User blog:Headlessnewt/Missing Ships: A Much Delayed Addition

Sorry, I quit for... well, for three years after I got tired of the Summer 2015 event on Medium being harder than I was expecting it to be for my otherwise well-levelled and equipped fleet. Salty TTK was salty. Anyway, back now apparently, and things have changed a bit. Nearly all of the ships I mentioned in the previous post have been dealt with:  The Kamikazes are here, the Akizukis are here, Uranami's here, Isokaze's here, and in terms of the WW2 timeline we've now passed the point where the IJN was a coherent and capable fighting force (Leyte). The only significant operations left to rewrite the history for are Operations Kita and Ten-go, and maybe Overlord and Crossroads, depending on where they want to to go with it. But we're not here for that, we're here to talk shipgirls, and this leaves us with the looming question:

Who's left?
I'm going to focus on the IJN for this (with one exception, because she's hard to ignore), and just look at what's even LEFT for us:

Battleships:  8 of 8. There aren't any more to speak of.

Heavy Cruisers:  18 of 18. Again, none left to give us.

Light/Training Cruisers:  There's one here! One we're missing!

Other Cruisers:  The IJN had a number of 19th century ex-armored cruisers that were still in 'service' as training ships and shore patrols, it's possible we'd get them as 'older sisters' and 'motherly' types like Houshou.

Carriers & Seaplane Tenders:  Well, there's a couple left here, including the big one. There's another four escort carriers like Kasuga Maru/Taiyo they could give us, and one more seaplane tender.

Destroyers:  Still plenty here.

Other Auxiliaries:  Some space here too.

The List
Going from Smallest to Largest:

The Minekaze Class:
Near-identical predecessors to the Kamikaze class, the Minekazes were fast and potent ships... 20 years before the war. During WW2 they mostly served as coastal patrols and escorts to auxiliaries like Akitsushima and Akashi. They mostly did not engage in heavy combat, and the majority of them were sunk by air attacks or submarines, or used as target ships by the Japanese (particularly for suicide planes and torpedoes). Those that survived the war were repatriation ships. Nokaze, Namikaze and Numakaze all served with Kamikaze in DesDiv1. Given that the Kamikazes were considered viable for implementation, the Minekazes might be as well.

The Matsu Class:
I mentioned them in my previous entry but they still bear speaking about, perhaps even more so now. 32(!!) of these ships were comissioned before the end of the war, the first six months before Leyte, many of the last mere months before the surrender. Compared to all previous IJN destroyers, the Matsus were simple, cheaply produced and effective in dealing with the two greatest threats to the Japanese Maritime Empire: Submarines and Aircraft. They gained this proficiency by being drastically undergunned compared to the glorious descendants of the Special-Type destroyers. Functionally, they would stand somewhere between the DEs we are seeing and the Akizukis: probably have easy access to AACIs and have good ASW stats, but poor firepower and armor. I suspect we will see at least some of these before the "end of the war".

Destroyer Division 12:  Shinonome, Shirakumo and Usugumo, but especialy Shirakumo
By now we're all familiar with how Miyuki got taken out half a decade before the war when Inazuma headbutted her. Destroyer Division 12, the second group of four Fubukis (Numbers 5-8), have an interesting history that would be worth mentioning and implementing, especially as Murakumo, the only implemented member, figures prominiently in it. Usugumo and Shinonome are both rather sad cases:  Usugumo had, shortly before Pearl Harbor, struck a mine, and was undergoing repairs, she was the only ship in the entire Combined Fleet to not be ready for combat at the outbreak of the war. Shinonome has the even more ignominious distinction of being the first of the Special-type Destroyers to be sunk, under at the time mysterious circumstances: to the rest of her division, she simply vanished. Modern naval forensic history has determined she was bombed by a Dutch plane which set off her magazine, sinking her nearly instantly. Shirakumo, who carried DesDiv12's flag, and Murakumo went on to attempt to rescue Sagiri's survivors and destroy the submarine that torpedoed her. They also did horrendous damage to allied shipping fleeing the fall of Singapore. They were called by Fubuki to assist in a night battle against two Allied Heavy Cruisers (the American Houston, and British Perth) fleeing the Battle of the Java Sea, which they helped sink, and then chased down a Dutch Destroyer taking no damage themselves. After this, Murakumo was attached to Fubuki, Shirayuki and Hatsuyuki's DesDiv11, while Shirakumo was placed in DesDiv20 with Asagiri, Yugiri and Amagiri to replace the lost Sagiri.

Quite a career for Shirakumo, and that's without even getting into her later exploits: she survived until March 1944 when she got torpedoed. It's quite shocking she hasn't appeared yet, it's quite easy to imagine a kind of Yamato Nadeshiko type girl who both rescues her sister and night fights like a monster, especially one as a foil to Murakumo's prideful nature. Usugumo and Shinonome could also easily fit ("Sorry I'm late!" and more explosion jokes?)

