Kantai Collection

[Blackbird]

Went ahead and cleared 1-5, just to gain access to 1-6. What would you recommend as a base setup for completing it, though? I don't have any AA cut in equipment, so I feel like my DDs will just get wrecked if I go now.

One interesting thing I spotted about 1-6: Apparently Ooyodo can drop on one of the nodes? That's pretty cool, because she was event only before.

I was thinking I might try 2-5 and see if I could get Akashi. I had one successful boss run earlier using the Fast BB/CV composition.

[Icarus]

Went ahead and cleared 1-5, just to gain access to 1-6. What would you recommend as a base setup for completing it, though? I don't have any AA cut in equipment, so I feel like my DDs will just get wrecked if I go now.

Hmm. I use CL 5DD, and I wouldn't worry about AACI equipment, you just need DDs strong enough to withstand a couple of torpedoes.

CL: 2x 15.5cm (yellow, preferred, if you have them) OR 2x 20.3cm (red), Type 0 Recon seaplane
DD: 2x 10cm HA, Radar (Air Radar preferred) OR Oxy Torpedo

With CL 5DD you always take the lowest loopback, which goes through a submarine node which is non-descript (so don't bother with ASW stuff, but do line-abreast to kill some of them); an air bombardment node which can be dangerous, so use Diamond formation and pray you shoot down enough bombers; and a standard combat node which is pretty easy. If you get hit to red on the node before the resources, just proceed anyway, as you don't fight at that node.

Whatever you do, don't even think of using anything heavier than a CL, as you'll end up going the middle route which has elite BBs, line-ahead subs, Wo with takoyaki bombers, and other wonderful treats. I do think the middle route has some nice drops, but it's probably not worth it unless you have a fleet of lv99+ ships.

One interesting thing I spotted about 1-6: Apparently Ooyodo can drop on one of the nodes? That's pretty cool, because she was event only before.

Does she? Might be worth getting as she is one of the two CL with four equipment slots - I use her over Yuubari as she can actually equip and use recon seaplanes, while Yuubari can equip them but her slots are zero'ed, so they're not even any use. In some stages, a CL that can use seaplanes is a godsend to ensure you get artillery spotting.

I was thinking I might try 2-5 and see if I could get Akashi. I had one successful boss run earlier using the Fast BB/CV composition.

I believe she also appears at 1-5 for teitoku who don't have her, but again, be aware of pushing your HQ level up. Once you have one, she won't drop in any other map besides 3-5 (Hoppou node) and 6-2, but she is critical in opening up the Improvement Arsenal.

[Blackbird]

Hmmm, some initial testing with just the stock 10cm HA guns was positive: I could survive the carrier node on 1-6 at least. I don't really like the design of the map though. Unless you night battle the carrier node, you're eating a sortie loss every time you go. I might be able to fight the node if I modernize the DDs a bit more, most of them are just reaching Kai now and I've been focusing most of my modernization on my CVs/CVLs to reduce the damage they take. Will try a bit later I think.

[Icarus]

Hmmm, some initial testing with just the stock 10cm HA guns was positive: I could survive the carrier node on 1-6 at least. I don't really like the design of the map though. Unless you night battle the carrier node, you're eating a sortie loss every time you go. I might be able to fight the node if I modernize the DDs a bit more, most of them are just reaching Kai now and I've been focusing most of my modernization on my CVs/CVLs to reduce the damage they take. Will try a bit later I think.

I take the loss since it's technically impossible for me to ever drop below the 75% required for event participation:



… but for you as a new player with a low sortie total so far, I think it'd be best not to worry too much about running 1-6 and instead focus on World 3 and 4, both for drops, equipment, and levelling up. Other players have tested trying to fight the night battle at the carrier node and have only dealt scratch damage even with full night battle equipment on (Searchlight, Starshell, Night Scout), and others have barely managed to do anything during the day with Akitsu Maru and/or a single CAV, so in my opinion, trying to get anything from it is impossible.

[Blackbird]

I just don't like losing sorties on principle. I always want to win, even if it's inefficient! Pretty much with you on 1-6. I think I'll just try to progress where I can and prepare for the spring event.

