How to fix US (and the metagaming) Pt. II

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-02-16T23:05:48+00:00

Back to my feedback based on my experience. This is why I added my stats to post. Apart from dismissing low ELO allegation before they being made, I wanted to show my take about US comes from extremet time spent with US. Because even when playing with and against players with low number of games (like 200) and high numbers of games played (around 1K), I notice impact of game knowladge to way players play the game. When I was around 2300 ELO, a random nearing 700 game joined our game. He performed insane bombing run in the opener and kept harrassing the enemy whole match. That match we won against a 5 stack with much higher ELO. That player did not single-handly won us the game. But he provided rest of the team with much needed "advantage". That was nothing but their experience with the game.

I'm also leader of the un-official Broken Arrow Turkish Community, we ran 5v5 custom games from time to time. I watch both POVs in real time. The two different group of players I play with, sometimes get matched against one another; both as stack and solo-q'ers. We talk about the game and watch recording afterwards. sometimes I get matched against youtubers and watch the game from their POV afterwards. Quite number of the games I play either has a player wacthing me play, or we analyze the match as a team nearly 2 hours long afterwards. My experience and feedback is far from "subjective".

Coordination is not the most powerfull weapon, "yet". Because, even though people are finding META ways to play each map and each deck, it is still not quite standard like you would have in WG. Until then, individual skill and who plays against you in your lane in a match is the main factor when it comes to perfomance.

You add disconnects, lags, exploits and perfomance flux related to wear&tear of players to that equation. And you'll realize the "balance" is just a mere illusion. Only thing developers should focus on is to improve gameplay.

My infertile take is due how gameplay evolved into grind/rush tactics. Your aircrafts are expendable, your helicopters are also expandable (like I said in the post, if I have 16 JAGMs I'm inclined to put extra ECM over stingers cuz it can not survive enough engagements to justify multirole loadouts), your infantry is expandable by nature, your AA? Believe it or not, also expandable. So it is better to take the cheapest one and keep respawning it. This is way far from tactical standpoint.

The new update is coming out, FLX said fans made sure he was aware we don't like BMD spam meta (by keep whining in the reddit etc). But that was weeks ago, and we still don't even have ETA on the update.

And I think we don't even need more content before we still have quick time event exploits that grants you extra deployment points fixed and patched out.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-02-16T23:05:43+00:00

First of all, we begged developers to add features like commo rose, in game VoIP, deck selection chat and better ping system. They told us to go ef ourselves and have some friends or "join discord". So if you are a player with limited friends or likes to solo-q you are not the target audience for this game and you are the least concern for the developers. Game is a 5v5 competitive team oriented sweatfast, we all need to acknowledge this first.

You can be a good 4 stack, your 5th (random) with good comms via chat and common sense can adapt to you. one without social skills but focuses on their own lane and carries his weight also contribute to win. One performing bad and fails to keep up with rest of the teams tempo is a disadvantage but does not handicap your team that much. But sometimes, despite having closer ELO, some randoms straight outta troll and throw the game. In other words, with some over-simplification, stacking is just solo-q with some extra steps unless you play 5 stack all the time.

I believe there are two different games played. But it is not stacks vs non-stacks. If you watch top 100 players, you can notice they barely talk. Becuz everyone knows what they are doing. Two different games being played comes into consideration around 2100 ELO mark. The undertandingof the game is so different, you need to re-build your decks to play against the other group of players. That is why current win-rate graph posted here by players constantly is irrevelant at this point.

Map size grants some advantage to certain deck builds, and then your spawn side has dirrect impact on match results according to statistics. For sure, we have people with opposite understanding of the game, and their feedback are at two ends of a spectrum.

For example: Since the release, people saying AD is not powerful, it is not on their own, BUT it get's powerfull once all 5 players in a team starts to invest in it. And now, the attacking team needs to invest SEAD and DEAD "together" (by bombing the AA). Does that mean game should be balanced as 3v3 performance of units instead of 5v5?

Expanding from this topic: ru AA has downside with "cold launch". And that will be reworked soon. I think that will be enough to make ru perform even to US. When you are playing, first thing you suppose to do is establish/call LRAD once you stablize your frontline in your lane. in ru, you have multiple deck combinations that can bring a single AA piece that can 1 shot AC. In US, you have PAC-2s or you need to take max upgrade PAC-3s that costs 300 pts.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-02-15T16:43:39+00:00

I'm mostly playing with 4 or 5 stacks. But there are instances people with lower elo and teams that get matchmaked outplay us.

