Strat is a diffrent story. Strat, as it is now, is prety much useless. Nobody, now, goes after strat targets, unless they want to pad their bomber score. The strat system needs to be overhauled, beefed up a little, make it a little bit more prominent.
Personally, I think a three key concepts are urgently required in the MA;
1) basic organization
2) logistics and attrition
3) economics
1. Basic Organization The concept of basic organization is about placing each of the country's pilots under some kind of controlled environment where some of their actions are limited by the "superiors" - which in this case, would be the system that handles the MA. It involves dividing certain proportions of each country's pilots into certain groups that are "assigned" to certain fronts.
There are inherently two problems concerning the horde's effect on the MA.
a) hordes deteriorate the MA gameplay into mere display of sheer brute strength. Such important factors as individual pilot skill, high levels of intelligent cooperation, epic aerial battles for the control and superiority of local skies, and etc etc.. are totally lost under the horde. The single minded conquest machine actively seeks out to destroy the opposition by displaying brute strength that cannot be resisted by normal means. In a truly tactical sense, this is the best maneuver any army can take. However, the MA is not only a war but also a game.
In the gaming sense, the horde kills "competition" itself. The process of the "contest of airpower" itself is cancelled out with hordes. The hordes exist to obliterate the opposition from its roots, and seeks to win territories without any kind of real fighting. The main drive behind the horde is this ruthless efficiency in taking enemy bases - since no one dares oppose such sheer numbers of attackers, the horde merely walks in, flattens town, capture, and then move on. Rinse and repeat. The whole "struggle" part of the game is missing.
b) hordes avoid other hordes. The horde phenomenon wouldn't be a problem if the defenders form a horde of their own and actually go head on against the attacking horde. Then that would create a mega-furball. However, when the initial phases of aerial struggle are played out, the defending side is usually so much discouraged by the attacking horde that they abandon the entire front where the enemy horde is attacking. Instead, they flock to some place else where there is no imminent danger. They form a horde of their own in that spot, and start attacking places that are undefended.
Now, the concept of 'basic organization' is meant to prevent the horde fundamentally. By placing people under certain groups(or "airforces") which the system assigns their position to, people will not able to just abandon entire fronts or flock to each other. This is a loose portrayal of military service where pilots are assigned to certain theaters and expected to serve there faithfully. This means as a Rook (for example), you can't just leave the Knit front and flock to the Bish front just because the Bish seems to be the underdogs and easy kills. Or, you can't just leave the Knit front and join the Bish front because the Knits seems to have better pilots in the area. If you are assigned to duty at a Knit front, you will be expected to perform a certain length of service there.
Essentially, a basic organization of this kind makes sure that all of the fronts are populated and the range of activities an individual pilot can take is limited. This will destroy the heart of the horde itself. The numbers which a certain front can muster is always limited to the numbers of pilots serving in that certain front. Even if you see a certain Bish zone undefended and ripe for the picking, you can't call everyone from the Knit front to form an enormous horde and start marching into Bish lands unopposed. All you have is the pilots in that specific zone of activity who are assigned by the "High Command".
If this concept takes place in the MA, unless a certain country is fundamentally underdogged (such as 50 Rooks, 50 Knits, but only 10 Bish) you will never, ever have to see a mindless horde again. That is the pros of this concept. However, the cons of this concept is that it takes away the freedom to move around wherever place the pilot wills. There could be inherent problems such as some people being stuck at fronts they don't want, or Squadrons being split apart and not being able to fly together.
Therefore, it will need some kind of a "buffer" that allows players to "transfer" to places they want under certain given conditions. For instance, there can be a "order of transferance" type of system in which the server receives "transfer requests", and if another person placed at a different area wishes to be transferred to where I am, then I can be swapped 1:1 and be transfered to an area I want, and vice versa for the other guy.
(contd)
