Lakeheadarcade
0See all six
Played for monthsThree downloads, three tabsScores argued openly

Six free war machines, tested until the paint chipped

Lakeheadarcade covers the long-running free games built around tanks, armoured cars and warships. We put real seasons into each one, from the first clumsy battles to the slow middle ranks, then write down what the grind feels like, which machines carry a beginner and where each game quietly asks for more of your evenings.

Open the motor pool →Let Callum match you
6games reviewed in full
3free downloads for PC and console
3that run in a browser tab
4criteria behind every score
Field manuals

Longer reading for the long winter

Manual

Browser tab or full download: choosing your first armour game

Half our line-up runs in a desktop browser; the other half wants an installer and a launcher. That split shapes everything from your first evening to your fiftieth, so it is worth choosing deliberately.

Manual

Angles, sightlines and patience: tactics that carry between games

Six very different games, but the same handful of habits keeps winning. These are the lessons we found ourselves relearning in every garage, shipyard and squad on the desk.

Questions from the inbox

What readers keep asking about armour games

Tanki Online, Seafight and Battle Pirates all run in a desktop browser. Tanki Online also offers an optional desktop client and a mobile app if you want them. War Thunder, Crossout and Enlisted are free downloads for PC and console only; none of the three runs in a browser, so plan for a sizeable install and a launcher.

All six are free to start and all six can be played for months without spending. What changes over time is pace: the middle and upper ranks slow down, and paid options exist to speed them up. Our Free-player fairness score is where we judge how much patience a non-paying player needs and whether they can still compete on even terms.

Tanki Online, because its matches are short, the controls are simple and it loads in seconds. Among the downloads, War Thunder’s early ranks in Arcade mode are forgiving and well tutored. Enlisted asks the most of a newcomer, since you have to learn to shoot, manage a squad and read a front line all at once.

You need a reasonable machine and plenty of disk space, but these are not the most demanding games around. War Thunder publishes system requirements for Windows, macOS and Linux. Crossout and Enlisted are Windows on PC. On a modest laptop, drop the graphics preset before your first match rather than after a stuttering one.

War Thunder advertises cross-platform play between Windows, Linux, Mac, PlayStation and Xbox, and it is the cleanest example of the six. The browser games simply need everyone to open the same site. For the other downloads, check the current settings inside the game, as publishers adjust cross-play options over time.

It varies more than you might expect. Tanki Online is happy with three or four short sessions. Battle Pirates rewards checking in a few times a day for events. War Thunder and Enlisted want longer evenings once the middle ranks arrive. Every review lists a realistic weekly figure from our own logbooks, so you can plan around work and family.

Whenever an update changes how the game plays rather than how it looks. A graphics overhaul gets a line; a rework of progression, matchmaking or the economy gets a full replay and a fresh look at all four scores. Changed scores carry a dated note so you can see exactly what moved and why.

War Thunder
#1 · Desk favourite
8.2on the ten-point gauge
Top of the order of battle

War Thunder

War Thunder earns the top spot because nothing else here puts tanks, aircraft and ships on the same historical battlefields with this much care. It is a free download for PC, PlayStation and Xbox, and it rewards patience more than reflexes.

Over 2,500 vehicles in Gaijin’s own countArcade, Realistic and Simulator battlesCross-play across PC, PlayStation and Xbox

Gaijin Entertainment has been building it since the open beta in 2012, and the depth shows. Every vehicle sits in a national research tree, every shell is tracked through a physically based damage model, and the same tank behaves differently in Arcade, Realistic and Simulator battles. The early ranks are friendly. The later ones ask you to learn armour layouts, map lanes and repair costs. That learning curve is the point, and it is why players are still logging in years after their first battle.

Download War Thunder →Open the field report
The full line-up

Six garages, six very different kinds of war

Three of these games are proper free downloads for PC and console; three load straight into a desktop browser. Some want you to know a Tiger’s frontal plate by heart, others want you to bolt a harpoon to a scrap-built truck. Each card below shows where it runs, what a normal week asks and how we scored it.

War ThunderDesk favourite01
Combined-arms military sim

War Thunder

A free PC and console download where historical tanks, aircraft, helicopters and warships fight across more than 140 maps. Research trees run nation by nation, the damage model tracks every shell, and three realism settings let you choose between quick arcade fights and full simulator flying. Deep, demanding and still growing after a decade.

Tanks, aircraft and shipsThree realism settingsNational research trees
Free PC download (Windows, macOS, Linux); also on PlayStation and Xbox
Combat depth10
Session rhythm7
Free-player fairness7
Long-haul progression9
Get War ThunderFull report
CrossoutBuilder’s choice02
Vehicle-crafting arena shooter

Crossout

A free download for Windows PC and current PlayStation and Xbox consoles, where you weld armoured battle vehicles from scavenged parts and test them in post-apocalyptic team fights. Frames, wheels, guns and plates go exactly where you place them, so every defeat sends you back to the garage with a new idea. Endlessly inventive, sometimes messy.

Craft your own vehicleTeam PvP arenasCo-op raids against AI
Free PC download (Windows); also on PlayStation 4/5 and Xbox One/Series X/S
Combat depth9
Session rhythm8
Free-player fairness6
Long-haul progression8
Start buildingFull report
Tanki OnlineFastest start03
Arcade tank shooter

Tanki Online

A long-running tank shooter that plays straight in a desktop browser, with an optional mobile app. You pair interchangeable hulls and turrets in a garage, upgrade them with what you earn, and climb military ranks through short deathmatch, team and capture modes. Simple to start, surprisingly deep once you begin matching equipment to maps.

