Sandbox/2018WinterReview

E-4

Note: All info is currently based upon initial reports, so take the advice with caution before using your fleet regarding what may come in later missions.

Event Planning

• This map utilizes the same locks as E-2. However, Fast speed is no longer a hard requirement, although some restrictions still apply (maximum number of 3 ships with base Slow speed, regardless of use of engine equipment; see branching rules).

• While Shimakaze, Naganami, and Okinami can be used for E-4 as part of the historical fleet there, they can also have an important roles for E-5 and E-6 please weigh your options before locking them into the fleet you want to use them in.

• CAVs like Suzuya, Kumano, Tone, and Chikuma can be used for E-4 as part of the historical fleet there, but you may need to also use CAVs for later sections of E-5 and E-6. Please carefully plan where you distribute your CAVs before locking them in your fleet.

Tag Notes

• This map requires you to organize the Kurita Fleet and Nishimura Fleet.
  • For more details on Historical Kurita/Suzuki and Nishimura Fleet members, please view the Historical Background for more details.
• Ships formed in the Combined Fleet with no tag will use the Kurita Fleet Tag.
  • When forming the Kurita Fleet, you can use both the Kurita and Suzuki Fleet members.
• Ships formed in the Striking Force Fleet with no tag will be marked as the Nishimura Fleet Tag.

Recommended Composition:

• Nishimura Fleet Composition:
  • Standard Nishimura Fleet Composition - 2 BBV, 1 CAV, 4DD (Nishimura Fleet members required Easy - 3 , Normal - 5, Hard - 6)
    
• Kurita Fleet Composition:
  • 2-4 (F)BB, 0-2 CA(V) 2 CVL / 1 CL, 1-2CA, 2-3 DD, 0-1 CLT 0-1 AO (Kurita Fleet members required Easy - 5 , Normal - 7, Hard - 10) - At most 3 Slow ships are allowed (Note: The slow ships that can be used are based upon their original speed. Modifying their speed to make their speed Fast will not override the speed restriction.)
    • AO can be considered for Final Kill as a possible strategy.

Unlocking the Boss Node

• Casual: Reach Node M
• Easy: Reach Node N
• Med: Score B+ Rank at Node N
• Hard: Score A+ Rank at Node N

About Friend Fleets
Beginning with this map, players will be introduced to a new mechanic known as the Friend Fleet. This mechanic causes a random fleet of NPC allies to aid you in battle at the boss node, once the night battle sequence commences. The NPC friend fleets vary in actual utility in combat due to composition and equipment.

In this battle, there are 5 different possible Friend Fleets that can arrive to help:

• Nishimura Fleet - Fusou, Yamashiro, Mogami, Michishio, Yamagumo, Asagumo, Shigure
• Destroyer Division 19 - Ayanami, Shikinami, Isonami, Uranami
• Cruiser Division 4 - Takao. Atago, Choukai, Maya
• European Grand Fleet - Warspite, Ark Royal, Richelieu, Jervis
• Guadacanal Fleet - Kirishima, Hiei, Yuudachi, Harusame, Yukikaze, Amatsukaze

Do note that:

• It is possible to influence who decides to appear by including certain members of your fleet, which will prevent certain friend fleets from appearing in battle. (e.g. using Maya will prevent Cruiser Division 4 from appearing.)
  • Obviously, you should take into account overall fleet strength before making any decision to do so, as this will likely adversely affect your fleet's combat capabilities.
• However, Destroyer Division 19 will always have a chance to appear regardless of whether or not you put any of their members in the main fleet.
• Out of the available NPC Friend Fleets, the Nishimura Fleet is the most useful fleet, since it can attack a total of 7 times. However, they arrive in varying states of damage, apparently from Surigao.
• For more details, please refer to the Friend Fleet Section.

Nishimura Fleet's Section

Overall, the Nishimura phase is nearly identical to its E-2 counterpart. However, there will be additional surface encounters with submarines in mixed fleets, as well as air battle nodes.

Plan your LBAS deployment to defend the fleet as they advance the surface battles or Air Attack nodes and have you fleet set to vanguard to evade most incoming attacks

Once you reach the night battle areas, proceed to Vanguard Formation to protect the fleet until you reach the point you need to get to depending on the difficulty (Node M for Easy and Node N for Normal, Score an A+ rank on N for Hard).

Since PT Imps will appear on nodes H and M, use the Vanguard Formation along with having your fleet equipped with either an Anti-Air Gun and/or Skilled Lookouts (See PT Imp Group page for more details)

Node N contains an enemy fleet consisting of mostly (if not all) battleships. Use Line Ahead and the rest should be fairly straightforward as long as your fleet is capable of double attacking.

