My friend has a Mac and would like to get a WWII turn-based strategy game to run on his Mac. I suggested the turn-based because he has not played a complicated game before and RTS might be too much for him. What would you guys suggest for a first time gamer?

Don't know...maybe Risk? Anyone?

1. Avoid the Germans.
2. Establish if the timeline has been altered.
3a. If it has, repair it.
3b. If it has not, try to keep it that way. Don't go all Wolfenstein, let Hitler kill himself.
4. Locate the nearest time machine.
5. Return to the present.
6. Don't sleep to long.
7. Hail to the King, baby.

While a little ugly today, Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord would be my first suggestion. Easy enough to "get into" and with a turnbased mechanic that's a lot more intuitive for a first timer (though really any turn based wargame is going to be a bit dense).

CAVEAT: Here on GoG it's listed as XP / 7 only. So while I'd GUESS it's probably super easy to get it running on WINE on Mac, I'm not exactly familiar with the process and I don't know how much savvy your friend has when it comes to computers (again, it's probably an easy process but if someone has zero computer know-how I've seen how painful it can be for them to do even basic stuff LOL).

Civilization 2 had a WW2 scenario that I liked. Same with Civ 3.

Check out Hearts of Iron III. Don't know about Mac, but its a good game, I hear.

The Hearts of Iron series is fairly complex, so be forewarned.

Try Silent Storm. Its turn based and should be quite alright for a first timer. It goes without saying that your friend will have to port the game onto his/her mac. As Gerin mentioned, Risk is also another easy to play turn based game. HOI III might be a bit too daunting for a first timer, and its not a a proper turn based game per se, but if your friend does want to experiment with WWII grand strategy games he could start out with HOI II.

Battle Academy (Also available on steam, only posted that link because the steam version doesn't mention mac)

That is exactly what you're looking for, ww2, turn base strategy and it's easy to play.

I am not sure that TB equals less complicated. Anyway, I would suggest Pacific General, it is even on sale this weekend.

If he's looking for a casual game, <span class="bold">Lux Delux</span> might interest him.  It's similar to Risk, but on steroids.  The game is compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac, has a huge community, and comes with over 900 different maps, a random map generator and a bio-hazard mode.  You can play the game in solo or battle with your friends online.  The game is also available on <span class="bold">Steam</span>, <span class="bold">Gamersgate</span> and <span class="bold">Humble Bundle</span>.

This, indeed.

Although it's a bit of a mystery why Slitherine is selling a Mac version while Matrix Games (their parent company whose catalogue is almost the same) doesn't.

Whatever you do, don't get caught in a two-front war...

You can try Unity of Command as it has Mac build and a Mac DEMO. You can get it from HumbleStore

and don't micromanage your generals' plans, they know what they are doing.....Oh, wait...