mos, last night I defended our own CV162 for an hour, until it got out of enemy range, alone in a F6F-5, against eight people attempting to kill it.
Ofcourse, our 5 inch guns were also manned.
...
JB42 is right. What it really boils down to is whether or not if somebody is really willing to do that "boring" and "not fun" task, in benefit of others.
It is only natural that if you park a CV near a base, and don't have sufficient numbers of people to suppress it quick, people - kamikaze or not - will go after the CV. It is after all, a primary target.
So, how do CVs get sunk in MA?
Unlike an airbase which cannot move, the CV is a mobile platform. When in bad odds, it can always try and retreat, come back later in fresh shape. But the problem is, people neglect that fact, and treat it as an insta-furball machine, permanently embedded 5~10 miles outside enemy base.
So, in a hairy furball(which, also means that quick base suppression has already failed), unless there are people who can see one~two moves ahead of the defenders, there is always bound to be a defender or two slipping through the gobs of attackers and going to the CV. Or, stay near hostile shores too long, and you bet there's gonna be pack of buffs coming to hunt it down, lifting from another field.
Nobody foresees that? Then the CV dies.
Everybody sees it coming, but too lazy to defend it? The CV dies.
When the CV turns away and runs to open sea, as soon as it escapes the radar range its chances of survival go way up. The further you move from the shore, the further and longer the enemy has to travel. With each wave of attack thwarted, the CV hunters have to up again with those heavy ordnance, and get to alt again.
Practically, this whining about toughness of CVs is just like JB said. People want to park the CV near enemy base, with virtually no threat to it, and overwhelm the defenders and vulch the crap out of it, without having to do any tedious but vital chores such as "defense". Its got auto-flak, the ack-barrier, spawns PTs, GVs, aircraft, gun batteries.. wow, all that firepower and no need to defend it at all. Just attack and attack and attack.
Frankly, nothings gonna satisfy the furball lovers until the CV is whined to its invincibility. As long as they refuse to cooperate with the strat lovers, and ignore imminent threats and have their own fun, they gonna pay the consequences for it.
Nobody can dictate how you fly? That's good.
Then, you will not dictate to anybody how they deal with you, or your strat/tactical targets.
