In a genre dominated by Cold War nostalgia, one game dared to drag real-time strategy warfare into the 21st century—and the battlefield has never been the same. Welcome to Broken Arrow, where modern military technology meets deep tactical gameplay in the most ambitious warfare simulation of 2025. If you’re looking for more gaming recommendations, check out our guide to the best GameCube games or explore the best 3DS games for classic gaming experiences.
A New Era of Tactical Warfare
Broken Arrow is a large-scale real-time modern warfare tactics game that combines the complexity of joint-forces wargaming with action-packed real-time tactics gameplay, and it’s already making waves as one of the year’s most anticipated strategy titles. Released on June 19, 2025, exclusively for Microsoft Windows via Steam, this Steel Balalaika creation published by Slitherine isn’t just another entry in the crowded RTS space—it’s a genre-defining experience.
What makes Broken Arrow truly special? While competing titles are set during the Cold War, Broken Arrow thrusts players into 21st-century warfare, bringing with it all the tactical complexity that modern military technology demands. This isn’t just aesthetic window dressing—it’s a deliberate design choice that fundamentally transforms how battles unfold.
The Arsenal: Over 300 Units, 1,500+ Combinations
With over 300 units and more than 1,500 possible combinations, you can tailor your forces to match your playstyle. But here’s where Broken Arrow separates itself from the pack: every single unit can be customized and modified to suit your strategic vision.
Modify vehicles and aircraft with different weapons, armor packages, and support systems to gain the upper hand on the battlefield. Want your Bradley Fighting Vehicles equipped with TOW missiles for anti-armor work? Done. Prefer a different loadout for urban combat? You’ve got it. This level of granular control transforms army building from simple unit selection into an art form.
The game features two powerhouse factions:
United States Forces – Based on United States Marine Corps Marine air-ground task force, U.S. Army’s Armored, Airborne and Stryker Brigade Combat Teams and US Special Operations Forces
Russian Federation – Russian units are based on Airborne Forces (VDV), Mechanized Infantry (Motostrelki), Naval Infantry (Morskaya Pekhota), Spetsnaz and other Russian military units
Balance between factions seems solid with a current 48-52% win rate between them, which is remarkably close for a launch game given how asymmetric the factions are.
Six Strategic Roles, Infinite Possibilities
Victory begins with meticulous planning. Broken Arrow offers a diverse range of units categorized into six key roles:
Recon Units – The eyes of your army, specialized in spotting and marking enemy positions. In modern warfare, information is power, and these units give you the intelligence edge needed to outmaneuver opponents.
Infantry – Infantry can garrison buildings to gain stealth and protection, turning urban environments into deadly defensive strongpoints.
Armor – Main battle tanks and armored fighting vehicles that form the steel fist of your assault forces.
Artillery – Long-range firepower for suppression, area denial, and devastating strikes on concentrated enemy positions.
Air Support – From close air support to interceptors, dominating the skies can turn the tide of any battle.
Anti-Air – Essential protection against enemy aircraft and helicopters that would otherwise wreak havoc on ground forces.
The Deck-Building System That Changes Everything
Players build and customize armies that fit their playing style around specializations like airborne, armor, or marines. This deck-building mechanic, borrowed from tabletop wargaming, is where Broken Arrow’s strategic depth truly shines.
Each unit is assigned a point value which players can spend and recycle. During gameplay, points can be earned by eliminating enemy units, recycling existing units (sending units back to base), and by staying in the game over time. This resource management system creates fascinating tactical choices: Do you commit your expensive heavy armor early, or conserve points for a devastating late-game push?
When customizing and upgrading, units become more expensive and resource dependent, forcing you to balance raw power against economic efficiency. It’s a delicate dance that rewards both aggressive play and patient positioning.
A Gripping Campaign with Dual Perspectives
Experience a gripping narrative-driven campaign featuring 19 handcrafted missions set in the Baltic region, played from both the United States and Russian perspectives. This dual-perspective approach doesn’t just add replay value—it provides genuine insight into how different military doctrines approach the same battlefield challenges.
Each mission presents escalating tactical scenarios that force you to master different aspects of combined arms warfare. From defensive holding actions with limited forces to massive combined-arms offensives, the campaign serves as both an engaging story and a comprehensive tutorial for multiplayer dominance.
Why Broken Arrow Stands Apart
Broken Arrow is comparable to World in Conflict and Wargame. Fast time-to-kill, no base building, but intense strategic options in real time on the frontline. But what truly sets it apart is accessibility without sacrificing depth.
By focusing on a more limited unit roster and smaller-scale story missions before turning players loose on skirmish and multiplayer, the game is much more approachable and accessible than its competitors. This doesn’t mean it’s easier—just that the learning curve has actual footholds instead of being a sheer cliff face. If you enjoy strategic challenges, you might also like idle games which offer a different pace of strategic thinking.
The quality of your thoughts matters more than your actions. It’s about strategy, not who clicks the quickest. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the breakneck pace of traditional RTS games like StarCraft or Age of Empires, Broken Arrow offers a refreshing alternative where tactical positioning and smart decision-making trump rapid clicking. For quick gaming sessions between strategic battles, try some car games unblocked or unblocked games 6x.
