Sad to say it, but what hbair said is becoming more and more like me too.
I used to have this grand vision of what strategic warfare could be like in AH. Huge bomber raids being escorted by P-51s as far as the eye could see, heading deep into enemy territory to bomb facories and supply depots to choke off the enemy's front lines from those vital supplies and making it easier for the other guys to assult and capture.
To prevent this, the enemy would launch waves of fighters to try and intercept the bomber groups and give all those nice shiny Mustangs something to shoot at.
But alas, the MA gameplay was not to be as I had hoped. Bombers have become giant targets of easy destruction, able to be killed by a single P51 within a matter of seconds. Not just one, but all 3 bombers in a formation. (HUGE Damage bug)
Players have abandoned almost all intentions of attacking an enemy field with the intention of survival. Why bother? - The hordes come in big waves of heavy American planes (P51s, P38s, P47s) Dive in and pork the entire field, only to be shot down or augered in within minutes (most times seconds) after the attack.
What is worse about this is they don't care, or intentially auger so they can then come up in Spits and La7s to return to the same field and have a vulch party until their C47 shows up to capture field. Then it is a rinse and repeat scenario until the map is reset by the country with the most players on at the time.
AH has become a game of pork and auger, return and capture. No skill is required for what is now the overall theme of the game...
capture enemy fields and overwelm the enemy by shear numbersThe furballers and now guys like me want to find a good fight where we can rack up a few kills and then RTB to land 'em. Some guys won't admit it, but the whole idea is to get the coveted HOST message,
Midnight landed XX kills in a P-51D of 412th FS "Braunco Mustangs". It's even better when you land them with a few of yor squadmates and fill up 3 or 4 lines in the text buffer with 20+ kills between you. <-- That's fun
The gang-rape crowd usually ruins that fun, however. Just when you think you found a good fight and are doing well in it, you find out the field you were fighting out of has been leveled and no more friendlies are in your area. You very quickly become outnumbered and find dozens of enemy fighters coming fresh into the fight - higher and faster than you. You try to run the heck out of there, but the high ones dive on you, making you turn and bleed E. Before you know it, you've got 5 La7s shooting at you from every direction.
In other cases you make it clear of the fight low on fuel and ammo, only to find out the enemy has already taken your starting base and you have to try and sneak back to a further field without having the horde spot you.
Anyway, all that being said (whined) the bottom line is that HTC has set the game up so that the current MA gameplay is the path of least resistance, which is where the majority of arcade players flock to.
It's sad, but furballing is the only fun a former strat guy can have now
