The reason the CV didn't go down is because for gameplay reasons the CV hardness is around 8000 lbs of ordnance. I checked the raw data and the "Lady Lex" was hit by 18 bombs. Unfortunately, the logs do not state whether they were 250kg or 50kg.
out of the 18 bombs that hit, only 4 pilots hit with all three of their eggs. These are the only confirmed 250kg bombs and 50kg bombs (4 250's and 8 50's for 1400 kgs worth) The other 6 bombs we don't know about. However, two pilots hit with one, and two pilots hit with two, so I'd venture to guess it was 2 250's and 4 50's (since the 250 drops alone and the 50's drop together, if salvoed). That's about 700kg worth. Best case scenario would be 4 250's and 2 50's. for 1100kg. Worst case is 6 50's for just 300kg.
So you've got between 1700kg and 2500kg hitting the Lex. The 2500kg is about 5500lbs, which is nowhere near enough to sink the ship. 11 Vals fully on target would come close to 8000lbs. Basically, we really needed some of the TBMs to get the torps on target to sink the ship.
We (BigMax and I) thought about reducing the ship hardness before the event, however, since it was Nef's writeup and he didn't specify we left it alone.
It would have been an awesome sight if Aces High had progressive damage for ships. The Lex would have been belching a LOT of black smoke and I doubt would have been able to recover any planes. The guys woulda had to land on the Yorktown.
