RTS Broken Arrow - Modern USA vs Russia RTT

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

ABOUT THIS GAME​

Broken Arrow is a large-scale real-time modern warfare tactics game. The base game features both the American and Russian factions, more than 100 units and multiple deck specialisations per nation.
Broken Arrow brings the genre to a whole new level by combining the complexity of a joint-forces wargame with the typical real-time tactics action-packed gameplay.

UNIQUE ARMY BUILDING​

Build your army deck by choosing from over 200 different units. Part of the battle is won by planning well: create the right combination of unit types and weapons to defeat your enemy, and don’t forget to consider the terrain when you choose.

Broken Arrow features a wide range of units, that are split into seven categories based on their characteristics: your army deck includes recon units, infantry, fighting vehicles, support units, logistical units, helicopters and airstrikes slots.

• RECON UNITS: includes infantry, vehicles and drones specialized in the task of spotting and marking the enemy position.
• INFANTRY: includes line infantry, shock troops, special forces, anti-tank teams, anti-aircraft teams.
• FIGHTING VEHICLES: includes tanks, ATGM carriers and fire support vehicles.
• SUPPORT: includes artillery and anti-aircraft vehicles that provide long range support on the battlefield.
• LOGISTICS:, includes all the units designed to improve combat efficiency by providing ammunition, repairs, medical supplies and much more.
• HELICOPTERS: includes multipurpose cavalry units best used far from the heatpoints.
• AIRSTRIKES: includes many different weapons, swarms of tactical missiles and airdrops of troops, vehicles and supplies.

CUSTOM UNITS​

Modern vehicles and aircraft are generally compatible with different weapons and armor packages; Broken Arrow features a detailed customisation system that allows you to modify the specific components of your units, either individually or as a loadout.

• Customize your aircraft by choosing weapons, fuel tanks, designation pods, countermeasure pods and decoys.
• Add armor or defensive systems to your vehicles and upgrade their weaponry and sensors.
• Special forces have access to a wide variety of equipment for you to choose: add suppressors, thermal optics, reconnaissance drones, explosive charges and much more.

ACTION-PACKED COMBAT​

Choose the right combination of units from your deck and deploy them to the battlefield, via land, the sea or from the air. Use paratroopers and helicopters to rapidly seize key locations, reinforce them with heavy tanks and break enemy counter attacks with artillery and tactical missiles.

Infiltrate special forces behind enemy lines to disrupt enemy logistics and provide laser designation for your planes. Use the terrain to your advantage to ambush, out flank and outsmart your enemy.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

This was supposed to come out a while ago but the devs held it back due to war in Ukraine. It was also supposed to show "modern Russian army" with Armatas, Terminators and such. I wonder if they are going to stick to that theme :D

Anyway, the game could be good, will be watching it with interest.

 

[Victor1234]

Looks good indeed, but Slitherine....and then the most overused mechanic in these kinds of games, recycled again and again from Steel Panthers (1995):

UNIQUE ARMY BUILDING​

Build your army deck by choosing from over 200 different units.

Spoiler

Enough with the decks. It's not Magic the Gathering.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

what is that ww2 version? Different game?

edit 1: oh yeah, I thnk so..is that steel division II?

edit 2: thanks, I see you guys replied...

 

[Victor1234]

what is that ww2 version? Different game?

Steel Division 2. Same kind of game, also using deck building mechanics.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

WW2 version is Steel Division IIRC (WW2 version of Wargame that is).

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Some gameplay videos:

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

yeah I tried steel division II but did not really like it...I do like regiments though.

 

[Modron]

This is going to have a demo tomorrow as part of the next fest.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

All these Wargame clones, is this like EA "We will use Frostbite for everything" situation.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Downloading the demo right now, will post impressions later.