I had a major derp moment though. I was power leveling Cikuma/Tone because I expected that they would become CAVs at level 25 - then realized that it's not until Kai *2*. Not really a big waste of time because they're good as CAs and I'd eventually want to level them anyway, but I should probably have been focusing my efforts on Kumano first =P.

[Icarus]

I just don't like losing sorties on principle. I always want to win, even if it's inefficient! Pretty much with you on 1-6. I think I'll just try to progress where I can and prepare for the spring event.

I had a major derp moment though. I was power leveling Cikuma/Tone because I expected that they would become CAVs at level 25 - then realized that it's not until Kai *2*. Not really a big waste of time because I would they're good as CAs and I'd eventually want to level them anyway, but I should probably have been focusing my efforts on Kumano first =P.

If you have Kumano already, then that's a good start. Mogami should be *relatively* easy to find, so getting two CAV prepared is a must as they've been required for branching rules in later worlds and event maps. Tone and Chikuma are pretty much required levelling though, both for the stuff they have, and because at higher levels (to and beyond 改二), they're unparalleled in their class, and are beaten only by the 改二 Myoukou class CAs in firepower.

Also re. Spring Event 2015 - it's at the end of this month.
http://kancolle.wikia.com/wiki/Spring_2015_Event
The devs have mentioned a 改二 for a CA and a DD, and the release of a new non-Japanese BB among other ships. In terms of CAs, Takao, Atago, Kako and Aoba are the only ones without 改二, there are a raft of DDs without a second remodel, and some players in the community are theorising that Tirpitz is to join Bismarck in the game. Also, as it's an event, make sure you stock up on instant repair buckets! I can't stress this enough how important it is to have a lot of them - I barely scraped through Summer 2014 starting with 120, and I blew through two thirds of that in the first two days trying to clear E-2. If you have all four fleets, spam Expeditions 2, 4 and 10 constantly, and work through your daily and weekly quests. :3

[Blackbird]

Mogami is no problem - I've found several copies, and even Kai'd more than one just to get a few more Zuiun.

As for Spring event, I hope I have enough resources? I've been very sparing on repair buckets, so I've got ~130 of them. I usually keep resources around half of the resource regeneration soft-cap, which is around 12k right now.

I think it's been confirmed that the foreign BB will be Italian in origin. The DDs are anyone's quess, but I expect that, after Murakumo, it's likely that they will have Kai Ni versions of all the starter ships eventually. I have no idea about the CA though. Perhaps Atago, since she was in the anime?

[Icarus]

As for Spring event, I hope I have enough resources? I've been very sparing on repair buckets, so I've got ~130 of them. I usually keep resources around half of the resource regeneration soft-cap, which is around 12k right now.

I'd say double the buckets to be safe, and be at the cap for resources. Spam 2-4-10 for buckets, 5-13-21 repeatedly for fuel/ammo, and leave 15-35-36 going when you sleep for steel/baux.
If you have three or more submarines, spam World 2-3 to clear out most of your dailies and weeklies, particularly the ones where you kill a certain number of transports and aircraft carriers. It's definitely the most resource-efficient method of doing dailies, though you really need a few sets (3x 5 or more) of submarines for it to be truly efficient.

I started the Winter 2014 event with about 810 buckets and 80k in everything, but that's mainly because I skipped over the Autumn 2014 event due to holidays. For reference, this is a before and after from Winter 2014:



You can see that I spent a lot of buckets going for the full clear, and that was while spamming 2-4-11 during the event, and completing dailies/weeklies. Buckets are the most important of the resources, imo.

And for chuckles, current stats:



I'd have way more than that if I wasn't spending the past few weeks speedlevelling. >_>

Perhaps Atago, since she was in the anime?

Takao was in the anime as well. ^_-
(Though Atago was in more episodes…)
I'm praying Akizuki (or one of her sisters) is a super-rare drop or map reward this event.

[Blackbird]

I was a bit skeptical that the sub wolf pack strategy on 2-3 would work for me because I have only 3 subs to work with. However, I found that it was just enough. At level 20 and fully modernized, they almost never take damage, and sink enough destroyers on the initial node to consistently get a B rank. After that, the rest of the map has very few ASW ships, so the subs can have fun sinking unguarded transports and carriers.

