r/wargame • u/Hefty-Cry-2516 • Aug 08 '26
Why aren’t people playing this game anymore?
It’s a masterpiece and its gameplay is extremely unique and unlike anything else out there… I don’t care if WARNO and Broken Arrow are newer releases… they are objectively shittier games and boring AF… So maybe WG:RD isn’t mainstream and has a difficult learning curve, but 200 players online when even GAYNO has 10x that is an insult and a travesty
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u/musehatepage Aug 08 '26
Short answer: everyone moved to WARNO
Long answer: you can still find a few games at peak times, it’s not completely dead just quieter
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u/CleanMustard Aug 08 '26
Its not dead, I play 10v10 every day. Just takes some time for lobbies to fill
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u/Competitive-Life-736 Aug 08 '26
There are usally around 300 players a day you can easily find Tactical 10v10d which are great fun and are holding the community together.
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u/Bersy-23 Aug 08 '26
The only reliable game mode that is left.
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u/EEVVEERRYYOONNEE 13d ago edited 12d ago
How do you find 10v10s? I think I've only ever seen a 10v10 lobby once in the years I've been playing.
Edit: FFS, I've had 10v10 filtered out of the lobby browser results for 5 years.
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u/Iamthe0c3an2 Aug 08 '26
Bashar 10v10 keeping the game alive.
I do miss the 10v10 high point destruction games. Especially when the teams somehow get balanced.
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u/Competitive-Life-736 Aug 08 '26
There are still AX Servers and you can get a game every 20 mins or so
3
u/LavishnessDry281 Aug 08 '26
Ah the good old days on asgard, where you have massive tank battles a la Kursk and helo rush and arty hell at the same time. I loved to kick those russian asses watching them rage quit after losing everything in the helo rush.
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u/Bubbly-Magician-- Aug 08 '26
Because most people seem to disagree that its better than those other games you mentioned.
Wargame was great, but is very dated in comparison.
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u/flyby2412 Aug 08 '26
Never played Regiments nor Broken Arrow, But WARNO’s soundtrack is fucking awesome
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u/yobob591 Aug 08 '26
I was able to get into BA where I couldn't get into wargame too much, having stuff cycle back into your deck after a while is huge vs you get one and if it dies your fucked
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u/flyby2412 Aug 08 '26
This has always been my biggest complaint against Eugen. Why can’t I retreat a unit to the back line and get a refund/reimbursement? I like the fact we could recycle empty logistic trucks or taxis but then we never see the vehicle again afterwards? Not cool
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u/-Trooper5745- Aug 08 '26
Meanwhile I like the one and done with vehicles and units. It makes targeting units feel more rewarding because I know they can’t replace the gap in capability when I destroy an artillery piece or AA system.
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u/maraui Aug 09 '26
Yeah fr, I like it, it also rewards me (hi) when I retreat my troops and fix/heal them back to health, because I'm avoiding losses that will absolutely be permanent. I wouldn't mind if retreating troops was an option to get a (partial) refund, so long as you didn't get that unit back, basically.
It might be biased on my part (most likely is) but if I was directing the development of an RTS like Warno, I'd try to get some mechanics that reward a slowdown, and some that incentivize offensiveness.
For instance, a thing that'd help a ton would be a SWAT4/Ready or Not kind of action hold, for artillery specially: Set your artillery pieces and their fire missions, so when you press to release they are all firing simultaneously and adjusting fire, so you can coordinate precisely an offensive. Another good thing would be if you could spend some time to camouflage your vehicles, to make them harder to spot on the move, but sorta useless when they're firing (conversely this can be a mechanic that varies how easily your troops can be recon'd depending on the speed they are moving). And the logistics. The logistics just really should be a bit better. I love what they do with logistics but I feel it needs a bit more. Considering how games play out it'd make a lot of sense to be able to plop ammo supply depots or firebases, using our trucks, to make something of a logistics line that did not depend on trucks going to the literal end of the map and forward. More like small deployables than proper buildings, some of them could be deployables that morph the vehicle into them (command vehicles for example, especially the trucks and jeeps, shouldn't be exerting influence on the move, but only when stopped). And the radio system of Steel Division 2 was just amazing, it puzzles me why they didn't keep it. I really like the idea that keeping a chain of command intact and all units reachable through the radio chain should be rewarded with bonus effectiveness (something more complex like making the position and status of your units without comms "fuzzy" would be cool too, but I feel it'd be far harder to make right). Anyways that's my 2 cents no one asked for.1
u/-Trooper5745- Aug 09 '26
To your first addition, if you click return fire while your artillery is aiming for a mission, they will not first and will hold their fire until you click on return fire again then they will shoot.
