I don't know if this point has been brought up, but not to far in the past, at US prime time, the average amount of players in the MA were in the 200s. Now, at US prime time, I would belive that the average amount of players is consistently in the 400s.
This would lend credence to the fact that "fields" in general need to be hardened. It really doesn't take much to get 10+ pilots in a mission, roll into a field, and dominate the base and the air space within less than a minute. Pop the VH first, take out all the manned ack and auto-ack, and you own the place.
Hardening the "field" ...
1) Harden the VH. It is way to easy to take down.
2) Harden the auto-ack. It is way to easy to take down.
3) Harden the fuel. It is way to easy to take down.
4) Add more mannabe ack. I don't believe that there is a 4 x .50 object, so the existing acks guns would have to be used.
I use to love going on base taking missions, because it was usually not an easy thing to do. These days, you go on such a mission, and the intial set of planes that were part of the mission, prep the field for the following onslaught of planes that were not in the intial mission, but decided to follow and partake in the vulch session. So, you find a handfull of pilots preping the field and taking the town down, and 20+ in the vulch pattern.
For me, that just is not fun anymore. If we hardened the bases, the intial attack group, just might not get the prep job done with such ease, and a chance to put up a good defence might just be possible.
I say harden the "field" and forget about perking the bombs. If this were happen, then JABO would not be quite as effective as it is now, and really softening a field for capture would then be left to the bombers ... where it should be.