This is *so* much more efficient than trying to run dailies on 2-2 with a CVL/CA/BB composition. The subs are so efficient supply/repair wise that I'm actually gaining resources just from the map nodes alone, and that's setting aside that I'm avoiding lengthy repairs on ships that would otherwise get damaged. The only real problem is morale, but I could limit it to an extent by using repairs to reset the morale to base.

[Icarus]

The only real problem is morale, but I could limit it to an extent by using repairs to reset the morale to base.

That's why you need more than one of each, so you can rotate them. I have between three and six each of the accessible subs - Iku, Goya, Hachi, Maruyu, Imuya - which is enough to quickly blast my way through 2-3 for quests - a run of 2-3 takes just long enough to give one set a full rest back to the morale regen cap if I take it easy (40+ morale, from ~35). I don't have Shioi yet, though, but U-511 has been exemplary in the sixth spot, grabbing MVP quite frequently and levelling up really quickly as a result.
I only just recently learned that they are also perfect for 4-2, to complete the "defeat 10 bosses in world 4" questline. They take a lot more damage in 4-2 if you're unlucky though, and you fail at least one node every so often as you run into at least one full submarine pack every so often, but it's a critical weekly questline for three improvement materials, which are hard to come by, and is also a good way to chip away at the "sortie x32, get to x24 boss nodes, defeat x12 bosses, S-rank x6 bosses" quest too (although the fastest way to do that quest is to rapidly spam 1-1 with subs and completely disregard morale).

[Blackbird]

I just randomed a LSC because my resources were approaching soft cap and got Maruyu! That's got my 3-2 tank set up now. I've been trying to clear 3-1, the map isn't too bad, but the compass keeps avoiding the boss node for now. Kind of a troll map - half the nodes are easy CL/DD comps, the other half are carrier fleets with super high air power values =P. I'd like to get some Reppuu planes, but they're pretty rare, I'll just have to keep trying to build them. They basically double your air power rating, which is nice, because then you can actually have enough planes left over to torpedo things. Most of my DDs are Kai'd, I just need to modernize them and I should be prepared for 3-2.

I couldn't really articulate my question from before because of the character limit, but here's the long version. The stock setup on CAs is usually 2x20.3cm, Radar, and Seaplane. I was wondering why that is? 2x20.3cm, 15.5cm Secondary, and Seaplane seems like a pretty good combo on paper because it enables mixed cut-in and increases firepower, is it a good combo for CA?

[Icarus]

I couldn't really articulate my question from before because of the character limit, but here's the long version. The stock setup on CAs is usually 2x20.3cm, Radar, and Seaplane. I was wondering why that is? 2x20.3cm, 15.5cm Secondary, and Seaplane seems like a pretty good combo on paper because it enables mixed cut-in and increases firepower, is it a good combo for CA?

Cut-ins do less damage and have a higher chance to miss/scratch compared to double-attacks for CA, especially at night, which is why the 2x 20.3cm + seaplane + radar setup is preferable. The radar helps to supplement their overall accuracy.
15.5cms are better used on CLs because the stats are comparable to 20.3cms, with the benefit of extra accuracy, especially since most CLs only have three equipment slots to use. Only CAs get a special firepower and accuracy bonus for equipping 20.3cm guns (especially at night), while CLs get that with 15.5cms and any other guns lower than 20.3cm in size. It's pretty much a toss-up between the 15.5cm main (+1 AA, -1 accuracy, day-time double attack if CL has seaplane) or the 15.5cm secondary (-1 AA, +1 accuracy) - for me, the secondary always wins because of the extra accuracy.

[Blackbird]

There's a firepower and accuracy bonus for having 20cm guns equipped to CAs, in addition to the visible stats? Ah, didn't know that. I should probably switch around my equipment then. I had my 15cm main guns equipped to CAs because I preferred 7 FP + 1ACC to 8FP, but if there's a hidden bonus I'm losing out on, then that obviously defeats the point. It's also a good point that CLs need the accuracy on the guns more (since they have fewer slots to make up the difference).

[Blackbird]

Cleared 2-5 pretty straightforwardly with the 4 FBB 2 CV composition. No interesting drops though, haha. Also cleared 3-1. 3-1 is kind of a troll map - if you don't go directly to the boss, you either get ejected from the map, or face carrier nodes with massive air power ratings. Always a pain when you have to bring a ton of fighter escorts "just in case" because of one or two nodes, and most of the time you're just losing slots for torpedo planes. 2-2 is the same way.