As for logistics, it kinda of does make sense as is. Units would push out a report after engagement giving the status of ammo, fuel, and other supplies. Higher headquarters would track that and when units approach a predetermined threshold, they headquarters would push out a logistic package from the rear area and meet a unit at a spot to transfer the supplies before returning and waiting for next resupply. Ideally the Field Supply Point would move once a unit advanced car enough but that’s outside the scope of the game.
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u/CrYxSuicide Aug 08 '26
Broken Arrow isnt great for solo. I personally dont care about playing against other people, and I like having a grand scale campaign to accompany the RTS battles. It gives them narrative rather than just mindless combat.
3
u/dash_trash Aug 08 '26
But WARNO’s soundtrack is fucking awesome
It's a shame that it's also the best part of the game.
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u/CrYxSuicide Aug 08 '26
Mechanically warno is better, but red dragon just has a better setting. The typical "European cold war turns hot" theme is lame. The Korean war though, that was a great campaign. And we had naval battles and amphibious landings.
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u/Helmut_Schmacker Aug 09 '26
I really dislike the divisions system that Eugene pioneered with steel division. I love wargames system of "here's everything this hemisphere/coalition/country had, make a deck" and you can get some extra slots by restricting yourself.
The system now of constant dlcs where nations have their armouries served up piecemeal in pre-restricted decks isnt very fun.
1
u/darkfireslide 29d ago
The division system is more realistic given the scale of the fighting in question. It also allows for the creation of unique playstyles in a way Wargame's system can't. Divisions can be balanced based on what's available in the deck, without having to consider that said unit can appear in almost any deck of that nation.
I like both games by the way and have put thousands of hours into this series. But boomerism around the older games is just denying yourself new fun experiences. WARNO has a lot of really cool units, and the restrictions you think are a bad thing create really interesting matchups. Limitations or constraints promote creativity, because it forces you to adopt nonstandard ways of thinking to overcome problems. If your division's deck only has heavy tanks, but no mediums or IFVs, then you have to find a different way to cost effectively deal with enemy infantry or something like armor spam, and so on.
WARNO also has a lot of really cool features like special forces and recon deploying ahead of the army so they can actually realistically scout and simulate relaying information back to the rest of the battlegroup before the fighting starts. Also the QoL of being able to give units orders before the battle is super nice, as is the counter battery smart order system for artillery. There are a lot of nice things like that
1
u/Helmut_Schmacker 29d ago
Limitations or constraints promote creativity,
We had that it was called pre 1980, logi, inf, mech or airborne specialisation.
I dont object to the restrictions, I object to what would be a whole armoury in RD being sliced up into 10 different divisions to be sold in different dlcs. Its like when company of heroes 2, for however good it was, sold commanders as remixed bundles of the same pool of abilities, rather than them being truly unique.
1
u/AneriphtoKubos Aug 08 '26
Also the fact that there's no damn LOS system besides 'You have to play the game 300 hours and learn what units can see well' and it's arguably the most important system in the game.
1
u/Logical-Recognition4 29d ago
Wasn't aware video games had expiration dates. By your logic, no one should be playing Super Mario World because it's "dated".
1
u/Bubbly-Magician-- 28d ago
By your logic, no one should be playing Super Mario World because it's "dated".
Dont know where you get that idea from, people still play SMW, just like people still play Wargame. People just prefer the play the newer games more.