The last two Ayanamis: Asagiri and Yugiri
Now that Amagiri and Sagiri are around, the other two members of their DesDiv20 are up for grabs. Asagiri is kind of a sad story, she didn't really get to do anything before getting dive bombed and sunk. Yugiri, on the other hand, has a fairly successful career, serving in DesDiv11 with Shirayuki, Hatsuyuki and Amagiri, and finally being sunk in a destroyer fight off Cape St. George in 1943. Definitely expect these girls to get implemented.

Other Missing Classmates:  Hatsuharu-class, Asashio-class, Kagerou-class
It's no surprise that the rare drop Yuugumos are missing a few classmates, but that we're still missing Ariake and Yugure (the last two of the Hatsuharu-class) is quite surprising. These two served in Desdiv27 with Shiratsuyu and Shigure, and Yugure especially was involved with several significant combat actions. In the Asashio-class, we're missing Natsugumo and Minegumo, the other half of Asagumo and Yamagumo's DesDiv9. Natsugumo fought (and sank) in the Battle of Cape Esperance off Guadalcanal, making her part of Ironbottom Sound, she sank while trying to aid the crippled Murakumo. Minegumo was sunk by US Cruisers and Destroyers alongside Murasame. Of the horrendously numerous Kagerous, we're surprisingly only missing two! Natsushio and Hayashio, who were part of Kuroshio and Oyashio's DesDiv15. Natsushio was a very early casualty, sunk by a submarine in early 1942, but Hayashio vigorously and valiantly participated in the Battle for Guadalcanal, eventually sinking after a large number of convoy and troop transport escort missions. She did not participate in either of the decisive Night Battles of Guadalcanal, though she was present, she was acting as a convoy escort rather than a front-line fighter.

One Last Cruiser:  Kashii
Third member of the Katori-class, she was a training ship, and like her sisters, really shouldn't have ever gotten into the line of fire. She was sunk as part of a convoy in 1945, after Leyte, making her 'appropriate' for the upcoming event.

Mizuho's sister?  Cousin?  Friend?  Seaplane Tender Nisshin
She served significantly alongside Chitose and Chiyoda before being ambushed and sunk by US bombers who knew her position and heading from Ultra having broken Japanese codes. She was part of the landing force that prompted the Battle of Cape Esperance (where Furutaka, Murakumo and Shirayuki sank). I suspect we'll see her someday, but she's not really relevant to the current event or 'war period'.

The Big One - Shinano
So speculation about 'when we'll get Shinano' has raged since I started playing in 2014. The third Yamato-class hull was converted into an awkward Aircraft carrier once the IJN realized they needed more planes and less battleships, and she would have been monstrous, the largest carrier on the waves until the 1950s American Supercarriers. Shinano was, historically, a poor conversion, however: she would have carried an airgroup comparable to Ise Kai Ni's: about 50 planes, though Shinano was intended to also fill a 'supply ship' role. We are now at the point in the war around when Shinano's sinking occurred (and more trauma for DesDiv17, Isokaze, Hamakaze and Yukikaze were escorting the supercarrier, and even tried towing her, imagine THAT for a little while). When (it's not an if, it's a when) the youngest Yamato-class is implemented in Kancolle, she will almost certainly be a 'what-if', or have a 'what-if' Kai form. We are just now seeing the kind of mechanics that would really justify what an imagined, 'intended' Shinano's power would have been:  A 5-slot Carrier with a titanic airgroup and near Yamato-class armor (and fuel and Baux consumption). I would not at all be surprised if Abyssal Shinano is the Extra Stage final boss and "light" Shinano is the reward of an E-7 for an Operation Kita event.

The Other Big One - Enterprise
Okay okay we've also been speculating about if/when we'll ever get Lucky E since the game started, because she figures so heavily in so many maps as an opponent: her part has been played by Wo Kai (5-5), by the Carrier Demon and Princess (original Midway Event), and many others. Enterprise probably wouldn't (won't?) be a devastatingly particularly powerful carrier by Kancolle standards. She was high-tech for her time, but was about Akagi and Kaga's equal, especially when the experience and training of the IJN aircrews was taken into account. Enterprise was maybe superior in terms of her AA armament, but saddled with the poor early-war American bombers and fighters. What she would deserve is a MASSIVE luck stat: it was more a combination of luck and skilled damage control than any other factor which made her the unsinkable death queen of the Pacific War. This wouldn't be a incredibly inappropriate time to get her, we're coming up on the invasions of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, when Enterprise became a dedicated Night Carrier, and around when she performed her amazing 172-hour straight air cover. Let's all be honest, Enterprise would be a wonderful girl to add to our fleets.

Well that wasted most of the maintenance... I'll do discussions of non-IJN navies next time, I guess?