100% of the town down and remove the ack guns. Then move the towns farther away from the field. And then double or triple the ack available at the airfield. Keep the fight over town and away from the base. The towns would then become a neutral meeting place for combat.
I'm kinda torn on this, and agree it has the potential for runner to have even more ack to run and hide in. Besides, the legitimate targets in battle would be military targets. Factories, supply lines, and bases. The towns have traditionally been, the HTC land capture "vehicle". So, instead of storming the tower and gaining control of the instruments of command, we flatten an entire village to find our way to the bunker holding the maps and strategic plans, so the military personel on the base give up and vacate.
Maybe there could be more tools given to custom arenas to allow alternative structures to act as the "maproom", or give alternative win the war variables instead of % of fields owned. Then let the players decide from their custom setups which are more appealing.
This will be my mission this month to have a custom arena setup for Late Off Hours play.