They fail due to lack of skill, not because your defense is good. They had a mission and their skill wasn't up to the challenge of executing it. When goon drivers fly a strait path from one base to the other never turning even when attacked it is due to lack of skill, NOT your great aim at shooting it down. Dive bombers that either hit only half the time, or lawn dart even if they DO hit is lack of skill, not your defense. When a mission stutters due to a problem skilled players can react and pick up the slack and know what to do with out long explanations.
Today's players don't bother to learn the HOWS of the game. All they know or are taught is "Take lots of people with lots of bombs, sneak in and flatten everything. If the goon dies we re up on the other side of the map and try again". When was the last time you saw a squad spend a couple hours in the TA practicing dive bombing with 38s from 15k until everyone could do it with better than a 50% hit rate, and those same people practice on there own until they could do better than 75%? With 10 people that is like 24,000 lbs of explosive ON TARGET, with all 10 guys still alive and ready to fight. I haven't seen a squad in a long time that come any where near that kind of attack. Why? Because it is so much quicker and easier to lawndart a bunch of dweebs to do the heavy work. No fight, no skill, but they got another base!
Precisely so.
I do not usually fly with the flatten everything missions. But when I see them posted, I may up and rally with them to see how things shake out. I cannot number the times I've seen jabos dive in on hangars, and get two out of 4, or 3 out of 4 and then comes the call to strafe down the last one. That being said, with the right guys, it's one pass and it's all done. So there are guys out there, and more than few, who pull it off.
At least once a week, I'll shout out on country "who's sick of missing with their bombs?" Usually, one or two will take me up on the offer to learn how to do it and rtb safely. Sometimes more though will tag along. I do the same with bomber missions. Teach 'em how to do it right, and land successfully.
Now that's just the execution of a very simple act in Aces High: dive-bombing or level bombing accurately. Not to mention the right vector in so nailing 4 ammo bunkers is made easy in 2 passes with a Pony for instance on a medium airfield. Or the right vector when level bombing.
The other matter, and I'm with Fugitive entirely here is one of tactics and planning. And part of that is the condition of the map and country status in real time. If conditions make a certain type of assault highly improbable, then scrap the idea until numbers favor such a move.
Last night is a case in point. Bish up north, when I logged in, were 90 mins from being rolled like carpet. We were down 40 on in-flight numbers. By the time, I had logged off, about 2 hrs later, all that I had seen would happen did. Now. That doesn't make me smart at all. It's just what the map and country status dictates will happen until folks get sleepy and log for the night. So then, what to do? Hobbled by inaccurate dive-bombing as a player base, base porking becomes so very iffy unless it's a small airfield. Even then, those 2 ords and 5 barracks can be slippery unless the pilots have got themselves into a position that interception while inbound becomes unlikely, and there's enough guys and 1 pass nails it all. Which, happily did happen on a run I posted a few days ago against the Nits when they had huge numbers. Wow. It was like the old days. Had 5 or 6 guys. 1 pass and all the ord and all 5 barracks were down. Almost forgot what that was like.
So, if porking fields becomes a no-go against huge numbers, then fiter's nailing buffs and fat jabos becomes the next move. But at a 40+ disadvantage, at that point, the battle is lost. Had fun though even so. Got a few kills. Landed successfully.
Lastly, with the reduction of field elements down time to 45 mins from 2 hours (without manual resupply), I don't know that porking would have bought the Bish enough time. But when the sun has set, that's what a country is vying for. If we could have deprived the Rooks of their barracks and bombs for 2 hrs, the whole thing would have bogged down, on the Rook side, to a point and shoot free for all. But that did not happen. I was quite pleased by the Rooks play, for the map showed a good 2 pronged assault on two different northern tactical bases. And as their numbers grew, a 3rd assault target looked like it was fixin' to take place. They used their numerical advantage wisely rather than bringing 50 guys to one base. So good for them.
What astonishes me is both "how it came to pass" and "what" the common mentality seems to be these days. So inside of 40 mins, field A is going to get rolled, and not only field A but several more along that front for example. So the hue and cry arises, "Save field A!" And green planes go aloft. What I don't see on country channel is a competing cry with sufficient numbers who urge the destruction of those field elements on enemy fields X & Y from which the peril of an entire front collapsing originates.
And that might be due entirely to the point Fugitive is making. It takes a tad of planning. More than a bit of patience to be high enough and fast enough to make being bounced on the way in semi-unlikely, and once there to be able to deliver the goods in a single pass.
