I look at it this way, bombing factory targets and headquarters, is there is there to simulate strategic warfare. In aceshigh you bomb factories to disrupt the ability to rebuild key infrastructures such as ordnance, towns, AAA guns and fuel. Headquarters are a command-and-control facility, as part of strategic warfare in the real world you bomb them to disrupt the ability of your opposition to command-and-control his forces. Here in aces high we simulate this by removing the radar. Without radar you can't see forces is coming at you and it disrupts your ability to react to them. For the most part the system works, if the strategic warfare part of this game is disrupting your ability to engage in combat that's what it's supposed to do. Personally I'd love to see a more detailed strategic warfare in the upcoming updates. But what we have suffices.
The biggest problem we run into with Aceshigh is trying to mix win the war type players with furballer. I think the two sides would get along a lot better if shooting down a plane had an effect on the war. I say this because, about the only planes worth shooting down to the war type is one's carrying bombs.... bombs have an effect on the war. Shooting down planes... very little. Why?......... because airbases and tank bases never run out of equipment. No matter how many of them you shoot down or bomb. No matter how many tons of bombs you put on a base it's always going to have equipment. Killing fighters is almost meaningless. We can stop them from taking off, but for only 15 minutes. Of all the things that I hope are going to be fixed with the next version of aces high, this is very high on my list. But I'm pretty sure I'm in a very small minority to think this part of the game is truly the most broken part of it.
CAVALRY
If we had the numbers we used to have. Or got rid of the large maps to better represent the numbers we currently have HQ wouldsnt be an issue because it would be
a- much harder to sneak in unopposed
B- because fo A would be more likely to be responded to
Fact of the matter is the maps are simply too big now for the player base we currently have. You dont see the dar going down nearly as often on the smaller maps. Because they are harder to sneak to unopposed or unnoticed.
Also while I agree with your point of simulating strategic warfare. Raids on major targets were typically done not by 2 or 3 planes. But by hundreds. In no way shape or form should a target as important as national radar(HQ) be something that could be destroyed by only a couple of planes