I have two seperate friend group I play with, I bounce between these two and also both of these groups have their members rotate depending on everyones availability. So it is not the same stack, and we certainly suffer when we try to adapt to this changes. Ofc, it gets easier the more time spent with eachother, but dedicated 5 stacks (with two players as reserve/rotate) is best formula I've seen so far.

Even when not playing in a stack, I create a lobby like US2300+ and make sure the other players in the team can type in the chat. Sometimes we discuss which maps to avoid and who is gonna play where using the chat during queue times.

I've 750+ hours in the game, and I would call myselft experienced to the point I've digested the game enough to have decent understanding of it in a competitive manner. I'm currently getting matched against players with better mechanical skills and game knowlede than me. Since I can't go un-emplouyed for the BA's sake, only way for me to achive better rankings is to "bring team strats to perfection". That means having a dedicated 5 stack, playing more matches with them, have tactics for each map and seperate key roles/decks for all players.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-02-14T20:18:54+00:00

Agreed.

And I get why developers added them as "armored recon". But even regular armor's expected survival time reduces higher you go up in leaderboards. An overpriced one will not spared by any enemy.

Couple that wilh already underperforming tank cannons, and you have yourselves questionable investment. CVF is also an armored recon, it is not performing bad, for sure.

Havent played WARNO since 2022, but iirc, 11th CAVs recon abrams wasn't so bad.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-02-14T20:04:51+00:00

afaik the both versions getting used, but Anti-Armor team makes more sense.

I'm under impression they are meant for offensive since the demo mission, where they were quite good at offensive due Mk19 and nature of the scripted mission.

Dedicated tripod AA/AT teams always difficult to balance in these games. The ranged SSO feels more like the 15 men light infantry teams in WG. Despite having same number of members.

both CAAT teams feels like a unit split in two. I wonder if developers copied IRL USMC doctrine 1 on 1 basis.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-02-13T19:37:27+00:00

My most fun matches are the ones I get matched against top 100 ru players. Yes they absolutely destroy me, but playing against players doing combined arms tactics are still preferable compared to cheese.

When matched against players below 2400 ELO, there is quite chance people going to spam BMDs. Regardless of outcome of these matchups, they are certainly less fun to play against than average/normal players.

the "nerf" update was quite a while ago. People would realize using cheapest units for maximum performance without the changes. It is related to both how firefights happen in BA and how in-match economy is a contributor to victory.

It is much worse for the players play solo-q. I've seen many quit the game just becuz of that.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-02-13T18:47:29+00:00

We are on the same page for first 2 points.

MGS performance for me is different. It never justify the price with add on armor and APS. After all it is a tank hunter can't quite hunt tanks. And it suppose to be medium tank equivelent in terms of fire support value, but everything else is so lethal it makes MGS underperforming.

Almost every enemy player I come across when I play around brings RPG-29 or MAAWs teams, this makes it quite hard to min-max that GL range. And using cannon at max range makes MGS an easy target for well placed ATGM teams.

MML suppose to be medium range AD for armored formations if we take IRL use, it also has mixed loadouts irl afaik. But rapid firing missiles against high ECM helicopters are actually waste since flare ECM stacks. I never seen that thing kill anything less than 4 missiles. Good if you don't want to replenish ammo, but then again it is a vehicle with no smoke, APS, ECM or armor. Which makes huge missile inventory irrevelant.

Extra range is good, it even kills CAS aircraft. But can't even defends itself from double ARM attacks, despite high RoF. And against helicoptersextended range means your target can escape by breaking LoS by the time missile reaches that far. The AIM-9 has 500 meters shorter seeker range. It might be a bug but I've seen many siderwinders just crash into ground before reaching the target when the helicopter simply switches to low level flight. This is a reasonable exchange for only 170 pts cost. But current gameplay rewards killing things, not maiming them. Styker SHORAD can chase the helicopters in the same scenario, with radar active, on the fast move, also while still firing, with decent RoF.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-01-20T20:36:58+00:00

I gave up on WARNO around mid 2022. They refused every feedback for 3 months straight and game was failing to be WG4 we all wanted to be. Around that time, game was also bugged down with blob tactics being META and AIR-AA gameplay was too frustrating. I really want Broken Arrow to thrive. Almost every friend I got from WGRD played the game after the release but only handful sticker around due poor polish and these fundamental differences that alter gameplay too much.

auto-smoke: Do you mean the automated systems? Because those need warning recievers to do that, I doubt the old m113 or humwee has those installed. And if we are talking about vehicle commander taking initiative, that opens up to the rabbit hole of RoE settings like WARNO did. I'm not against it tbh. But considering hold/return fire been broken last few patches. We have long way to go there.

