Talk:Fall 2013 Event/@comment-24155103-20131121235445/@comment-24177446-20131122041155

I burned at least 17k oil, 14k ammo, 13k steel, 4k bauxite, and 150 buckets on E5, though I think I could have done it more efficiently. Depending on your luck you could do it with significantly less, or burn through a lot more.

I had the gauge depleted by my 20th sortie, but whenever I would try to take the upper route Compass-chan would laugh and send me off to node J. At the time it felt like I had no choice but to go back to the more reliable center route despite the additional battle, though I think I might have done better by trying the upper route a few more times. My subsequent experience with E5 has shown that it is much easier to destroy the boss via the upper route; the extra battleship is nice, and your fleet is has more ammo and less damage which just makes everything easier.

In the end, I stuck with the more reliable center route and tried a few different support fleets configurations to see what would work best. Eventually, I tried a battleship heavy support fleet which was very expensive, but combined with a bit of luck it allowed me to destroy the boss on sortie 30, at the 9.5 hour mark.

My composition at the end was Shigure (66), Takao (55), Atago (64), Kongou (85), Ooi (71), Kitakami (75), with everyone but Shigure equipped for double attack. However, since then I've found it much easier to get S rank on the boss via the upper route, using Takao (57), Atago (67), Hiei (79), Kongou (88), Ooi (75), Kitakami (78).

The middle route is great for chipping away at the boss reliably, but not so great for destroying her; I only managed to do so three times in the 30 sorties, and I think I was fairly lucky all three times.

Finally, I'm not sure it is worth equipping your battleships with type 3 shells for E5 if you've got 46cm guns for them, though if you're still using 41cm guns then by all means.