Warzone 2100

Last reviewed Sep 13, 2026 · 782 words

Hosting a Warzone 2100 game comes down to one port: TCP 2100, forwarded to the machine running the host, or reachable over a VPN. There is no separate server package to install, no database, no web panel. The game itself hosts, either from the normal client or in a headless mode that will sit on a Linux box waiting for players. That simplicity is why a 1999 real-time strategy game that went open source in 2004 is still in a self-hosting directory at all, and the lack of a proper dedicated server is why it is a weekend project rather than a permanent service.

The game, briefly, for people who skipped 1999

Warzone 2100 is a 3D RTS with a research tree of several hundred items and a unit design system where you assemble bodies, propulsion and weapons yourself, which is the depth the highlights list is pointing at. It is GPL-2.0, C++, and runs on about 512 MB with modest graphics requirements, so old hardware is fine. The campaign is single-player; the part you host is skirmish-style multiplayer for 2 to 10 players on the shipped and community maps. The audience is niche and mostly long-standing, which means finding public opponents is easy through the lobby but your own server will mostly serve your own friends.

Hosting from the client versus headless

The normal way is to click Host Game in the multiplayer menu. Your machine becomes the server for that match, and it must be reachable on TCP 2100. Modern releases also support a headless autohost mode from the command line, which starts a game with a saved configuration and waits for players without rendering anything. Check warzone2100 --help on your installed version for the exact flags; the option names have shifted across the 4.x series and I will not quote one that may have moved. On a headless Linux box the pattern is a systemd unit that runs the binary with the autohost flags and restarts it after each match. The official site and the wiki cover the autohost config file format.

The port forwarding trap

The catalogue's "hosting needs port forwarding" con is the whole difficulty rating. For an internet game, the host's router must forward 2100/TCP inward, and if you are behind carrier-grade NAT on a mobile or fibre connection that hands you a private address, no amount of router configuration will help. Two ways around it: host on a VPS and let everyone connect there, or put the players on Tailscale and use the private address, which sidesteps forwarding entirely and works from behind any NAT. For a LAN party none of this applies; the game finds hosts on the local network by itself.

The public lobby lists your game for you

When you host with the lobby enabled, the game registers with the project's lobby server so anyone running the client sees it in the join list. That is how public games fill up, and it is also how a misconfigured port shows up: the game appears in the list and nobody can connect. Test with a friend on an outside connection before announcing a match. Password-protect the game if you want it private but still listed, or disable lobby registration and hand out the address directly.

When a game with a real dedicated server is the better host

If what you want is a persistent service, a thing that runs for months and people join at will, Warzone 2100 is the wrong shape and it is not close. OpenTTD ships an actual dedicated server binary, runs headless in Docker, and has a mature admin interface; its 24/7 community servers have run for years. Veloren does the same for the voxel RPG crowd. Warzone is match-based: a game lasts an hour or two, then the host ends it. The games category splits along exactly that line, and it is the first question to ask before picking anything.

What I'd do

For a group of friends, skip the router entirely: everyone installs Tailscale, one person hosts from the client, and the game is over before anyone finishes reading a port forwarding tutorial. For a standing invitation to a regular weekly match, a small VPS with 1 GB of RAM running the headless autohost under systemd, port 2100 open, lobby on, password set. I would not build anything more elaborate than that around a game with no dedicated server, and I would not pretend it is a service in the sense the rest of this site means the word.