Broken Arrow News

We have previously discussed vehicles and helicopters, and it’s now time to shed some light on the oldest weapon platform of them all: the infantryman.

Infantry has a very important role in Broken Arrow because it has the upper hand over vehicles and helicopters in entire sections of the battlefield.

Marine Raiders boarding a CH-53E Super Stallion. This helicopter can contain up to 3 squads of 14 Raiders and lift up to 16t of cargo.

Infantry is inherently a very defensive type of unit: it moves slowly, it is difficult to detect and hard to dislodge from urban, wooded or mountainous terrain.
Attacking infantry with vehicles in these types of terrain is like asking for a beating. It requires intensive indirect fire support for suppression and your own infantry to progress. If enemy artillery starts sticking its nose into this already messy situation it can lead to a long and costly stalemate. So it’s generally advised to move around that kind of defensive position if possible.

The basic infantry squads generally come with a set of rifles, light machine guns and grenade launchers to fight against other infantry squads and they usually carry short range anti tank weapons.

Some Russian infantry weapons (AK-74M, GP-34, PKP, SVD-M, RPG-7, RPG-26, RPO-A Shmel)

More specialized squads carry powerful long range weapons including heavy machine guns, anti tank guided missiles (ATGM) and man portable air defense missiles (MANPAD). These weapons increase both your defensive range and the level of threat you pose, which might force the enemy into dealing with them.

Some American infantry weapons (M4A1, M203, CQBR, M110 SASS, M40A5, M107, Mk16 SCAR-L, M32, AT-4, Carl Gustaf, Javelin)

Recon infantry consists of smaller squads down to 2 men sniper teams which trade firepower for stealth. They also have better observation equipment than line infantry.
They can be used to infiltrate enemy lines to observe troop movements, find valuable enemy support units and provide target designation for artillery and airstrikes to destroy them.
An army without recon is blind and you can’t shoot what you can’t see, so never underestimate the importance of recon squads.

Air assault squad next to the airdroppable “Naparnik” MRAP (K-4386 Typhoon VDV)

Special forces are very versatile units that can be customized to fulfil many roles, ranging from recon teams on steroids, saboteurs able to blow up bridges, silent assassins using suppressed weapons, groups of marksmen using sniper rifles of multiple calibers, to heavy door kickers dedicated to clearing buildings in no time with full auto shotguns and multiple grenade launchers.
Because of that, when you meet enemy special forces for the first time, the nature of their equipment is always a surprise – but never a good one.

[h3]Tactical mobility[/h3]

Infantry on foot is very slow, so if you don’t want your troops to arrive after the battle is over you have to provide them with transport. Each transport method has its advantages and drawbacks.

Ground vehicles are the most common solution, they can be wheeled to move faster on roads or tracked to move faster off road, especially in forests.
They can be basic battle taxis armed with a simple machine gun or grenade launcher, or heavily armed fighting vehicles equipped with autocannons and missiles.

Vehicles are the slowest option but also the most flexible. Once the infantry is unloaded they can easily stay hidden behind some cover to pick up the infantry again if needed. They can also fight alongside infantry and provide fire support during the assault, or long range anti tank support in the open.

Russian VDV

Because infantry is the lightest type of unit, that means they can also be deployed rapidly and in large quantities anywhere on the map using helicopters and planes.

Dropping paratroopers allows you to seize a position super fast but offers very little mobility after the jump. A position held by paratroopers can easily be avoided. Also if things go sour there is no way back.
Russian paratroopers fare better in that regard, as they can be dropped with a large panel of combat vehicles to support them. But every vehicle takes the place of numerous men in the plane, so it’s up to you to find the right balance.

Helicopters are an interesting alternative as they are still much faster than ground vehicles and allow the infantry to redeploy if needed. However it will be hard to land helicopters in the middle of a fight, so you will have to plan ahead.

Marine Raiders deployed on a crest with helicopters
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In our previous dev diary we introduced some of the mechanics related to ground combat vehicles. Let’s rise above all this fighting in the mud and focus on a more elevated subject: helicopters.
Helicopters are like cavalry units, they are fast, can pack a lot of punch but are not very resilient. They can have very different profiles depending on their armaments and sensors, which can be customized.
For each pylon you can choose what kind of weapon you want to attach, or simply leave it empty to deploy the helicopter more cheaply.

