Warcraft 3 custom maps you can still play

• Custom games today
• DotA
• Legion TD
• Island Defense
• Tree Tag
• Kodo Tag
• Castle Fight
• Element TD
• Sheep Tag
• Games like Sheep Tag
• Which to play
• Sources

How do you play Warcraft 3 custom games today?

You need Warcraft III: Reforged from Blizzard's Battle.net. Custom games are in the game's own lobby list, the same place they always were. The classic version now comes bundled with Reforged and, in Wikipedia's words, "supports all of the original mods and custom maps". If you already own a classic license, there is a Classic graphics setting you can use without buying anything.¹

The game is still getting patches. Version 2.0 arrived on 13 November 2024, and version 3.0 came with the new Forsaken Kingdom campaign on 12 September 2026.² Not every map keeps up with a big patch (Tree Tag's makers dropped Reforged graphics³), so check a map's page for the game version it was last made for.

• Finding a lobby: the public list can be quiet. Most of the maps below have a Discord where players say when they are hosting. Join it first and you will wait a lot less.
• W3Champions is a community ladder that also runs matchmade queues for a few custom maps. In October 2026 those included Legion TD, Castle Fight, Survival Chaos, Direct Strike and MiniDota.⁴ It is not a lobby for just any map.
• Getting map files: Hive Workshop and Epic War host thousands of community maps, old versions included.

DotA: the one that became its own genre

What it was: Defense of the Ancients started as a Warcraft III map made by a modder called Eul in 2003. DotA Allstars, by Meian and Ragn0r, took over from there; Guinsoo ran it from March 2004, then Neichus and IceFrog. In October 2009 Valve hired IceFrog to make a sequel.⁵

Where it is played today: Dota 2, released on Steam on 9 July 2013. It is free to play, and nothing that affects the game has to be bought. Its Arcade holds community-made game modes,⁶ including a Sheep Tag port.⁷

My take: play Dota 2. The Warcraft III map is history now, and the sequel is where the players are. Fair warning: it takes a long time to learn.

Legion TD: the best-kept classic

What it was: a multiplayer tower defense. Its maker, Lisk, wrote that it was "frequently played on BNet since its release in 2009".⁸

Where it is played today: Legion TD 2, a standalone game by AutoAttack Games. It opened in early access on 20 November 2017 and fully released on 1 October 2021. Its Steam page calls the original "the 2nd most popular Warcraft 3 mod of all time",⁹ and it was still getting big updates in September 2026.¹⁰ The Warcraft III map is still around too: W3Champions has queues for Legion TD 1v1 and 4v4.⁴

My take: if you loved Legion TD, the sequel is the one to play. It is a paid game on Steam, but it is the most looked-after of all these classics.

Island Defense: builders against a Titan

What it is: W3Reforged describes it as "a multiplayer strategy game involving elements from Tag, Survival and Tower Defense genres". A standard game is ten builders against one Titan.¹¹ The builders work together to bring the Titan down, and the Titan tries to kill every one of them.

Where it is played today: in Warcraft III. W3Reforged says the map works on Reforged,¹¹ and version 4.4.1j targets game version 2.0.3.¹² Its Discord, which islanddefense.net points to, had about 1,800 members in October 2026.¹³

My take: the deepest build-and-hunt game of the lot. A standard game is eleven players, so plan it with a group through the Discord.

Tree Tag: the closest cousin

What it is: ents against infernals. In the words of the Tree Tag 2021 page: "Ent: Survive until the time runs out." and "Infernals: Kill all ents before the time runs out."³ It is Sheep Tag's nearest relative, with trees in place of sheep.

Where it is played today: Tree Tag 2021 by ssbness and Villagerino, last updated on 8 December 2024 on Hive Workshop. It plays in classic graphics only; its changelog puts it as "Bye bye Reforged".³ The community Discord, "its Tree Tag Time!", had about 1,070 members in October 2026.¹⁴

My take: if Sheep Tag was your map, try this one next. Same tension, different toys.

Kodo Tag: everyone runs, nobody hunts

What it is: "Survive for 30 minutes against the raging Kodos", with modes like Maze, Bunker and Tower Defense.¹⁵ The Kodos are the computer, not players. One player put it this way: "It's like Sheep Tag, but the shepherds aren't player controlled which turns it into a fun mini-game for everyone."¹⁶

Where it is played today: Kodo Tag: Reforged, a beta uploaded in January 2024.¹⁵ The Kodo Tag Community Discord had about 650 members in October 2026.¹⁷

My take: good for a group where nobody wants to be stuck hunting. Less tension than a player-run pack, more laughing.

Castle Fight: the easiest to find a game for

What it is: two castles at war, and the side whose castle is destroyed first loses. The classic version, v1.13b by gexxo, was last updated in 2009, and players on Hive Workshop say it still runs on Reforged.¹⁸

Where it is played today: W3Champions runs a Castle Fight 3v3 queue,⁴ so you get matched instead of waiting in a lobby.

My take: the low-effort pick. A queue does the matchmaking, so you never sit in an empty lobby.

Element TD: tower defense, now its own game

What it was: a tower defense map. Its makers say the original was "downloaded over 5 million times across WarCraft 3, StarCraft 2 and Dota 2".¹⁹

Where it is played today: Element TD 2 on Steam, released on 2 April 2021 by Element Studios¹⁹ and still getting updates in August 2026.²⁰

My take: the pick for tower defense alone or with one friend, no lobby needed.

Sheep Tag: still going, and in your browser

A 2017 Hive Workshop list of the most played Warcraft III maps, built from Battle.net observations, downloads and host bot counts, put Sheep Tag at number 13, between Vampirism and Uther Party. DotA and Legion TD were first and second.²¹ It started on Warcraft III in 2002,²² and its competitive map, Sheep Tag ReVoLuTiOn, reached version 26 on 1 May 2026.²³ The history has the whole story.

Where it is played today: as a custom map in Reforged, organized through the Sheep Tag Community Discord, and here: Sheep Tag Online, a remake built for the browser, free, on a laptop or a phone, with bots in any empty seat. Where to play Sheep Tag compares every option.

Games like Sheep Tag

Sheep Tag belongs to the tag family: one side builds and hides, the other hunts. A Warcraft wiki puts it plainly: "There are many different variations on the basic Sheep Tag formula, such as Panda Tag, Tauren Tag, Tree Tag, and Jailbreak."²⁴ The ones worth your time:

• Tree Tag: the same idea with ents and infernals, and the liveliest community of the tag maps. More above.
• Kodo Tag: everyone runs from computer-controlled Kodos, so nobody has to hunt. More above.
• Island Defense: builders against one Titan, bigger and slower, with more to build. More above.
• Vampirism: humans fortify, vampires break in. "Humans must fortify defenses to keep the vampires out! Vampires must kill all humans!" Vampirism Fire 6.32i was built for game version 1.36.1.²⁵
• Cat and Mouse: the StarCraft maps the tag genre grew from. The same wiki says the Warcraft III tag maps were "inspired by the old 'Cat and Mouse' StarCraft maps".²⁴ You need StarCraft to play them.
• TagTime: a standalone game by Niila. Its founder told Gamereactor that "the idea for the game came from a classic Warcraft III map called Sheep Tag".²⁶ Two monsters chase small fairy tale runts. In October 2026 its Steam page listed the release as to be announced.²⁷

Which one should you play tonight?

• You want a big competitive game: Dota 2.
• You want tower defense: Legion TD 2 with friends, Element TD 2 alone.
• You own Reforged and have a group: Island Defense or Tree Tag, through their Discords.
• You want Sheep Tag Online with no install, alone or with friends: play it here.