User blog:SlashZero/Spring 2016 E-7 Hard Pre-final & Boss Farming Composition

Disclaimer: This guide is for Hard(甲) difficulty only.

Why E-7-N?
You need to fight the boss to clear this map. '''If you really want Harukaze, go farm on easy first. This boss on Hard is not good for farming.''' If you were like me and cleared before you got Harukaze, I guess you can read on. (You poor, poor soul.)

Harukaze drops on A rank at about 3% chance, and S rank at about 8% chance. There's also Amatsukaze and some other DDs but they are completely not worth the trouble.

Route


There are a lot of technically viable routes for this map. I have tried almost all of the reasonable compositions (both Carrier and Surface) through 36 runs on this map.

Carrier Task Force compositions always have the danger of leading to L node. You don't want to fight the double Carrier Princesses there. In addition, the route is air-power heavy and full of Tsu-class Elites, leading to increased chances of bomber ranks being lost and high bauxite expenditures. To top it off, the second fleet engages first, which is disadvantageous because some priority must be taken from night battle at the boss node and given instead to escort fleet day battle damage output.

Surface Task Forces have far less troubles in comparison. By far the easiest route to the boss is BEGIJMN. This requires Akitsushima in the fleet, which does mean you have one less capital ship, but the loss is well worth it. The main reason is by avoiding the sub node at K, you can arrive at the boss with some fuel in tact, removing the need of bringing Hayasui for mid-sortie resupplies. J node is also generally less dangerous than K node.

Composition
The concept behind this composition is to completely avoid having the escort fleet from engaging until the boss node, allowing maximum damage output to be exerted on the 270 armor boss in Night Battle (no armor down gimmicks here). The main fleet (and air bases) are also tasked with eliminating as many of the boss's escorts as possible before the second fleet engages to lower the need for lucky snipes during night. For this reason we want to bring as many battleships as possible, because with artillery spotting they are by far the best damage output at the boss node (and also E node). However, since routing requires Akitsushima, in order to bring the maximum 4 battleships a single carrier must be used.

For the escort fleet, ships capable of equipping WG42 (i.e. CAV) are highly preferred, because WG42 has at least a 1.5x post-cap modifier with just one equipped (I think.) I advise having at least 3 WG before attempting to clear this map. Fast Battleships are also a viable option, as they can deal good damage during the day shelling and also get lucky crits with Type 3 Shells equipped at night.

Fleet Lineup and Equipment
Example Fleet



Main fleet

 * 4 AP Cut-in Battleships
 * Fusou-class are not recommended due to their lower armor and evasion, but if you really need the small air power boost they can be used.
 * Yamato-class are a reasonable, but expensive option because they are able to maintain high damage output at the boss in chuuha status.
 * Nagato-class and Vittorio-Veneto-class are all-around solid choices.
 * Kongou-class Kai Nis are slightly less favored, but also solid options.  If your Kongou-class battleships have much higher levels than the alternates bring them.
 * Equipment
 * 2 upgraded fit guns. Accuracy is paramount in Surface Task Force, so highly upgraded equipment is recommended.
 * Upgraded AP shell.
 * Your best scout plane.  (e.g. >> rank Type 0 Obs)
 * Akitsushima Kai
 * For routing, she needs at least 1 large plane equipped.
 * Since we are only bringing one carrier, 1 to 2 >> rank seaplane fighters are preferred to help achieve air superiority at J.
 * If you don't mind spending damecons/goddesses, she doesn't have to be flagship. However if you want to use FCF, make her flagship.
 * If you don't have seaplane fighters (Tip: Pola Kai comes with one), equip your best ASW gear to remaining slots.
 * Standard Carrier or Armored Carrier
 * To get air superiority at J, at minimum 230 air fighter power is desirable.
 * Good options are Shoukaku Kai Ni, Zuikaku Kai Ni, Taihou Kai.
 * At least 230 fighter power is recommended.  275 or so is preferred (but hard to reach).
 * 1-2 Seaplane Fighters on Akitsushima
 * Equip Zero Fighter Model 62 (Fighter-bomber / Iwai Squadron) to the largest slot.
 * Equip your two highest AA-value fighters (e.g. Reppu Kai and Type 0 Fighter Model 53 Iwamoto Squadron)
 * Equip Saiun to the smallest slot (technically this is optional but E and especially N node become much harder in T-red).
 * Only one seaplane fighter has a non-negligible chance of failing air superiority at J.
 * No seaplane Fighters on Akitsushima
 * In this case you can use most CVs.
 * Equip 3 fighters and Saiun.

