Defending the HQ, especially on the Fester map, is extremely boring. The HQ, that controls all radar, has no (wait for it)... radar. You have to first spend a lot of time climbing to high altitude then fly a grid pattern in the areas you think the attackers might just maybe be coming. Then, if you do find them, you have to try to attack while your barely flyable at that alt plane wallows around in the field of the buffs 24 guns. Or you will find nothing because the attackers are in GVs 35,000 ft below you. Then you have to decide if you want to try to resupply. On FesterMA the goon flight to the HQ is 10 minutes. The sup box reduces the down time by a whopping 4 minutes. Yesterday the HQ was down for over 90 minutes. The math points to extreme levels of boredom.
It is simple: the people taking down the HQ are willing to subject themselves to high levels of boredom so as to force their enemy to endure the same levels of boredom. Immunity to boredom is their weapon and so they use it. Many people don't want to waste their time... it's not a form of gameplay that they find entertaining. So, like me, they log off.
Technically, I'd say defending against the attack is MORE boring than initiating the attack.
The attacker is in control of when they choose to make the run. They get to choose whether they get to come NOE or at alt. Either way, they get to up and head to target by whatever route they choose.
If they come at alt, the defender gets more of a chance to see them coming. They get to see bardar up a few sectors away and lumber across the map to the city/HQ. With something like a jug/TA152, you've got a decent chance to intercept them if you see them coming early enough. If however, you log in and see the suspected bomber only a couple sectors away, you may or may not get there in time. The fight at alt can be tough, but if you're using one of the few planes suited to the job and you start above the bomber, it is possible to do. Some bomber pilots are tougher than others.
If they come NOE, the defender gets to play the game of, "Does that flashing base mean GVs or NOE bombers?" Then you get to patrol whatever area is not covered by radar looking for a dot against the ground. If you manage to find and successfully kill it, you get the resounding joy of wondering if it was the only one, or if there were multiple bandits.
So you continue your patrol. You have no way of knowing how many of them there are at that point, the only thing you can do is continue watching for base flashes if they have to fly through a radar circle. The other option is to hang out near the edge of flash range for the city/HQ and hope that you can get on them fast enough after you get an indication they're there to kill them before they drop.
The bandit may choose to reup immediately and come back, or they may choose to go elsewhere. The only indication they are coming if they come NOE is the flash of a base if they have to fly through its dar, or the flash of the HQ when they're within range.
One cycle of the above can take over an hour, during which that's pretty much all the defender can be doing. Watching the clipboard map circling at altitude.
Not exactly thrilling gameplay for most, and the consequences for not doing it successfully are punitive.
Just MHO, YMMV, BBQ.
Real curious to see what changes/doesn't change in AH3.
Wiley.
