If the defense is a coordinated defense, then no...
Say those 16 are all hitting the airfield, town ect ect...4 of the enemy hit troops, 10 take on the incoming and 2 go goon hunting....doesn't matter if you have the field down...troops take longer to resupply.
Combined arms.........
3 B17s (Kill field, Kill town
12 tempest deack/escort/aircover/GV clean up(this is where it would get tricky)
1 M3
Only way I could see that mission working against say another squad
Tactically speaking, when you are fighting a larger force or even force....you want to either have an enabler that gives you more firepower(B17s) or you want to surprise the enemy(NOE).
From my experience flying with the best in the game when it comes to base takes I want to pick apart what Junky has here as its one of the best responses so far out of some great responses.
1. I agree with Junky that a well coordinated defense of a base is next to impossible to take. The problem in this lies in how hard it is to properly coordinate a defense. It's not in the culture of AH to play defensively. In this scenario the attacking squad has both the element of surprise and time invested. There are great defenders in this game. First stick who comes to mind would be snailman. That guy is responsible for more blown base takes and strat runs than anyone I know. Take away 1 element in what I'm going to explain how to take a well defended base and it seems to stop the machine such as disrupting bombers on town or base shutdown, defending a resupply base, or even defending a strat. It just takes 1 player out of 16 to kill an attack. It's finding those elements in time that makes the difference.
2. Any attacking nation or squad must invest a considerable amount of time outside of the horde to take a base. The more time invested the higher the chance for success. For example, any good base taking squad will make strat runs to keep down times high. This task alone averages about an hour in game play without any guarantees if you head straight in without avoiding dar or climbing to Jupiter. I have little faith in B17s and wf towns. Requires 2 people for success vs 1 lanc that can WF a town and deack in 4 passes. Only way to guarantee a 1 man wf at a defended bases would be to come in above 22k. Rarely is a town defended above that ceiling it's just a fact. It takes the better part of 20-30 minutes to reach that altitude with 25% fuel even longer at 50% with lancs. It takes the same amount of time to shutdown a vh or troops at a neighboring base/bases. Yes defenders have an advantage of immediate respawn. To counter this you have to invest time. High altitude WF runs and base shutdowns along with shutting down spawns.
3. Fighter cap is critical for the success of any defended base no matter the numbers. Defenders are automatically at a disadvantage starting out on the deck. Low and slow in prop planes can never be all good no matter the plane or numbers. Good cap fighters won't rush a kill they will wait for the right moment. There's no point in engaging a defender if the base has any hangers up just like a gv base.
4. Smart players tend to us m3's more than goons. I've seen guys drive 50 miles in an m3 and hide near a town for an hour vs taking a goon. Why is that? People goon hunt when defending. A goon is very easy to spot and kill. A goon is limited in what it can do and how it can hide. An m3 has no restrictions once it's near a town.
5. Timing and execution is critical for any attack on a base. We have all seen the endless out of synch waves that tend to stall a take or that one knuckle head who didn't stick with the plan. Everything must come together for an attacking team to take a base. It doesn't take much at all for a defender to ruin the greatest of plans. This is one of many elements that makes Aces High 2 one of the best games in the world. It's not simply wf/de acking a base and running troops. Resupply must be shut off, base shutdown, troops defended and kept hidden.
Got some work to do will add to this later today.
