User blog comment:Hayashi H/Fall 2015 Fleet Setups/@comment-26486243-20151126211932/@comment-26486243-20151127073140

Just a heads-up. The recommended build for M farming will change in the following two ways.
 * The flagship will be Isuzu Kai Ni in an ASW-FCF build, and Mutsu is replaced by Nachi, who now equips a T32 radar instead of the FCF.
 * The slot allocation of Zuikaku Kai Ni A will change. Murata will now be loaded in the 24-slot.

Why Isuzu Kai Ni?

After performing more tests, I've determined the main causes of chuuha in E4M medium before reaching M are the So flagship in the first node and the BWS in node I. The original build did not include an ASW user in the main fleet, but since the escort fleet only gets to fire once each, the escort fleet should not load any less than 3 Type 3 shell users and there are 4 submarines in the first node, the most efficient way out will be to load a single ASW user in the main fleet.

Since this would mean the ASW user in fleet 1 would necessarily be an ASW-dedicated CT, CL or DD, the low armour values of these classes means that taiha from a BWS attack is unstoppable, but adding armour will reduce the chances that OTHER ships can taiha the user as well. To avoid being a taiha (FCF) liability, the ASW user must thus be in Flagship position, and must hold an FCF to be able to proceed should one other ship in the main fleet be taihaed by the BWS.

The use of any DD, a CT or Yuubari for this purpose is inadvisable as F has 4 ships that can one-hit taiha these ships, and I has 3. That leaves the only two possibilities for this role as Ooyodo Kai and Isuzu Kai Ni, with 69 and 68 armour respectively that can withstand attacks from everything except the Ta flagship and BWS in node I, which would be an acceptable risk in exchange for reducing the chance of an escort fleet chuuha/taiha in node D, given how critical the escort fleet is to S-ranking M. Ooyodo has the advantage of higher ASW in a Sonar-Sonar-DC-FCF setup than Isuzu will have in a Sonar-DC-FCF setup, but Isuzu has the advantages of higher AA (greater chance of eliminating BWS bombers in conjunction with Maya AACI in the event the aircraft AA are assigned to Isuzu), a short range (meaning that her weak firepower will be less of an issue than Ooyodo as everyone else fires first, while Ooyodo will compete in the turn order with the CAs) and a lower sortie cost.

I went to perform a test to determine if Isuzu was capable of one-shot taihaing the Flag So-class, and the result was that when she actually aimed at the So-class, the node was cleared with a perfect S. The screenshot of the clear as well as the API data showing it to be a Head-on engagement form are attached.



What's up with the Murata rearrangement?

The eAA value of the Anchorage Water Demon form 3 is 100. In other words, she has a 50% chance of shooting 25% slot size followed by a 50% chance of shooting 10 planes down, should a bomber squadron be assigned to her.

If Murata is held in the 12-slot, it will be annihilated in the chance that Anchorage Water Demon succeeds in performing the fixed AA shot of 10, as it will almost certainly be at 9-10 bombers left after crossing node I. This would mean Zuikaku Kai Ni A cannot shell, and that you have to retrain Murata from zero.

However, since Murata is taking the 24-slot, Reppuu 601 will have to take the 12-slot. Since the 6-slot is used for Saiun, this means that the eAS value is 164. The required AS value is 153 to gain Air Superiority at Node M. 11 is a VERY narrow margin, which means that any Admiral who does not possess either a Shinden Kai or a T53 Iwamoto specifically will NOT be able to do this, and will be forced to either take a third fighter/fighter-bomber in the 6-slot (and risk Red T), or to sortie Murata in the 12-slot (and risk Murata-annihilation), or sortie Taihou (and risk being hit a lot more often, along with short range), or sortie a carrier that isn't an armoured carrier (and risk not being able to launch on chuuha, along with short range). Zuikaku Kai Ni A is optimal here over Shoukaku Kai Ni A as the 24 slot is less likely to be annihilated than the correpsonding 21-slot.

The balancing of this build is on such a razor-thin margin that it appears almost as if the size of the slots on Shoukaku Kai Ni A and Zuikaku Kai Ni A were designed for this encounter.