Unit preview #1: Ka-52 Alligator and AH-64D Apache

Whenever possible, other elements can be customized, such as additional countermeasures, or the longbow radar on the AH-64.

Unit preview #2: AH-64D Apache with longbow radars

[h3]Attack Helicopters[/h3]
The most dangerous machines, they can perform different tasks.
Attack helicopters can be equipped with advanced weaponry: missiles can engage tanks at very long range; volleys of rockets can suppress infantry and destroy light vehicles in seconds; guns provide more sustained fire power.
They can carry anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down other helicopters and fight off planes.
When equipped with the right sensors, attack helicopters can also perform reconnaissance missions.
Some attack helicopters, like the Mi-24 and its latest evolution the Mi-35M, have the ability to transport one squad of infantry, even if that’s not their primary role.

The big downside of all helicopters is the limited amount of ammunition they can carry. They need to land to resupply, leaving them very vulnerable to artillery fire.

[h3]Transport Helicopters[/h3]
They can be of various sizes, from the tiny MH-6 little bird that can only transport a few men to the most powerful beasts like the CH-47 Chinook, or the giant Russian Mi-26. This last one can transport multiple squads of infantry at once, supplies and even sling load vehicles across the battlefield.

Unit preview #3: CH-47 Chinook can carry up to 4 squads of infantry and lift vehicles and supplies.

[h3]SHORAD[/h3]
SHORAD stands for short range air defense. These vehicles are the bane of helicopters with their guns and/or missiles.

Unit preview #4: Pantsir S1 anti-air system is armed with 12 ready to fire missiles and 2x 30mm cannons.

Even though they are very deadly to helicopters, they don’t have the same mobility: it’s a game of cat and mouse to avoid enemy anti-aircraft units.

To avoid them, helicopters have the ability to fly “nap of the earth”: they reduce their altitude to hide behind the terrain. This maneuver allows them to avoid being detected, and breaks the line of sight if targeted. The downside is that at such low altitude their flight speed is reduced; this makes them more vulnerable to other threats, such as ground vehicles and infantry.

As a last resort, helicopters equipped with counter-measures can drop them to try to lure missiles away; keep in mind that there’s a limited amount of use and there is nothing you can do against a 30mm shell already flying your way.

Unit preview #5: Nap of the Earth flight

[h3]Pick the right unit, and use it the right way[/h3]
It might look like a rock-paper-scissors system where helicopters hunt tanks, anti-aircraft hunt helicopters and tanks hunt anti-aircraft, but Broken Arrow is not a game of hard counter. The right unit used the wrong way can swiftly be destroyed by what it was supposed to be hunting.

For instance, many tanks have machine guns on the roof. They do not match helicopters’ weaponry but flying over a platoon of tanks that are hiding in a forest will probably get your helicopter killed even if it has 16 Hellfire missiles on board. And if a tank meets with the double fast firing 30mm gun of a Pantsir at close range, chances are the tank will be stripped of all its external sensors, making it inoperable.

[h3]Asymmetric Gameplay[/h3]
The units in Broken Arrow are based on real military equipment, which means that each nation in the game will have its own gameplay style based on the actual vehicles and armaments used by said nation in real life.

For instance, US and Russian doctrines about helicopters are very different, leading to the development of very different equipment. The USA tends to have lighter helicopters but with better sensors, while Russia has heavily armed transports.


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Since announcing Broken Arrow during Home of Wargamers Live+, we have received lots of questions and comments: we’re humbled by your interest, and we’re keen to share more of our development progress. In this first development diary, we bring you a sneak peek on how ground combat vehicles work in Broken Arrow.

T-14 ARMATA versus M1A2 ABRAM

[h3]The chassis[/h3]
The most fundamental part of a vehicle is the chassis. It gives the vehicle its mobility thanks to its engine and propulsion system and is generally either wheeled or tracked. The chassis affects acceleration and the maximum speed that can be reached across different terrain. It will also determine if the unit is amphibious or not, if it can be airlifted by helicopters, deployed by planes and so on.

[h3]Weaponry[/h3]
The weapons carried by the chassis will determine which kind of target a vehicle can attack. Some are better against infantry, some are dedicated to the destruction of vehicles or aircraft, but most importantly it is possible to customize these weapons.

For instance the Stryker APC is equipped with a remote weapon station (RWS) that can carry a M240 medium machine gun, an M2 browning HMG, or a Mk19 grenade launcher.

