Top 16 Naval Wargames to Play in 2024!

Set sail for adventure with our roundup of the Top 16 Naval Wargames to Play in 2024! From historic battles to futuristic warfare, immerse yourself in thrilling naval combat simulations that span the ages. Whether you're commanding fleets or managing crew, these games offer endless strategic challenges and pulse-pounding action. Get ready to chart your course to victory on the high seas!
00:00 Introduction
01:20 UBOAT
02:03 War on the Sea
02:41 Naval Hurricane
04:30 Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail
05:18 Atlantic Fleet
06:52 Naval Action
07:34 NavalArt
08:05 Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter
08:44 Boat Crew
09:19 Wolfpack
10:05 Rule the Waves 3
10:43 Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal - Pacific War Naval Warfare
11:32 Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts
12:21 Command: Modern Operations
13:44 War in the Pacific: Admirals Edition
14:41 Cold Waters
15:27 Conclusion
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Top 16 Naval Wargames to Play in 2024!

[@jonathanamsberry3971]

Naval games is one of my favorite themes but feels under represented in video games.

[@apolakigamingandmore6376]

It's not really under represented, it's just that, people don't really like these types of games. I came from an RTS Cold War game, and it's said we only have a few playerbase.

[@juancho420]

War in the Pacific needs to be upgraded for modern hardware and screen resolutions

[@ronaldgray5707]

You are right about Gary Grigsby's War in the Pacific, it is very complex and takes a lot of time investment. But it is still my favorite realistic naval war game. Thank you.

[@bammedia3429]

War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition is a lifestyle choice

[@Antares2]

I have wanted to try that game a few times, but the price is outrageous for a game that old. I don't care that it's the most detailed strategy game of the pacific theatre ever. I am not paying 80 dollars for 15 year old game. I think a lot more people would be willing to take the plunge into that overly detailed game, if it cost around 15 dollars instead.

[@bammedia3429]

@@Antares2 it goes on sale periodically.

[@glennielsen7982]

The only thing I'd add to the list are the WDS "Naval Campaigns" games. They're very authentic and extremely well researched. I can personally vouch for their Midway, Guadalcanal Naval Battles and Spanish American War (which is free). they have games that cover the First World War, Tsushima and the Battle for the Atlantic. They're definitly hex and counters, but you can choose to remove the hexes. For realism and fun they're hard to beat.

[@darthvegan]

War on the Sea is a lot better with mods, as others have mentioned. I hope to try out War in the Pacific some day as well!

[@TheZoepers]

sadly you didn't report that uboat is going for 1.0 in the very near future. i would say less then a month from now. no official date though if you have seen their last devblogs.

[@TheZoepers]

BETA test release date has been announced May 27th, 2024!

[@lphoenix1091]

Thats a solid list or 2024! Cold Waters is great and I can see you really like this game. A lot here to enjoy!

[@jay76ny]

Great list! War on the Sea has been the backbone of my channel since day one. Cold Waters and Atlantic Fleet are also tons of fun. Killerfish is on point with their naval combat games. I tried Age of Sail but couldn't really get into it. Most of the others on the list are either collecting dust on my desktop or wishlist.

[@Antares2]

I really liked "War on the Sea" and put about 100 hours into it, but was a bit disappointed by the small scope of it. The Guadalcanal area is fine, but gets a bit boring after a while when you have your tenth battle near Savo island and such. Also the AI isn't always the best, especially if it starts losing a bit. I would love more campaign areas or a branching career of some style that lets you play the entire war (even if you don't command the entire pacific fleet of whichever nation you play). I always wanted "Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts" to be the graphical version of "Rule The Waves", and it does fulfill this promise... to some extent, but the performance is quite bad and the career mode is wildly unbalanced. Once you start "snowballing", nobody can stand against you. The worst is the bugs and the fact that the framerate in the ship editor is abysmal at times. Also, at some point, you will be constantly at war with multiple nations and it can get a bit tedious. "Naval Action" was fun for a while, but I am not really a multiplayer person. Hoping "Sea Legends" that just became available for wishlisting will be the true game to scratch my age of sail itch when it is released. It looks very nice at least, so I have hope. I am done with uboat simulators. I played SH3 back in the day (and later with mods), as well as SH4 (with mods)... I feel I've done that war now. I don't need to captain yet another type VII or IX... I like submarine simulators of more modern subs, like Cold Waters, but would like more variety in scenarios, time periods and playable factions. I hope there will be a new Cold Waters-style game one day.

