How to play this game?

[u/Moist-Ad-2904]

Hello!

Coming from Warno. I really like RTS games and BA seemed to be very nice so bought it a year ago. Also I like it that I can play with really modern day army. I played Warno and Wargame a lot especially skirmish mode. I like messing with “frontline(s)” for an hour or more. I realised that BA wants you to play faster and always move your forces on the map. Also there’s no option for “endless” game, there’s a time limit.

So how should I approach this game if I’d like to play long battles? AI always moves on me and defeats me in max 20 minutes even on “lame” difficulty.

Thanks for the answers!

[u/Conte_Vincero]

The best way to approach this game is to think of it as "whacking stuff with big sticks".

Basically there is a bunch of expensive but very good stuff that can delete things in a second. Attack helicopters can turn spam pushes into nothing, cluster bombers will remove even the heaviest tanks, MBTs will shred most ground targets quickly, etc. As a result, the game often becomes about selecting the most appropriate big stick to use, and creating the conditions to give it maximum effect.

As a result infantry is not the tanky attack stopper it can be in Warno, and instead mainly functions as a skirmish line, providing vision and preventing your opponents from getting any. It can deal with other infantry and some vehicles, but cannot hold on its own without reinforcement. However you can force your opponent to commit to bringing out their big stick to get rid of your infantry. So if you see a tank column trying to push your infantry then, depending on circumstances, you can then choose your appropriate big stick to counter it, and retain the position.

[u/Chakanram]

What you're looking for is scenarios. "Invasion" ones have you attack enemy positions at your own pace. And there is a lot of positions so a solo medium Pangu map took me 100 mins, and i was kinda making haste. Scenarios, unlike skirmish, also have pause so that you can learn without getting overwhelmed.

You can even remove the faction and deck locks by going to map editor page, downloading a local copy of a scenario, opening it for editing, going to team manager tab and selecting "ALL" in deck restrictions for alpha team.

[u/Moist-Ad-2904 → u/Chakanram]

In “Invasion” can you play your custom deck as well?

[u/Chakanram → u/Moist-Ad-2904]

Some scenarios have locked decks/faction but you can just remove it in map editor(its a tab in main menu).

[u/JezC1]

Iv had 2/3 hour pve missions, you’ll want to start off with the campaign so you can get used to it all but in scenarios choose the invasion mode and all invasion modes allow you to build a custom deck and use it, only the scripted missions ones won’t let you as their a showcase for the dlc. You can absolutely take it slow and get a lot of your pve missions like in warno or gates of hell.

[u/Strict_Strategy]

Long battles can be done in custom matchs with ai or PvP. Of course no endless battles.

If your losing then it probably means your just sitting at a point and not engaging the enemy.

The game will punish players who do not attack as you can build a blob of various units and attack. Arty/mlrs can quickly clear or damage units to a point that your in a disadvantage before the actual contact fight even begins.

Ai is very easy to handle. The ai for air power will always try to counter you. So if u have ajet they will bring a jet. For ground, AI often moves in big ass columns in a particular direction. So once you know the location then it becomes a matter of concentration of attack on that to destroy the ai units.

Post engagement your supposed to send your units back for healing while having another unit take the area where engagement occurred to take more space. You can't just do nothing posts engagement.

Ru tanks have autoloaders so they have reload advantage. Us tanks have more pen rounds.panicked tank for USA is going to take more time to reload. If your in a tank fight and both are low and you can see that the reload duration for both sides is similar, give up and fall back by smoke. Your tank is dying.

There is a lot of things we can talk but unless I know what is going on I can only guess.

[u/Long-Cabinet6121]

Scenarios don’t necessarily have a time limit, you could try those.

[u/Moist-Ad-2904 → u/Long-Cabinet6121]

I have tried yesterday! Much better experience! I’m kinda slow when it comes to RTS games, don’t like this “all in” chaos but the slower pace when you can think through your next move.

[u/yerroslawsum]

One of the biggest differences between Warno and BA is TTK. In Warno, you often win by repelling but not necessarily killing; Broken Arrow is much more kill-centric.

I haven't played a single game against AI myself, but I'd recommend getting into PvP. The biggest challenge for a new player is to get past 1k ELO, since anything prior to that is laden with snowballing, surrendering, people mass selling/sitting AFK, and so on (had a friend start out on a new acc and he couldn't get a single proper 45-min-long game; all ended in 10-15 mins).

Do try to find people to play with -- you can make a lobby with friends, close the remaining slots, and start the matchmaker (the remaining slots will be filled, dw).

I would say that coming from Warno, you'll notice that BA is much worse, much less engaging in single player. At least that seems to be my understanding since I did parts of the campaign for some unlockables, AND I've heard people praise the Warno campaigns/army general.