Once the prerequisite condition (above) has been completed, the path to the boss will appear.

Recommended LBAS for Nishimura Fleet

• 3 Bombers 1 ASW Bomber to Node F (node with mixed enemy fleet including 1 submarine)
• 4 Fighters / Interceptors to Node C (air battle node)
  • It is also possible to send this LBAS squadron - with Bombers - to Node H instead, but that node is less likely to give you trouble with the right equipment and formation.

Use of the in-route/node support expedition is recommended. Please note that Node N is not a boss node.

Battling the Escort Water Princess

In the Kurita Fleet section, the combined fleet will have to face a number of battles, including 2 air battle nodes and 2 battles against fleets consisting of mostly Nu-class type Light Carriers. Due to the amount of air power you will need to face and the difficulty you select, you may need to either organize a full fighter set-up on both CVLs or 1 Dive Bomber (preferably Fighter-Bomber, for the same reasons listed in the E-2 section), 3 Fighters just so you can maintain enough air power to slightly hold out or slightly overpower the carrier fleet. Musashi's second remodel can also fit a seaplane fighter into her fifth slot to provide supplementary fighter power.

However, this map involves multiple air battles (with very high fighter power requirements), so there remains a possibility that your CVLs' bomber slots may get wiped before you reach the boss. Even with a full fighter loadout, your fighter power will also suffer losses en route to the boss due to this. Given that the boss node also requires a fairly high amount of fighter power, do take this into account before committing bombers to your set-up.

Bringing Maya Kai Ni (also a Kurita Fleet member) is recommended. Consider deploying LBAS, especially for Node Q, which can have a large number of light carriers present. But please also see below for other nodes that are likely to require LBAS support.

At the pre-boss node (R), the fleet will have to take on a full battleship combined fleet consisting of 6 Ru-class Battleships along with an escort fleet of powerful Destroyers and Light Cruisers. On harder difficulties, an LBAS full of land-based bombers may be needed for this node to make things easier (prior to Last Dance).

FCF is useful for retreating damaged ships, but this may offroute your fleet if utilised early enough, especially on harder difficulties, where up to 10 Kurita Fleet ships are required for the shortest route to the boss. Generally, it is safe to use (that is, without potentially off-routing your fleet) after Node R (the pre-boss node), as the next node will be the boss node. There is also no LoS check between the pre-boss and boss nodes.

Upon reaching the boss node, you will encounter the Escort Water Princess who will be in a combined fleet consisting of transports, a Nu-class carrier, and some Ru-class battleships, along with some CAs and DD in the escort fleet. If possible, consider bringing at least 1 LBAS (1 Fighter 3 Bombers) here if you are willing to risk taking potential damage from the other nodes. This will also help to whittle down the fighter power requirement before the air battle phase.

During the night battle sequence after the Friend Fleet has completed its attack, note that the Escort Water Princess is unable to attack any of your fleet members only if your fleet does not use a searchlight. However, due to how high her armor is, being able to improve your crit chances may be the difference between being successful and failing. So while you can depend on using just Star Shell and the Type 98 Recon Seaplane (Night Scout) to take on the princess, keep in mind that it may be hard to score the necessary crit you need. So if necessary, only consider bringing the Searchlight if you're willing to risk having the Escort Water Princess attacking one of your members in exchange for a better chance at achieving victory.

Finally, players on harder difficulties should consider using Heavier battleships to aid them in battle such as Yamato, Musashi and Nagato. However, keep in mind that this map will be a major fuel and ammo sink as you try to complete the map. Also bear in mind that speed is still an important matter, as you are limited to 3 ships with an base speed of "Slow".

Also, Support Shelling Fleets for both the route and the boss are highly recommended especially on harder difficulties.

LBAS Recommendations

• 4 Land-Based Fighters - For carrier nodes, if necessary

Node Q is the most significant threat in this regard, so if necessary, consider organizing fighters to take out the planes from the carriers. Most Carrier nodes required a Distance of 5 to reach.

• 4 Land-Based Bombers - For Node R

Because Node R is full of Battleship Ru-Class, there are chances you will be likely get hit hard by them. Because of this, using an LBAS here can be helpful in eliminating some of them to improve your chances of passing this node. This node requires a Distance of 5 to reach.

• 1 Interceptor / Land-Based Fighter , 3 Land-Based Bombers - For Boss node

The boss node is a priority target, as the fleet there consists of many strong and possibly tough ships depending on the difficulty. You can bring a single fighter/interceptor along with 3 Land-Based Bombers to max out your chances of taking out some units before the start of the fight, and to whittle down the enemy fleet's fighter power at the same time. Distance of 4 to reach the boss.

