| Summer Event 2016 E-4 Hard by Kuras |
Summary
| Information | ||
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| General | ||
| Map | E-4 ( マラッカ海峡沖夜戦 ) | |
| Boss | Pre-final form |  |
| Final form | |
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| Difficulty | Hard | |
| Route | B-E-H-I-J-K-L-M-Q | |
| Fleet formations | Fourth, fourth, echelon, third, third, fourth | |
| Combined Fleet | Carrier Task Force | |
| Main Fleet (Pre-final kill) | ||
| Fleet composition | BB BB CV(B) CV(B) CV(B) CV | |
| eLoS | 95.64 | |
| Air power | 497-514 | |
| Escort Fleet (Pre-final kill) | ||
| Fleet composition | DD DD CL CA CA CLT | |
| eLoS | 10.63 | |
| Air power | N/A | |
| 106.27 eLoS total | ||
| 497-514 Air power total | ||
| Main Fleet (Final kill) | ||
| Fleet composition | BB BB CV(B) CV(B) CV(B) Maya Kai Ni | |
| eLoS | 80.58 | |
| Air power | 391-404 | |
| Escort Fleet (Final kill) | ||
| Fleet composition | DD CL CA DD CA CLT | |
| eLoS | 5.01 | |
| Air power | N/A | |
| 85.59 eLoS total | ||
| 391-404 Air power total | ||
| Support expeditions | ||
| Boss support | BB BB CV CV DD DD (Shelling) | |
| Land-Based Aerial Support | ||
| Air base 1 (Node I) | 2x Land-based bombers 2x Carrier-based fighters |
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| Air base 2 (Node I) | 3x Land-based bombers 1x Carrier-based fighters |
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| Air base 3 (Node M) | 3x Carrier-based fighters 1x Large flying boat |
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| Miscellaneous | ||
| 30 Attempts, 14 boss encounters, 2 boss kills, 0 S ranks | ||
| Resources used | 57k Fuel, 37k ammo, 27 steel, 24k bauxite | |
| Notable drops | None | |
| Replay | ||
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| Final kill | Click to open replay in player | |
| Pre-final "kill" | Click to open replay in player | |
| Node A & C S rank | Click to open replay in player | |
| Node H & I S rank | Click to open replay in player | |
| Node D S rank | Click to open replay in player | |
Introduction
| General information | |||
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| Map | E-4 ( マラッカ海峡沖夜戦 ) | ||
| Boss (Pre-final form) |  |
Boss (Final form) | |
| Difficulty | Hard | ||
| Route | B-E-H-I-J-K-L-M-Q | ||
| Fleet formations | Fourth, fourth, echelon, third, third, fourth | ||
| Resources before (Day 1) | Resources after (Day 1) | ||
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| Resources before (Day 2) | Resources after (Day 2) | ||
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| Resources before (Day 3) | Resources after (Day 3) | ||
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| Resources used | 57k Fuel, 37k ammo, 27 steel, 24k bauxite | ||
| 4 Attempts, 3 boss encounters, 1 boss kills, 0 S ranks (Day 1; Pre-final) 20 Attempts, 7 boss encounter, 0 boss kills, 0 S ranks (Day 2; Pre-final) 3 Attempts, 2 boss encounters, 0 boss kill, 0 S rank (Day 3; Pre-final) 3 Attempts, 2 boss encounters, 1 boss kill, 0 S rank (Day 3; Final) 30 Attempts, 14 boss encounters, 2 boss kills, 0 S ranks total |
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Are you tired of seeing Summer BB Hime yet or are you still looking forward to encounter her? In any case, she is back in E-4 as well and you will encounter her at multiple nodes in this map. She clearly is not bored of bothering you yet! Since you will be encountering her at multiple ocassions during a sortie, she will have plenty of opportunities to cause trouble to your fleets, and that she definitely will. As if that is not enough, plenty more dangerous enemies are awaiting the arrival of your shipgirls.
