Summer 2023 Map E-2 - Asahi, Again

[goesto11]

E-2 Medium Cleared. As fitting for this map, I missed the gauge blowing up so no screen shot. Note, I planned on clearing on Hard, and got all the way to E-2HP2 LD, but just could not overlook the farming aspect vs. rewards. Thus, I dropped to Medium and cleared in 3 sorties. Accordingly, my report is geared towards clearing on Hard since I did E-2 on Hard for 98% of it, but I will make a couple comments about Medium.

Unlocking. The same ships/comp are used for the rest of unlocking. See Part 2 HP Gauge below for additional comments on ship choices.
Node F2 (Hard) fleet

**NOTE: Taihou is a duplicate

Comments:

• Node F2 (Hard): 4 sorties needed. Node shelling support used. This may be the biggest pain for E-2H. Maybe some RNG, but the aerial battle nodes sent me back the first 3 sorties. 4th sortie was T-cross advantage, and I was able to get S-rank fairly easily. Shouldn't be too bad on Med as you won't have to deal with O-Torps.
• The rest of unlocking is simply a matter of changing load out.

Part 1 TP Gauge (Hard)
Fleet

**NOTE: Helena and Ariake are duplicates

Comments:

• Going for A ranks here - 84 pts per A rank.
• Definitely will want Smoke Gen Kai on a DD. Read that 2x Smoke Gen Kai (presumably 1 on 2 different DD) will almost always trigger and can give an ever better smoke screen. Something to consider if you are still having trouble with Node P. Will cost you a slot (so maybe less TP points per trip), but if you get to the boss node more often, might be worth it. For me, I didn't retreat enough to where I felt it was a necessary change.
• Per theme of this map, you will use a lot of repair buckets at Part 1

Part 2 HP Gauge (Hard/Med)
Fleet (used for both Hard & Med)

**NOTE: Taihou and Ooi are duplicates


- LBAS - 2x T1 Nonaka + 2x B-25
- Boss support used for some of the Hard sorties. When I simmed this, using a good boss shelling support (only flag sparkled) got about 8% higher boss kill rate.

Comments (Hard):

• This is arguably more annoying that frustrating. On Hard, it's definitely NOT as bad as E-1H P2 since the boss isn't tough. It's still a bit of a snipe though, but you don't need huge damage rolls as well as targeting the boss.
• Hatasuharu load out is less than ideal given low default luck, but simmed about 2% better than giving her say 2x main and a searchlight so stuck with this.
• The fleet comp above simmed at about 43% boss kill (assuming I did sim, right, but I think I did). S-rank win probability, however, was much lower.
• Using Atago instead of Ooi didn't affect the sim clearing rate as much as I would have thought (lowered by about 4%) so you can use Atago here. Still, if you have an Ooi dupe, definitely worth using on Hard. Frankly, as best I can tell right now, you can use your main Ooi here, Kiso for E-3 and Kitakami for E-6/E-7.
• Per above, Boss shelling support definitely should help, but not necessarily mandatory.
• Passing rate to the boss node was quite good - no issues at all.
• Per E-2H theme, expect to bleed repair buckets.

Comments (Medium):

• Significantly easier as you do not have to face stronger Ne-Kai Summer B and O-Torps.
• Atago is more than capable on Medium if you want to save Ooi just in case, and do not have an Ooi dupe.
• Given the differences between Medium and Hard, you could probably optimize this a bit more. Maybe move Hatsuharu to 4th with 2x main + searchlight and put Noshiro 5th. That being said it works for Hard so clearly will work for Medium as well.

Frankly, I waffled far too long over picking a difficulty. Irritating, but is what it is. Going to get a bit of rest, and do some Salmon fishing for a day or so. Hopefully I can get both Asahi and Salmon quickly before tackling E-3H.