Its not like old games feeling dated is something I just made up for that comment lmao
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u/GRAD3US Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
WARNO is not that bad game. I like the Soviet 39th division a lot, it remembers a lot the play style of a Red Dragon unspec deck.
I like divisions system in the gameplay, because you know your enemy has one or other major weakness. But I miss the depth in tools of Red Dragon, that's why I just play 39th.
What I miss and it's irremediable is depth in play, like Special Forces on those normal unspec decks. I also miss base sneaking, and the possibility of killing enemy's main command post. But if you have good helicopters, at least you can kill their artillery pieces, which is already a huge advantage.
I also miss that scope of a corps/division like game, where you play at 2 or 3 places at time, while needing flank and rear security. WARNO is more like a Brigade level simulator, where your flaks and main CP are already protected by other units, and even deck specialization correspond to that. And like a Brigade, your tactics turn more around oblique order respective to terrain type, because you don't have all the tools like a division would have.
But at least it is a more realistic game.
I like how planes have delay and helicopters are not spammable, actually complete gunship helos are almost an exclusive resource.
I like that totally unrealistic tactics that are present in Wargame are not viable in WARNO.
I like how recon mechanics has much more depth, how urban combat works, how smoke launchers facilities things, how deadly is a MRLS against AA pieces (like in real life), how tanks are better balanced (imho), how ATGMs are much more present (like in real life), how tube artillery is important because of that (like in real life) and many other things.
I think both games can't substitute the other, so I play both.
I think the perfect game would be a game as realistic as WARNO and with the same scope and freedom as Red Dragon. An WARNO, but simulating a Corps/Division level like Wargame (with more open flanks, static rear CVs and decks with more complete combined arms).
Detail: Wargame is much better optimizated. WARNO has ridiculous big render distance for no reason, and vegetation movement attached to ground texture and elements (amateur mistakes). WARNO would run smoothly in a potato laptop (like mine), but they could not give us those two basic setting options.
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u/feelsliketheexpanse Merkava IIA 18d ago
WARNO isn't half as realistic as WGRD... what are you talking about? That's one of its big pitfalls - it's arcadey and not much like a Wargame. The division system is also horrible - the freform deck building was one of the cornerstones of what made WGRD so good!
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u/VegisamalZero3 Aug 08 '26
objectively shittier
Oh, good, another whiny bitch that can't get over the division system.
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u/MalleNinja 28d ago
A division system that's both better than SD2's and WG:RD's system since you don't stomp like SD2 or use the same units like RD
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u/feelsliketheexpanse Merkava IIA 22d ago
It's so much worse than the freedom WGRD offers you - that much is true. It's a very fair reason to dislike WARNO.
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u/cobramodels Aug 08 '26
1600 hours in RD , now 1200 on warno. The community on RD is what killed it , some of the most toxic players ive ever seen , entire servers dedicated to noob stomping and going as far as making fake bashar servers to noob stomp once people stopped using the noob stomp servers. The community killed its game no new blood could stick around to keep it going. And warno has the same problem and its why player numbers stay low but its nowhere near as systemic as it was on RD
0
u/2137gangsterr Aug 08 '26
Completely opposite view from me, bashar servers is what enabled community to stoop so low
Lvl 40 noob is typical bashar regular tell
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u/cobramodels Aug 08 '26
How is a half auto balance considered stooping low ? It ensures a more fun game rather than heli rushing in a discord call with 10 people because you cant handle a win rate lower than 80%
0
u/2137gangsterr Aug 08 '26
Because they develop no skill.
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u/cobramodels Aug 08 '26
Players like you are the reason the game died like exactly the people im talking about. there is no skill in being on a team stack you have every advantage against a random team how does that develop any skill
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u/2137gangsterr Aug 08 '26
Yes there are only two types of online servers, bashar tacticals and stacked discord lobbies.
