Board Thread:Game Updates/@comment-25730832-20160312035845/@comment-98.247.35.27-20160321095243

Kawakaze was involved in a night battle where there were CAs hit, but she didn't participate in the action that caused those hits. That was the Battle of Tassafaronga (Battle of Lunga Point in Japanese sources) and Kawakaze was one of the six Destroyers that was carrying supply drums so only had torpedoes for a single salvo, and that single salvo is believed to have scored two hits on Northampton. She's sometimes credited with a torpedo hit on Pensacola but it is not confirmed.

In terms of night battles she was in, discounting uneventful Tokyo Express runs, she was involved in:

- First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (JP sources: Third Battle of the Solomon Sea), where she was one of the escort destroyers for the transport fleet and didn't engage in battle

- Battle of Tassafaronga (JP sources: Battle of Lunga Point), where she was one of the transport destroyers and got some torpedo hits.

- Battle of Vella Gulf (JP sources: Berawan Night Battle), where she was torpedoes and then finished by gunfire

Samidare meanwhile:

- First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, where she was part of the main attack force. Asagumo, Murasame, Samidare and possibly Teruzuki opened fire on and sank USS Laffey, then USS Monnssen, then the group attacked USS Helena. Samidare picked up the survivors from Yuudachi.

- Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (JP Sources: Fourth Battle of the Solomon Sea), where she escorted Nagara along with Inazuma and two other destroyers. The group sank Walke and Preston just after entering battle, blew the bow off Benham, then badly damaged Gwin. Samidare recovered the survivors from Kirishima.

- Battle of Vella Lavella, where Samidare torpedoed USS Selfridge

- Battle of Empress Augusta Bay (JP sources: Sea Battle off Bouganville Island), where she torpedoes USS Foote and then collided with Shiratsuyu.

Saying that Kawakaze was involved in more night battles or had a better battle record is straight up wrong, not to mention that Samidare was involved in both of the Naval Battles of Guadalcanal, battles which in this game have been represented by Ironbottom Sound events.

The reason Kawakaze had special routing in the Fall 2015 event is she was one of the head destroyers in the transport escorts, and she also was involved as an escort on both bombardments of Henderson Field previously as well. It wasn't because of her battle prowess.

Samidare's the forgotten starter, really. Fubuki and Murakumo have Kai-2s, Inazuma is really popular, Sazanami at least has gotten extra lines and CGs a fair bit, but Samidare's artist dropped off the face of the earth. I expect if it's her, Kujo Ichiso is taking over. The reason Kawakaze gets lots of attention is because Kuji Ichiso seems to be constantly available to draw them. Note that Murasame, Shiratsuyu and Harusame all get lots of CGs too. No Kai-2 forthcoming for them. Nor for Akebono, Sazanami or Oboro who have also been getting a lot of CG attention recently.

I have both and never really used either of them so don't really have a horse in the race, but I'd still be extremely surprised if they gave Kai-2 to a ship you can't even get in the game right now.

Oh, and @anon, it's not Murasame - one of the previous clues said the Shiratsuyu class participated in the three troop evacuations from Guadalcanal with the upcoming Kai-2 Ayanami-class, and only Samidare and Kawakaze fit that.