$34.99Warhounds Every turn can be your last
Lead a mercenary squad through lethal turn-based firefights, then keep the whole company alive between missions.
Is Warhounds worth it?
Warhounds is worth it if…
- you want XCOM-style tactics where positioning, not hit percentages, decides firefights
- you like running a mercenary company: contracts, budgets, recruits and consequences
- you want missions that fit your evening, from a 25-40 minute sortie to a long session
- you enjoy tuning the challenge yourself, from a light run to brutal tactical hell
Screenshots
Firefights decided by geometry, not dice
The hook is how shots work: get close and flank, and the hit is guaranteed instead of rolled. Positioning, lines of fire, elevation and cover matter more than luck. Cover can be shot apart, overwatch covers a cone rather than a guess, and the maps have real height for snipers to exploit. You split movement and ability points, so a fighter can reposition and still act, or plant their feet and fire twice. One concrete moment: you walk a machine gunner up a slope, set the cone overwatch across a road, and the first enemy to cross it walks into a wall of lead. High lethality cuts both ways, so think before you end a turn.
A war run from your base
Between missions you run the company. Recruit fighters from five classes (Assault, Specialist, Sniper, Machine Gunner, Grenadier), buy gear, handle budgets, medical supplies and downtime, and choose which allied factions to court. Relationships, intel and covert ops feed back into the campaign: your decisions decide which missions, gear and allies you can reach later. Gear up each merc for the mission at hand, treat the wounded, and protect the operatives you cannot afford to lose. The campaign in alternate-future Africa plays out mission by mission, and the ending is the sum of your calls.
What should you know before buying?
Can you play it solo?
Yes, it is a singleplayer game built around it. You command a squad of four in turn-based combat and run the strategic campaign alone: recruiting, contracts, base management and faction choices are all part of the solo loop. There is no multiplayer component to coordinate.
How long does a mission take?
A mission runs about 25 to 40 minutes, so a single sortie fits into an evening, with the strategic layer waiting between runs. If you would rather settle in, nothing stops you from chaining missions into a long session. The pace is yours to set.
Is it really less random than XCOM?
Partly. Flanking at close range gives a guaranteed hit instead of a percentage roll, and ballistics, cover and elevation drive the outcomes. But chance still exists in the game, and some players find the balance punishing, with enemies that hit hard and often. Come for the positioning and the planning more than for a promise of zero luck.
How hard is it, really?
That is up to you. The game lets you customize the challenge, from a light, relaxed run to what the store calls brutal tactical hell. High combat lethality means mistakes cost soldiers on any setting, so careful players get the most out of it. If you are new to the genre, start gentle and learn the flanking rules before turning the screws.