On Last Dance, you will likely need to commit both LBAS to the boss node to maximise your chances of victory. As above, both support expeditions are recommended, as well as sparkling your entire combined fleet to improve your chances of making it to the boss (especially at the pre-boss node).

E-5

Event Planning

For this map, you will be using members of the 'Shima Fleet. and also also other various members that partook in the Battle of Ormoc Bay. When planning for this map, carefully consider who can count historical team that partook in Battle of Ormoc Bay.

Historic Members of Battle of Ormoc Bay

CA: Ashigara,Nachi
CL: Kinu
DD: Akebono, Asashimo, Hatsuharu, Hatsushimo, Kasumi. Naganami, Okinami, Ushio, Uranami, Wakaba
DE: Shimushu

Do note that ships ships such as Abukuma, Shiranui, and Aoba do not count as part of the historical fleet for this segment of the event. Therefore it is possible to reconsider them for the map or for E-6 if necessary.

Tagging Rules

• Untagged Ships that partake in E-5 will be given the 'Shima Fleet Tag
• For Very Easy and Easy Mode it's possible to use the other tags without issue.

Transport Phase

The Transport Operation is relatively straight forward as long as you are able to have enough historical members that partook in Ormoc Bay (2 on Easy / 3 on Normal / 5 on Hard) most of this map operation will invovle you arranging your LBAS properly to help protect your fleet as you make your way to the transport point and boss fleet.

As long as the fleet consist of the required fleet members you can organize a fleet in various ways. But some example players used that are most notable are:

Example Fleet Composition
2 CA, 1 CL, 4 DD
(Historical Fleet members required Easy - 2 , Normal - 3, Hard - 5) 2 CA, 1 CL, 3 DD, Akitsumaru (Historical Fleet members required Easy - 2 , Normal - 3, Hard - 5)

As long as you have the historic fleet requirements you should go C-D-E-G-F-H-I-L.

A good balance of equipped transport supplies and combat is also vital to helping deplete the TP gauge. So if you can bring Daihatsu carrying ships, consider using them here to help with depleting the gauge.

One important thing to note that is special with this transport operation is that in this event, the Type 2 Ka-Mi Tank has a special TP bonus in which it gives you 22 TP points upon successfully S-ranking the map. If you own these items, consider equipping them for this operation.

Most of the battles of this map consist of air battles and a few surface battles against light ships. So organizing your LBAS to attack the air nodes of D and F with fighters is highly considered. In addition, a ship with AACI equipment to help take out planes is also vital and if you happen to own Akitsumaru you can consider using her to provide further AA support by loading her with fighters and in addition can also provide easy air superiority against the boss node (on most difficulties).

In Node H and J you will face a surface fleet, consisting of destroyers and cruisers. Depending on the difficulty, you may either go with Vanguard Formation to evade attacks and get away with possibly scratch damage against the torpedo salvo. Since there will be some nodes that will feature PT Imp Groups consider bringing AA guns or skilled lookouts for some of your destroyers.

Remember that if you have to pull out a member from your fleet using the Striking Force Fleet Command Facility. As long as they have reached Node I, thier equipment will be counted for the TP guage once you fight the boss and score an A rank or above.

The Boss Fleet consist of Light Cruiser Princess along with a Nu-class carrier, some destroyers and some PT imps. If you send your land base to target this node it shouldn't be too difficult to overpower and take out some of the units allowing for an easier fight. As long as you score an A rank or higher you will deplete the TP gauge.

Once you deplete the gauge far enough for the final run, enemies become slightly more difficult, but otherwise not much changes are needed (outside of possibly taking off some TP gear depending on how much of TP gauge remains) and completing this part of the operation.

Recommended LBAS

4 Fighters/Interceptors (Distance needed 4)

This will be used to mainly protect your fleet along nodes D and G since these nodes can feature some heavy air power you'll need to deal with. Consider making one of your LBAS be used to protect the fleet along the path.

0-1 Fighter/Interceptor / 3-4 Land Base Bombers (Distance Needed 4)

This can be used to concentrate an attack on the boss node of the transport segment. Since there may by a carrier present on the boss node you may want to have a fighter to help protect your bombers as you allow for them to help take out the enemy fleets to improve your odds for an easier victory. You can use one LBAS for here of if needed, you can use a 2nd one is necessary.

Scoring Air Superiority on Node D (For Medium +)

As one of the requirements to accessing the next phase you will need to score AS on Node D since node D consist of a lot light carriers, you will need a sizeable amount of air power in order to gain the necessary AS you need. In order to do this, you will need a set of ships that can use fighters and Seaplane Fighters along with the assisting of your LBAS.