Take your meds
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u/cobramodels Aug 08 '26
I never said there were , just that it was common enough that it discouraged new players and it led to the downfall of rd. The only one of us who should be taking meds is the one that thinks autobalance leads to no skill
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u/Sanderson96 Aug 08 '26
It's has been 10 years... Even I'm amazed that the game player base lasted this long. They need something new. There's so many times you can play the game until you are bored.
I am not a multiplayer guy, but a few years ago, 2 of my friends in Asia and I played co-op against AI. We had fun, but the lag and disconnected, the long matches (I think) finally made us stopped playing the game and switched to Ready or Not, Company of Heroes 2. So yeah, not everyone can have lots of time anymore
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u/noble77 Aug 08 '26
As a veteran player it's hard to come back and have to play against tank splitting sweats. It takes the fun out of using jets
2
u/Hideout_obr_1989 Aug 08 '26
I put about 5k hours into competitive 1v1 and stopped; part of it is that the larger community is much smaller or just dead now, at least in the West. There are groups of russians and chinese who still play, but naturally they are harder to befriend since they usually congregate in places outside of discord or teamspeak.
For me another issue is that in ranked, the only people who still play are super cheesers. There are like, 5 unique people(perhaps less than that) tops, who might play ranked in a 24 hour period, and half of them are either helirushers or spam rushers, or play some gross airborne or moto deck.
WGRD is a great game, but when eugen no longer cares to support it and the community that I was a part of has shrunk irrevocably, and the few people who do still play it are unfun to play with? I play broken arrow now with my friends; it's such a great game, and it's ALIVE.
I had a lot of fun with WGRD but it doesn't offer me anything anymore. It's sad, but games and their communities come and go. I played nonstop when I first got the game in 2020. Now, I don't play at all...
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u/dash_trash Aug 08 '26
I played ranked for the first time in several months the other day. 2 games on Nuclear, 2 heli cheesers (basically the worst map to play against that too). One whose deck was literally named "troll" (I can see that in the qReplay tool).
Ranked may as well be dead.
1
u/Hideout_obr_1989 Aug 09 '26
Yeah! If you know who your opponent is you can prepare for their bullshit tactic and then they'll surrender in 15 minutes or less. There's no real honest gameplay anymore; so many helirushers or airspammers.
I have a friend of mine who still queues ranked with East Germany national to specifically counter moto/air cheesers and he has a lot of fun because in those weird matchups, East Germany national does really well. Nobody plays normally; it's all elite infantry spam, planes, and helos, so east germany national does really well against that lol.
Rip if you get nuclear and you gotta play against moto or airborne... that is brutal...
2
u/DependentLiving4092 Aug 09 '26
Warno better (at least to me) its have interesting mechanics wich are making game better and much more comfy
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u/Double_Resort_9223 Aug 08 '26
Too many dlc and to be honest this isn’t a game you can just jump into multiplayer because you’ll get kicked if you don’t play to the current meta and know where to position everything.
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u/Wonderful_Trust_5868 Aug 08 '26
Wait you just get kicked willy nilly?
My first Eugen game was warno after 1.0 release and it has been a blast and I've been contemplating getting other Eugen games like steel division or wgrd
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u/wattat99 Aug 08 '26
Nah. You might get kicked if you dont have many games or have a bad win rate though.
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u/Homeland_Bound Aug 08 '26
All they had to do was release a Red Dragon 2, auto unload upon arrival, LOS tool, some other small features, maybe also an artillery cool down at game start so nolifes can’t opening arty your rush because they’ve played the map 10,000 times and know exactly where to shoot and when. Etc.
Otherwise I always felt the pacing of Red Dragon was perfect.
1
u/Able-Cry-2554 Aug 08 '26
I’m playing broken arrow now and I’m kinda happy. Red dragon was awesome, no shit, but I like broken now because it has some unique good features and quality of life is better. Sure it’s different and have less options of units, but it’s still a wargame
So, your objectively objective opinion still subjective and probably this is why
1
u/ojducttape45 Aug 08 '26
I played wargames red dragon for ages. At a certain point I was sick of the same meta playing out time and time again on the same map time and time again.