 

[Gaznak]

I hope the meteorological balloons will be introduced ASAP in the first DLC.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I have a 3080 10 GB w/12700k and 32GB Ram and this game is blowing my computer up..lol

 

[cigaretteEnjoyer_despirit]

It would not hurt them to desynchronize infantry animations. That was a feature since Rome 1 at least.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Wew lads, this game sure could use some optimisation - the loading times are dangerously approaching the Battletech teritory.

The game itself is surprisingly good. It is much more micro oriented than for example Regiments, as the infrantry squads operate separately from their transports, also buildings are fully simulated (unlike in Regiments and most Wargame-likes) so the gameplay is closer to Combat Mission series in some aspects. AI is fairly competent and the mission in the demo is p. hard and well designed.

Unit selection works like in most Wargame-likes, you buy units from the selection for points. Units arrive from deployment points that you have available (usually one map corner). Some units are amphibious, which opens up plenty of tactical options. I like what I see so far.

 

[Stavrophore]

Isnt it reskinned wargame red dragon?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Isnt it reskinned wargame dragon?

does not seem like it to me, but I could be wrong.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Wew lads, this game sure could use some optimisation - the loading times are dangerously approaching the Battletech teritory.

The game itself is surprisingly good. It is much more micro oriented than for example Regiments, as the infrantry squads operate separately from their transports, also buildings are fully simulated (unlike in Regiments and most Wargame-likes) so the gameplay is closer to Combat Mission series in some aspects. AI is fairly competent and the mission in the demo is p. hard and well designed.

Unit selection works like in most Wargame-likes, you buy units from the selection for points. Units arrive from deployment points that you have available (usually one map corner). Some units are amphibious, which opens up plenty of tactical options. I like what I see so far.

yes gameplay was pretty good, I did not have trouble with loading times but my video card was getting way too hot, even when I turned some of the options down to 'medium'.. I also have de-volted (or whatever you call it) my videocard and it still was getting very hot, so I stopped playing. But the game play seemed very inclince.

 

[JarlFrank]

what is that ww2 version? Different game?

Steel Division 2. Same kind of game, also using deck building mechanics.

You know what I hate the most about Steel Division 2's deck mechanics?

That they kind of play a role in the campaign too.
You move armies around in an operational layer, but when it zooms in to have a battle you are still restricted by the artificial deck mechanics. Sure it's a lot more generous with points and units costs than the skirmishes, but still... I just moved 3 infantry regiments into the area, why do I have to pay 1 "point" for each infantry squad I drop onto the map?
And why are the heavy tanks and fighter planes restricted to "Phase B"? What does that even mean in the context of the operational layer?

Graviteam Tactics does it better. Sadly their interface sucks rat ass.

 

[Victor1234]

what is that ww2 version? Different game?

Steel Division 2. Same kind of game, also using deck building mechanics.

You know what I hate the most about Steel Division 2's deck mechanics?

That they kind of play a role in the campaign too.
You move armies around in an operational layer, but when it zooms in to have a battle you are still restricted by the artificial deck mechanics. Sure it's a lot more generous with points and units costs than the skirmishes, but still... I just moved 3 infantry regiments into the area, why do I have to pay 1 "point" for each infantry squad I drop onto the map?
And why are the heavy tanks and fighter planes restricted to "Phase B"? What does that even mean in the context of the operational layer?

Graviteam Tactics does it better. Sadly their interface sucks rat ass.

Agreed on both, so many great games (like Graviteam Tactics too) are held back by interface or graphics or bugs. Seems like there should be a third-party polishing service for the non-AAA game devs, to turn promising games into diamonds but not touch the gameplay, just iron out wrinkles.

I think it was also recently I posted about similar problems with Order of Battle. Great Panzer General type fun, play through linked scenarios and carry over your troops. Easy execution, PG did it easily and logically in 1994. Except in OOB for some reason, they 'carry over' as blueprints. You have to buy all of your veteran units again and pay extra for their experience, which is the whole point of carrying them over!! Because gameplay. The end result, since you never have enough points, is half of your veterans from the previous campaign never get into the next one.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

what is that ww2 version? Different game?

