Well... it's time to write up the report... I might as well cover E-6 and E-7....
E-6 No more toying arround... it's time to get serious...Pretty much fighting off the carrier hime convivces me I needed not just a strong fleet, but also a fleet capable of maiming the enemy entire enemy fleet leaving the hime vulnerable... As I learned the combined fleet isn't enough, ESPECIALLY for the super evasive Ni-class Destoyers so I did the only thing I could think of to do... but WAY earlier.... Use the power of my support fleet to score the kills and get to the final kill as quickly as possible....
The final kill wasn't much different.... they only switched out one Ni-class for a Tsu-class mainly so they could swat down more planes.... that's really about it....
Since Tsu-classes were capable of taking down 20 bomber planes in one go it's again wise to make sure your fleet has the torpedo bomber planes placed in the highest slot so they can at least survive without loosing thier expertise.
Again a support fleet is a life saver there since they'll likely take down all the grunts leaving only the carrier hime and the Battle Ship Hime.
So after a few battles later... this happened...
E-6 done!While I did score a lot of screw, maritime supplements, and other goodies, the highlight of the event run however was obtaining this...
The Prototype flight deck catapult!
This items has no use ATM, but it will after this event is over since
Shoukaku and Zuikaku are expected to get a Kai Ni!... but it's going to need... THIS ITEM to make this possible.... and since you're only going to get one these leave you to ask.....
who are you going to give the Kai Ni to?But now that E-6 is done.... there was only one challenge left....
True Hell was awaiting me....
E-7
This was it... the final challenge awaited me..... but as I learned... this was not going to be a simple challenge by many means..... E-7 is the first map that presents a whole new challenge to players unlike anything anyone else has ever done... and if you know your history behind the planned
Operation FS then you know what the objective was to do but it would play a key role in playing through the event... so let me give you and summary of what you must do...
Operation FS is the first map that will have you gaining access to a majority of your fleet members for the battle outside of E-5's fleet. This is important because you will be using a majority of your fleet to tackle the tasks present here.... to so to explain the objective...I shall explain the target first....
The target is a new hime based Destoyer built with a very high Anti Air system known as the
Air Defense Hime
While the idea of taking down an anti air destroyer may seem simple in concept... anyone who jumps in first without looking around will learn quickly... she is
HIGHLY ARMORED and most of your teams attacks will not dent her very much.
In fact most attacks will scratch her at most! This is because she is being protected by an external force around the map.... there are ports on the map that you need to go to and defeat!
The X and Y NodeBy defeating these areas and S ranking them 3 time each you'll weaken the Air Defense Hime's Armor to the point she'll become vulnerable enough to kill. However it'll still be a daunting task as you'll need to organize a fleet to tackle these nodes....
The best way I could describe the objective was through a series of foot notes I put together for my objective run which can be found here... (please do not mind the spelling mistakes....)
http://i.imgur.com/IxlaEDd.jpgSo in order to actually go through this map, and attack the X and Y node efficiently... it's highly recommended you use a Surface Task Force for it... if you have Akitsumaru... it'll make life so much easier....
Akitsumaru will automaticlly send your fleet to the direction of the X and Y nodes allowing for easy access to the nodes there... X has a Seaport Hime who is not too hard to kill since you're fleet's supplies are quite good at this point.... from there if you have Akitsumaru you should just bee-line it to Node Y where you'll fight....the Isolated Island Demon
Both fights are not hard, but they will invovle you using type 3 shells and a good strong fleet... also... be ready for subs too since they'll be present to hurt you....
Again, to weaken the hime's armor.. .you need to beat the two nodes down
3 time each!If you're lucky enough, you'll do it in 3 runs.
If you do not have Akitsumaru, then you'll need to Akitsushima to at least garuntee the X to Y route.. you'll still have a 75% change of going in the direction of the X and Y node route...
However if you don't have either... getting to Y will be a hard task....
My advice on that part would be do what you can for X and Y while doing the Surface Task Force runs... and if you can't hit Y and don't have Akitsumaru or Akitsushima... I go start chipping the boss but keep a fleet with type 3 ready as there is still a chance you'll go to the Y node sometime in between. This will take longer, but at least you'll start taking care of the boss WHILE also aiming to kill Node Y the 3 times you need to fully weaken the boss.
(Extra Note: For anyone who hears of the stories of the
K Node Theory... Wikiwiki has disproved that that location has no real value to the boss kill.... so take K node with a grain of salt. Especially when the devs mentioned in thier twitter that you are s
uppose to attack two supply locations to weaken the boss.)
Battling the Air Defense Hime
To get to the Hime, it's recommended that you have one of two kinds of fleet set ups....
The Carrier Task Force route.... or the Surface Task Force with Hayasui as back up group.
The Surface Task force using Hayasui mainly involves using Hayasui as a supply ship hauling the Maritime resupplies as you'll probably need her and Akitsumaru to go through the south route and go through a boss gauntlet of the Seaport hime, the Isolated island Demon and the BB Hime node. If you make it through all those... Hayasui should resupply your fleet with a little extra fuel and ammo if she has a maritime consumable accessible. Getting a fleet like that there should help your escort fleet have a better chance at the kill but again.... it's really risky..
On a more better alternative, the Carrier Task force route is technically easier to make it through as you don't have to deal with bosses along the way. You're carrier team (if the compass behaves) should go east past a tough surface fleet and then afterward past a pair of Wo-fleets.