Node B is a selection node, it is recommended to choose node E over D. Going through node E, there is one battle less to worry. Though, the maelstrom at node E will drain some fuel of your main fleet, resulting in your shipgirls in the main fleet to be out of fuel even before the boss and reducing their evasion.
The first battle is at node H. Though usually a relatively harmless node, it might sometimes get rough here already, mainly because of the Flagship Wo-Class there. In some ocassions, you will have to retreat here already.
The duo of Summer Harbour Hime (Damaged) and Supply Depot Hime (Damaged) (from E-3) are also back in this map at node I. Although they are installation types, no Sanshikis or Wurfgeräts were equipped on my shipgirls, for the boss kill attempts. With the help of two air bases, it is even possible to S rank this node without said equipment. Nevertheless, the Himes are very capable and can cause heavy damage to any shipgirl. I witnessed Summer Harbour Hime (Damaged) one-shotting my level 99 Musashi (to 1 hp left).. :/
Node K is the first node where Summer BB Hime is to be encountered in this map, potentially even two of them. It is a night battle node, which allows her/them to perform a cut-in attack. Equipping night battle equipment on your shipgirls in the escort fleet is therefore highly recommended. Retreats will mainly be caused by the battle at this node.
Node L and M are air strike nodes which contain several Kai Flagship III Wo-Class CVs and many powerful aircrafts. These air strikes can cause very serieus, if not critical, injuries to your shipgirls, especially with the reduced evasion from the fuel penalty. Therefore, sortieing a shipgirl with AACI-setup is highly recommended. I even concentrated my third air base on node M to shoot down even more enemy aircrafts/bombers. By the way, Summer BB Hime can appear at node M too.
There are several branching rules with different priorities to avoid getting routed from node L to N. The most important ones being: no Bismarck in your escort fleet and less than 2 CLTs total in your fleets.
Summer CA Hime is the boss of E-4 and is escorted by another two Summer BB Hime and a Kai Flagship III Wo-Class. Since these targets are (very) hard to kill, having as many shipgirls with a (night-time) torpedo cut-in setup in your escort fleet is also highly recommended. You basically have to prey for your shipgirls to snipe the boss with a night-time torpedo cut-in attack. Earning an S rank at the boss node seems nigh impossible.
A minimum air power of around 400+ (at node M) is necessary to achieve at least air superiority at all battle nodes through route B-E-H-I-J-K-L-M-Q. For this reason, a Carrier Task Force is recommended over a Surface Task Force. With a Surface Task Force, it is impossible to gain an air power even remotely close to that number, likely resulting in your shipgirls to take a lot of damage from the air strikes.
Sparkling might be necessary, but I have only done so for the Final kill attempts and only the escort fleet. Normal node support (expedition 189) is not necessary as it will not help your fleet in the majority of the nodes. Boss support (expedition 190) is highly recommended (or even mandatory) for both pre-final and final kill attempts though.
Fleet Composition & Equipment Setups
| Main Fleet (Pre-final kill) | ||
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| Fleet Details | |
| Fleet composition | BB BB CV(B) CV(B) CV(B) CV |
| eLoS | 95.64 |
| Air power | 497-514 |
For E-4, sortieing a Carrier Task Force (CTF) is recommended. A CTF allows you to sortie more CVs and therefore to reach higher air power. This is required to be able to gain at least air superiority at all nodes, for which a minimum air power of around 400+ is mandatory, and to greatly decrease the number of enemy aircrafts, especially at air strike nodes L and M.
I forgot to replace the Surface Radars on my CV(B)s. More fighters, Skilled Carrier-based Aircraft Maintenance Personnel, and/or Type 2 Reconnaissance Aircraft will work here.
