As we enter 2025, wargaming continues to captivate enthusiasts with its immersive gameplay, strategic depth, and historical or fantastical settings. Whether you’re a seasoned strategist or a newcomer looking to dive into the world of tactical warfare, this year offers a wide array of titles that cater to all preferences. From realistic military simulations to fantasy-based battlegrounds, these top 10 wargames promise unforgettable experiences. In this article, we’ll explore the most anticipated and exciting wargames to play in 2025, guiding the best choices for your next strategic conquest.
I went through the wargames I own and picked 10 from several different eras and widely different playstyles. I decided to pick somewhat recent wargames that had been remade recently or suffered massive updates in the last couple of years. This should be a comprehensive list for anyone who’s looking for wargame recommendations to start playing in 2025.
Let me know if you agree, or if you think other games should be here!
10 – Second Front
I feel like Second Front had a massive hype behind it before its release in 2022, but after that, I haven’t heard a lot of people talking about it. Maybe it’s just me, but I still think that Second Front is one of the best turn-based tactics wargame you can play right now. The best way to describe it would be a turn-based Company of Heroes, but very, very complicated, and with a lot of stuff going on at once. Fortunately, it’s turn-based, which makes managing everything a lot easier. It has tons of content, with hundreds of units and dozens of maps to play around with, alongside an easy-to-use editor to create your own scenarios!
9 – Scramble: Battle of Britain
This one had been in the oven for quite a while with little to no news before coming out. As soon as it did, flying aces and wargamers loved it. Scramble: Battle of Britain is a turn-based, tactical dogfighting game where you control a flight squadron and every couple of seconds you and your opponent decide what moves to execute in the following turn. Turning left or right, going up or down, firing or not are all decisions that come pretty naturally and instinctively in a normal flight sim, but in Scramble, you have time to ponder and overthink those decisions. Just keep in mind that the game’s currently in Early Access, but being under the umbrella of Slitherine, this doesn’t worry me too much.
8 – Scourge of War: Remastered
Had it not been for the unexpected release of Armored Brigade 2 at the end of 2024, Scourge of War: Remastered would have taken the top 10 place amongst the Top 10 Strategy Games of 2024. It’s a textbook example of what a remaster should be: it keeps the basis all intact but improves on everything else that can be considered quality of life: the game runs much smoother, the draw distance is higher, the graphics are better, the unit sprites are HD, and the controls no longer have that weird input delay. Everything else remains pretty consistent with what you have experienced before, so if you want to go and commandeer your Napoleonic armies, as of 2025, no other wargame can beat Scourge of War: Remastered.
7 – The Great War: Western Front
You cannot find a more authentic World War 1 strategy game anywhere. In fact, I would argue that The Great War: Western Front is the only World War 1 strategy game built from scratch with the explicit purpose of being just that, carrying with it mechanics and gameplay features not seen anywhere else. Not only does the game use an overarching campaign map like Total War, but also has some massive RTS battles as well, and this is where you’ll spend most of your time: building and upgrading your persistent trench network, fielding your units that range from stormtroopers to basic infantry, tanks, several different types of artillery and planes. Battles go back and forward, as you would expect them to, as one side advances and captures the enemy trenches, the defending side can counterattack, and vice-versa. Things can go on like this for a while, and some of the largest battles can become hour-long affairs.
6 – Armored Brigade 2
Armored Brigade 2 is, at least at the moment, Armored Brigade but in 3D. To me, that would be enough, as I consider Armored Brigade to be one of my favourite wargames ever made. That being said, if you’re looking for a wargame set during the Cold War on a tactical level, with this level of detail, and this kind of scale, I think you won’t find a better alternative at the moment. The game’s move to 3D almost immediately got rid of every problem I had with the original, which was how hard it was to position and move your units from a top-down perspective, where you would constantly have to use the field of view tool to figure out what your men could see. Now you can simply use your good o’l eyeball-mark 1 and for the most part, you would be right. To me, the cherry on top of this already delicious cake would be for the team to allow an even finer degree of control over the infantry, if they do that, then it’s golden.
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