War Games: Defence, Tanks and Turn-Based Duels

Tower defence is the largest group. Fortress Defense runs one hundred levels with five archer types and fifteen creature types, and gold earned at the end of a mission goes into upgrades rather than into the next level. Defense Base 2 turns the whole thing into a slot puzzle: each slot takes one of seven weapon types, upper slots reach further, and a freezing tower earns its place by buying the others extra firing time.

Defenders of the Realm spreads five separate lanes in front of a castle and asks which unit belongs in which one. A shield unit at the front keeps the archers behind it alive, and cheap units thrown out purely to buy seconds are often the right answer. Army of Soldiers: Worlds War works the same way along a single line, with a slowing unit at the front giving every hitter behind it extra seconds on each target.

Two games push you to attack as well as hold. Evolution Era starts you as a primitive tribe and lets you spend earnings either on better fighters now or on reaching the next age, which changes your whole roster. Castle Raid 3D is the quickest of the lot: you drag a route down a track, gates marked with a plus or a multiplier swell your crowd, and the only question is whether enough of it survives to the end.

Away from the lanes, Maritime Conflict is the paper battleship grid brought to a screen. You cannot see the other fleet, so every shot is information: a miss narrows the map and a hit tells you a hull runs in one of four directions. It is the most patient game here and the one most people already know the rules to.

Wars Tanks 2022 is the driving pick, where the barrel turns with the mouse, shells take time to reach anything moving and the flanks are thinner armoured than the front. Helifight is a retro pixel duel for two people on one screen, with each key press lifting a falling helicopter slightly. Snow War .io drops the theme entirely and arms everybody with snowballs, which are restocked simply by running across snowy ground.

If you are choosing for a younger player, the snowball arena and the battleship grid are the two that carry no weapons at all in the usual sense. The strategy category holds the wider defence shelf, the shooting category collects the aiming games, and the explainer on what game genres mean is worth a read if terms like tower defence are new to you.

Only one of these is built for two people at the same device, and that is Helifight, where five hits settle the match. Anyone looking for more of that arrangement will find it in the two player category.

How do these games play?

In every defence game on this list the money question comes before the placement question. Damage generally beats durability, because a tougher wall only delays a wave while a stronger unit ends it. Spending the entire purse on the wave in front of you is the classic mistake: with nothing held back, the first gap in the line has no answer.

Position does a surprising amount of work. Long-range weapons want the high slots, close-range ones want the wall, a slowing or freezing unit wants the front of the line, and armoured enemies want poison or armour-piercing rather than raw firepower. Most of these games reuse the same enemy types across levels, so noting which unit answers which creature pays off within a few missions.

The turn-based grid runs on a different skill entirely. Open by sweeping the squares in a chequered pattern, since even the shortest hull will catch in that net. After a hit, test the four squares beside it rather than the diagonals, because hulls only run in straight lines, and rule out the ring around a sunk ship as well.

The driving and duelling picks reward small habits. Lead a moving target instead of firing at it, come in from the side where the armour is thinner, and sit behind cover with only the barrel showing. In the helicopter duel, short even taps hold you mid screen, and the edges of the screen leave you nowhere to go.

Which one should I pick?

Left column is the game, the two right columns say whether it runs on a phone and how many people can play.

• Fortress Defense - Free Archer Tower Defense Game: One hundred levels, five archer types, and shop upgrades that carry between missions.
• Defense Base 2 - Free Base Defense Strategy Game: Seven weapon types and fixed slots; which slot you fill decides most of the result.
• Defenders of the Realm : an epic war ! - Free Game: Five lanes to cover; pile into the one the enemy crowds instead of filling them all.
• Evolution Era - Free Age Defense Strategy Game: Saving for the next age changes your units entirely, so early overspending costs you.
• Army of Soldiers : Worlds War - Free Defense Game: A slowing unit at the front gives everything behind it extra seconds per target.
• Castle Raid 3D - Free Draw and Raid Strategy Game: Drag a lane, take multiplier gates over plus gates, and keep a reserve for the castle.
• Maritime Conflict - Free Battleship Strategy Game: The classic battleship grid; sweep in a chequered pattern and skip the diagonals.
• Wars Tanks 2022 - Free 3D Tank Battle Game: Shells take time to arrive, so lead the target and approach from the thinner flank.
• Helifight - Free 2 Player Pixel Duel Game: Short even taps hold your altitude, and five hits decide the match.
• Snow War .io - Free 3D Snowball Fight Game: Snowballs only; you must stop to throw, so do it behind a snow bank.

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Further reading

For more, browse the 🎯 Shooting, 🏰 Strategy categories.