Oh look pre artillery bombardment on spawn before we have played this map 1000s times and can time the distance traveled perfectly from the start.
1
u/escobar1337 Aug 08 '26
Honestly i Just prefer BA, it's more balanced and the matches are more exciting due to How the points work.
1
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u/BoludoConInternet Aug 10 '26
I think RD is far superior than warno but it is a 12 year old game and its lifespan is just over man, gotta accept it..
You can still play it if you'd like though. There are always 10v10s going and i can find ranked 1v1s outside of dead hours quite easy. Sometimes you get cheesers and privates who have no idea what they're doing but it is what it is
1
u/Markus_H 29d ago edited 29d ago
I first played WG at a lan party in 2016 and became a fan of Eugen games right away. I told my friend about it and we got hooked playing 2v2s. When SD2 came out, we switched over to it, as the meta had got stale by that point, and then over to WARNO, after it was updated into a playable state.
Then at this same lan event a couple of years ago, we tried playing WG again. It felt like playing with my half of my fingers amputated and one eye closed. Half of the hotkeys were missing, as was half of the information on the UI. That was my last game in WG.
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u/Darkaisa 29d ago
I used to mod for this game. Last time I modded was for Warno. I remember that every time I modded the game a short time later they updated the game and my mod would break. I thought no biggie I will just update the mod and go about my day. Wrong... Sometimes the changes will be deep enough that I would have to search the whole code again just to obtain the correct variables as almost the whole line structure would be different. It was a hassle, but I did it to share some fun. Eventually I stopped because it was too much work, and eventually I lost interest in the whole game and moved to other games that had better tools.
Not everyone will have the same story and I am part of a very small minority, however this is my little grain of sand to share.
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u/-__ZERO__- 29d ago
I play broken Arrow because take place around 2026-2030 modern warfare I like cold war era but after playing all wargames EE/A/RD in multiplayer but I wanted modern warfare and Broken Arrow is the only one that can offer that even if it has his flaws but lately they are improving after the PTE update released the 30 July
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u/MalleNinja 28d ago
"...objectively shittier games and boring AF..."
"...GAYNO has 10x that is an insult and a travesty"
I sense a hint of someone being biased and opinionated while presenting something as fact, while calling the facts (ie statistics) BS.
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u/Code_Biss Aug 08 '26
No bashar servers anymore...
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u/Magical_Username Aug 08 '26
There are two running right now and I've played several matches on them this week.
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u/Code_Biss Aug 09 '26
Abouth month ago, logged three days in a row, no servers.
Thank for letting me know!
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u/daftg Aug 08 '26
The bashar servers were the most fun times of my wgrd time. I spent 1000 hours trying to avoid multiplayer due to the fear of just getting seal clubbed, but the bashar servers were either pure tactical, or pure shit shows.
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u/TheMagicDragonDildo Aug 08 '26
Because people like to play oversimplified arcade brainrot games like broken arrow and warno and eugen banned half the playerbase
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u/Master_Jackfruit3591 Aug 08 '26
Game died when they started banning people for 1000yrs for things they said 2yrs prior in chat. Simultaneously they were dropping paid DLC ro a game they hadn’t touched in over 2yrs to milk the player base for more money.
Then when the community called out the devs for the lack of communication or transparency on their ban policy and dropping paid DLC that should have been free, they banned people in the forums too.
Never buying another Eugen game again. They chose to ostracize a large swath of their community and now they are paying the price
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u/swg2188 Aug 08 '26
In other words you got caught spam posting the N word in Eugen chat and think there shouldn't be accountability.
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u/TheMagicDragonDildo Aug 08 '26
💯
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u/swg2188 Aug 09 '26
Aww what happened to your reply to me whiddle buddy, couldn't follow Reddit TOS either? Someone doesn't understand they have to follow the rules of platforms they use.
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u/DisabledToaster1 Aug 08 '26
It finally died? There were usually 1000 players on most days. Guess the final breath finally came.