Instead of this fleet composition, you may want to opt for the one I used for the Final kill, which can be found here. I recommend replacing Yamato and Musashi with lighter BBs in that case, unless you have unlimited resources.
| Escort Fleet (Pre-final kill) | ||
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| Fleet Details | |
| Fleet composition | DD DD CL CA CA CLT |
| eLoS | 10.63 |
| Air power | N/A |
Since the boss node contains many highly armored enemies with large health pools, it is recommended to have as many shipgirls in the escort fleet equipped with a night-time torpedo cut-in setup. As the Luck stat of shipgirls positively affects their cut-in rate, sortieing shipgirls with a high Luck stat (40+) is naturally recommended. Good choices are Yukikaze, Kitakami, and Shigure Kai Ni. Other pretty decent ones are Prinz Eugen, Myoukou Kai Ni, and Ayanami Kai Ni. If you do not have that many shipgirls with high Luck, you're far better off with a double-attack setup on low Luck shipgirls.
Though CAs generally have better night battle capabilities, you can replace them with fBBs. It is fine as long it is not Bismarck (otherwise possible routing to node N).
Night battle equipment is highly recommended for night battle node K and night battle against the boss.
The flagship of the escort fleet should be the one equipped with a Searchlight. A Searchlight increases the rate that the one equipping it will be targeted. The player's fleet always takes the first turn before the enemy. Therefore, your flagship has already attacked before (potentially) getting attacked. Furthermore, keep in mind that the flagship has an increased rate to perform a night-time cut-in attack.
Keep in mind that having 2 torpedoes equipped on a shipgirl is enough to enable her to perform a night-time torpedo cut-in attack. If you are sortieing CAs with torpedo cut-in setups, you can have her equipped with only 2 torpedoes and a main gun (or two). Main guns generally have better stats and are less rare than torpedoes.
If you do not have Abukuma Kai Ni or prefer a slightly stronger CL for night battle, you can replace her with a Sendai-class Kai Ni shipgirl. The latter can equip seaplanes as well, allowing them to carry the Night Recon. In that case, you can equip a Skilled Lookouts on one of your CAs instead, for example.
Instead of this fleet composition, you may want to opt for the one I used for the Final kill, which can be found here. It is largely the same one as above, but with the AACI-setup on Akizuki replaced with Yukikaze with a night-time torpedo cut-in setup and some equipment swapped around.
| Main Fleet (Final kill) | ||
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| Fleet Details | |
| Fleet composition | BB BB CV(B) CV(B) CV(B) Maya Kai Ni |
| eLoS | 80.58 |
| Air power | 391-404 |
Nagato and Mutsu in main fleet were replaced by Yamato and Musashi for the Final kill attempts. Furthermore, Kaga was also replaced by Maya Kai Ni with an AACI-setup, instead of having an AACI-dedicated shipgirl in the escort fleet, to allow for more (night-time) firepower in aforementioned fleet.
Although this fleet composition and equipment setup combination most likely does not have enough air power to achieve air superiority at node M (by the time it reaches there), it can still be guaranteed with the help of aerial support.
To mitigate the effects of the fuel and ammo penalties, you can sortie Hayasui with Underway Replenishment instead of one of your other shipgirls. It is preferable to assign her to the main fleet, since her combat abilities are one of the poorest and will not contribute much during night battle against the boss. Besides, having Hayasui in the escort fleet leads your Combined Fleet from node L to N.
The fleet composition and equipment setup here might actually be more preferable than the one I used for the Pre-final attempts, though with lighter BBs.
| Escort Fleet (Final kill) | ||
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| Fleet Details | |
| Fleet composition | DD CL CA DD CA CLT |
| eLoS | 5.01 |
| Air power | N/A |
Now that the AACI-dedicated shipgirl has been moved to the main fleet, it leaves a slot open for another DD with a torpedo cut-in setup. Furthermore, the night battle equipment have been shuffled around and Prinz Eugen is equipped with a Skilled Lookouts instead to further increase her cut-in rate.
Abukuma Kai Ni can be replaced with a Sendai-class Kai Ni shipgirl, who can carry the Night Recon. In that case, you can equip a Skilled Lookouts on Myoukou as well.