But that’s not all, smoke grenades can also be fitted on the RWS as well as Javelin missiles.

Stryker ICV with various weapons ranging from a simple M2 browning that can be upgraded with extra smoke grenade discharger and a Javelin missile to a 30mm autocannon.

[h3]Armor[/h3]
The chassis also defines the armor of the vehicle. The armor is different for the front, the sides, the rear and the top of a vehicle.

Armor allows vehicles to take less damage from projectiles with a penetration value inferior to the armor. If the penetration value of your weapon is too low compared to the armor of the target, your units will not even shoot. This is to save ammunition and avoid being spotted unnecessarily.

The armor of tanks is strongest at the front. So it is generally best to target either their exposed side armor or even better, their almost non-existent rear armor.

The armor value varies depending on whether the projectile is using kinetic energy (KE) or chemical energy (CE).

[h3]Kinetic energy weapons[/h3]

The most common firearms, like machine guns, use kinetic energy to pierce through armor. This energy is gained by accelerating a projectile with an explosion inside the gun and is released when hitting the target. Part of this energy is also lost in flight due to air drag so the further away your target, the less damage you will cause. If the armor of your target is too thick to shoot at maximum range try to get closer to gain more penetration.

The APFSDS shells (Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot) fired by tanks at each other are the most powerful kinetic energy weapons carried by ground units.

[h3]Chemical energy weapons[/h3]

The second method to pierce through armor is chemical energy. Here the principle is to transfer a lot of heat to the armor to melt it. The main family of weapons using chemical energy are called HEAT (High-explosive Anti-Tank). They emit a concentrated jet of metal in fusion against the armor.

This type of ammunition has the big advantage of not being dependent on the speed of the projectile. For that reason it is widely used in grenades, missiles and submunitions. Their lower weight is the reason why infantry anti-tank capabilities almost exclusively rely on chemical energy.

M1A2 Abrams with various armor packages and the Trophy active protection system

[h3]Upgrade your defense[/h3]

As we’ve seen, HEAT projectiles are widely used and can be carried by infantry. That makes using vehicles in close quarters combat very risky. To compensate for that, several defensive upgrades can be installed on vehicles:

• Slat armor can be placed around the whole vehicle or on the most sensitive parts. It consists of a cage of metal bars that will damage or prematurely detonate the HEAT charge and partially protect the vehicle. This type of armor is totally ineffective against KE projectiles.
  
• Explosive reactive armor (ERA) can be fitted around vehicles as well. The principle is to create an extra layer of armor sitting on an explosive charge that will be ejected against the incoming projectile when the explosive charge is hit. This is very efficient against HEAT but not so much against KE projectiles.
  
• Active protection systems use mini radars to detect incoming projectiles and shoot them in the air with an explosive charge or another projectile. They are perfectly efficient against CE projectiles but also moderately efficient against KE projectiles. Their downside is that they have a limited amount of charges and must reload after each interception, so they can be saturated.
  

M2 Bradley in its most basic A2 version and A3 version with BUSK armor package.

[h3]Counter the counter![/h3]
One more thing to consider with chemical energy weapons - Extra armor weighs a lot and diminishes a vehicle’s mobility so it cannot be placed everywhere. The top armor of a vehicle is generally the weakest so that’s where top attack missiles try to hit. Instead of going straight for their target, they first gain altitude, to attack their target from above.

Infantry using tall buildings will be an even greater threat to vehicles, for similar reasons.

[h3]Join our Discord server[/h3]
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Click on the thumbnails below to download the hi-res screenshots.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1604270/Broken_Arrow/

Broken Arrow is one of the games we announced last week during Home of Wargamers Live+. During the event, Félix Habert, Creative Director at Steel Balalaika, was invited on the show to introduce the game to the big audience together with Marco Minoli, our Marketing Director.

Broken Arrow is a large-scale real-time modern warfare tactics game. It features American and Russian factions, more than 100 units and multiple deck specialisations per nation. The game 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.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

During the live event, Marco and Félix discussed the behind-the-scenes of the project that was first started by a Russian gaming community and led to an international development team. Broken Arrow combines the complexity and depth of a wargame with the excitement and looks of an action game. During the interview some other important topics were explored, such as combined arms and the army building system, the main challenges of real-time tactics, units and the game customization system.

Did you miss the reveal interview? Have a look at this video:

https://youtu.be/cs5rYt3OeoY

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1604270/Broken_Arrow/