Ah I see well then since you're all newer I recommend trying to see what you can take advantage from World 2 since that's likely going to be the first place you can go look for larger ships like the Kongous and the like. You probably will have time to train them too since you'll need them for E-1.
Also Rand, you might want to rethink that, E-3 is going to introduce a whole new combine fleet mechanic. Please reffer to Transport Escort Fleet on the
wiki for more details.
In the meantime, lemme talk about my experience:
E-3: Continuing the painful transport campaginIf there was a word to describe this map... it's stressful. Primary because you're setting up the a new combined fleet known as the Transport Escort Fleet.
To explain this fleet in a nut shell. This is a fleet that's designated for transporting supplies which means it's geared toward lighter ships.
The main fleet needs to have... 4 DDs the rest of it can be anything other than a Carrier or Regular Battleship unit. So yeah Aviation Battleships are fine here.
The Second fleet will be mainly a CL, about 3 DD and a choice between several other ships that are not regular battleships or carriers.
So who I ended up using was:
Fleet 1:
Akitsumaru, Mogami, Z1, Z3, Tanikaze, and Shiratsuyu
Fleet 2:
Abukuma, Hatsushimo, Yukikaze, Haguro, Kinugasa, Ayanami
Fleet one outside Mogami and Akitsumaru were armed with nothing but Drums and a gun. Mogami was geared to fight and provide additional air coverage. Akitsumaru was decked out with the best possible planes she had. The Type 53 Zero Fighter and The Reppu Kai along with a fleet command Center as a procaution.
As you'll learn quickly the first fleet will not be able to do much battling. So it's best to have thier be armed with drums since that'll help proceed beating the map quicker.
You'll proceed to the first node which mainly consist of some light enemy ships... nothing threatening, afterward you have a choice to choose a path.... I never went south so I'm not going to talk about it. But be warned... if you have an Aviation Battleship in your team you will be directed to a night battle node which will consist of...
Patrol Boat Imp Groups
These little monsters are the new enemy of the event map. They don't much have much HP, but they make up for this by being
INSANELY agile and having torpedoes strong enough to cripple your team something awful.To make matter worse, due to thier small size, attacking them with battleships and with big guns will be futile effort as it's like trying to kill a fly with a bazooka in an open field. You have to lean to using one of the following:
Arming a larger ship or smaller ship with a secondary gun like a 15.5cm triple mount (Secondary) or using small ships like light cruiser and DD to kill these little guys off. Only small ships will be able to damage these guys without having to use modified weapons. So choosing a decent way to manage your ships and equipment will be important.
Since these guys are such an annoyance, I chose to not go this path, and proceed to the norther path.
You'll encounter a batch of heavy cruisers in the later nodes, which may include a Ne-class. And then after that you'll hit your transport point. From there you'll encounter one more node that will consist of a Ru BB which will be problematic, but probably manageable if your fleet can endure the punishment.
Finally you'll reach the boss node and encounter...
Seaplane Tender HimeAs one would expect, the Seaplane Tender Hime is not a hard boss to manage, but she's kind of a pain mainly because of her companions she has in tow.
Since I play hard mode, I will note that my fight consist of 1 Gold Ta, 1 Red Ta, and a few Destoyers.
If you do not have enough planes to gain air partiality over her, expect to have a painful time. This is why Akitsumaru, Hayasui, a Seaplane Tender, or Aviation Cruisers are a must for this fight. (And Aviation Battleships, if you can put up with the PT Imp nonsense, but that would be insane.)
IF you gain air partiality over her, you should be able to survive in decent condition and be able to proceed to the night battle which you'll need to at least pick off her destroyers and a battleship to win. My team was built to take out everyone.... sadly still no Mizuho.. so I'll make plans to visist her later...
On final kill one Ta will be changed into a gold Ta, and the destroyers will become elite late models.
As a word of advice, if you're on the verge of beating the map (say you have 30 or less points left.) Just remove your drums and go all out offensive. You should be able to win.
those who beat the map will earn:
Training Cruiser KashimaAs another member of the Training Cruiser Family, Kashima is a lovely new addition to the fleet as she will be good to helping you train your ship girls in the battle. As usual, her benefit is she give an experience boost to when you partake in Naval Practice (PVP) and by being used in the Training Cruiser Program Expedition. So try putting her into use to help speed train your Kanmusus, it'll help a great deal. She should be able to stack exp boost along side Katori (If you own her) to some degree too. And remember, the higher her level, the better the experience boost she'll provide.
E-4: Underestimating Submarines...Everyone talks about how easy this map is.... but it's probably because most player have a tendency to play on normal or lower especially since this map has become a
Popular HOT SPOT for this event. For me though... I'm asking for challenges, not taking the easy way out of anything.
So of course I had to Hard mode this from the start...
Leave it to me to find out what challenges await for me here....
This map is a combined fleet operation and you will be utilizing ASW gear for this map as well. So it's a map you need to carefully organize your fleet to have the proper balance between combat and Submarine combat.