[@peterhowe547]

Waiting patiently for Task Force: Admiral. I Love War on the sea, and the modding community behind it is awesome

[@DrydockDreamsGames]

Great list, made with great taste!

[@peterhowe547]

hows the development going for TF:A???

[@joeyj6808]

This is WAYYYY out of my wheelhouse. I want to play them, but the few I tried were very difficult for me: Naval Hurricane and Atlantic Fleet...I really enjoyed trading shells with Dreadnaughts and Heavy Cruisers, but have not been able to land a single torpedo. I was a big fan of Wooden Ships & Iron Men, so I'm looking closely at UA/Age of Sail...

[@SkywalkerWroc]

IMHO it doesn't get much better than the Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail. It's trulry a gem.

[@MostlyHarmlessEntertainment]

Naval Action gamer here. Just today the developers announced they are going to wipe ALL servers and "reset" them. 8777.6 hours is a lot of time to lose.

[@Mittens_Gaming]

War on the Sea is much better with mods, as some of the mods really expand the game a LOT. The pacific mod is so good. Good to see Rule the Waves on here too. Such a good game. War in the Pacific is a really cool game I just feel is a bit too complex for me, even though I love games like that.

[@RvTWargames]

Who knew there were so many quality titles out there! Not me. I'll be adding Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal - Pacific War Naval Warfare to my games and possibly to my channel too. And yes, who wouldn't love the time to explore War in the Pacific: Admirals Edition. Thanks for these.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

No worries took a look at your channel! Great to see other KZbinrs in this genre doing well :)

[@VirgoShelter]

Glad to know I'm not the only one that likes Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal

[@charlescassels3826]

I’ve had Task Force Admiral - Vol.1: American Carrier Battles on my wishlist since it came to steam. The small team that started it posted in a facebook tabletop gaming page long before then. It looks absolutely beautiful!

[@LTGamingYoutube]

I have access to it :)

[@dudeonyoutube]

?????

[@charlescassels3826]

@@LTGamingKZbin I’m jealous! I assume you’re under an NDA?

[@General_Hawk]

Great channel! Thank you!

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Glad you enjoyed it 🚀

[@trax1794]

Nice one brother! I will definitely take me a bit of Cold Waters!

[@TECC73]

First of all, thanks again for the great video, Luke. Out of the games you listed, the ones that caught my eye the most are Uboat, War on the Sea, Atlantic Fleet, Wolfpack, and Cold Waters. I especially enjoy submarine games where you can stalk and hunt down enemy ships (I also tend to enjoy stealth games, which might explain my preference for submarines). I also added Command: Modern Operations to my list, because it seems like a deep simulation with large-scale battles. I'd also love to see a turn-based submarine game with in-depth mechanics in the future. Thanks again for this fantastic list! I'm definitely going to check out a few of those games. Cheers! 🙃

[@LTGamingYoutube]

This is exactly the reason why we do these! Awesome feedback and all great games for you to pick up when ready :)

[@TECC73]

@@LTGamingKZbin Do you know turn-based submarine games with in-depth mechanics ?

[@fmarionswampfox]

UBOAT is a lot of fun

[@TotallyNotElPresidente]

I also strongly recommend Silent Hunter 3 OneAlex edition for anyone looking for a decent ww2 u-boat experience.

[@rexrex-ph5on]

Скажите, а про Uboat что думаете?

[@captainkoloth1631]

Firing on all cylinders with these videos! You've got to have Dangeorus Waters on this list- aging, but especially when fully modded, there's still nothing else remotely close to it in terms of realism and depth. Fleet Command is even older and has its flaws, but until Sea Power comes out, still has no competition.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

I know those games and did look at them for this video! Both good recommendations. Yes i'm trying to push for more info on Sea Power :)

[@connycontainer9459]

Might get a worthy successor to Dangerous Waters next year with Modern Naval Warfare. Just a sub for starters but it looks incredible.

