AH has the 3rd different method of buff gunning I've seen so far. They've worked like this:
AW: Pilot couldn't man his own guns (unless he exploited a bug, hehe) so buffs had no return fire at all unless a separate player joined as a gunner. Gunners had to join on the ground before flight, and could only leave by bailing, so it was a very boring thing to do. Thus, most buffs lacked any defensive fire at all, which limited their number and kept them up high where they belong, instead of on the deck carpetbombing CVs and airfields, which was good for gameplay. However, each position could have its own gunner, up to 6 in the B17. But 1 gunner could only fire 1 gun position at once.
WB: IIRC, all buff guns were under AI control with no player gunner capability at all. The AI gunners were exceptionally accurate, easily able to kill or maim at 1000+ yards regardless of how you attacked. As a result, buffs were usually avoided, and buffng was discouraged by community outcry. This kept them out of the tactical side of things, which was good.
AH: Pilot can man his own guns. Can also take 1 gunner along, who can join in flight, leave without bailing, and can shoot all guns that bear at once. And we have a rash of dweeb kamikaze NOE buffers.
Personally, I'd like to go back to the AW system to discourage dweeb buffing in general. If you want to blow up buildings instead of fight like a man, take your unarmed buff up to 25k and bomb strats. Most folks won't bother you because the fighting's down low and killing an unarmed buff is nothing to brag about. OTOH, if you want to buff down in the furballs, take a bunch of gunners, but they're in for the duration and have to join before launch.
