CVs are more or less fine IMO. It all comes down to what kind of CAP the players are willing to put up.
If everybody is saying "geez, I don't want to fly a such a boring task" then there's no on earth a way that people will be satisifed with the CV. It's basically asking for the game/system to compensate for the lack of brains and organization due to the laziness.
In reality, assuming an equal number of forces collide, a CV discovered is a CV dead. The battles in the Pacific rotated around long hours of searching, using brains, trying to figure out where the enemy CV is. Launching the first strike was THE most important aspect of CV attack. Since the MA is very limited, naturally, setting up a good CAP becomes even moreso important than anything else.
Widewing mentions only 8% of aircraft got through BARCAP, but lets not forget that 8% was enough to cause high levels of alarm in the ranks of the US Navy. The Kamikazes themselves would never have stopped Japan from defeat, but the destruction they caused was sheer terror. A single plane smashing into a ship would easily cripple it, and would create hundreds of casualties.
Now, compare that to the MA, where the opposing forces are rarely in a bad condition as Japan was, capable of putting massive number of respawning planes in the air. In the MA, one must assume that every enemy aircraft near the CV is potentially a kamikaze. If a CV stays in a furball area one must assume, that its gonna go down sooner or later.
The largest strengths of a CV lies in the fact that its a mobile airfield, capable of silently approaching an enemy base and striking it.
If a CV-launched assault to a nearby land base does not achieve total air superiority within minutes of first strike, then it's basically piss-poor tactics for the 'admiral'.
If a large furball grows around the CV then its a failure. The strengths of the CV - stealth and mobility - is quickly compromised, and it soon turns into an all-out air battle with one side using a limited plane set, and the other using a full plane set. In that condition - the CV will go down, if it stays there.
You guys should be thinking of ways to avoid that situation, before complaining the CV is too weak. It's the same thing as A2A combat - if a bogey latches behind you, you're basically dead. One should be thinking of not letting that situation commence in the first place, instead of complaining the plane is too weak against gunfire.
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Ofcourse, some situations are unavoidable. The MA is a '45 arena with late war monster planes carrying some 2000~5000lbs of ordnance and diving into the CV at speeds which most planes cannot catch. There are also the problems of lame-prettythang deck-running buffs and dive-bombing buffs. These problems should be addressed.
However, despite all that, with proper discretion the CV can be protected for a long time if people do it right.
Unfortunately, people just don't do it right.
