User blog:Kuras/Fall Event 2016 E-3

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Back to top Introduction

Do you have enough of Flagship Wo-Class CVs already? If so, well, that is too bad for you.. Since they are to be encountered a lot more in the current map. They are back to cause more trouble for you and your shipgirls! At the moment of writing, it is unknown to me what determines the starting point. It may be that starting point 1 is for Carrier Task Forces and point 2 for Surface Task Forces. Do not quote me on this as it is purely my conjecture, I have yet to test this out or see confirmations. Regardless, using the same fleet composition as the one exposed here, your fleet will start at point 1. This allows for a shorter path to the boss, given that the fleet's speed is Fast, which avoids getting routed to node D. The first node to be gone through is node B, a submarine node. This node contains solely different versions of Yo-Class submarines. They can pose a threat to your shipgirls and send your fleets immediately back to base, even in Line abreast formation. Though that should not happen all that often. Node I is an air strike node with similar patterns as node J of the previous map, E-2. As usual, your best weapon against air strike nodes is an Akizuki-class DD, or another DD with high AA, equipped with an AACI setup. Even with AACI, this node remains somewhat problematic. Node L is another air strike node. It is required to have 600+ air power to achieve air superiority here since the main fleet of this map's boss performs the air strike. As with the previous two nodes, although being problematic occasionally, your shipgirls should not get critically injured very often here. Taking plane loss into account, equip your CV(L)s with fighters until your fleet has reached an air power of approximately 630, what should be sufficient to achieve air superiority in both node L and boss node Q. The boss battle at node Q is a relatively hard battle. It is impossible to S rank, or even kill the boss, at a high rate consistently. The boss's composition consists of a main and escort fleet, just like yours. After the opening air strike and boss support, your main fleet will start off firing at the enemy's main fleet. After all of them having fired one round, it is up to the escort fleets to battle against each other. The battle of the escort fleets ends with a torpedo phase where vessels of both the main and escort fleet can be targeted. Thereafter, the second shelling phase occurs. In this phase, the main fleets fight each other again while also being able to target the escort fleet. While the enemy escort fleet is relatively weak, it will not be easily taken down by just your own escort fleet alone. Boss support and/or your main fleet will have to target the enemy escort fleet as well to earn a(n) (what would be) A rank at least. Failing to achieve an "A or S rank" on the escort fleet will lead to battling against it during night battle, instead of against the boss and the rest of her main fleet. Luckily, this unfortunate situation should not happen often, if at all. The fleet that appears in the previous node L, is the actual main fleet at the boss node. It consists of the boss, AV Water Hime III, Flagship III or IV Wo-Class Kai CVs, a Elite or Flagship Ta-Class BB, and two Elite Ne-Class CAs. Each of them all are pretty tough to take down and are quite powerful as well. The boss has 390 max hp and 215 armor. It is recommended to have at least one shipgirl with night-time torpedo cut-in setup in your escort fleet to (hopefully) kill her. In my runs for the final kill, before the actual one, all boss battles ended with the boss surviving with heavy damage, just short of tens of damage to her. Although it took me a number of runs to clear the map, it certainly looked very hopeful. If you are clearing this map on hard (or medium), which this "guide" is written for, you can use the same ships you have already locked for E-2. Since the pre-boss nodes through this path contain only a submarine node and two air strike nodes, sending normal node support is unfruitful. However, boss support is highly recommended to deal with the combined fleet at the boss node. Sparkling your shipgirls in not necessary, but it may be helpful to do that for those in your escort fleet.

Back to top Fleet Composition & Equipment Setups

First of all, I want you to be reminded that shipsgirls locked to E-2 are allowed for sortieing in E-3 as well. You first aim when equipping your shipgirls should be reaching around 630 air power, to be able to gain air superiority at node L and boss node Q. To aid you in achieving that goal, you can have a CAV equipped with seaplane bombers/fighters. If you find yourself struggling to reach the boss node without one of your shipgirls being heavily damaged, consider equipping a Fleet Control Facility on the flagship.

Since the boss battle is a hard one and will require night battle to actually kill her, you will want to bring along night battle equipment. Equipping a searchlight on the flagship will (hopefully) attract focus to her after she has already fired. The Night Recon, after actually kicking in, increases the accuracy, damage, and critical hit rate of your shipgirls. A Star Shell increases the cut-in rate and accuracy of your fleet, while decreasing enemy's cut-in rate, when it is triggered. A Skilled Lookouts increases the cut-in rate of the shipgirl carrying it. To mitigate damage from the powerful air strikes, sortie a shipgirl with high AA with AACI setup, preferably an Akizuki-class DD (from E-2). Having a CLT in your escort fleet instead of a third DD will detour the Combined Fleet from node I to K, making it a longer path and potentially a more dangerous one. It is recommended to have a few shipgirls with night-time torpedo cut-in setups to finish of the highly armored, high health pool boss. Be sure to assign them to the last slots of your fleet to allow the first ones to (again, hopefully) clear the escorts. It is not necessary to have a CA with torpedo cut-in setup. The only good CA candidates for night-time torpedo cut-in are Myoukou Kai Ni and Prinz Eugen because of their decent luck stat. However, please do not lock Prinz Eugen to this map, since she does increased damage in E-5, so save her for that map. In case you do not have Myoukou Kai Ni, you can have another CA with the usual double attack setup, albeit with another Star Shell for increase trigger rate, and have one of your other DDs with a torpedo cut-in instead. If you have Yukikaze, you want to save her for E-3 though.

Back to top Notable Drops

Back to top Support Expeditions

Boss support (expedition 190) is highly recommended, if not necessary, for this map, to deal as much damage as possible and (hopefully) clear the weaker targets.

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