Did E1 Hard for the fancy daihatsu then cruised the rest on EZ like a filthy casual. E2 E3 E5 light fleet maps zzzzzzzz. I'll do harder modes when rewards are worth something :derp:
E7 is easier than E6 or E5 because you can send all your airbase planes to the boss and nuke everything which is hilarious. Getting there is probably more annoying than killing the boss for the higher difficulties.
Iowa <3
In before you got fudge over for now getting good land based planes for future events once they finish retweaking the mess they made here.
E-5 is over and dear god it was rough...
E-5 Tempting Faith in the Lycoris Flower FieldE-5 in the simplest of terms on Hard mode is basiclly the equipvalant of say.... "Playing Battle Toads and playing the Turbo Tunnel for the first time", if you get my reference, then 1. Great Job, now you know how rough the experience was and 2. You're probably an old cogger like me.
Basically this is a to raid an airbase in the Solomons. Which is thankfully a single fleet. But this doesn't save you from the fact that you're fleet is going to have to go through a gauntlet to survive this event.
It's commonly preffered to use a carrierless fleet for this map since the north route will have you go through lots of air raid nodes which could put your fleet at risk. So let's run down what you're fleet can consist of.
Most people use the baisic set up of 4 DD + 2 CAV, this set up is decent for taking care of most of the map if you have a support fleet and they do thier responsibilities.
You can also do one AV + 3 DD + 1 CL + 1 CAV. This combination is good if you especially have Mizuho since she can take out early enemy DDs before the fight starts. But again depends heavily on your fleet to pull through.
Finally there's 2 BBV + 3 DD +1CAV. This combination is good for making your fleet brute force through the nodes, but can be problmatic since you have to go through one more battle.
You're Land Base Squadron should be set to do one of two things:
Either you have them assigned to launch and all out attack on the boss node, or you sent one to attack and the other to defend the base. The Former is the preffered option ESPECIALLY on the final kill phase.
Support Fleets on both ends are a MUST as the enemy fleets while not threatening on a usual stand point can do a number on you if enough of them survive. So wiping them out is important.
So let's go do a run down on the map.
First node is a sub node full of Ka-classes in all different color, not threatening, besides the risk of begin hit hard.
Second node consist of some regular DDs, a late model DD, a Ri-class CA, and a He and Hi-class Light Cruisers.
Support fleet here is kinda needed since you might want to take out the light cruisers and DD before the salvo (unless they're in double line)
Following that you go in one of two directions:
You take a north eastern path to a supply node which gives you ammo and fuel or...
If you use a fleet with BBVs in them you'll go to the south east path where you fight... one of the following combinations:
1 Nu-class CVL, 2 Ru-class BBs, 1 Tsu-class CL, and 2 DDs in daimond formation...OR
2 Ru-class BBs, 1 Ne-Class CA, 1 Nu-class CVL, and 2 DDs in the line ahead or double line formation.
Your likely hood of survival here depends on your support fleet and who you target. As it's quite easy to take serious damage here... But making it through, you then go to the next node which will be an Air-raid attack node.
Where you'll confront a batch of air fields that will launch planes from the distance. Pray you have some AACI set up here because that will save you so much pain... Also
THIS NODE is important for a later map (E-6) so S-rank it if you can!
Then you follow up with a node whre you fight a batch of DDs, 1 CL, 1 Ri-Class CA, and a Ne-class CA. If it's in double line, you might make it through, but if it's in line ahead, pray your support fleet takes out the CAs.
Only after you go through this gaunlet do you have to face the boss of this area...
Lycoris Hime
Lycoris Hime is a rather tough installation which will come with a Wa-Class Flagship Transport, 2 Ru-Class BB Flagships, and 2 RO-class Late Model DDs. What makes this fight hard is that no matter what you can do here,
YOU'RE NOT going to get Air Superiority of any kind.Depending on how you want to tackle the map, the best you can hope for is a deadlock where neither side doesn't get any form of air superiority (allowing for a minimum chance for the RU-classes to double attack.
Your Support Fleet is a must here here as it'll improve your odds of survival. And Personally using both of your Air Sqaudrons to increase the likely hood you weaken or damage the Hime and her mooks.
Everything rides on that and who you hit during the fight and hoping don't get damaged from it.
WG42s and Type 3 shells are important for here.
So from this, all you can do is pray everythign rides on your hands correctly...
The fleet I used was: Mizuho, Akizuki, Yuudachi, Kawakaze, Yuubari, and Tone for the inital run (which was a high risk / high reward fleet)
For the final kill, this changed drastically to a battle using: Ise, Akizuki, Yuudachi, Kawakaze, Hyuuga, and Tone.
Again the BBVs and CAV were armed with Type 3s, AKizuki was the designated AACI specialist, Yuudachi and Kawakaze were damage pitching DDs with a WG42s to do damage to Lycoris.
The final kill was harder as the enemy fleets were tough and I had to deal with constant disadvantage position in battle.
ALso before I forget, on two random occasions, Lycoris can launch an air raid on your base. If you have someone set on Air Defesne, you can protect your base minimzing the damage (If the enemy does manage to damage your base significant, you are at risk of your planes losing rank and using more resources to repair planes) Other than that, it might be worth risking since it might be smarter to just go for sending your whole air squadron to the Hime node to take her down.
The only thing that changes in final kill is that you get Ha-class Elite Late Model DDs. Everything else is mostly the same...
For me to win this fight... I literally took a gamble.....I decided to push my fleet while Kawakaze was heavily damaged!
When I arrived at the boss fleet, the air squadron damaged the RU signicantly, the Support fleet took out the Wa, the Ru and 1 HA Late DD. Ise took out another DD, Which left the remainig team to tick away damage at Lycoris and the BB. Kawakaze managed to escape from taking harm.
Ise took serious damage.
Night battle goes in, Hyuuga damages Lycoris, Akizuki kills the Ru, Yuudachi chips Lycoris, and Tone delivers the killing blow... ending this night mare....
I sware, this map gave me a run for my money, it was more troublesome than I expect, but the reward for all the trouble was worth it!
As I bagged 7 Screw Yous, 1 Type 3 Fighter Hien, 1 Type 3 Fighter 244th Air Squadron, the Raiden, and the third Air base and finally....the big prize....
Zara Class Italian CA Pola
Another member of the Zara-Class. Pola is another example of a CA with very long range, but with low accuracy, and also lacking in torpedo strength (due to thier historic background of not really being equipped to launch torpedoes at the beginning) But being they are Italian ships, they still benefit for being able to use Seaplane fighters!
Outside of that.... She's drunk as hell....
Now with that, the main and extra Operation is done, only the late Operation reaminds... the final challenge waits me in these last two levels of hell....
