The Battle for Wesnoth: open-source turn-based strategy game
The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based fantasy strategy game. Its wiki says it is free software under the GNU GPL, and its downloads showed no price.
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Official game screenshot
What it is
The Battle for Wesnoth is a strategy game you play on a computer. Its home page calls it "an open source, turn-based strategy game with a high fantasy theme" with single-player and online or hot-seat multiplayer. You move units on a map one turn at a time. It is not an AI tool.
Is it free?
The site says it is open source. Its wiki Download page says: "This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3... or at your option, any later version." It adds that some assets use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. We saw no price on the project's download links and no account was needed to see them. The home page also has a Donate section that says donations are optional. It lists Liberapay and itch.io, and says the project "does rely on the work of dedicated volunteers". The site says players can also get it from Steam and the Mac App Store. We did not check the price on those stores.
What you get, per the site
- 17 single-player campaigns and 55 multiplayer maps.
- Over 200 unit types in seven main factions.
- Play online, over a private or local network, or share one screen in hot-seat mode.
- It is translated into over 30 languages.
- Player-made campaigns, factions and maps from the official add-ons server.
- It works on Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux.
How to get it
- Go to wesnoth.org and use the Download section, or the wiki Download page.
- The site recommends the stable version for new players. The wiki page showed 1.18.8 as the current stable release. It also lists a development branch, which the site says is not guaranteed to be stable and "geared towards veteran players". Our advice: take the stable one.
- System requirements, stable version, minimum per the home page: Windows 10 1903 (64-bit) or later, macOS 10.12 or later, or Ubuntu 20.04 or compatible; dual-core 2.0 GHz CPU; 4 GB RAM; 800 MB free disk; keyboard and mouse required.
- The wiki lists a SHA256 checksum for each file, if you want to check your download.
What to watch out for
- Not tested. We did not install or play it, so we cannot say how hard it is to learn or how it runs on your PC.
- Online play and add-ons. Chat and add-ons come from other players and the project's servers. We did not read any moderation or age guidance, so we cannot say if it suits children. Check with the official FAQ.
- Add-ons are made by the community. That is per the site. We did not check how they are reviewed.
- Third-party download sites. Our advice is to use the official site only.
Privacy and data
- We did not find a privacy statement for the game on the pages we read, and we did not test what it sends. Online multiplayer and the add-ons server use the project's servers, per the site.
India
- We saw no region limit. We did not test downloads from India. We quote no INR price.
Frequently asked questions
Is Wesnoth free?
The project calls it free software under the GPL, and we saw no price on its download links.
Does it work on a phone?
The site lists Android only for the development version. We did not check it further.
Can I play offline?
The site lists single-player campaigns and hot-seat play. It does not say the exact offline limits.
Sources: Home, Download, Project. Checked 18 October 2026.
Independent guide, not affiliated.
Scoped recheck 23 October 2026: official home page and wiki download/copyright pages. Stable remains 1.18.8, and the campaign, map, unit-type, faction, language and system-requirement claims are unchanged. Added the project's own gameplay screenshot from the source repository; the larger wesnoth.org screenshot set could not be hotlinked (the host serves an anti-bot page to browsers). No fact changes. Other claims retain their original source-check date. Original publication date unchanged.