Best War Games for Mac

Company of Heroes 2

Company of Heroes 2 is like a grand reenactment of the grimiest of dances – World War II. It’s a meticulous RTS that insists you sweat the small stuff – things like terrain, cover, and frozen Russian rivers that support neither tank nor infantry if the weather turns sour. 

COH2 will have you forever micromanage units, shuffle squads between cover, or counter enemy artillery with clever flanking until you lose your anti-tank guns to a sneaky side assault. The game primarily takes place on the Eastern Front so it captures a theatre of war that few WW2 titles focus on. Every mission is swathed in a bleak, oppressive atmosphere where the howl of the wind is as constant as the bark of rifles.

Game	Company of Heroes 2
macOS support	Yes
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, macOS Х, Linux
Genre	War, Strategy, RTS, World War II,
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes( Players can find some map packs on the internet)
Performance on Mac	(The game runs well even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

Every match unfolds over a devastated landscape, where mere trigger-happiness doesn’t cut it. Victory demands that you juggle resources and adapt to dynamic weather that can freeze your offensives solid. The game impresses with its insistence on realism and its tactical depth that punishes and rewards with brutal impartiality. Company of Heroes 2 ensures every victory is hard-earned which provides a fitting parallel to the harsh historical truths of its inspiration.

Men of War: Assault Squad 2

Men of War: Assault Squad 2 is another WW2 RTS, but unlike its genre cousins, it zooms in close and wants you to micromanage individual soldiers, tanks, and even their inventory – it goes all the way down to the last grenade. Imagine the nerve-wracking intimacy of managing a dollhouse if every doll desperately wanted to blow up the others. 

This game demands tactical gymnastics that stretch beyond what you’ll see in more conventional RTS titles. Each unit matters, and your missteps will be punished by a swift bullet from an unseen sniper.

Game	Men of War: Assault Squad 2
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	GeForce Now, Parallels (With Windows 10. With Windows 11, the game crashes)
Platforms and operational systems	Windows
Genre	War, Strategy, RTS, World War II, Simulation
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes (Players can find some map packs on the internet)
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs well even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

The battlefield in Assault Squad 2 is a consistently gritty panorama that stretches from the windswept sands of North Africa to the frozen wastes of the Eastern Front. The oppressive in each scenario makes you feel every shell shock and rifle crack. You’re not just playing history but are knee-deep in it, and your tactical and micromanagement skills are what will determine if you can get out victorious. We think that this game’s main selling point is in the gameplay – it’s the level of granular control that turns each skirmish into a piercing personal story that’s perpetually on the edge of disaster.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

Valiant Hearts: The Great War swaps the typical blood-soaked gore-fest aesthetic of more traditional war games for mac for a comic strip style and a gameplay that tugs at heartstrings through puzzle-solving and storytelling. It’s the grimness of World War I, but the focus is on the personal story of regular people and not on the grandness of the conflict.

Game	Valiant Hearts: The Great War
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	GeForce Now, Parallels (With Windows 10. With Windows 11, the game crashes)
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, PlayStation 3/4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
Genre	War, Adventure, Atmospheric, World War I
Multiplayer	No
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes (Players can find some map packs on the internet)
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs well even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

You control four characters whose lives are tangled in the war’s barbed wire. Each of them has unique abilities to help them navigate trenches, dodge artillery, and decipher the puzzles that this game throws at you. The gameplay blends traditional puzzle elements with time-based challenges, like dodging bombs to the rhythm of artillery barrages. It’s a very unconventional type of gameplay for a war game, but it fits perfectly the overall vibe of this title.

Valiant Hearts is a game about the lives of its everyman characters in while the Great War rages around them. The game is not about the glory in victory but the ability of regular people to endure the chaos.

Total War: Rome II

Total War: ROME II throws you into the sandals of an ancient empire’s bigwig and swamps you with an array of empire-management responsibilities. You’ll take care of politics, economics, and military conquest in a gloriously rendered ancient world. 

Rome II (and other Total War titles for that matter) stands out with its dual-layered gameplay. One minute you’re the god-like tactician who oversees a battlefield the size of an Ikea parking lot, and the next, you’re the cunning strategist on a Risk-like campaign map, who whispers sweet nothings to allies and daggers enemies in the senate.

The gameplay has a lot to offer outside of battle, but to us, it’s still the epic spectacles of military chaos that draws us to this game. Legions clash in real-time with elephants stomping the battlefield, while thousands of archers turn the sky dark – few titles outside the Total War series have managed to capture the scale of such encounters.

Game	Total War: Rome II
macOS support	No (MacOS no longer supports 32-bit applications, so It won’t run unless you have Windows)
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Crossover, Parallels
Platforms and operational systems	Windows
Genre	War, Turn-Based Strategy, Strategy, Historical
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes (There are some mods)
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs on mid and high-range Macs, but is nearly unplayable on weaker or older Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

The other side of the gameplay is when you coax cities into prosperity or decay, manage civic happiness, and do your best to manipulate political factions that are as cooperative as cats in a sack. The experience is enhanced by an atmosphere that makes you feel like stepping into a BBC historical documentary but with thousands of extras and dramatic, slow-motion cavalry charges.