[@guyrose2239]

What an eye opening selection… so much to look forward… another game ye may have missed is “Froggy and Snail - Total Armageddon” highly recommended for your Sunday evening 🐸🐌🥊😂🐸🐌❤️

[@LTGamingYoutube]

haha always a good one!

[@bingoE]

war in the pacific is masterpeace.

[@-Kyzmi4-]

World Of SeaBattle-at the current time - the most beautiful game about the sea and sailboats.

[@DreamingCyclist]

Nice list, I wish I had the time to invest in learning some of these, and I'm retired! Maybe add a comment on "degree of difficultly to learn", similar to the complexity rating on the Matrix/Slitherine store. I'm really enjoying your videos - thanks!

[@johnmcshane4463]

a big thing with war on the sea is the growing mod community for it. It has a few campaigns and rebalance mods if youre looking for a little more content than whats in the base game.

[@jotabe1984]

yea base game at the end its a little bit repetitive

[@ruskiwaffle1991]

Can't wait for Sea Power to release

[@Ugnutz]

what i really want is a new Silent Hunter game

[@miken3170]

Ardent Seas might come out this year as well

[@foicex]

Warthunder might be something worth checking if you tought world of warships is too arcady. The damage modules are preety good

[@terulien7015]

I play warthunder a lot. It's fun but the physics are horrendous. Tank shells can and do penetrative concrete, steel, trees without any deformation, change in trajectory or loss of lethality. Planes are quite literally used as flying bombs. It can get quite silly.

[@foicex]

@@terulien7015 Your first point is completly wrong. There is a loss in lethality depending on the material, regarding the change of trajectory that only happens if there is a ricochet or when penetrating a tank depending on the angle. I have no idea what are you even talking about being used as flying bombs or how that would not be real when theres an enitre country famous for using them exacly as that. You either dont play as much as you claim, or have no grasp of the game at all

[@I_am_Locutus_of_Borg]

Seeing the Solomon Islands always makes me think about Black Sheep Squadron (from 1976), the TV show with Robert Conrad, nice memories! (yeah, I'm that old, lol). Great list, people should check out Carrier Battles, it's a fun game!

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Thanks for the kind words! That's a reference even I'm gonna have to look up 😂🚀

[@sezuldacz7616]

War on the Sea sadly dont have that many updates, but when you are using mods, its much more better game

[@anthonyscott3718]

Some good recommendations, but what about Harpoon ?

[@apolakigamingandmore6376]

13:44 I love the HoI 4 reference song.

[@Sira_Kackavalj]

Not naval. but if you like Boat Crew, may i recommend Bomber Crew flying a Lancaster/B17 and Space Crew sci fi space ship

[@captainkoloth1631]

I should add, I tried Atlantic Fleet because I had heard so many good things about it. The combat engine is strong, but I found it to be disappointingly easy. Not once did I ever lose a campaign- the AI really struggles to hunt or deter submarines.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Yeah what drops it down the list slightly for me. If they finished War on the Sea that could be great!

[@dudeonyoutube]

Don't you love the non moving ships?

[@jotabe1984]

both Cold Waters and War on the Sea are from the same developer... Both games prepresent a good base game, but they shine with mods. Cold Waters has (in my opinion) a great add-on with Epic mod... you get to play USSR/Russia and China SSK, SSN, SSG, SSGN, SSB, SSBN... so the playability bame huge. Too bad campaign will throw incredibly unfair missions based on random, but nevertheless its quite challenging and will provide a lot of fun hours of gameplay. As for War on the Sea, the base game trapped me in something like 1000 horus of gameplay since open beta, but nowadays the game became too repetitive for me, there are a couple of mods (The Tokyo Express, ABDACOM defense, Centrifugal offensive, and the soon-to-be-released indian ocean campaign) but never really tried none

[@user-timelord]

Hope sea power will be released soon.

