Board Thread:Fleet's Prepared-ness/@comment-26919395-20150823093644/@comment-26337499-20150823104346

If you can clear 1-4 you should be able to complete the quest to get Akagi - the enemy you need to kill for the last quest is in the boss node there, and the ones before that are all straightforward. Stick a fighter (green) plane in Akagi's spare slot if you have one. Also, there is a reasonable chance that you will get a CA from the trip to 1-4, which would help a lot.

From the shown ships plus the guaranteed Akagi, the fleet I would take to 2-1 is: Haruna, Akagi, Tama, Sendai, Hibiki and Fubuki. Yuudachi and Asashio would do if one of your DD is hurt and you want to go out again. Replace Sendai and Tama's default guns with something better if you haven't already done so (14cm guns are awful - 20.3cm or 15.5cm if you have them would be better, or even a 12.7cm one) and fill each ship's blank equipment slots with something useful. Anti-air guns will do if nothing else. Feel free to take the equipment from the girls that you aren't using.

2-1's main frustration actually comes from the fact that your chance of reaching the boss node isn't very high (roughly 1/4). Even if you do get sent the wrong way, though, do give it everything you've got - the fact that it is a relatively small map means that you may as well night battle every node to get an S rank and thus give yourself a (small) chance of getting CVLs and Battleships as drops, either of which would make this map and 2-2 afterwards a lot easier.

Also, remember that you can use unwanted duplicate ships to improve the ones you are using through remodelling.