3-2 looks like it's going to be tricky with the 6 DD requirement. I'll need to get more of them kai'd and modernized. The difference between a stock and a modernized destroyer is pretty huge, there's a big gap between their base stats and their caps. I need to find a small-sized radar too, to mitigate that maelstrom tile. What happens if you run out of fuel actually? It's never happened to me before.

[Icarus]

3-2 looks like it's going to be tricky with the 6 DD requirement. I'll need to get more of them kai'd and modernized.

Level 30+, fully modernised and fully sparkled. And pray.
Turbines and boilers also help, as does Repair Teams.

What happens if you run out of fuel actually? It's never happened to me before.

Your ship's evasion stat plummets to zero.
Similarly, if your ship runs out of ammo, it'll either miss every shot or do scratch damage only.
Which is why most players will reset if they get sent to the long route on maps like 2-4.

I need to find a small-sized radar too, to mitigate that maelstrom tile.

Isuzu 改's at lv12, and provides a Air Type 21 radar which is a start. She can also be used as modernisation fodder after 改, and gives a huge +5 AA among other stats.
But keep at least one, because she has a very high ASW stat.

News on Spring Event 2015:
It's going to be carrier-focused. https://twitter.com/KanColle_STAFF/stat ... 0046809088

[Blackbird]

Isuzu 改's at lv12, and provides a Air Type 21 radar which is a start. She can also be used as modernisation fodder after 改, and gives a huge +5 AA among other stats.
But keep at least one, because she has a very high ASW stat.

News on Spring Event 2015:
It's going to be carrier-focused. https://twitter.com/KanColle_STAFF/stat ... 0046809088

That's the problem - I have plenty of Type 21 radars, but they are too large to fit on DDs. The small-sized radars are much rarer. I think I'll probably have to craft some.

A carrier-focused event is good news for me =P. My carrier fleet is relatively solid - Akagi, Souryuu, Hiyou, and Junyou all at lvl 30+ kai and mostly modernized. Ryuujou, Chitose, and Chiyoda are all kai'd but just need modernization.

I think the plan now is to just farm 3-2A to develop levels and get modernization materials, maybe give the early world 4 maps some exploration.

[Icarus]

That's the problem - I have plenty of Type 21 radars, but they are too large to fit on DDs. The small-sized radars are much rarer. I think I'll probably have to craft some.

Your next best bet then, is the Type 22 Surface Radar, which you'll only find on Yuugumo and Hamakaze (both Kai at 30), and they're not that common as drops usually. Or you can try building a Type 33 Surface Radar (popular recipes are 20/20/250/250 and 10/11/251/250 with a BB of some description, or a CV, as your flagship), but be prepared to chew through your resources that way - those recipes can also yield a Type 32 Surface Radar, which is a large radar for big ships.

To be honest though, the 3-2 maelstrom isn't even an issue, since going to the boss via the maelstrom actually saves you from fighting a battle.

A carrier-focused event is good news for me =P

They say "carrier-focused" but it can also refer to the carrier escorts (CL, DD, CA, CAV), if AL/MI was anything to go by…

[Blackbird]

On that 3-2A grind now. I wanted another aviation cruiser, so I power leveled Kumano to 35. A nice perk of this node is that it has pretty good drops - lots of CAs, CVLs, and the odd BB to modernize my destroyers into fighting shape. Shimakaze and Shigure and modernized, and Hatsushimo is about halfway there. The other DDs are ready to go and pretty much waiting on upgrade materials to fill out their stats.



Also got a Type 22 Surface Radar for the trouble, which conveniently solves one of the problems with 3-2.

[Icarus]

Event starts on the 28th April after the scheduled maintenance. https://twitter.com/KanColle_STAFF/stat ... 0077921280
Remember, it's a carrier-focused event, so get your CV and CVL levelled and equipped. And for good measure, get your carrier escorts prepared too, just in case (DD, CL, CA, CAV).
I should probably stop chewing through my resources and instant repairs so I can stock up and be ready, but it's so easy getting everyone levelled up that I can't help it.