Hull and turret garageMilitary rank ladderCapture and team modes
Desktop browser; mobile app also available
Combat depth6
Session rhythm9
Free-player fairness6
Long-haul progression7
Play in your browserFull report
EnlistedSquad commander04
WWII squad shooter

Enlisted

A free Second World War shooter for Windows PC, PlayStation and Xbox where you lead a squad of soldiers rather than a lone hero. Switch between them when one falls, give the rest orders, and fight across campaigns from Moscow and Normandy to Stalingrad, Tunisia and the Pacific. Tanks, armoured cars and aircraft join the infantry war.

Command a squadHistorical campaignsTanks and aircraft too
Free PC download (Windows); also on PlayStation 4/5 and Xbox One/Series X/S
Combat depth8
Session rhythm6
Free-player fairness6
Long-haul progression7
Join the squadFull report
Battle PiratesFleet planner05
Naval war strategy

Battle Pirates

A long-running naval war game that plays in a desktop browser. You design warships by fitting hulls with weapons, armour and special components, then send fleets across an ocean map to raid targets and rival bases. At home, your floating base needs turrets and repair docks. Slow-burning strategy with an events calendar that never sleeps.

Design your own warshipsOcean map raidsBase defence
Desktop browser
Combat depth8
Session rhythm6
Free-player fairness5
Long-haul progression8
Launch your fleetFull report
SeafightEasy sailing06
Pirate naval adventure

Seafight

Bigpoint’s pirate-themed naval adventure plays in a desktop browser with nothing to install. You captain a ship across open seas, trade broadsides with rival captains, hunt treasure and face sea monsters, either alone or with a brotherhood of fellow pirates. It is the most relaxed and theatrical of our six, with old-school charm.

Naval battlesShip upgradesTreasure hunting
Desktop browser
Combat depth5
Session rhythm7
Free-player fairness6
Long-haul progression5
Set sail nowFull report
Search and sort the whole line-up →
Nose to nose

Line up two rivals and read the numbers

against
Pick your kind of fight

Which battlefield suits your temperament

These six do not compete for the same player. Find the way you like to fight below and follow it to the game that does it best.

Historian

You read the armour specs for fun

War Thunder is built for people who care that a Panther’s glacis is sloped and a Sherman’s gun has a particular shell. Historical vehicles, physically based damage and three realism settings give you room to go as deep as your curiosity runs.

War Thunder →Mechanic

You would rather build than buy

Crossout hands you a frame, a bin of parts and a blank afternoon. Every weapon, wheel and plate goes exactly where you put it, and if the design falls apart in its first match, you go back to the garage and argue with the welding.

Crossout →Brawler

You want a fight within thirty seconds

Tanki Online loads in a browser tab and drops you into a short, noisy match before your tea has cooled. Pair a hull with a turret, learn the maps, and enjoy a game that never pretends to be a simulator.

Tanki Online →Sergeant

You like your soldiers to follow orders

Enlisted puts a whole squad at your back in Second World War battles. You fight as one soldier, hop to another when he falls, and tell the rest where to hold. Tanks and aircraft are there when the infantry war needs them.

Enlisted →Admiral

You plan fleets between coffee breaks

Battle Pirates is a naval war game of designs and timing. You draft warships hull by hull, protect a floating base with turrets and repair docks, and send fleets across an ocean map when the moment looks right.

Battle Pirates →Buccaneer

You want the sea, the sails and a bit of mischief

Seafight is the old-school pirate option: a browser ship, monsters lurking under the waves, rival captains to sink and a brotherhood to sail with. It is the gentlest pace of the six and the most theatrical in mood.

Seafight →
How the desk works

What a Lakeheadarcade score actually costs us

A score here is the residue of weeks of play, notes scribbled between matches and a few arguments in the group chat. We start every game on a fresh account, without shortcuts, and keep playing well past the honeymoon ranks where most first impressions are formed.

01

Fresh account, no head start

Each review starts on a brand-new profile with nothing unlocked. We want to feel exactly what a newcomer feels: the tutorial, the first lopsided matches, the moment the game finally explains what a hull or a research tree is for. If the opening hours are confusing, the review says so plainly, because that is where most people quit.

New profileTutorial notesFirst matches
02

Into the middle ranks

The real character of these games shows up after the starter vehicles, when progress slows and matchmaking gets serious. We keep playing through that stretch, tracking how long an upgrade takes in ordinary evenings and whether a player who never pays can still compete. That middle grind decides most of our fairness and progression scores.

Mid-tier grindMatchmakingUpgrade pace
03

Second opinion, then the score

Before anything is published, a second editor plays the same game for at least a week and reads the draft against their own notes. Disagreements get argued out over specific matches, not vibes. Only then do the four criteria scores get fixed, and we revisit them when a major update changes how the game plays.

Peer playDraft checkUpdate revisits

Who keeps the lights on

Lakeheadarcade is a small reading site paid for out of the editors’ own pockets and, now and then, by partner links on the play buttons. A partner link never moves a game up the order: the ranking is set first, in writing, and the buttons are added afterwards. If a game slips in our estimation after an update, its score drops in public with a dated note explaining why.

Three questions with Callum

Not sure which hangar door to open first?

Callum has sunk more evenings into these six than anyone else on the desk. Answer three short questions about where you play and how you like to fight, and he will name your best starting machine.

Callum
Last call before the convoy leaves

Pick a machine and log the first ten battles

The only way to know if a game like this fits is to play it badly for an evening. Choose one from the line-up, keep your expectations modest for the first few rounds, and come back to compare notes with us once the garage starts to feel like home.

See the whole line-up →Open your hangar