[silentcap]

E-2 Hard Cleared

Phase 1
Ooyodo (lv99): 5inch M.30 Kai+GFCS Mk.37, 10cmHA+FD (max), T0M11B (Skilled), SK+SG Radar (+3) [SLO+ (+8)]
Mizuho (lv94): Kyoufuu K2, Kyoufuu, O-Torp [Turbine]
Tamanami (lv76): 3xDLC
Ume (lv79): 3xDLC
Mikazuki (lv87): 3xDLC
Shirayuki (lv96): Smoke Generator Kai (+2), 2x12.7cm Type-C (+7, +7)

Phase 2
Noshiro (lv94): 2x61cm Quad (Oxy) LM (+9, max), 61cm Triple (Oxy) LM, Smoke Generator Kai (+2) [SLO+ (+8)]
Kaga (lv99) (dupe): Tenzan M12 Murata (+2), F4U-4 (+1), AU-1, Reppuu K2
Kongou (lv99): 2x35.6cm K2, T1 AP Shell, T0M11B Night Scout
Atago (lv85): 2x20.3cm (no.3), T0M11B Skilled, Star Shell
Hatsuharu (lv99): 2x61cm Quad (Oxy) LM (max, max) 61cm Triple (Oxy) LM [SLO+ (+4)]
Shiranui (lv91): 2x61cm Quad (Oxy) LM (max, max), 61cm Triple (Oxy) LM (+7) [SLO+ (+2)]

Basically E-1 but my experience in this map is opposite from that of E-1. Namely, E-1's Phase 1 is a breeze whereas this map's Phase 1 forced several retreats in a row because one of my ships got taiha-ed along the way. This map's Phase 2, on the other hand, is kinda... easy compared to E-1's Phase 2. At first glance, half of E-2 Phase 2's boss fleet being tanky enough that it requires NB to sink said half should make this phase harder than E-1's Phase 2 whose boss fleet in the same phase has only two tanky enemies (the pair of Ne-class in LD). Despite that, I was able to secure about 4 clean kills (including LD) in total which was something that I was unable to do in E-1 Phase 2. Admittedly, I wasn't able to get even 1 S-Rank here whereas I got at least 1 in E-1 Phase 2.

Note: Fleet comps for unlocking purposes and the LBAS are based off @Ken G's.

[Yarrik]

E2 Hard Clear
I question myself why I did this. Doing E2H isn't even worth it, complete waste of time and resources.
Worst part is S ranking F2.

P1
Isokaze 2 10cm AAFD, SG Radar Late; T13k+T22K4
Mizuho Kyoufuu K2, Kyoufuu, Shiun
Tatsuta 3 DLC
Ariake 3 DLC
Tamanami 3 DLC
Natsugumo 2 10cm AAFD, smoke kai

P2
Hatsuharu 2 torps SLO+
Kongou 2 main guns, AP Shell, Night recon; T3K2
Atago 2 main guns, T0M11B Skilled, SL
Urakaze 2 torps SLO+
Noshiro 2 main guns, Night Zuiun, T0M11B; SLO+
Taihou Swordfish Mk III skilled, F4U-7, AU-1, Saiun; SDP+

LBAS
4 Bomber to Boss node W

No support used

[Kahlev]

E2H done. That was a lot easier than E1 for sure, but passing rate on part 1 was still kinda weird if running nonsparkled. Also, farming for Asahi/Salmon on hard mode was probably a bad idea since i couldn't consistently S-rank thanks to our friendly NEighbours.

Same as on E1, i did go mostly with Zekamashi's fleet.


Part 0.5:
Nodes C2/J2
Hatsuharu: full OASW
Shiranui: full OASW
Noshiro: ha gun, full OASW
Kongou: 2 guns, AP shell, scout, T3 shell
Atago: 2 ha guns, radar, night scout
Taihou: torpedo bomber, fighter bomber, fighter, saiun, rockets

Since both are submarine nodes, clearing them should be a non issue at this point.

Nodes G/F2
Noshiro: 3 torpedo, searchlight, skilled lookoutsKongou: 2 gun, AP shell, scout, T3 shell
Atago: 2 HA gun, night scout, radar
Hatsuharu: 2 torpedo, skilled lookouts
Shiranui: 2 torpedo, skilled lookouts
Taihou: torpedo bomber, fighter bomber, fighter, saiun, rockets

Node F2 is the only real issue here thanks to, once again, a double Ne team. Node shelling support could be used if needed, or just banging your head against the wall until the torpedoes land.


Part 1:
Passing rate seemed kinda bad for a transport phase, so running fully sparkled was kinda a must for me. I had some issues with LOS too so i had to run 2 radars.