Support Expeditions
| Boss Support | ||
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Boss support (expedition 190) is absoultely necessary for E-4 to deal as much damage as possible and (hopefully) clear the weaker targets. Send it for both pre-final and final kill runs.
Land-Based Aerial Support
| Air Bases | |||
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| 2x Type 1 Land-based Attack Aircraft 2x Reppuu |
1x Type 1 Land-based Attack Aircraft (Nonaka Squadron) 1x Type 1 Land-based Attack Aircraft Model 34 1x Ginga 1x Reppuu |
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| 3x Reppuu 1x Type 2 Large Flying Boat |
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The first and second Air bases concentrate on node I. It is a very dangerous node where you want to shoot down the enemy aircrafts there and bomb the surface targets. The Land-based bombers are very effective and can even deal moderate damage to the Supply Depot Hime, rendering her unable to fire a closing torpedo.
Since this event, the system for the aircraft range for aerial support has changed. The maximum operating range of an air base is now equal to that of the aircraft with the lowest range assigned to the respective air base. This means that the aircrafts cannot reach the boss node in E-4. However, a Large Flying Boat can extend the range of aircrafts. The PBY-5A Catalina extends the range of aircrafts in the same air base by 2, while the Taitei (Type 2 Large Flying Boat) does that by 3.
Regardless of whether your aircrafts can reach the boss, aerial support at the boss node will do only very little damage to the enemies. It is more preferable to designate the third air base to node M and/or L.
With a Taitei in the third air base along with Reppuus, the operating range is just enough to reach node M. If you do not have Taitei or Reppuus for the air base, you can assign fighter with longer range or designate the support from this airbase to node L or I instead.
Alternatively, aerial support to node I can be setup to shoot down all enemy aircrafts at said node in combination with AACI. To achieve this, assign 4x fighters to Air base 1 and 1x/2x fighters with 3x/2x Land-based bombers to Air base 2 instead. If AACI does trigger too, Summer Harbour Hime and Supply Depot Hime lose all of their aircrafts and are thus unable to attack during shelling phase. However, Supply Depot Hime will still be able to fire her closing torpedo if she doesn't get at least moderately damaged. I found the closing torpedo the most annoying thing at node I. Therefore, I changed the initial setup to shoot down all of the aircrafts to that shown above in the screenshots.
Weakening Mechanism
The boss, Summer CA Hime, can be weakened/debuffed by earning an S rank at 4 out of the following 5 nodes: nodes C, D, H, I, K. This weakening effect is permanent.
When the weakening is successfully done, you will hear the sound for "Quest Completion" or "Remodelling" () when returned back to base. Furthermore, the boss's voice line will be changed from to , though not visible in the written line. So keep in mind not to mute the game sounds!
To go to node C, a Surface Task Force is required since it starts at starting point 2. Node D and H can be reached by starting at starting point 1, which requires a Carrier Task Force. Since node I contains Installation type enemies, equipping Sanshikis and Wurfgeräts is recommended. It is not recommended to try to S rank node K instead of one of the other nodes, as node K is a night battle node, where the main fleet and any form of support is excluded, and each vessel only has one turn to attack.
Sparkling your shipgirls is not necessary, neither are support expeditions.
Sadly, I have no screenshots of my fleet compositions for the debuffing saved, but S ranking aforementioned nodes is a relatively straight-forward task. Replays can be found in the Replay section above though.
Notable Drops
| Notable Drops | |||
| None | |||
Map Clear Rewards
| Rewards | |||
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| 1x Re.2005 Kai | 8x Improvement Material | ||
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| 2x Medal | Warspite | ||
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| 1x First Class Medal | |||
Bonus Screenshots
| Bonus | |||
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| Boss encounter! | Final kill; sniped by Kitakami | ||
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| E-1, E-2, E-3 & E-4 cleared | Seventh First Class Medal! ^_^ | ||
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| Warspite! :D | |||