User blog:Dethyl/Thoughts on preparations for large scale (and difficult) events

Contents:

(v) References
(i) Preface:

This is meant for admirals who are NOT frontlining in events. If you are frontlining, generally it means that you're experienced enough with events and are already aware of what is written here. This is meant for players who are challenging themselves to clear all the maps on hard. I have seen many players set out to do that but chose to reduce the difficulty later on. Some admirals who are not frontlining might say that the things I mentioned here are common sense and not worth mentioning - perhaps, but I notice that majority of admirals do not do most of these things despite others claiming that it is "common sense". At this point in time, a significant portion of players (19~20%) have cleared E-7 according to the official twitter. Hopefully, this will help others prepare for the next large scale event.

The intention is to cover things that I found lacking in other guides. I will reference those guides and indicate them in square brackets [], with the citation at the end.

(ii) Introduction:
Summer 2015's event is considered by many to be one of the most difficult events in Kancolle history (barring IBS). My personal experience was that it was difficult, but fair enough. I cleared E-1 to E-7 all on hard in 5 consecutive days. I played 6 hours a day for day 1 to 3, and 12 hours each on day 4 and 5. Do note that this is the amount of time spent on playing the game (sortieing etc.) and did not involve the planning stage (detailed later). I spent about 22 hours(spread over the whole event) planning on my excel spreadsheet as well as adjusting it along the way.

Dethyl (talk) (a) Preparation (a) Dethyl (talk)
After Summer 2014's event (AL/MI), while I did clear it and did not have issues with ship locking, I started to notice players commenting on the difficulty of having ship-locks. The obvious answer to this fleet diversity, as mentioned by other guides,  such as that written by Shinhwalee[1]. Doing a search on the wikia will reveal more.

One thing I noticed was that although a difficult and long event was generally anticipated, most players began preparing for it 1-2 months before it, even though their aim was to clear all maps on the hardest difficulty. There is disagreement regarding how much preparation should be done. My experience is that preparations should be gradual but consistent and disciplined. Preparations for a large event should begin 9 to 10 months before it starts.

-Ships- (Minimum)

4-6 FBB, 4 BBV, 4-6 CV, 6 CVL, 6-8 CA, 4-6 CAV 6-8 CL, 20-30 DD (various classes), and maybe one or two auxiliaries like Akitsumaru all to level 80. Sounds like a lot, but you're going to try to clear everything on hard, aren't you? Ask yourself honestly, if they have 6 to 7 maps and locking for every single map and each requires 2-4 DDs or have specific ships for routing, you want to be prepared. Now, spend the next 9-10 months training them up. I will acknowledge that the amount of ships I'm suggesting here, it is infeasible for the average player to train in between 2 events. However, 9-10 months of ramping up the fleet strength Do it, even if it means you have to stop training your favourtie kanmusu; just start training them now. You will notice that each subsequent event gets easier and easier. You need to be disciplined about this.

-Equipment-

Plan a list of what you would like, the  set priorities. Example:

Fighter planes - Reppu, type 3 ammo, type 91 ap ammo, type 3 ammo, certain guns, etc.

USe the daily quests (total of 4 crafting attempts) to do this. Then stop. Build up equipment stocks over the next 9 to 10 months this way. It conserves resources and allows you to focus on training your ships. You need to be disciplined about this.

It doesn't have to be all of a single type of equipment for a whole month. Let's say you want 10 reppu, 6 type 3 ammo, 9 type 91 ammo - and currently you have zero of each. After 2 months of daily crafts, you have 4 reppu. It's time to craft a few of the other things you want, while checking off your list for the things you (partially) have.

-Deployment-

If you are not frontlining, you've most likely read the wikia page for the event and have decided on a fleet for E-1. Stop.

Before setting off on your first sortie in E-1, you must have a plan (word document, spreadsheet, even a piece of paper will do) that lists the ships you will deploy to which map and the exact equipment you intend to equip them with; for all maps.

The implication is that you should already know who you're going to use in E-2 to E-7 before you even start your first run of E-1. I see a lot of players hurt by ship locking because they do not do this. Of course flexibility is important to keep up with changes, but this will be covered later in section (c) intelligence gathering.

At the same time, there should be planning for critical spares. I don't be copies/clones of a specific ship; I mean a pool of reserves in case a certain combination on the wikia doesn't work out so well for you. For a non-combined fleet map, I don't just plan 6 ships. If the map needs 2 DDs, I plan to deploy 2 and list 1 or 2 other names as standby in case their performance is poor or leads to a less desired routing. This means about 6-9 ships prepared to be locked out per single fleet map and about 14-16 ships planned for a combined fleet map.

The most important questions that you should ask yourself when planning are:

(~) If ship X doesn't hit hard enough, and is already carrying the best equipment I can give, do I have someone in reserve who can do better?

(~) If someone is better, why am I not deploying her here? Is she really critical for a later map? Am I certain that I should not use a better ship here?

(~) By using ship Y in map E-?, will this negatively impact my fleet for a later(and more difficult) map?

My point is that, even with a diverse fleet, it is (very) possible to make sub-optimal choices and lock out ships that could have made your runs on a later map much easier. I know of players who has locked out their Maya, Akizuki and Isuzu, and had to go through E-6 without the main AACI ships. It's still doable of course but it will be more painful.

Dethyl (talk) (b) Theoretical understanding (b) Dethyl (talk)
A quick question: When do you want to use a Saiun and when do you want to avoid using it? Most players are aware of red and green T cross and can answer it.

''Anothing question: When do you want to use a type 2 recon instead and not a Saiun? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Without checking the wikia, can you answer this right now? ''

Going into an event, you should have memorised or at least be very familiar with the games combat mechanics as covered on the wikia's combat page[2]. You don't need to memorise the calculations but you should be aware of where the calculators are, so that you can access them easily.

