There were the old smash and grab missions that worked well with the old AH1 towns that were briefly in AH2. If done properly 2 110's and a C47 could easily sneak a base. Having 4 110's worked even better... Some would do 2 110's and a lanc.. but all basically the same thing.
It was totally a surprise mission and would usually go bust if there was a defender.
Next came the massive Joker's NOE missions when the towns changed. You'd run across 4+ sets of Lancs with P38 support and 2 or 3 goons going to an undefended base, and the second they saw they were spotted would all bail to avoid giving any kills, or even attempting to use their already numeric superiority on a base.
Then came the 20+ P38L's at 20K from 2 sectors away and augered into the hangars, but because normally you could at least muster 3 or 4 guys to defend, they quit doing those too because it wasn't as easy.
Now it's back to having a lone set of buffs drop a field, have an m3 run into the edge of town, wait for a single plane to deack so there's not a huge darbar, rinse and repeat.
This is what happened to missions.