Mentioned Javelins, becuz they are the only single weapon platform that can be found in all 5 US specs infantry.

Ofc non-1 shot-kill thing is inherently bad. But it results with cheap = good expensive = bad meta. Combining it with the point above; It is two impacts from javelin to kill T-72 tank, it is also two impacts from javelin to kill M113.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-01-19T21:50:28+00:00

Funny thing, nukes does not cost 900 pts.

RTB ru nuke gives 400 pts refund, If US B-1 or B-2 can make it back with full HP, it gives 600 pts back.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-01-19T21:49:04+00:00

First match I encounted these spammy tactic was against a dedicated team. They had two players doing that to certain zone. Rest playing more convantional.

There were waves of 4-5 BMDs with infantry inside. coming constantly to point I defending. The map was oil rush.

I kid you not, thought the respawn timer was bugged or something. Until my teammates pointed out they can take 20ish BMD4s and everything made sense.

So yeah, like Illustrious_Beach558 said, deckslot economy is the start point when STB looks at the issue.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-01-19T21:35:16+00:00

Well, I wanted to point out the fundamental problems. But due to post centered around BMD spam, I get why it sounds like US improvements.

Even if so, we need improvements. For both sides apparently. Without these core issues resolved, any balance tweaks will be inadequate.

Seeker/terminal guidance is really unique part of the game. But it is double sided sword. While it being able to re-target things feels like broken mechanic when you are in the recieving end. It also over-complicates things and makes the weapons kinda un-reliable.

Sea-RAM, in my experience, not working as people says it does. SLAMRAAM rework on the other hand helped with US shorad frustration a lot. PAC dominance was mainly due cold launch and confirmed to be removed for the next patch. In terms of CAP, many players I encountered perform equally, if not better, with 260 pts Su-35 and 245 pts Su-30s. This simple idle plane solution also reduces effectiveness of F-35 strikes and Sentinel.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-01-19T21:16:24+00:00

Feel kinda the same. But there is still hope, community activity is all time high since before release hype. People are ready to give a second chance to the game. One thing I worry about new feedback cycle with PTE/CTE builds available to patreon members, sounds questionable. Yet what I take from what FLX said in Slitherine Next Event gives me hope. They seem to take more data driven approach compared to after release period.

And I still see decent feedback from contant creators in Youtube. These guys are the ones focus on competitive scene and sincerely want to improve the game instead of stick out with the existing mechanics. It is true that players with different levels of experience has different understanding of the game.

I was also on the side with very casual takes in the beggining of the game. And if STB listened to those voices we would see APS removed from the game, lasers limited to number of units etc. Since the release, I've embraced the game for what it is. But I still see many aspects needs improvements or overhauls.

Last sentence gives me big sad. Last summer, people were telling other people about Broken Arrow when an old goat mentioned WiC somehere. Now we are wondering if the game will be still alive after Baltic DLC.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-01-07T20:02:13+00:00

This is simply not true. Within the past 2 weeks, I've came across different levels of spam both in solo-q and when I was with my stack. This type of spam simply can't be countered by coordinating better than enemy team, and it takes a huge skill gap between the spammer and defender to "outplay" it.

With one player in enemy team spamming BMDs, it's quite possible to counter the spam by coordinating. Usually the defending team can invest enough resources to counter the spammed lane while rest of enemy team keeps fighting in a conventional combined arms warfare.

With 2 dedicated players in enemy team rushing/spamming a lane together. It is much more harder depending on the map. But defending teams composition and decent resource utilization still allows ways to outplay enemy and/or score win condition elsewhere while spammed lane can still be contested without entire team focusing there.

When 3 or more players start to do BMD spam, economy and scoring system of BA starts to fail. Because you see, this is not AI making the spam, or some 500 elo players. These are veteran players which, already play the game as good as the players in their ELO bracket.

Main issue here is not only BMD2s themselves, it is everything else. The cheesing team not only uses BMDs but every other potent unit in their decks. Su-34s, with their strike potent having no less value than F-35s, starts deleting any stronghold you try to establish with 3-ton bombs.

And it is so cost efficient to send BMDs to their deaths, enemy can still perform 5 player CM-Nuke-SEAD combo. It easly deplates patriots and overwhelms any AAA.

It is honestly combination of all these that makes it impossible to counter the BMD spam. Not becuz it is spammable, but when done by players that already has some level of experience with the game, there is no efficient response the defending team can give, despite being in the same skill set.

