Aside from all the usual things you hear such as submarines, infantry, artillery, etc; I have three things that I would like to see implemented at some point:
- Flying boats and float-planes: My nominations that would be historically significant yet have at least a fighting chance in the MA would be the Short Sunderland, the Japanese Emily, and for floatplanes the Arado 196 as well as the floatplane version of the N1K. These planes would need a mission, so I would propose that they be used for three things: First of all, the floatplanes would be able to up from the BB fleet, from the cruiser (useful for when the CV is sunk), and from ports. This would provide a limited form of air in several situations where none is available currently, much like the Storch does for GV bases. Most WW2 floatplanes carried some form of light ordnance and had at least some forward firing capability (the two I listed above actually have potent forward armament). Floatplanes would also have some means of helping adjust naval artillery (which was of course one of their main roles in real life). Not sure how this would be implemented in AH, but there are probably several ways to go about it other than just calling the fall of the shot over vox (which can currently be done from any plane of course). The flying boats and float planes would have the search and rescue mission (more on that in a moment), and also the ASW mission if subs were ever added.
The flying boats would also be able to conduct strategic bombing missions, although formations would not be an option for them. The two I named were famously tough and well armed, so they would do well in the MA I think, or at least as well as any current heavy bomber.
- Search and Rescue (SAR): I think it would be cool to have the option to rescue pilots that have bailed out or ditched. The incentive to do so would be small reward of perks for very pilot you rescue, as well as possible achievements. The incentive to remain and be rescued instead of towering would be that you only lose 1/4 of perks that you would otherwise lose. This would be similar to the current situation if you get tracked in a perk vehicle and someone brings you vehicle supplies. So if you bailed out of say a Me-262 and were rescued you would only lose 50 perks instead of 200 for example. It would set up some exciting missions I think.
- Real night fighting: We have a limited form of night, and it is generally reviled. Many people are gamey with their video settings and just ignore it, others basically stop flying while it is night (more or less my approach). In WW2 of course night ops were their own whole thing, so it would be neat I think to add some of that. First of all, make night longer, but less frequent, maybe it would only happen like every 6 hours or so. Make it truly dark and try to make it so that changing your video settings has no effect (basically blackout everything outside the windows in effect). Shorten icon range radically, to perhaps 1k or less. Model airborne radar and add in night fighters. We already have at least 9 planes by my count that were used at times as night fighters and equipped with radar. Model the radar, and add in such features as the slanting cannons used by the Germans and Japanese. Also add searchlights around bases and strat targets. I think it would be a fun cat and mouse game to be aloft over the strats in say a radar equipped BF-110 searching for Lancasters. The radar would be used to try to get you into icon range. The bombers might also have a limited amount of foil strips to use as chaff to counter the radar.