If you are a sucker for ancient history and big epic battles, you can’t go wrong with Rome II. It is the ultimate strategy title set in the age of the Roman Empire and you’ll struggle to find a game that does better what Rome II sets out to do.

Star Wars: Empire at War

Star Wars: Empire at War dumps the traditional RTS cookbook into the Sarlacc pit and gives you control of galactic conquests where you get to flex your might across the star-studded void. The conflicts in Empire at War take place on two distinctly strategic layers – space and land. This duality sets the game apart from more conventional RTS and also grants it a much deeper gameplay and much-appreciated variety. 

Empire at War lets you swing the balance of power between the Empire and the Rebellion through mastery of resource management, troop deployment, and smart use of the galaxy’s most iconic heroes. When fighting in space, you’ll maneuver fleets and controll massive starships. Then you land on the surface of a particular planet and engage in land-based skirmishes, where you plop down troops to wrestle over dusty plains and iconic locations like Tatooine.

Game	Star Wars: Empire at War
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Crossover, Parallels, Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows
Genre	War, RTS, Strategy, Space, Sci-fi, 4X
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes (There are some mods)
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs great even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

It’s amazing how seamless the transition between stratospheric dogfights and boots-on-the-ground tactics is in this game. And needless to say, the whole experience is engulfed in the richly iconic Star Wars atmosphere. This game is honestly one of the best RTS titles of its time and that’s not because of our nostalgia goggles or because we like Star Wars. It’s just a genuinely good RTS experience which is also why we still strongly recommend it even 18 years after its initial release.

Ultimate General: Civil War

Ultimate General: Civil War is like a full-blown historical reenactment where you’re the maestro of muskets and must maneuver thousands of men (who apparently missed the memo on “avoiding bullets”). It’s a Grand Strategy with real-time gameplay that dumps the rigid grid-based systems of its peers for free-form and terrain-sensitive warfare. This means that the slope of a hill can mean the difference between a glorious charge and a disastrous route and we are all for it!

You’ll sweat over maps like a caffeinated cartographer and plot where to place your regiments at Gettysburg or how best to ford a river under fire. Realism’s cranked up to eleven, which means that morale, fatigue, and even the commander’s competence will weigh heavily on your smoke-filled path to victory or defeat.

Game	Ultimate General: Civil War
macOS support	Yes
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Crossover
Platforms and operational systems	Windows, macOS
Genre	War, Real Time Tactics, Wargame
Multiplayer	No
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	No
Performance on Mac	(The game runs well even on older and weaker Macs)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

The setting drags you into the 1860s with all its tactical nuance and the atmosphere is fittingly thick with cannon smoke and the grim reality of war. It’s a challenging and tactically-heavy title, so it might not be ideal for players who just want to score some headshots. But if you are in the mood for a game that will test your wits and not your reflexes, Ultimate General: Civil War is a genuinely well-made strategy title.

World of Warships

World of Warships puts you at the helm of massive sea-faring beasts that pack enough artillery to make Neptune reconsider his career choices. But don’t think of it as your standard point-and-shoot affair. It’s a thinking person’s naval ballet, so positioning, ship selection, and knowledge of enemy weak points are critical. Each multiplayer is a ponderous chess match on water, only with more explosions and less risk of getting bored to death by your grandpa.

World of Warships gives you control of a rich selection of warships – cruisers, dreadnaughts, carriers, etc from various maritime powerhouses of the early to mid-20th century. Each class plays a distinct role just like in real-life naval warfare. The destroyers lay smokescreens, the cruisers deal with enemy aircraft, while the carriers send your own fighters to attack the enemy from above. You need to know where the enemy is weak and strike there, which is why tactics, strategy, and knowledge play a huge role in this game.

Game	World of Warships
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid, GeForce Now, Parallels
Platforms and operational systems	Windows
Genre	War, MMO Naval combat
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	No
Modding support	No
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs well on higher-end Macs. It can also run on older and weaker ones, but only if you use the lowest settings)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio	(Free to play with in-game purchases)

World of Warships nails the atmosphere of naval warfare and oceanic battlefields. It offers plenty of spectacle but never at the price of a gameplay grounded in reality. Again, it’s more about thinking than it is about having a perfect aim (though that helps too).

Steel Division 2

Steel Division 2 is an RTS/Grand Strategy hybrid that chucks you into the thick of the Eastern Front of WWII and tries really hard to familiarize you with the real-life struggles of being a military commander. This game distinguishes itself with a crushing blend of real-time tactics and grand strategy so you’ll have to both fight battles, but also take care of everything else like logistics of war, munitions, manpower and supply lines.