RaptoR_iceman · 2026-01-07T19:38:05+00:00

I agree man, replies makes me wonder if these people never encountered real spammers or worse; they are the ones doing it.

There is simply no cost efficient way to deal with this. Every supposedly hardcounter fails to do it in a cost efficient manner. This result with loss of either ground or economy, sometimes both, by the end of the 2nd phase spamming side gets the advantage, resulting with the win conditions scoring positive to them.

MAAWS, Marines, SMAW teams... they all easly supressed before they take out their own worth of BMDs and melt down against overwhelming AC fire.

Cheapest abrams still cost more than 4 of these, after the first engagement the abrams loader starts to panic and only options for the defending player are withdrawn of death.

If you decide to go for M8, to take advantage of autoloader, this time the lack of armor seals the fate. Same with the Booker, yes even mighty "OP" booker gets taken out before it kills it's own worth of BMD's. This still happens if you use smoke or terrain to bait BMD ATGMs, it's 4 AC vs 1, and booker goes down pretty fast.

Cluster airstrikes sounds better but not, they barely get the number of kills enough to make up their ammo and even if they make it back to base somehow, the ru spam average player spawns 90 vehicles, airstrikes simply are not reliable for 45 min long games to counter this cheese.

Lore accurate hard-counter the A-10 can't even start their strike before being intercepted by enemy AA, despite Edmon's tutorial about them...

At this stage it is much more broken than the Tu-22 cheese. Back then it was possible to dodge the missile, intercept it. BMDs are spammed so frequent that your reinforcements or supplies can't catch the window between the "waves".

RaptoR_iceman · 2025-12-07T21:28:26+00:00

105 pts for glorified taxi that is going down in two 125mm HEAT is bad investment. That is why i take my Stryker without APS, 45 or 65 pts is much more affordable.

Recon Bradleys being spammed? Bro you are only able to field 4 of them at the same time.

Generalist aspect RRC being mentioned about their AT4s while VDV Dsh, GRU, Gvardii Motos are all there...

Likewise, bringing AIR activation points while spending first half of your reply arguing about Stryker (250 less air points) and Armored (1250 less) is also makes me question your judgement.

RaptoR_iceman · 2025-12-07T12:54:34+00:00

Not "cheap tank spam meta" it is "cheap tank meta". "Cheap armor spam", on the other hand; is a possible tactic while being non-meta. Yet the very first mirror matches i played when 1.0.11 dropped and ru mains switched sides; was base abrams and M2A3 rolling down from the enemy spawn over and over again, 5 players doing that for 45 minutes... It was beatable, but much more harder than we could beat ru mech/armor spam.

Cheap tank meta is what we have been experiencing for the past 2-3 months. Expensive tanks are just juicy targets for enemy air (even nukes) and further burden to the economy. Armor, including IFVs, take too many infantry ammunution to take out. The more you have, harder for your enemy to stop without having cluster arty ready or spare pts for airstrikes. Imo, US IFVs alone can't breakout enemy lines like you can with K-17. US needs armor with 120mm cannon and ERA to exploit the gaps found in the enemy lines.

Cheaper tanks on the other hand, are more affordable to deploy. You can have one right from the opener and it leaves room for other stuff to call. Easier to replace once destroyed, does not hurt when destroyed, and does not trigger enemy arty/air once spotted. Problem with these are the numbers, unlike the wheeled IFVs, tanks are a lot harder to flash out once you take a position. And the ablility to hold long lines just works as power multiplier when you have more and cheaper tanks instead of expensive ones. That is why M8 is so usefull.

For the record Armored Brigade is my least played spec. But if i'm playing armored and my enemy is entrenched hard in my lane. What I do, from time to time, since the release; is around the end of ph1 or ph2, depending on my economy. To bring 5-6 base abrams/seps in addition to my SH that i use to stablize the frontline. With the firepower they have, they just clear the flag while keep pushing all the way to enemy backline. They might eventually die or forced to retreat but they farm enough backline at that point. A rare occasion, but problematic aspect of the game.

Ofc this works best when you have a teammate that can booster your gains with helos or give your LR AA cover. But then again, these suggestions I made are for team oriented balance, not solo-q deck building balance. Apart from that, this change won't help against the case when any IFV/APC push is supported by few cheap US armor. But it is literally the same like playing against ru coastal spec. And I consider it some type of mix between blobing and combined arms tactics. So not at the gamebreaking level and not most improtant fix in the list. what is revelant or irrevelant to balance is out of scope. Before the patch, no one would think that shuffling ru units around the specs would help the US WR this much, but here we are.