That's just basics for things like combat, morale/fatigue, crafting which has clear links on the front page of the wikia.

If you have the intent to clear all maps on hard, then advanced concepts like fit guns associated with shelling accuracy[3], artillery spotting[4], AACI[5], and others must be clear to you. You need to be aware of the optimal setups for each and sometimes it is ship specific.

I'll give an example. Most players know how to setup AACI on a ship - use high angle (HA) guns and an air radar. However, certain ships like Akizuki, Maya and Isuzu have unique AACI API which triggers more enemy planes shot down. You must have a very clear understanding of it, Simply putting any 2 HA guns you can find and an air radar on Maya will not trigger her unique (and devastating) AACI api to help defend your fleet.

If you are unclear on any of the following concepts, I have cited the references to those and you can find the links at the bottom, under the reference section.

This is an ongoing process, I would recommended coming back to read such articles again every one or two months to check for updates or refresh your knowledge on it. In my opinion, a player serious about going all hard should have all of these either memorised or has understood them very well.

Dethyl (talk) (c) Intelligence gathering (c) Dethyl (talk)

Those who are not frontlining will depend on the information shared by these brave souls on the wikia's event page. Other guides have suggested waiting a few days after the event has commenced, in order for the intel to come in. I will add on that by saying before you even start planning your fleet, you should have read through information for ALL maps, which includes but are not limited to:

(~) Fleet compositions of players who have gone before you

(~) Enemy compositions

(~) Notes on the map for routing, and special mechanics

Another thing that is seldom mentioned, is that if you go to bed after partially clearing a map (i.e. boss health bar half cleared), when you wake up you should reread all information for all maps again. No excuses, go read it again. something might have been updated overnight, even if it seems the same, you should still read it. Be disciplined.

Now that you've done all that reading and planning. I'll recap some points I mentioned earlier, by now you have probably made:

(~) a detailed deployment and equipment plan for ALL maps

(~) refreshed yourself about the game mechanics and are very familiar with them

(~) read and fully understood the fleet compositions and enemy compositions reported by other players for ALL maps

So, you go ahead and send sorties out on the first map. Here's the part about being flexible that I said I would elaborate on later. Monitor your fleet's performance. After every sortie, stop for 10-30 seconds and think:

(~) What went well?

(~) What didn't go well?

(~) Was there anything I could have done better?

(~) If I were to change something, that would have a larger impact; what would it be?

Then look at your plan again. In any event, there's bound to be at least a few changes to your plan. To quote the famous Von Moltke the elder[6] and translated into English, "No plan survives contact with the enemy."

Mistakes do happen, events may contain new enemy ships and combat mechanics. Therefore, it is okay to lockout more than 12 ships on a combined fleet map, if using 14 ships (due to swapping better suited ships in) means easier runs for your next 4 sorties to clear the map - do it. Don't be stubborn and insist on your initial deployment plan. If you followed this guide, you would have spent the last 9-10 months building up a (very) diverse fleet of 70+ event-ready ships.

Dethyl (talk) (d) After-action-review(AAR) (d) Dethyl (talk)
A major AAR should be done after completion of every map. This step differs from previous shorter reviews because here you'll be checking your reserouce stockpile and going over your plan again. An example from this event:

Admiral XYZ used her Yamato class BBs to clear E-3 hard. she planned well and didn't have to retreat or last dance much. However, because she swapped out her carrier task force (CTF) Kongou class BBs for Yamato class from her 3rd sortie onwards, she spent more resources that she though she would. She knows that due to map locking, she won't have them available again until E-6. The AAR allows her to reasses her stockpile and deployment plans for E-6 and E-7, as well as whether the fleets planned for E-4 and E-5 need any adjustments.

There's no hard and fast rule here. It's about situational awareness. Of course you'll track resources after each sortie but the rationale is slightly different. The previous focus was more at a tactical level - clearing a specific map without depleting the entire stockpile for the whole event. Whereas the AAR after clearing each map looks at things from a strategic level - not just the next map, not just the final map, but the whole event as a whole, inclusive of farming runs.

(iv) Conclusion
I tried as much as possible not to repeat things found in other guides, and to focus more on details I felt were important (as someone who felt AL/MI and this event were manageable), but seldom practiced by most players. Fleets are not built in a day, nations do not deliberately wage war without years of preparation. Do take the time over several events to build up the capabilities of your fleet. I hope this guide helps you to tackle the next major event with "less salt" about a year from now. Please leave a comment on your thoughts regarding this guide. If more players find it useful, I will consider formatting it better. If most find it useless, well then let it fade into obscurity on this wikia.

(v) References
[1] Shinhwalee, Major Event Preparation Guide for Admirals, http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Shinhwalee/Major_Event_Preparation_Guide_for_Admirals

[2] Various authors, Combat - Kancolle English Wikia, http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/Combat

[3] Homuhomu123, Shelling accuracy test results, http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Homuhomu123/Shelling_Accuracy_Test_Results

[4] Various authors, currently adopted by Homuhomu123, Artillery spotting, http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/Artillery_Spotting

[5] Homuhomu123, Trigger Rates & Effectiveness of Anti-Air Cut-In (AACI), http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Homuhomu123/Trigger_Rates_%26_Effectiveness_of_Anti-Air_Cut-In_(AACI)

[6] Originally in Moltke, Helmuth, Graf von, Militarische Werke. vol. 2, part 2., pp. 33-40. Found in Hughes, Daniel J. (ed.) Moltke on the Art of War: selected writings. (1993). Presidio Press: New York, New York. ISBN 0-89141-575-0. p. 45-47