[@theworkshopwhisperer.5902]

I highly recommend carrier commander 2. It's everything you could possibly want from a multiplayer ship management and coordination game.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

I will be checking that out now!

[@theworkshopwhisperer.5902]

@@LTGamingKZbin It's a difficult game to describe. Getting full full run of a highly advanced aircraft carrier. I think it's something like 1 to 16 player co-op. Dynamically generated missions tons of aircrafts and amphibious ground vehicles with fully customisable loadouts.

[@ObiKKa]

I think you meant Carrier Command 2. There's no Commander in the series title.

[@theworkshopwhisperer.5902]

@@ObiKKa My mistake a small typo.

[@jiriskracek1439]

Ultimate admiral is getting multiplayer beta now. And is really good on steam deck

[@LTGamingYoutube]

I will revisit!

[@jiriskracek1439]

Unfortunately it is already full and still very basic more like Alfa

[@TechJoe1994]

Naval art is basically battleship craft from ios with better graphics and a map. Weapon variety is amazing but for aircraft there is bugger all. Hoping they add more soon.

[@connycontainer9459]

What about Sea Power ? Should be coming this year as well.

[@girolafsson4511]

I always wanted a new Jane's fleet command.

[@nathanielmeade5731]

I already play ¼ of the list

[@CMDRFandragon]

Give me Boat Crew, but let us use capital ships. I wanna play a game like WOWS but in a PVE/Coop setting like Boat Crew and I wanna sail Battleships, Cruisers, etc. War on the Sea, etc, those games are cool, but they put you in command of a whole ass Navy, I just wanna be 1 ship in that Navy maybe....but not tryna play a whole pacific war.

[@kappazo2268]

Destroyer: U-Boat Hunter is really hard but the tactical displays are a bit clunky

[@gadget231]

You mentioned world ow warships but not war thunder? Naval battles are fun in that and you can play arcade or more realistic

[@woormle8098]

Try Atlantic fleet 2 is on early access

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Where?

[@ms-lazuli7435]

For me, two very large simulations are missing, the Silent Hunter licenses (especially 3) and Dangerous Waters.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

They run poorly on modern systems which is why they were excluded. But you have a point!

[@ms-lazuli7435]

@@LTGamingKZbin I make them both work under W10 without difficulty, although for DW it is true that sometimes it is not always installed easily, but sometimes it works very well... For me it's perfect.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

@@ms-lazuli7435 I will pick up a copy and check it out :)

[@justinfanter3620]

Where my Battlestations Midway gang at? I need another game like such

[@dudeonyoutube]

Re Atlantic Fleet. The stationary ship are very anoying. Why would warships just stop in the middle of the ocean?

[@LTGamingYoutube]

It's turn based.

[@dudeonyoutube]

They should still appear to be moving.

[@CaptainMurder62]

Silent hunter 5 wolves of steel????

[@dudeonyoutube]

No Task Force Admiral???

[@LTGamingYoutube]

The game is not released 🤷‍♂️

[@dudeonyoutube]

I know but hopefully it will drop over the summer.

[@Titus_Vespasianus]

I wish they would do a French campaign for Ultimate Admirals Age of Sail...

[@SkywalkerWroc]

Missing World of Warships and WarThunder naval mode from the list.

[@brainyskeletonofdoom7824]

For a good reason, I'd say

[@Meister183]

World of warships is a joke of a game, completely arcade and buying about it is realistic at all

[@skorpion7132]

@@Meister183 It IS a naval war game. There was no mention of what rules the list was compiled by so excluding something based on "arcadey" is just dumb. Wether or not you like the game is immaterial to that.

[@21owlgirl72]

This list is alittle funny, alot of these games are old and no longer supported.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Which ones exactly? Games can be finished you know. 'Support' doesn't go on forever. And old games can still be the best. So I'd say the comment is a little funny 😉

[@someopinion]

Lol, click baited us with that thumbnail.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Don't get why!

[@Meister183]

You forgot War Thunder!