So let's begin by explain the path to the boss...
You start with going either west or south depending on your fleet type you use. Surface goes West, Carrier group goes south.
The West node will have a submarine group, The South Node will have a small fleet with a Nu carrier.
On the south route, if you do not have Akitsushima, or are not using an Italian ship of some kind (Littorio, Roma, or Libeccio) you have a strong chance of being thrown north to another sub node.
Once the Carrier and Suface task force handle the subs, they'll have a choice to take. to get to the boss, you'll need to stay on the south path.
From here, you're going to engage, the "Wo Gauntlet" which will consist of a Wo Flagship on one node, and then a Wo Kai on the node afterward. If you can make it through that in one piece, then you'll hit a choice to go to Node M or continue west to the boss node.
you'll encounter one more batch of subs before hand....
But once that's over, you'll be up against a new kind of enemy...
The Submarine HimeThe Subhime in and of herself isn't particularly a hard boss. If you manage your team correctly, it's quite possible to beat her down... however be advise that her final form will present some trouble...
As she will get a drastic armor boost. Player playing from normal or Easy might still be able to kill her without performing the "armor debuffing" strategy.
Hard on the other hand... requires making a gigantic forice of ASW specialists... or... doing the following....
Debuffing the Subhime's armorThe Submarine hime is a powerful boss, but she can be taken down with a well planed strategy. There are two points that you need to plan an attack on.... Node J and Node M. Node J takes place along a north route, where you should probably take the Carrier task force to engage the node. You'll face off Ru Blockade before node J.
Node J has the
Seaport Hime in her powered up form. She will also be
accompanied by several transports and 2 PT Imp Groups. Type 3 shells and WG42s are a must for the escort team, but remember to find a
balance between heavy weapons and secondary ones as you will need to dispatch the imps. The last thing you want is your Battleships attacking the PT Imps and letting the attack go to waste.
Node M consist of a
Anchorage Water Demon (who can be in her powered up form) who is
accompanied by the same fleet as the Seaport Hime.Same strategy applies here.
You need to kill installations from J and M twice for the debuff effect to take place.From there, you have to use a
Carrier Task Force and reach the boss node This is the only way to get the debuff to happen. Using a STF will result in the debuff not happening.
When you do it the right way this is what should result is this.
Prior to the debuff, the Submarine Hime mocks you for your attempt to battle her as she litterally taunts you everytime she's hit.
But in this cause, once she's debuffed, she becomes enraged and in turn also goes into a complete panic once she's attacked.
You should be able to cut through her like butter once you do this killing her with minimal effort.
Now the only thing you need to learn from here is to find a good balance of offensive capabilities and ASW.
Cause most of the time, when you fight the sub hime, you're also going to fight either a Wo-kai or a Battleship Hime (hard mode only). You're going to need to be able to kill the subs and the tough targets to S-rank here as much as possible.
You can choose to brute force it an pray to kill her or debuff her and make life easier. Whatever floats your boat.
If you're lucky enough you'll be able to encounter a new foreigner in the process via drop.
German Aircraft Carrier Graf ZeppelinGraf Zeppelin is the new edition to foreign ship girls in the game. And she's rather... unique....
On the most part, Graf Zeppelin, does not have a large plane capacity like the other ship girls, In fact she has the
lowest in the game. But as shocking at that might be, this fits well to her historic counterpart as Germans we're not famialr with designing ships to hold planes of mass capacity....
On the other hand though... she makes for this by being allowed to...
attack in night battles!
With a gun equipped, Graf can fire away at enemies in the night. Making her pretty much a very unique carrier / surface assault hybrid. So plan her equipment accordingly since she can fight at night.
Hunting Prinz Eugun
This has been a big talk since the event started, but it's also something I want to note to people who are playing the game since rumors are flying out of control in some locations.
As many probably know, Prinz drops on note M, but it should be noted, that one need to plan out how they're going to hunt for Prinz Eugun since there are unique restrictions to take into account.
Players
playing from Easy difficulty, have confirmed from
Poi's reports that as it currently stands.... Prinz will only drop from the Enemy Line Ahead formationon S-rankOn Normal and Higher, Prinz will have a drop on S rank regardless of the formation the enemy uses.
So if you're hunting for her, I recommend thinking carefully before approaching M since the difficulty you choose
WILL affect how she will dropKeep in mind, the information may be taken as a grain of salt, a
s anything from a report may change this, but this is how most people view the drop as it stands.
I'm spent my time hunting for Graf yesterday but didn't get anywhere.... ;_;
In the course of the debuff period I obtained....
4 Maruyus, 1 Akitsumaru (from M debuff) and a Tokitsukaze.... what a day that was... and I'm playing this on hard. XD
Also I will note that I will be resuming the stream following Black Friday. And will put my focus on wrapping up the event itself first before returning to Graf Hunting.....