Speaking of which, I Kai2'ed Maya on Sunday, after a long hard slog from 60 to 75 over the weekend. The last five levels were the longest. >_>



I'd say I'm pretty much prepared for all eventualities now. Just going to quickly grind out some improvement materials so I can craft a 12.7cm HA + AAFD, and my anti-air defences will be complete. :3

[Blackbird]

Yeah, I've just been sitting near soft-cap, only building when I need to do dailies/stay under cap. Since I've been running 3-2A, I've been using hardly any buckets, so I've got a lot stockpiled there. Been trying to get enough DDs modernized so that I can have a decent escort fleet if it comes to that. It's kind of a pain to get enough materials to modernize all of them, that's a lot of CAs to go through =P.

I did finish a quest chain that gave me an AAFD 91, so I've at least got one setup to go on!

The main thing I'm concerned about is air power. I haven't been able to craft any Reppuus yet so my air power is a bit lacking. I'll keep trying, but they're not super easy to get. I have plenty of good CVLs, but I might try crafting some more dedicated CVs. Akagi and Souryuu are really solid, but I have only those two - no luck finding the others so far. Kaga would be really nice since she has the best plane slots/air power.

[Icarus]

The main thing I'm concerned about is air power. I haven't been able to craft any Reppuus yet so my air power is a bit lacking. I'll keep trying, but they're not super easy to get. I have plenty of good CVLs, but I might try crafting some more dedicated CVs. Akagi and Souryuu are really solid, but I have only those two - no luck finding the others so far. Kaga would be really nice since she has the best plane slots/air power.

Yeah, Reppuu are really hard to come by. One or two will defintely help, but failing that, Shiden Kai2 (+9 AA) are just as good, and tend to be a little more common than the Reppuu. I prefer the 20/60/10/110 (with a CV flagship) recipe for ail my aircraft, as from it I'm pretty much drowning in Saiun, and have enough Ryuusei and Ryuusei Kai to fully outfit all of my CV and CVL.

In terms of quality CVs, Kaga (#1), Zuikaku and Shoukaku (tied #2) rank the highest. After that, it's basically a fight between Akagi, Unryuu, Amagi, Hiryuu (at Kai2) and Souryuu (at Kai2), as all of them have their strengths and weaknesses. I'd say definitely try and get at least two decent CV ready - if you need more, use the 350/30/600/350 recipe with a BB or CV flagship, I tend to get a truckload of CVL and the occasional CV from it. Taihou, who you'll only get from LSC, has her uses, but her consumption rivals the Yamato-class and Akagi combined.

Ahead of time, there's a really useful Japanese air power calculator online:
http://www.kancolle-calc.net/aircrafts.html
Use it to get an idea of your maximum air power on certain stages. (3-5 Hoppou is a fun one to try and get Air Supremacy on, lol.)
To use it, click on a kanmusu's picture so her equipment slots highlight in red, click on an aircraft from the list on the left, then click in a slot to "assign" it.

Speaking of Kaga, she's massively overpowered. Using my usual equipment assignment of a Reppuu (601 Air), 2x Reppuu and a Type 62 Zero, she has on her own 175 Air Power, which is enough for Air Supremacy in most standard maps. :3

[Icarus]

Mutsuki and Kisaragi Kai2, released in about 45mins of time of writing in a live update, both come with Enhanced Steam Boilers.
Now this makes things more interesting (and hilariously unbalanced), considering that they're the best engines/turbines available, and were only available on the extremely hard-to-find Amatsukaze Kai. Now they're on second-remodel common-drop destroyers, it'll make farming these for DD-specific maps like 3-2 and any hard event maps far easier.
Surprising they're lv65 remodels and not blueprint-locked, considering the equipment they're carrying.

[Blackbird]

Mutsuki and Kisaragi getting Kai 2 isn't really surprising - they were in the anime, so it was bound to happen eventually (I think that's going to be true for all the major anime characters). I thought you were talking about the High-Pressure Steam Boiler at first (the one that's Amatsukaze Kai only), but then I realized that it's just the regular enhanced boiler that's been added. I don't think that this is a big deal? The basic enhanced boilers are already buildable (if uncommon), this just gives you one more way to get them. 65 levels is still a lot to farm just for one item. Are there any areas of the game that you can really break by stacking evasion equipment anyway? I was under the impression that enemies can pretty much always hit you, even if they might have a low chance to do so.