Steel Division 2. Same kind of game, also using deck building mechanics.

You know what I hate the most about Steel Division 2's deck mechanics?

That they kind of play a role in the campaign too.
You move armies around in an operational layer, but when it zooms in to have a battle you are still restricted by the artificial deck mechanics. Sure it's a lot more generous with points and units costs than the skirmishes, but still... I just moved 3 infantry regiments into the area, why do I have to pay 1 "point" for each infantry squad I drop onto the map?
And why are the heavy tanks and fighter planes restricted to "Phase B"? What does that even mean in the context of the operational layer?

Graviteam Tactics does it better. Sadly their interface sucks rat ass.

Agreed on both, so many great games (like Graviteam Tactics too) are held back by interface or graphics or bugs. Seems like there should be a third-party polishing service for the non-AAA game devs, to turn promising games into diamonds but not touch the gameplay, just iron out wrinkles.

I think it was also recently I posted about similar problems with Order of Battle. Great Panzer General type fun, play through linked scenarios and carry over your troops. Easy execution, PG did it easily and logically in 1994. Except in OOB for some reason, they 'carry over' as blueprints. You have to buy all of your veteran units again and pay extra for their experience, which is the whole point of carrying them over!! Because gameplay. The end result, since you never have enough points, is half of your veterans from the previous campaign never get into the next one.

I think OOB does that to make it harder to build up 'doom stacks' (even though there is no stacking), its super expensive to buy back your very experienced high level units, I think they are trying to stop the rollover effect the longer campaigns can have where you just build up all 5 star units across the board by the 1st third of the game. If they slow experience point gains down too much then buying new units and losing units is too punishing and creates a scenario where losing any experienced unit can't be tolerated. So instead they made it very expensive to transfer experienced units, especially the expensive units like heavy artillery and tanks which cost a ton to transfer over. I think they are trying to force you to have to mix in some more green units etc..I understand why they did it, but yes its impossible to ever really afford your entire experienced army in carryover. At least I have never been able to do it..I have a bunch of units in every category I think I have never bought back.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Finaly completed the demo mission. It was loooooong and hard as fuck. If the whole SP campaing will be like this, it will be a blast.

One think I am not to sure about is aircraft combat (the demo mission has an aircraft only segment) - this requires p. insane amount of micro, as the airplanes dont launch countermeassures on their own and you need to do it manualy. The thing that didnt help is that the demo simply throws you into air combat without explaining anything, but it would be a huge clusterfuck even with an advanced warning. Using both helis and aircraft in a ground support role is extremely difficult too, since the map is awash with AA units - guess that much is to me expected on the modern battlefield, but damn bro, thats some massive micro you have to do and you will probably fail anyway and get shot down in a few seconds.

The game indeed has all the modern stuff, even cruise missiles launched from ships (and let me tell you it is satisfying as much as the balistic missile strikes in the Regiments). I find that playing with 0.5 time slowdown as highly recommended due to how chaotic and hectic things get in combat.

Graphics are OK when you zoom in:

However due to the nature of the genre you will rarely have time to admire the scenery. In any case, good shit! Together with Regiments this is a very pleasant surprise in the genre and well worthy of your attention.

 

[AwesomeButton]

This was supposed to come out a while ago but the devs held it back due to war in Ukraine. It was also supposed to show "modern Russian army" with Armatas, Terminators and such. I wonder if they are going to stick to that theme :D

Anyway, the game could be good, will be watching it with interest.

Wait for the Wunderwaffen DLC.

 

[karoliner]

Is like a World in Conflict + Steel Division 2 hybrid

 

[Luka-boy]

Definitely on my radar.

Not a huge fan of deck building but the gameplay tickles my fancy.

And was getting some Cold War era fatigue. It's nice seeing some current day hardware.