Hogs of War is a turn-based tactics game, where players take turns controlling individual members of their squad of hogs to engage in combat with the opposition, similar to the Worms video game series. Each level is made up of two or more teams of five, loosely based on nations competing in the First World War.^[3] Each turn, a player takes control of a single squad member in a third-person perspective to move around the map, including jumping over terrain and swimming over bodies of water, yet can only engage in combat when stationary.^[3]

Each squad member can be assigned a class type, where they have immediate access to certain weapons and abilities. There are four main class types; heavy gunners that specialize in long-range heavy weapons (mortars, bazookas, rocket launchers, etc.), engineers that specialise in explosives (grenades, land mines, TNT, etc.), espionage that do not appear on the mini map and use sniper rifles and camouflage, and finally medics that can heal other units in both close and long range.^[3][4] Other than inventory items, players can also gain access to military vehicles, like tanks and semi-aquatic and stationary turrets like heavy artillery and pillboxes.^[3] Bunkers and MASH tents also provide further protection, but without weaponry, with the latter healing a small amount at the start of their turn.^[4]

The game features several modes, including a standard deathmatch (either single-player or multiplayer) and a single-player campaign.^[5] At the start of each campaign, the player chooses their nation and squad of up to eight characters, who have customisable names. The main objective for the player is to conquer all five regions of the world map, with each region containing five missions against each opposing nation.^[a][5] Through the campaign, characters can be promoted as the player progresses through the campaign by earning medals; given for completing tasks, such as finishing the level with zero characters felled.^[4] The campaign features semi-permadeath, where a character will be permanently lost after three deaths.^[5]