ORIGINAL: LargeSlowTarget
Interesting discussion. Yes, from my experience heavy bombers will get through no matter what. And Allied fighter are not weak in 1942. I have recently suffered a devastating air offensive in my PBEM against Ed aka IdahoNYer. I have seen B-17Es being outnumbered 10:1 by my CAP fighters - and the bombers got through without losses. I have also seen enemy sweeps being vastly outnumbered (for example 48:3, 45:2) - and getting away without losses and with kills on their own (A6M2, A6M3 and Oscars IIB vs. Wildcats and Beaufighters, not P-38s). That's with exp/air/def = 50+/70+/60+ pilots with good morale etc. flying at max altitude allowed for the "second-best mnvr band" house rule. I know that I am not the best player and I may not use optimal settings, still I expected less lopsided results in Nov 1942. 80% of my unrestricted air and ground forces are engaged in just trying to hold Burma against the Allied onslaught - something must be wrong with history [;)]. Kudos to Ed, he's a worthy opponent.
No offense meant but you are certainly doing something wrong. As a rule of thumb allied 4Es will suffer around 1 downed plane
for every airborne enemy fighter. This after OPS losses are counted. If they are getting through without losses you have your CAP placed at the wrong altitude. So he is either flying above or under your CAP. Considering allied replacements rate you can ill afford doing unescorted strikes where enemy CAP is present.
Regarding the 2nd maneuver band HR its actually one of the worst and most disruptive HRs you can have. As Japan this should give you a huge boost in 42 and 43 where you have the Tojo (which by your HR has access to the 31k altitude). In contrast only the Hurricane IIc and P38s have access to the same altitude. The backbone of the Allied air force the P39 and P40s doesn´t. So you should be crushing your opponent with high altitude sweeps placed above his CAP.
All this will of course change when the P47 arrives. They in turn have access to an ever higher altitude so your opponent will sweep you into oblivion until you can throw out thousands of Frank "Rs" which have access to the same MVR band as the P47. You can then put up a good fight and overwhelm P47s by sheer numbers.
This is the main problem with the 2nd MVR band HR. Its makes the entire air war about which planes have access to which altitude bands. Highest wins. I would strongly recommend to do away or change the HR. Personally I use a max altitude HR which is the same for both sides. This somewhat negates the insane dive bonus.
I would recommend you to read Obverts AAR when he was playing me a couple of years back. We used the same HR and Erik was absolutely killing me in the air until I got the Hellcat and P47.