So I got through E-5 Hardcore mode....
What can I say? It's a romp through the park.... And Akitsushima made life easier.... I net lots of bauxite, ammo and dev materials.... it was actually a relaxing change of pace compared to the usual routine.
Everything went smoothly up until the final kill... only then did that map went from Easy to Hard...
In Hardcore mode, the Battleship Hime comes with a Nu-class Light Carrier, a Ne-Class heavy Cruiser, A Ri-Class Heavy Cruiser, an 2 kai-yo-ken Destroyers. She went from becoming a joke to becoming a harder to kill target because of her friends she had in tow. I had to resort to a boss support fleet to deliver the final kill. Which would of been simple if it wasn't for the Armored Carrier Hime messing my run up...
3 TIMES IN A ROW!!! and the once in a blue moon occasions where a golden transport ship would
crit Hatsushimo!Thankfully once I did make it and got the boss support fleet to take action everything came easily...
So my mind was put to rest as they support fleet manage to maim most of the enemies, and made killing the Battleship Hime easy.
So yeah... E-5 Hardcore Mode... great for collecting resources, bad killing BattleB**ches.
Oh and I got some prizes which included maritime supplies, 7 Screw Yous , Rations, a medal and probably the best thing was....
Italian Maestrale class Destroyer LibeccioAnother member of the Italian Ship Girls has joined the party! Lebiccio is one of a few series of Italian Destoyers that introduced the 120mm twin gun that would become a standard for Italian Destroyers for WWII.
Personally she's cute, which is enough for me to appreciate having her as a member of the team. I've also went killed 10 CVs and did the combined fleet quest also thus completing all the Event Related quests.
Thus Entering the next Area....
E-6: Advancing to Operation FS, and why CLTs are a bad thing...So, I took a shot at making a Carrier Escort Team for E-6... Since E-3's team can be used here I put together the fleet consisting of....
Fleet 1: Akagi, Kaga, Souryuu, Shoukaku, Hiei, and Nagato
Fleet 2: Ooyodo, Akizuki, Prinz Eugun, Haguro, Bismarck, and Ushio.
This would be the fleet that would lead me to the boss node.. .but before that I partook in an experiment....
The CLT experimentWhile CLTs are not recommended for this map due to going to a dead end.. I heard a story that suggested there's a way to go around that problem....
However... the experiment would invovle certain fleet members....
You needed to take south route to do this... which invovled you having a certain fleet members in your combined fleet...
Fubuki + Furutaka
Yuudachi + Ayanami
Hiei + Kirishima
Thankfully I reserved the third members to try this and used Ooi... what I learned is...
EHIS IS A VERY BAD AND IS NOT RECOMMENDED UNDER ANY NORMAL LEVEL!!You're forced to go through 6 battles with this fleet combination....
2 Sub fights, 1 Night Battle, and then the option to choose to take the north air raid route, or take the south night battle route! It's a VERY DANGEROUS thing to do as you will be out of fuel by the time you reach the boss node... period....
You're simply better of just not using a CLT at all and just going through it normally. Thus I removed Ooi and put in Bismarck, and replaced Kirishima with Nagato and called it a day....
The north route is probably the least painful route.. if you have enough air defense to with stand the punishment.....
Then taking to the north should make life easier.... You will have to go through swarms of
nasty super Takoyakis Wos though. So pray your AA cut-ins work. As it'll save your Kanmusus lives and your planes... unless yours planes are aiming for an elite Tsu-class.. then kiss your top ranked planes goodbye.
The one thing I learned about this map is that the top route isn't painful if you got a good AACI team and lots of Reppu. Just make sure you reserve some Carriers' larger slots for your bombers / torpedo bombers since keeping thier rank up is key to making through this in one piece.
I haven't tried the south route, but I hear it has a night battle section there... which I may or may not play with.... but I hear good stuff can be found down there however....
Anyways once you reach the boss you have to fight...
The Aircraft Carrier Hime has not changed that much since past battles, so she's going to be a tough adversary to fight like usual, but also she's going to be hard to take down... however... what really tops the cake here is the fact you besides the hime herself, she doesn't have anyone else to support her in terms of air support.... so your 4 carriers should be more than enough to gain Air Superiority....
However it doesn't mean she doesn't have a bunch of powerful friends with her....
A bunch of strong AA supportive friends that is....
So yeah... she can still mess up your fleet during air phase.. .but it's not goign to be a likely case she herself will pose as much of a threat a her friends will..
With 3 Kai-oh-Ken Destoyers a Tsu-class Light Cruiser (AKA the plane killer) and a Battleship Hime you know you're in for one hell of a ride....
I've only made one attempt so far, and I will say this is manageable... but I'm going to make sure my entire fleet is sparkled... this is not an enemy fleet I will take lightly.... and those destroyers
WILL WRECK YOU!!! You must kill them before they launch torpedoes at your escort fleet! As they will
INSTANTLY CRIT YOU!I only took her down 1/3 of her HP for the fight.. but as I said this looks like a manageable battle... just got to my ducks in a row.... The question is... how much will I suffer before I get my big prize..... the Prototype Flight Deck Catapult
Also if you're luckly enough, you might find this....
Yuugumo-Class DD KazagumoAnother Yuugumo DD... again, you probably will want her for her rare equipment + skilled look out you can get... that's generally the main reason people hunt for Yuugumo.
I think this wraps up what I was going to say... let's see if I can survive hell.