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Bahahaha

[@bubandavid9356]

Sadly Wolfpack is dying. The devs don't care too much about the community and their last patch 6 months ago broke the game to a level that it is unplayable. The base conception is good but it needs a competent dev team.

[@Antares2]

I accept the effort and the fact that Naval Hurricane is a solo dev... but it just looks awful. I know gameplay is more important than graphics, but damn...

[@1971stretch]

World of Warships started out promising- I played the beta and for some time after launch, but it has slowly became the usual dumpster fire you would expect from Wargaming. Best avoided and kept off the list.

[@MarvinWestmaas]

If WoWs is on this list I'm unsubscribing....

[@LTGamingYoutube]

I mentioned it but didn't include it on the List ;)

[@MarvinWestmaas]

Heck yes it's not, and thank you for stating it's an arcade title which has nothing to do with actual naval warfare, nothing at all. Lost years of my live playing that, closed testing to 'release' and time as supertester hoping the game wouldn't go down the route of WeGreedy's commerce department...in the starting period the devs were actually involved with community, we actually could talk and they made so many promises... 2 or max 3 babyboats per game is optimal... no we won't add bigger guns as Yamato ( and in doing so, we won't make overmatch such a factor as it is now ), no we know submarines don't belong in combined naval WWII operations ( because realistic WWII submarines are ... dog slow when submerged maybe? don't have magical homing torpedoes and the short time the Germans actually had an effective torpedo in the Atlantic it took the allies months to come with the towed decoy... but hey can't put historical stuff in WoWs. let's make it a magical button... like how we give new ships something 'extra' like a 'magical button' giving it a faster reload based on something the enemy can't track... )... Don't touch WeGreedy games expecting a> dev's to keep their word b> a game where 'got to sell more pixels and have an economy based on FOMO marketing is a better description as one where they actually listen to their community.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Thanks for the insight! I only played it briefly on Xbox and recognised it for what it was.

[@MarvinWestmaas]

@@LTGamingKZbin Don't mind my rant, enough people enjoy the game still and who am I to say they shouldn't. But I will never get that involved in a game during development when I don't actually know the direction it will eventually take.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

@@MarvinWestmaas all good. In my experience....people often come onto our lists and suggest War Thunder, World of Warships etc and to me they just arnt what I'd class as a Wargame. And trust me im quite flexible with the definition as the Hex Wargamers tell me 😂

[@thanatosbvg5176]

I would take naval action out of this list unfortunately.... the devil shoot themselves in the foot regularly and have overall destroyed the game

[@skorpion7132]

If you're going to make a list of "top xx naval wargames" but then exclude one of the flagship gmes as "arcade" then you should've include the rules along which the list was chosen because now this just come acros a stupid meandering.

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Because its not considered a wargame and you should try write sentences that make sense. It makes you come across stupid and we wouldn't want that 😉

[@Dumbledore-tr4xv]

world of warships is not on list its far better than most of games on list

[@LTGamingYoutube]

Yeah don't be silly!

[@Dumbledore-tr4xv]

@@LTGamingKZbin seems only silly here is you. check your video title naval games?

[@Meister183]

World of warships is a game that has no realistic quality to it. Everything about it is just lame

[@Dumbledore-tr4xv]

@@Meister183 LOL seems you didnt play it

[@braize6279]

Lol World of Warships is pay to win trash. I was actually fearful that game was going to make this list, and I'm glad that it was excluded. If you like your standard toxic Wargaming pay to win sewage, then sure, World of Warships is great. But if you value your sanity, and value your wallet, or just value actual gaming in general, you won't touch any Wargaming product. Edit- Just read your "seems you didn't play it" comment, so here's my source. I played when the game was actually fun (aside from OP carriers like always) when it was just US and Japan ships. Then Wargaming realized they can sell overpriced and overpowered ships on the market. I also was on the starting team that won the first clan battle, and am unicum or super unicum in every ship class aside from CVs (which I don't play). This includes over 8k battles with a 63% win rate. WoW is arcady pay to win trash and I don't miss that toxic game or it's community one bit.

[@7_7Marco7_7]

Silent hunter III + Mega Mods - Grey Wolves - Oanalex Edition