WinBolo

WinBolo is a top-down multiplayer tank game for up to 16 players. You drive across an island, capture bases and pillboxes, build defenses and fight for control of the map.

Game modes

Freeform games allow alliances to shift during a match, including betrayals. In tournament-style games, teams are set before play and diplomacy is off; two sides fight until one controls every base. Both modes use the same rules.

Control the island

Bases are the only places where you can refuel, rearm and repair your tank. Pillboxes guard important terrain and fire on enemies crossing open ground. You can capture and reposition them, then turn them against their former owners. Harvest trees to supply building projects, lay roads to travel faster, wall off chokepoints and mine approaches.

The battlefield changes as you play. Detonated mines leave craters, which fill with water and can form rivers that alter attack routes. Trees slowly regrow, but overusing them can deforest the island and leave you unable to repair your pillboxes.

Tools and opponents

WinBolo 2.0 includes a built-in map editor with drawing, fill and magic-wand tools; maze creation; four procedural generators—Tournament, Natural, Maze and Fractal; text-as-terrain; image import; symmetry tools; and a stamp library.

Its AI Brain, GoalHunter, uses goal priorities, threat trajectories and territory influence maps. Brains are written in Lua, and machine-learning tools let you train your own and export them as in-game opponents.

Online play

The game supports cross-platform play between Windows, Mac, Linux, Steam Deck, iOS, Android and the web on the same servers. Its netcode uses an authoritative server, lag compensation with position-history rewind, client-side prediction and an adaptive jitter buffer. UPnP and NAT-PMP can open ports automatically, while UDP hole punching can reach servers behind most home routers.

WinBolo supports 17 languages, including for in-game chat and player names. An embedded replay viewer with WBN integration lets you review games, leave rankings and watch other players’ matches without leaving the client.

History

Bolo was created by Stuart Cheshire in 1987. John Morrison began developing WinBolo in 1998 as a Windows reimplementation, the only Bolo port Cheshire officially endorsed. Over a decade of development, WinBolo added a Linux port and supported a community that played tournaments, shared maps and discussed strategies in forums. WinBolo 2.0 continues that work with the same gameplay.