What usually happens (Again, except during the two hours of US primetime.) Is that you roll in three fighters, drop some of the town, and instead of getting a fight you get 20 wirbles parked on the runway and a neverending train of M3's.
I respectfully must disagree, as this has not been my experience. The only time I tend to see a large number of AA vehicles sitting on a runway is when the base is being big-time vultched and/or the fighter hangers are down. Indeed, during non-peak hours getting 20-30 people on one base is difficult at best. I would ask, though, why roll in only three fighters to drop a small fraction of the town? If it's to "kick over the anthill" in hopes of getting people to up in a/c, that's fine. But if you then hover at either end of the runway waiting to vultch, don't be surprised if people jump into GVs to defend and resupply (that's why those GV's were added, after all) instead of voluntarily upping at a disadvantage to be your aerial pinatas
. If, on the other hand, your intent is to take the base, why in the world would you only bring three fighters with you? And why wouldn't you drop the GV first? For my part, if I see a base under attack by just a few enemy aircraft, and I've got fighter hangers and friendly ack, I will almost always up a fighter. But that's just me. My $'s, my gameplay style. Your mileage may vary, and past performance is no guarantee of future returns.