Broken Arrow — Steam Gift

Broken Arrow — modern warfare at the scale of a deck (Steam gift)

Broken Arrow is a large-scale real-time strategy about modern conflict from Steel Balalaika and publisher Slitherine, released on 19 June 2025. It quickly gathered fans of big tactical battles: armoured thrusts, helicopter assaults, air strikes and special forces — all under your command at once. You do not just click units; first you build your own deck of formations, like in a card game, and then deploy it on the battlefield. Here the game ships as a Steam gift: we send it to your library through a bot rather than handing over a code.

Two factions and hundreds of real units

Broken Arrow has two sides — the USA and Russia. The Americans field a Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF), the Army armoured, airborne and Stryker brigade combat teams, and US Special Operations Forces. Russia brings the VDV airborne, motor rifle troops, naval infantry, Spetsnaz and more. There are over 300 detailed units in total, each with deep customisation: you can change weapons, loadouts, equipment and the role of a formation. In effect you assemble an army that fits your style instead of picking a ready-made set.

The deck as the heart of the gameplay

The core mechanic is the deck system. Before a battle you do not get a fixed roster; you draft units by points from six categories: recon, infantry, armour, support, helicopters and aircraft. Want to bet on air power and fast strikes — build the deck for that. Prefer to grind forward with armour and artillery — play differently. Because of this, two matches with the same side feel different, and at a high level the game becomes a duel of compositions and counter-picks before the first shot is fired.

Campaign, skirmish and multiplayer

The single-player side is a 19-mission handcrafted campaign told from both the American and Russian perspectives, set in the Baltic region. The missions vary a lot: stealth infiltrations, desperate defences, urban fights, armoured strikes and airborne drops. There are also 19 skirmish maps against the AI. If you want to test yourself against real people, there is online PvP up to five-versus-five with progression and leaderboards. There is also a scenario editor with Steam Workshop support: the community is already building its own maps and modes, so the content does not stop at the base set.

What you get with this purchase

You get the full standard edition of Broken Arrow — all factions, the campaign, skirmish, multiplayer and the editor. This is a Steam gift: we do not hand over an activation code, we send the game to your library through a bot. From you we need two things — your Steam friend invite link and your account region.

How the gift delivery works

The mechanic is simple and hands-off. After your order, our bot adds itself as your friend using your invite link, sends the gift, and automatically removes itself once it is delivered. You do not need to accept anything manually — it all runs automatically. Delivery usually takes a couple of minutes from the moment you order, though we do not promise a strict deadline. Steam Guard is not required to receive the gift, and you do not need to already own the game or be active on the account.

Important region and library conditions

Two things to watch. First, your Steam account region must match the gift region, otherwise Steam simply will not let you accept it. Second, Broken Arrow must not be in your library at the time of the order, because you cannot accept a gift for a game you already own. So at checkout, enter your region honestly and confirm you do not have the game yet. Also allow friend requests in your profile settings in advance — without that the bot cannot reach you. If something does not line up and Steam rejects the transfer, the money returns to your site balance.

System and platform

The game is on Windows and distributed through Steam; it runs on Linux via Proton in later updates. The interface and texts are localised into 13 languages, including English and Russian, so there is no language barrier. If you play on Steam Deck or Linux, check the current Proton compatibility status, which keeps improving over time. Note one quirk of the single-player campaign: at launch missions had no mid-battle saving, so budget time to finish a mission in one sitting.

Scale of battle and control

The sense of scale deserves its own mention. Maps in Broken Arrow are large, and dozens of formations live on them at once: infantry digs into treelines, tanks roll in columns along roads, helicopters sweep in from the flanks, and aircraft overhead either cover them or knock them out. It all follows real military logic: recon uncovers positions, air defence holds the sky, artillery works areas, and logistics decides how far your strikes can reach. The camera zooms freely from a wide view of the whole front down to a single soldier, so you choose the level at which you command — as a staff officer or as a tactician leading a specific assault. It is this depth that has Broken Arrow so often compared to big wargames, where the plan of an operation matters more than click speed.

If you love military RTS

Broken Arrow sits comfortably among modern wargames built around real hardware and tactics. If this one clicks, take a look at WARNO with its Cold War setting and large-scale battles, Regiments about the 1989 conflict in Germany, and Steel Division 2 for the same thoughtful tactics on a different historical backdrop. They are all about commanding an army rather than microing a single squad.

Purchase in short

To sum up: you get the full Broken Arrow as a Steam gift, the bot delivers it for you, and no Steam Guard is needed. Just check your account region and that the game is not already in your library — then you are ready to deploy your first deck on the battlefield.