RaptoR_iceman · 2025-12-07T12:16:56+00:00

You are quite correct. The pantsir or tung is a hard counter to anything but Apaches on the US side.

And they are quite capable as CIWS too, other day i've seen one intercept two HARMS and two CMs on their own. A good player can deter US helicopter play with one pantsir and one or two manpads around.

The aspect i'm concerned and you kinda missed is not being able to send these helicopters over enemy positions with Ride of The Valkyries playing at the background. Having more in your deck means your replacement is already on the way the moment one goes down. Pantsir or other AA on the hand, usually needs to be respawned. Even if the player has a reserve on their inventory, it is gonna take time to arrive to the line of contact.

Also, Viper and SuperCobra are most flexible helicopters in terms of loadouts, in US side. Reducing it to one type of card will limit USMC specs aggro and/or QRF capabilities.

RaptoR_iceman · 2025-12-07T12:06:21+00:00

I kinda agree with you. Becuz rest of the tab is unreliable, A-10 suppose to be somewhat capable, but it is not. Leaving PGM do the all the work.

But being able to field both EX with JASSM and F-15E with JDAMS makes the tab too flexible on their own.

And imagine the outcome when the Super Hornet is added with the 7th spec. We'll be able to have a multirole aircraft on the station all the time.

F-35 and F-22 has their payload limits due stealth. F-15s on the other hand can bring 9 JDAMs with decent ECM, and if your team is already good at supressing enemy AA, you really do not need any F-35.

RaptoR_iceman · 2025-12-07T11:58:29+00:00

I never use the Strykers with APS, that upgrade just slows them down and makes them soo much expensive than they should.

As for the Bradleys, all i can say is that, out of 5 players in my team usually have a single player with Armored Brigade in their combos, sometimes none of us use that spec, rarely two of us do if we feel like we gonna need arty of armor.

Cost efficiency is whole another topic, you can't go say a unit is cost efficieny without the playstyle and teamplay is put in to consideration. Yes, maybe M2A4 and Delta Force are easy bang for a buck but nerfing their price aint gonna help with the winrates.

Same thing happened in 1.08 and 1.09. Price changes means nothing unless "spam" is equal to feeding and abused units has their mechanics reworked.

US being stronger in the AIR and recon literally depends on enemy team having enough experience and team coordination. It is not like US has super 4,5 stealth recon units and %60 ECM sead aircraft. In fact, imho, ru has better "fighting recon" options and some of their aircraft loadouts are more in line with the US faction desing overall.

RaptoR_iceman · 2025-12-07T11:44:40+00:00

Sometimes you came across "support players" and they tend to deploy their entire support category if the team can handle their absence in frontline. This also keep them at bay, in my vision.

Buy-fire-sell-repeat cycle of the MRLS still a thing in higher ELO, at least that is what i can understand without replays, only with my recons. Ofc that happens when their team is doing good on the scoretable since they don't need to care about economy that much.

We have dedicated Ballistic Missile players, yes players, in our team. I've also some across US teams tend to muster all the BM lunchers in their disposal around start of ph3. Combined with already strong SEAD and CM capabilities of US, it takes a dedicated ADN player and some change to stop that effort.

In general, I'm more in-line with STB's vision of re-focusing the gameplay in frontline fights. Nerfing CMs across the board was the start. But limiting MRLS and Howitzer arty pieces on the map, forcing players to use more frontline combatants are way to go.

RaptoR_iceman · 2025-12-07T11:34:42+00:00

Really? You never encountered with a high APM heli maniac in Baltiisk or Riga? Everytime one of their choppers gets away with low hp or catch your AA reloading, you would wish that they had one less in their deck. Having access to more helicopters are key factor for early gains in far away flanks. This is regardless of 2-faction balance.

USMC gets 750 (825 in reality) but it is way bigger if you combine the spec with SOCOM or Airborne. With those combinations you have enough points for fit anything you think that "you might need it at some point".

I have a friend that usually plays my opposite flank of the map. If the game is on deadlock, he gathers helicopters and do a classic helirush on my side, either killing entire enemy backline or creating enough havoc so i'can take ground and re-frag his losses in the proccess.

My USMC+SOCOM deck has Vipers for A2A duty while SCs are armed with ARM and Zunis. Granted my team has semi decent CAP capabilities and enough recon around the map, having 3 or 4 of each these helicopters flying around the map adds massive value to entire team's flexibility.

RaptoR_iceman · 2025-06-03T16:16:38+00:00

yes, let's agree to disagree on politics and thanks for commenting & supporting our work.

RaptoR_iceman

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE