Its somewhat difficult to do an opposed capture of a base with the way people "game" the game. I've seen people go for the goon or M3's with reckless abandon, exposing their six, allowing people to slam them shortly after dispatching the goon--all in the name of base defense. Then, after an immediate trip to the tower, they up again, and continue to fight with the town safe from capture.
If you put together the mother of all missions, with 20 fighters, 20 bombers, and 20 goons, all coming in at altitude, then announced your intentions to take a base on 200 in the interest of sparking a great battle, asking for 30 or 40 defenders to up there, the defenders could (in my opinion) go straight for the goons, and the chance to capture would be lost, at least until more goons could be brought in. I suppose you could take the fighters and bombers, leaving the goons a safe (if there is such a thing) distance away from the fight. If the bomber/fighter team made it through the defense and took out the hangars, killed the rest of the defenders and established air superiority, then it might work. But, you only have 15 minutes left to reduce the town, not to mention those aircraft and gv's that could up from the adjacent bases. Now, I'm not saying this is impossible to achieve, but quite difficult given the nature of game. I would imagine it would be tough to organize such an effort without a very large squad, and the defenders would also have to convince a large portion of their country to saddle up.
Personally, I agree with you Guppy. I think it would be great if every capture was a battle first, and then, to the winner goes the prize. But, in the absence of some of the conditions I listed above, it would be very difficult to put together.
Attacking a "quiet" base a sector behind the front, on the other hand, is quite achievable with a small number of people and a single goon. Given that this is much easier to coordinate, it is the norm. There is a certain level of teamwork that is required to complete the task, and I suppose that's where the enjoyment is.
I do have one question in all this, and its not a flame. What is a fair fight in this situation? Should the attackers and defenders be equal? Should the attackers announce ingress direction and altitude? Should everything break down into 1v1's X 40? Would the goons be considered off-limits until after a failed attempt? There's certainly the aspect of tactical advantage and quasi-realism that is in play here. Even in FSO, there is a certain amount of uncertainty involved even though the scenario tries to put both sides in geographic proximity at certain points in the battle. I've certainly been on both sides of a fight in there--heavily outnumber sometimes and other times with a heavy numerical advantage. I remember one night on FSO where our squad was flying P-51's and set to defend a base. A group of 262's rushed out and jumped us. We were able to stay alive by avoiding them, but eventually the main force arrived and soon we were beset with about a dozen 109's and another dozen 190's as the Ju-88's slipped through beneath us. We got crushed. It wasn't even a fair fight...but it was extremely smart.
I'm not sure I've answered the question--possibly even provoked more tangents. But, different people play the game for different reasons. I just try to find situations to play the way I want within all the other types of play going on.
