I think we should strive more for this:
“Aerial skirmishes
The Indian air strikes triggered an aerial battle in which more than 114 aircraft, 72 from the IAF and 42 from the PAF, were involved in what was described as the largest beyond visual range engagement on the India–Pakistan border,[”
Perhaps, provided we had maps 6x the size of the current EC style maps. Though I think you’d agree you’ve picked a statistical outlier. Looking back at engagements since the Falklands this is really the only time it’s happened. Even in the Gulf, where there were masses of aircraft operating in theatre, you’d still only be looking at a coalition CAP flight of 2-4 vs. 2-4 Iraqi’s.
Those 114 aircraft also included strike packages with no specific A-A tasking, unless we had actual meaningful objectives in game then the numbers aren’t really comparable to a WT TDM slugging match.
It was meant a bit as a Joke, but if there were utility and support planes flying around on the maps it could probably get close to those numbers.
Whats ec?
Fair enough, that’s actually something I’d quite like to see tbh. Even perhaps a HAVCAP mode where you need to defend/destroy a Tanker/AWACS/Elint platform.