The Wo-fleets are the ones you'll need to fear....
Both of the nodes on the way to the boss will have Wo-kais in them with that later having
2 of them! And both will have thier new Tako-yaki plane variations! With Hard mode having the
red ones!
Because of the difficulty of the map... it's highly recommended that you have an
inroute support fleet at the ready! As it will save you a lot of pain!
The Air Defense Hime is a very difficult opponent to take down as she's both very strong, hard hitting, and can endure a lot of damage.. if you at least followed the previous advice you will make her vulnerable when you score a crit making it possible to damage her hard on some cases.... during the initial phase. Just remember she's also got 2 Ni-class Destoyers, 2 Ne-class and a Battleship Hime in tow!
You probably might not kill her all the way unless you're lucky but if by some change your are that'll help a lot...
Draining the Hime's health will be daunting task that will take some time to do, but there is one more important reminder for all player to remember...
From the stroke of
Midnight JST the
hime's armor will reset! So when you're fighting her, it's highly recommended to do it in
one long binge.
Tick down as much health as you can in a day's time before midnight JST. As that will be key to winning the battle. You do not want to have to repeat the X and Y node hunts too many times if possible to save up on resources as the final kill might be a whole new beast (depending on the difficulty)
Also for the boss fight...
BOSS SUPPORT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDOnce you're close to the final kill things change up... for most players, you'll likely get a slight variation of enemy fleets with either more Ni-classes or Ne classes... but for hard mode.. I get to face this...
I'm so looking forward to that.....
So yeah I get Double Battleship Himes....
The fight goes from possible to absolutely insane.....
With two super deadly destoyers, two super agile cruiser, 2 super tanky battleships and a hime who can plow through your planes and also wreck your fleet in many ways you're facing a truely hard opponent for once.
I spent the whole night trying to finish her on the first night... but it proved to be no use as I was unable to deliver the kill....
I also ended up blowing through almost all my resources.. and so I decided to spend the next few days recovering.....
5 days later... I had 32k fuel and ammo....enough for me to attempt the map again....
Again I beat down X and Y this time 4 times due to the (placebo theory)
And then reattempted the run to the boss....
While Operation God Slayer does summarize my fleet to some degree.. the ultimate change was this....
Fleet 1
Hiryuu, Yamato, Nagato, Maya (set up as a pure AA support), Akagi, Kaga
Fleet 2
Abukuma (starshells), Bismark(Searchlight), Myoukou (night plane), Prinz Eugen (Mix cut-in). Shigure (Torpedo cut-in), Yukikaze (Pure Torpedo cut in)
It would take 12 more hours of runs doing nothing but an all sparkled fleet on all fleets but eventually with this set up.... everything came together for the final kill on one of the most unlikely outcomes....
DUring the day fight.. I Nagato has to be pulled out early one due to Wo-kai fight leaving only Yukikaze to stand in.
And while the fight started to have perditable outcome... out of the blue... Yamato lands a critical doing over 125 damage to the Air Defense Hime half way killing her on the spot.... and while two himes still stood... bismarck's search light managed to draw the enemies attention as planned which allowed for Prinz and Yukikaze to take the shots.... Prinz shot the BB himes... and then Yukikaze....
Slays the Air Defense Hime...
It's over.... it's FINALLY OVER!!!!
Almost two solid days of tourture and I managed to finally beat this event from top to bottom... on
HARDCORE MODE!!!And for all the trouble I earned my final prize from the event....
The Second Akizuki-class Air Defense Destroyer - TeruzukiTeruzuki is another destoyer from the Akizuki class which means she'll be geared towards Anti-Air combat. As it turns out she's almost as good as Akizuki herself making her another good member for AA support.
While her IJN career was short..... she still notable for being part of series of late WWII destroyers that was a part of the Air Defense Destroyer division that served her short time in the Solomon seas.
Hopefully she'll last longer by your side....
With that I got some reinforcement expansions, 2 medals, 3 rations... and...
The Hardcore MedalOnce again proving that I'm the Manliest of manly admirals in all of Burnei!
Also remember this... among the 19% of players that beat E-7....
only 5-7% beat that map on hard difficulty.... guess who's a part of the legends now... : )
With that.. the event is over........
AfterthoughtThis event was the most challenge event I ever layed witness to... it was far more than I naturally anticipated it to be. And I for once will say... despite all the negative responds... I for once actually felt challenged with this event map... something that I rarely felt with most maps....
Everything seemed too easy up till now... but I can now say... that for once I felt alive playing this event... as it challenged me in ways I never though I see this game do!
And for once I actually was defeated temporary before returning back to deliver vengeance upon the Air Defense Hime a few days later.
For an event to put me in such a position where I actually suffered and struggled to win is to me a sign of a true challenge! This is the
New Iron Bottom Sound and
I lived through it all....
Overall I blasted through 140k fuel, 120k ammo, maybe 100k steel, and 40k bauxite! Truly the event of legends.....
E-1 - E-7 ALL HARD MODE DIFFICULTY.....COMPLETENow I just got to recover some and then spend the last few days farming for Mizuho, Umikaze, and Kazagumo. That's all I got left to do now... I'm just glad the main part of this ordeal is over... and once again... I'm among the legends....
