essence of what RTS games are about laid bare for all to see.

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak

Publisher: Gearbox Software
Developer: Blackbird Interactive
Buy From: Steam

A new take on the classic series’ mechanics and a prequel to the original Homeworld, Deserts of Kharak is beautiful, haunting, powerful and intense. While I was initially sceptical of how the “six degrees of freedom” RTS would pan out on a flat plane, Blackbird Interactive has packed Deserts of Kharak with nuance and heart. One of the best RTS solo campaigns in history, coupled with gameplay that hides surprising subtlety, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak has been sadly overlooked by the larger RTS community.

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault

Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Relic Entertainment
Buy From: Steam

With the advent of the Western Front Armies, the overhauling of its War Spoils system and years of balance refinement, Company of Heroes 2 has cemented its place as a respectable and enjoyable competitive strategy game. With the creation of the Ardennes Assault campaign, Company of Heroes 2 has now also earned the honour possessing one of the best replayable single player experiences in modern real-time strategy gaming.

Ardennes Assault provides players with a strategic territory-capture metagame layered over the single-player missions, including semi-random events and time-based objectives that change with each playthrough, four Companies to command (of which you can utilize three in each campaign playthrough) and hard choices in an Iron Man setting. These force the player to think through each move and live with sub-optimal strategies across the length of the campaign. Where the Soviet storyline in the core game was seen as sub-par or at the very least not supremely creative, Ardennes Assault is a well-crafted take on RTS single player.

Age of Empires 2 (2013)

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Hidden Path Entertainment
Buy From: Steam

I feel like I’m cheating, sneaking an older game into this article; while Age of Empires 2's first HD remake came out in 2013, the original was released in 1999. Age of Empires 2 HD was a testament to the enduring quality of classic RTS games. Also of note, three expansions (The Forgotten, The African Kingdoms, Rise of the Rajas) have been released, something kind of unprecedented in the real-time strategy space as far as I know.

The depth and complexity of this classic Age of Empires title is reaching, enchanting, challenging, and captivating the imaginations of a new generation of strategy gamers, and was perhaps the inspiration for Microsoft announcing remakes of virtually every other Age title ever made. It's worth noting that in November 2019 Age of Empires 2: Definitive Editionwas released that largely supersedes the 2013HD release, even though you can buy both separately. It's essentially the same game with even better graphics and a new expansion pack. We've not updated this entry fully because the 2013 edition had far more impact on the RTS genre than the newest version. That said, there's no point buying the HD version if you don't already own it - go straight to the DE.

StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty

Publisher: Blizzard
Developer: Blizzard
Buy From:Direct

You knew this was coming. You might have nodded grudgingly, or groaned inwardly. There’s nothing so contentious as the enduring popularity of StarCraft. It’s common to blame the ‘esports-ification’ of the genre on this phenomenally popular strategy game. But, love it or hate it, you can’t deny that StarCraft has continually set the standards for game polish and features for almost a decade now.

Through relentless balancing, aggressive additions of content, engaging unit designs (yes yes we all hate the Sentry, but that’s the exception not the rule), and a multiplayer scene that virtually every other strategy game is jealous of, StarCraft 2 has rightly earned it its place at the top of the competitive strategy world. Co-op was an absolute coup, and I actually had a sobering day mourning RTS developers everywhere when they announced that SC2 was going to be free-to-play for multiplayer and arcade.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Publisher: Stardock
Developer: Oxide Games
Buy From: Direct

While it is undeniable that Ashes of the Singularity launched in a pretty weird place, with a somewhat characterless campaign and what felt like a dearth of unit options, it’s matured in a big way via a long cycle of continued development and optimisation. It now stands as one of the more interesting takes on large-scale RTS that exists in the modern time.

Ashes of the Singularity takes nods from Total Annihilation-style games, but also from Company of Heroes with its squad-based light vehicles, and interconnected resource nodes which function similarly in many respects to territories from Relic’s seminal World War 2 RTS. It uses structure-based support powers similar to those found in Command and Conquer 3, and constrains player upgrades and unit counts through the scarce Quanta resource (which is also used to activate support powers). The campaign DLC has vastly improved in quality, and while the game’s specifications make it difficult to run on all but higher-end machines, Ashes is shaping up to be a serious contender in the large-scale RTS space.

Other RTS Game Recommendations

The below games featured on our list in the past, but have since rotated out to join their brothers and sisters in the hall of heroes:

• Total War: Rome 2
• Tropico 5 (Although 4 will always be my bae-ED)

What would your list of top RTS games look like? Let us know in the comments!

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