Love the constructive talk on addressing ASF blobs.
I hazard there's a consensus on the main problem being no counterplay--you build as many ASF as possible and move them around the map like a giant ball of steel wool to sweep up enemy air units.
As an occasional proponent of the anti-ASF AOE weapon I sense that actually executing on that in a manner that wouldn't screw the air game up would be extremely difficult for all the aforementioned reasons.
I think there's room for interesting changes in fuel. Either decrease fuel (simple) or introduce a fuel-consumption-to-shoot mechanic (for some/all aircraft--use your imagination). Reasons being:
- It's a flat nerf that doesn't impinge on other areas. Other air units have the same knob that can be used to balance in turn.
- It introduces a tradeoff between blob size vs. total aircraft in play vs. units available to respond to a threat. Right now there is no tradeoff--you keep your ASF in a ball and the biggest ball wins.
I'd say the radar/intel/interception game is otherwise pretty good, all it needs is an incentive to not send every available ASF out whenever 5< blips pop up. Limiting fuel so that sending out the whole blob has the possibility to leave you exposed would do so.