OK. I finally relented and went into the orange arena, not just to see what it looked like, but to fly tonight. Let me recount my experience:
On the Rook side of the map (remember, I'm always a Bish) the two capturable bases were both VB's. My first mission I up an F6F heavy and head to the enemy VB. A friendly bomber gets the first two hangers, I get the third plus ord and fuel, targets we won't really need after capture. I fly home thinking maybe this isn't so bad. Now I see enemy dar bar building in the sector defending their VB so I up a Spit. I fly out, get two and get shot down. OK, this is still better than I thought it would be. Dar bar keeps building so I arrange a mission. 10 heavy F6F's, 10 Spits to clear the path and 2 C47's to take the base. We take off with 2 F6F's, 3 Spits and 1 C47 after 15 minutes of plea's to join the mission. We almost succeed but where's that spirit of teamwork I've been reading about in this thread? Most of us re-up to re-try the same run but now we've got Rook fighters coming in from the west of the airfield we're upping from. Most of us get picked by the higher enemy fighters. Now our VB is flashing. I up a Tiger and get a quick kill on a Pazer. Soon I'm facing two Tigers and one gets my turret. I end flight successfully but the hangers are down. I decide it's time for a short break and get absorbed watching the last 30 minutes of School of Rock. I come back and the Rooks have steamrolled 3 bases. There's huge red dar bar and no friendlies up on this side of the map. Rooks have a big #'s advantage. I check the other side of the map but Rooks have #'s and fields and we're not doing much better on the other side. I exit for the Blue arena where I had great fights, mostly outnumbered, but fun, the rest of the night.
A few things to note out of this experience:
1. I had more fun and thought the change wasn't as bad when I was winning than when I was losing.
2. I never saw nor experienced this great team-work I've reading about in this thread.
3. I got bored with my limited options, to the point where TV was a better option than the game (almost unheard of).
4. I got exasporated with the overwhelming #'s the Rooks were able to put against us. Had I had another option, I actually believe I could have turned the course of their attack single handedly or at least I would have given it a try.
5. In the Blue arena I kept continually diving into outnumbered situations (mostly 1 on 3-5's) but at least I had the option of deciding how outnumbered I wanted to be so I had more fun trying it.
Just one nights "test".