As such, Akitsumaru, seaplane tenders such as Commandant Teste Mizuho, and the Seaplane Tender versions of Chiyoda and Chitose are considered vital helping clear this segment. You can use Aviation Cruisers for this segment too if you wish, but carefully plan it out as you will need some for E-6.

Example Composition:

Akitsumaru, 1-2AV,0-1 CAV, 0-1CL, 4 DD

Recommended LBAS

4 Fighters/Interceptors (Both Land Bases, Distance needed 4)

Depending on the difficulty, you may need between 2-3 units fully loaded with seaplane fighters and/or Zuiuns along with an LBAS concentrating on whipping out some of the planes the carriers launch in the process. If successfully done it should be possible to get AS with little issue. If you have to take the long path to reach Node D, then plan several DDs to carry ASW gear to deal with the sub node along with a ship to perform Anti-Air Cut ins in the process.

If for some reason you lack in seaplane fighters and/or lack in them, consider building them in Akashi's Improvement Arsenal when available. Or in the worse case scenario, reduce the difficulty to Easy to by pass this requirement. Do note you will not be able to increase the difficulty again once you do this.

Scoring Air Superiority on the Land Base Air Raid (Hard Only)

If you loaded your fighters and interceptors you should be able to set your Land Bases on Air Defense and reenter the map. The cheapest and least resource consuming method to do this is to bring a single sub.

Example Composition:
1SS (Highly Recommended)

The sub will go through battles where it won't get hurt (since all the fights will be subs or air attacks) and should trigger the Land Base Air Raid Sequence before reaching the 2nd node or 3rd node. If your LBAS's air power is strong enough it should easily gain Air Superiority. Once this has been done the condition will be complete.

Once all of the following conditions are done you will have access to the next part of map.

Taking out the Heavy Cruiser Princess

During the phase of the operation you won't be able to take any of your AVs or Akitsumaru to this map segment. So you will either be depending purely on an Anti-Air Cut in and/or on an Aviation Cruiser loaded with Seaplane Fighters to help pull the weight through the battle.

Example Composition:

2CA(V), 1CL, 4 DD (Historical Fleet [Shima Fleet preffered] members required Easy - 2 , Normal - 3, Hard - 5)

Keep in mind that your fleet will need to have the historical members along with 4 DDs if you wish to complete most of the map's requirements for this segment.

The fights will mainly invovle carrier battles which will invovle hoping for a strong AACI to take out most of the threats while also dealing with whatever is thrown at you, consider bringing an LBAS to help protect or defend you during these segments.

Most of the surface nodes will also feature strong enemy units which you have to force your way through and since they may pose a threat to your fleet, it's best to consider Vanguard formation to try to get past these sequences with the pre-boss node possibly featuring a submarine in the mix.

While it's possible to get through all of this, consider using a shelling support fleet if needed for the in-route path.

The boss node will feature a Heavy Cruiser Princess who will come with some Nu-class CVL, a few heavy cruisers and some Destroyers among her fleet. Using an LBAS along with boss support is preferred to soften the damage you'll take from other units since you may lack in a means of obtaining AS should the Nu-class CVL survive the LBAS strike. The fight itself is however manageable and members of the Shima Fleet get a historical post cap bonus (except Abukuma, Shiranui and Aoba) allowing for a much easier victory. Ships such as Ashigara, Nachi, Ushio and Hatsushimo (to name a few) will be vital to clearing the operation.

Do Note however there is No Friend Fleet for this segment. You will need to depend on your fleet's power to complete the operation.

The final kill's composition doesn't change drastically so using the same methods can work, but if needed, shift both LBAS over to the boss node if you feel you can manage all the node prior to it without loosing too many DDs or vital Shima members.

Recommended LBAS

2 Fighters, 2 Land Base Bobmers (1 Land Base, Distance needed 4-5 needed for nodes N and P)

Both of these nodes can present some difficult fights which the fleet will need to survive, so if needed send 1 LBAS to one or both of these nodes to help improve your chances of survival.

1 Fighter, 3 Land Base Bombers (1-2 Land Bases, Distance needed 6 needed for Boss Node)

Since the boss mainly consist of just some Nu-class Light carrier, it's possible to brush by using only one fighter while maintaining most your bombers to do some damage. If possible, hope that the Land Base bombers hit the Nu-class Carriers to minimize or eliminate any air attacks and if you have a CAV, possibly achive AS in the battle when the aerial sequence begins. You may want to bring both LBAS on the final kill to improve the likely hood of your chances of winning the fight.