Game	Steel Division 2
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	GeForce Now, Parallels, Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows
Genre	War, Strategy, RTS, Real-time Tactics, World War II
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	Yes
Modding support	Yes (There are some mods and community maps)
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs well on higher-end Macs. It can also run on older and weaker ones, but only if you use the lowest settings)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio

The game demands that you learn how to multitask if you want to keep up with a dynamic front line that shifts faster than a politician’s promises. You’ll need to do a ton of micromanaging of your infantry battalions, tank divisions, and other units, all with historically accurate equipment and capabilities. The RTS side of the game is played in real-time, but you do get a pause button that we recommend you use. There’s a lot to do, so you’ll need time to move all the different pieces before continuing the battle. The Grand Strategy front is less impressive – it’s not terrible, but other games on this list do this part a lot better, so don’t hold your breath.

The atmosphere in this game is draped in the grim hues of war and the RTS maps feel like strategic puzzles that you need to solve. It’s warfare with a side of number-crunching that requires sharp tactics and foresight. We do admit this isn’t the best war strategy game out there and it doesn’t have too much to make it stand out, but it’s definitely an adequate title that can give you dozens of hours of gritty entertainment.

World of Warplanes

In the aerial dogfighting arcade of World of Warplanes, you dance a deadly ballet in the sky, where you’ll need to quickly learn to dodge and weave through a hailstorm of bullets and aerial acrobatics. The game elevates the flight combat genre through a combination of accessible controls and complex tactical gameplay so you’ll find a deep gameplay system that’s surprisingly easy to get into.

World of Warplanes straps you into the cockpit of various historically inspired aircraft – heavily-armored, but slower bombers, agile fighters, and everything in between. Your task is to shoot down foes and to master the skies across several beautifully rendered maps. Successful engagements here will test your aim but your ability to outmaneuver your opponents will play an even bigger role. The dynamic team-based skirmishes also require sound tactics – finding the right altitude and angle of attack – and not just raw firepower.

Game	World of Warplanes
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid, GeForce Now, Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows
Genre	War, Third-person Shooter, MMO
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	No
Modding support	Yes
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs well on higher-end Macs. It can also run on older and weaker ones, but only if you use the lowest settings)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio	(Free to play with in-game purchases)

We’ll admit this isn’t the most complex game despite its more strategic elements, so it might not satisfy history buffs and suckers for realism in gaming. But we think that the main strength of this game is the way it balances a deep enough gameplay with controls that don’t require dozens of hours just to learn how to steer your plane without crashing it.

World of Tanks 

Although feeling like you’re driving a fortress with a cannon can certainly boost your morale, World of Tanks is not just about who has the bigger boomstick. The game may seem and play like just another arcade shooter, but it actually sneaks in a respectable amount of military sim elements. 

You can’t simply spray your opponents with bullets and projectiles and hope for the best in World of Tanks. You’ll actually need to know something about armor thickness, weak spots, and firing angles. At the same time, the game’s not as ungodly married to realism as War Thunder and doesn’t require you to have intimate knowledge of the real-life blueprints of every tank you meet across the battlefield. We think the gameplay here is a nice balance between realism and entertainment value which explains the game’s popularity.

Game	World of Tanks
macOS support	No
Alternative methods to play on Mac	Boosteroid, GeForce Now, Boot Camp
Platforms and operational systems	Windows
Genre	War, FPS, MMO, Action
Multiplayer	Yes
Single-Player	No
Modding support	Yes
Performance on Mac (local workaround methods)	(The game runs well on higher-end Macs. It can also run on older and weaker ones, but only if you use the lowest settings)
Graphics
Gameplay
Story
Soundtrack and Audio
Community and Support
Replay Value
Price/Value ratio	(Free to play with in-game purchases)

Another highlight is the bizarrely vast garage of over 600 tanks that you can take for a drive across battlefields that look like golf courses designed by wartime architects. Each map screams opportunity and sudden death in equal measure. 

World of Tanks is all about the multiplayer scene which means both you and your teammates need to understand that teamwork is king and lone heroics are a fast track to becoming a smoldering landmark. The game’s a meticulous balance of shooting thrills and battlefield tactics. Too bad your biggest enemy often isn’t the opposing team, but your teammates’ desire to get more kills at the cost of tactical prudence. Still, the game offers equal amounts of fun and challenge that make it worth it and since it’s free to play, you really have no reason not to check it out.

Notable Mentions

We decided to spice things up, and include a few series in here. You can see below that 3 of the 4 mentions are straight up series or a couple of games. The reason for this is “war games as franchises”. More than anything else in gaming, the best war games for mac are made and overexploited in multiple games.

• Age of Empires & Age of Empires 4
• Call of Duty games
• Battlefield games
• Crusader Kings III

There are many other war games out there, but not all of them are only about war – and we tried to list exactly those in the current list.