The Multiplayer Experience
The PvP is unlike any other RTS game since most of the time rounds stay interesting and challenging from beginning to end. The system allows for quick turns of events which require attention until you see the victory screen.
Here’s something remarkable: The losing side most of the time still has a chance to win, which keeps players in the battle. Early ragequits have been extremely rare. In a genre notorious for snowballing victories and early surrenders, this comeback potential keeps every match tense and engaging until the final moment.
When Broken Arrow launched, there were about 32,000 players online, with about 1,000 actively in multiplayer matches—impressive numbers that demonstrate the game’s immediate appeal and strong multiplayer foundation.
Beyond Battles: The Scenario Editor
Unleash your creativity with the powerful Scenario Editor, the same tool used to craft the game’s missions. Design custom scenarios complete with cutscenes and dialogue using a visual scripting system—no coding required.
This isn’t some stripped-down community tool—it’s the actual mission editor the developers used. Share your creations with the community via the Steam Workshop or download content to experience endless user-generated battles. The potential for community-created campaigns, competitive scenarios, and experimental game modes is virtually limitless.
Technical Excellence Meets Strategic Depth
Units follow orders, path correctly and behave as you’d expect, which might sound basic but is absolutely critical in a game where positioning and timing determine victory. There’s nothing more frustrating than losing a battle because your units decided to take a scenic route through enemy fire.
The graphics strike an excellent balance between visual fidelity and performance. Modern military hardware looks authentic and detailed without requiring a supercomputer to run. From the distinctive silhouette of an A-10 Warthog to the menacing presence of Russian T-90 tanks, every unit is immediately recognizable and beautifully rendered.
The Learning Curve: Challenging but Rewarding
Easy to learn, hard to master, but rewarding as hell when you know you won because you were the smarter one. This perfectly encapsulates the Broken Arrow experience.
These games are targeted squarely at military enthusiasts. Broken Arrow fully expects you to know the difference between a HEAT missile and a HARM missile, but it doesn’t throw you in the deep end immediately. The campaign missions gradually introduce concepts, unit types, and tactical principles in digestible chunks.
By limiting its starting combatants to just the USA and Russia and their key unit types, Broken Arrow makes the whole thing much more digestible than competitors with 1,000+ unit rosters. You can actually learn what each unit does and how to use it effectively without needing a PhD in military hardware.
Game Modes for Every Commander
Campaign Mode – 19 story-driven missions with escalating difficulty and dual perspectives
Skirmish Mode – Engage against AI on 19 maps based on real-life locations, choosing your favorite specializations and difficulty levels
Multiplayer – Competitive battles where every decision matters and comebacks are always possible
Scenario Editor – Create and share custom battles with the community
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The Verdict: A Genre-Defining Experience
Broken Arrow is not a perfect game, but in its genre, it is the new undisputable king. It successfully bridges the gap between hardcore military simulation and accessible real-time strategy, creating something that appeals to veterans and newcomers alike.
If Broken Arrow offers a path to growing the playerbase, then it could be the most welcome addition to the genre we’ve seen. It’s not trying to replace games like Wargame or WARNO—it’s creating space for players who’ve always wanted to try these games but found the barrier to entry too steep.
The modern setting brings fresh tactical challenges. The deck-building system offers incredible depth. The comeback mechanics keep matches exciting until the final second. The Scenario Editor ensures unlimited content. And perhaps most importantly, the game respects your intelligence without overwhelming you with information.
Room for Growth
Let’s be honest: Campaign missions can sometimes break from either scripting errors or AI issues, and with no save functionality these are highly annoying. The launch wasn’t perfectly smooth, and some technical rough edges remain.
But here’s the thing about Broken Arrow—it’s not trying to be perfect out of the gate. It’s building a foundation for long-term evolution. With community feedback, regular updates, and the inevitable addition of more factions and units, this game has the potential to dominate the tactical RTS space for years to come.
Your Command Awaits
Whether you’re a strategy veteran looking for your next obsession or a curious newcomer who’s always wondered what modern military tactics games are all about, Broken Arrow delivers. It’s the rare game that makes you feel like an actual battlefield commander, where your decisions have weight and consequences ripple across the entire battlespace.
The gameplay is deep, polished, and very satisfying—it feels like the combat all works as it should. Every unit serves a purpose. Every tactic has a counter. Every battle tells a story.
The modern warfare revolution is here. The question isn’t whether you should play Broken Arrow—it’s which faction you’ll command first when you step onto the battlefield. And if you’re searching for gifts for gamers in your life, Broken Arrow makes an excellent addition to any strategy enthusiast’s library. For puzzle lovers in your gaming group, consider our Connections hint guide or explore classic games like the Tapple game for variety.
Game at a Glance:
- Developer: Steel Balalaika
- Publisher: Slitherine Ltd.
- Release Date: June 19, 2025
- Platform: PC (Steam)
- Units: 300+ with 1,500+ combinations
- Factions: United States, Russian Federation
- Campaign: 19 missions (dual perspective)
- Multiplayer: Yes, with competitive matchmaking
- Scenario Editor: Full-featured with Steam Workshop support
Welcome to the future of tactical warfare. Welcome to Broken Arrow.