Not sure if I want to upgrade my Mutsuki class, I pretty much use them exclusively for expeditions, so I'll wait and see if they have increased resource consumption before deciding to upgrade or not.

Pretty cool update overall.

[Icarus]

I thought you were talking about the High-Pressure Steam Boiler at first (the one that's Amatsukaze Kai only), but then I realized that it's just the regular enhanced boiler that's been added. I don't think that this is a big deal?

Actually, it is a big deal, because the easier it is to get high quality engines, the more useful your submarines become.

For example, I've been trying to find a way to quickly deal with the very difficult weekly quest Bw7 「敵北方艦隊主力を撃滅せよ！」"Defeat 5 bosses in the Northern Sea (3-3, 3-4, or 3-5)", because clearing it yields 3x Improvement Materials, which are critical to getting good equipment, and this quest is one of the few weekly sources of Improvement Materials. However:

- 3-3 can be draining on resources if you use a 2CV 4BB or 4CV 2BB composition, and is a random compass map, so there's no guarantee you'll fight the boss even if you're unscathed on the way,
- 3-4 is completely random and requires either a ton of restarts or a ton of luck, and is even more draining on repair items as every node as golden BBs,
- 3-5 is horrible no matter what route you take - CL 5DD always has a chance of ruining your day in the first node, and the Hoppou route always has a chance to end your run, with Hoppou herself occasionally finding her accuracy and wrecking the heavy fleets that go via her route.

So I've been looking at a way to perhaps cheese 3-3 since it's the "easier" of the three maps, however you need to take at least 2CV/L to go in the direction of the boss, and they're both expensive to run and take forever to repair, spending buckets. So I thought, how about trying to use subs?

This is the very first attempt using an experimental CA 2CV 3SS, going to and clearing the boss:



And the reason why my subs weren't totally wrecked in this map, despite many of the enemies carrying depth charges, is because they have engines equipped. :3
By the way, any CA or CAV can be used, or even a BB of some kind, but I took Maya on purpose for the high AA and AACI potential - even at the boss node, I had Air Supremacy. She only took 10HP of damage from a torpedo on the way (so a bucket repair, or a night's worth of Akashi tick repairs), and both Akagi and Kaga are unscathed as a result of the submarines tanking everything. I'm thinking of taking different, less resource-intensive CVs like Hiryuu/Souryuu or Unryuu/Amagi, to help conserve some resources next time.

Engines also make your DDs much more useful too - you'll soon find out why if you're trying to clear 3-2. ^_-

[Blackbird]

Cool, I'll try to collect some more of them then. I actually lucked out a while back and got a +10 boiler while trying to build AP shells, and it's been pretty useful so far. I'm thinking you get a stronger effect on modernized subs, where you can have two of them at the same time?

I've been learning about the best setups for DD, and it's pretty odd - most other ships have a seaplane in the third slot by default, but with DDs, you can't have that. Having a third gun or 2x gun + torp is apparently not ideal either, because it creates suboptimal attack setups during night battle. I can see a pretty strong case for engines on DDs in a lot of situations (either that or small radar).

With Yukikaze and Hatsushimo, I'm up to 4 modernized DDs. It's really nice being able to use them in combat situations now because a lot of quests call for DDs. Getting close to the point where I can make realistic attempts at 3-2.

Another bit from the update: it looks like the new Mutsuki Kai 2's don't increase fuel consumption, so there's no real reason not to do it once you have the levels. I'll probably get them eventually (all of my Mutsuki-class DDs are at Kai already, just from doing expeditions, haha).

[Icarus]

I now have two tested versions of the experimental 3-3 composition:

- CA [Maya] 2CV 3SS - (super low consumption)
- CA [Maya] 2CV 2CLT SS [U-511] - (low consumption, higher opening/closing torpedo attack power, more day/night shelling)

At the moment, Maya's relegated to primarily AA (as she's running a 25mm Concentrated Deployment and another 25mm *7, along with a Type 14 L-AA Radar and the Type 94 AAFD *6), but once I finish cooking up a 12.7cm HA + AAFD, I can put one of the 20.3cm no2 back on to boost her shelling power. Currently 2 out of 3 attempts has been a clear with these compositions so far, so goodbye 3-5, lmao. (I'll be back in 3-5 once I figure out a consistent way to farm Hoppou.)