Escort Fleet
Combined Fleet required: Some mix of three of the following:
 * Light Cruiser
 * Ooyodo Kai is strongly preferred.
 * Even if you don't have enough WG42 to give her two, one + day artillery spotting is a viable setup and far superior to Abukuma Kai Ni or Jintsuu Kai Ni.
 * Equipment
 * Two good main guns (or OTOs if using 2 WG42)
 * 1-2 WG42
 * 0-1 Night Scouts (or other seaplane scouts)
 * Akizuki-class Destroyer
 * I strongly recommend at least one Akizuki-class Destroyer
 * There are two major air battles en route to the boss, and at the boss there are seven stages of fleet AA with full air base support.  It's possible to empty out all enemy bombers by bringing good AA.
 * By giving up a little night battle damage, a searchlight can be used for increased fleet accuracy and lower rate of damage to other, higher damage output ships.
 * Equipment
 * An upgraded 10cm + AAFD
 * An upgraded Type 13 RADAR Kai
 * An upgraded Searchlight
 * Night Battle Double Attack Destroyer
 * Primarilly night battle damage output.  Good for helping mopping up remaining boss escorts.
 * Equipment
 * Two upgraded  10cm High Angle Mount + AA Fire Directors to help with fleet AA.
 * Either a WG42 or an upgraded Type 2 Landing Craft
 * Aviation Cruiser
 * 2 main guns (at least 1 20.3cm no3 is recommended for the night accuracy bonus)
 * 1-2 WG42s
 * 0-1 Type 3 Shells
 * I don't have conclusive proof, but I suspect 2 WG42s does better damage than 1 WG42 and 1 T3 Shell.  Either setup is viable though.
 * Fast Battleship (preferrably Bismarck Drei)
 * 2 main guns
 * 1 night scout (or other seaplane scout)
 * 1 Type 3 Shell

Escort Fleet Ordering

 * Generally, you want your battleships at the top, destroyers in the middle, and WG42-equipped ships at the bottom.
 * Also, flagship benefits from increased artillery spotting rates during day.
 * This will allow the battleships and destroyers to hopefully clear any boss escorts remaining, and allow the WG42-users to focus down Central Princess.

Air Bases
Note this setup is for pre-final. There are two possible boss compositions to encounter, with one having almost double the air power of the other.
 * Setup
 * Base 1
 * 1 7-range fighter (to reach the boss) (e.g. Type 0 Fighter Model 21 (Skilled))
 * 2 fighters
 * 1 torpedo bomber, or another fighter. A bomber can potentially sink destroyers or deal some minor damage, but costs more bauxite.
 * Base 2
 * 2 fighters
 * 2 lowest stat land bombers
 * Base 3
 * 1 fighter
 * 3 highest stat land bombers
 * If you don't have 5 land bombers (you should), substitute torpedo bombers or dive bombers. Or, alternatively, choose another difficulty. That's how important land bombers are on this map.
 * Fighter priority (by AA stat) is Base 2 > Base 3 > Base 1
 * It's a little complicated to explain, but to try to put it simply...
 * Base 1, 2, and 3 will always get at least AS for reasonably equipped bases when facing the low fighter power form
 * Base 1 will almost always get air parity against the high fighter power form (unless you have Shinden Kai or something), so putting better fighters on it won't change the air battle results significantly. Bases 2 and 3 don't stand a chance of getting anything better than parity.
 * Base 2 and 3 can sometimes get air supremacy against the low fighter power form. Raising their fighter power helps increase these chances.
 * If Base 2 does well, then Base 3 will also do better, so it's higher priority.
 * Deployment
 * Concentrate all bases on N (boss).
 * Rationale
 * The goal is to get at least air superiority for all waves at the boss against the low fighter power form, and at least air parity against the high fighter power form.
 * Air defense just reduces resource losses, really. It also prevents a few planes from being lost from first slots (so don't put bombers on slot 1), but the effect is minor. Your bombers will still do max damage at the boss even if your bases are all red.
 * We'd rather have the full seven fleet anti-air rounds at the boss.
 * Also, land bombers do very high damage at the boss. While there are only enough available for 2 bases, the first base helps secure air control for the land bomber bases.

Support Fleet
Use of both support fleets is highly recommended.

Vanguard Support Shelling
Example




 * I recommend the standard high-firepower high-accuracy setup
 * 2 Battleships
 * 2 high firepower and/or high accuracy main guns. Freedom Guns and 41cm triples are good options.
 * 2 Type 32 RADARs and/or FuMOs and/or 15m Duplex Rangefinder + Type 21 Radar Kai Ni
 * 2 Standard Carriers or high-attack Light Carriers
 * 2-3 high-stat dive bombers, depending on how low base attack is.  Egusas are good, as well as Suisei (601st).
 * 2 Type 32 RADARs
 * 2 Destroyers
 * Triple + accuracy main guns or RADARs are both viable options.
 * Remember to triple sparkle everyone, including the destroyers.  It increases appearance rate and accuracy.

Boss Aerial Support
Example



According to wikiwiki, torpedo bombers recieve bonus damage at the E-7 boss. I've tried both dive bomber and torpedo bomber aerial supports. I can't completely confirm wikiwiki's claims, but torpedo bombers do tend to do much better damage.


 * 4 High Aircraft Capacity Standard Carriers
 * Put 1 fighter on each smallest slot to keep damage output consistent and bauxite consumption low.
 * Fill all remaining slots with torpedo bombers. Put the best ones in the larger slots.
 * Supposedly, plane ranks don't matter for aerial support. At the very least, losing planes will not affect ranks when using it.
 * 2 Destroyers
 * Honestly I'm not convinced at all their equipment makes any difference, but if you want to be safe RADARs can't possibly hurt.
 * It's unclear whether sparkling increases accuracy for aerial support. Therefore, sparkling the flagship only may be OK.
 * Sparkle all the carriers if you're paranoid.

Formations
B: Formation 1

E,G,M,N: Formation 4

J: Formation 3. If 3 is unavailable, then 2.

Notes for Final Form (Last Dance)
TBC