I keep all of my map compositions documented, if anyone's interested in seeing some consistent setups for certain maps.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

EDIT: Aaaaaand, done. CA 2CV 2CLT SS has a 50% success rate in 3-3 after 10 attempts, with a few of the fails being dead-end routing, and the other few being forced retreats. This beats the <10% success trying to go via 3-5, so I'll be using this route and comp from now on. :3

Cool, I'll try to collect some more of them then. I actually lucked out a while back and got a +10 boiler while trying to build AP shells, and it's been pretty useful so far. I'm thinking you get a stronger effect on modernized subs, where you can have two of them at the same time?

Yep, that's correct, although the only subs you're likely to modernise will be Imuya (I-168), Maruyu (who's useless in combat but great for 3-2-A tanking), U-511 (who's unavailable atm) and Shioi (I-401, only from LSC). Goya, Hachi and Iku, when modernised, have doubled consumption and repair times, making them not as efficient for things.

I'm running two +10 evasion boilers on my lv93 U-511, and the majority of the time, it's only the ships with depth charges that can hit her (and for scratch damage), everything else misses completely. When I eventually acquire Shioi, she's replace U-511 as my individual sub-tank, as she has much higher armour and health compared to the other submarines.

I've been learning about the best setups for DD, and it's pretty odd - most other ships have a seaplane in the third slot by default, but with DDs, you can't have that. Having a third gun or 2x gun + torp is apparently not ideal either, because it creates suboptimal attack setups during night battle. I can see a pretty strong case for engines on DDs in a lot of situations (either that or small radar).

As mentioned before, you're either going to be running a variant of the 2x 10cm HA + wildcard setup (for daytime AA), or the 2x torpedo and wildcard setup (for night-time torpedo cut-in). Whichever you decide to run will depend on what you're aiming to do, and which ships you're taking. Shigure, for example, works best with the AA setup because of her high AA stat among DDs, while Yukikaze and Yuudachi are better suited to the torpedo cut-in set up due to their extremely high attack power.

As for the wildcard slot, most of the time you'll take a radar - either AA radar for the extra AA (or AACI chance if you have the 10cm HA + AAFD), or surface radar for extra hit chance - but engines are also good for the evasion on some maps.

[Blackbird]

I've been gaining resources faster than I can spend them =P. Guess that's a good problem to have. I got really lucky on builds today. Got Abukuma and the super strong Mutsu :



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One more ship to level, haha.

[Icarus]

The Biscuit is mine!



What was funny was the 5hr timer threw me off, I thought it was going to be Mutsu (already have), Nagato (already have) or the more desirable Shioi. But whatever, stupidly overpowered fast battleship waifu get!
I still need Zuikaku to get past this quest log bottleneck, though. >_>

[Blackbird]

The quest/expedition chain to enable Bismarck construction is crazy long, haha. I think I'll save that distraction for *after* the event is over. I'm not really prepared to commit all of my subs to the expeditions for that long, either.

Now the rumor is there will be a new CV this event? That doesn't leave too many options as to which ship it could be, a lot of the major ones are covered already. It would have to be either Shinano or a much smaller ship (escort carrier class). I hope some of the other event-only ships will be available as drops, I'd love to get U-511 or Prinz Eugen.

DDs are just about ready to go. Yuudachi is about halfway modernized, and then after Ushio and Ayanami are upgraded I should be set on DDs for a while (and can go back to upgrading other ships). Mutsu's been super easy to level, she's just been wrecking face in PVP, haha.

I made a little progress today and cleared the way to 4-3, so I can have an easier(?) time power leveling CLs and DDs if need be.

[Blackbird]

Looks like the event is just about here. I had a lucky last bit of preparation: managed to build Hiryuu in time to get her kai'd and modernized for the event.

It sounds like this is going to be a tough one, so I'll probably wait and see what the routes are instead of rushing in.

Question about events: If you clear a map on a lower difficulty and get the map rewards for that tier, can you then go back and complete it again on a harder setting to get the rewards for higher difficulty? I'll have to look at the map rewards carefully, it would really suck to get locked out of a good item/ship because it was only available on Normal/Hard.