Isokaze: 2 gun, radar
Mizuho: 2 SPF, scout, rockets
Tatsuta: daihatsu, radar, smoke generator
Kisaragi: 3 daihatsu
Ariake: 3 daihatsu
Ume: 3 daihatsu

Route was KOPQS. Boss support was used to guarantee an A-rank since i was having too many failed runs otherwise.


Part 2:
Passing rate here was quite good, and the boss itself was not hard to kill, but once again a double Ne team was making things harder than they should. Since i was having better luck with battleships than with TCI anyways, i went with double BBs aiming to get a touch hit, and even without that Kongou was doing some respectable damage on her own against the boss. Taihou, on the other hand, didn't do much, so i am really curious about how one of the CVE/CVL with bonus would have performed here. Nonetheless, it wasn't necesary to devote something like Kumano CVL here at all imho.

Haruna: 2 gun, scout, AP shell, radar
Kongou: 2 gun, scout, AP shell, T3 shell
Taihou: swordfish torpedo bomber, 2 fighter bomber, saiun, rockets
Shiranui: 2 torpedo, skilled lookouts
Hatsuharu: 2 torpedo, skilled lookouts
Noshiro: 2 gun, night scout, SPB, skilled lookouits

Route was ADGTVW. LBAS was 1 base with 4 bombers to the boss node (B25 and such). Boss support was used for last dance just to make sure the trash was dead, since my LBAS kept targetting the Ne instead.
Kongou had enough firepower to finish the boss after day battle, or during it even depending on the chipping the rest did. The destroyers were, sadly, just damage sponges that would get taiha during day battle most of the time. And Haruna just kept getting chuuha.

[goesto11]

FINALLY!!! Now I can get on with the rest of the event.


FYI - Got Asahi much earlier. so I am done with E-2, and done with MO farming. EO seems to have all the other new drop only ships I need so I'll go farm there after clear unless I get some lucky drops while clearing (seriously RNG, I'm fine with that).



--------------------------------------------------

@Kahlev: Yeah, I read far too many comments about "do not farm on E-2H until post event" or "E-2H farming is bad". Maybe using Yama/Sushi post clear it might be OK, but still expensive. Hopefully, no future repercussions regarding rewards for doing Med/Norm. [Edit] Got my fish so I'm done with that. You can get Salmon later (maybe lucky drop), but since Asahi was here, thought it worth the risk (if there is one) of what may be of having 2 "Salmon" 4 tube initial bow torps, instead of 3. Can't see how another of the DE gun Kai is going to make a difference.

[Etrigan]

E2M Done.



I had the ships and equips for hard but I REALLY want that sub, so med and farming it is.

Med was a cakewalk - part 2 was 5 runs and done, no supports. The TP gauge was a little more obnoxious; I don't know if everyone clearing on hard was using boss support and just didn't mention it, but I finally started after my 3rd failed A rank. 2 attackers and 4 DLC carriers just wasn't cutting it.

Overall 22 runs, of which 6 were unlocking, 11 were TP runs (2 retreats, 2 D rank, 1 C, 5 A and 1 S right after I added boss support ) and 5 boss runs. Total of 43 buckets

No drops to speak of, so farming ahoy! Comps below - nothing new or exiting, but maybe useful

[+] Spoiler

Unlocking - completely standard.

TP Gauge Final


First run had only Ooyodo set up to attack, which netted me a C rank. Added the guns to Nenohi and moved the smoke to a DLC carrier, and that got me a couple A ranks, followed by a couple Ds. I finally added standard boss shelling support, and that got me an S. That left just 9 points on the TP bar, so I rekitted everyone for combat and sent them out again. Even with boss support, that run was just an A. *shrug*


Part 2 - same for chipping and Last Dance, no supports

[goesto11]

E2M Done.
I had the ships and equips for hard but I REALLY want that sub, so med and farming it is.

I definitely understand. E-2M farming in terms of reaching the boss node & S-rank win is pretty great, much better/cheaper than trying to farm on Hard. GL fishing.

[Ink20]

E2M done

P1(-56-62-62-56-56-r-56-r-56pts)
Tuscaloosa: GFCS+5inch CD, 5inch CD +2, SK+SG +10, 11B(night)
Taiyou: ryuusei(CD1/skilled) +2, ryuusei(CD1/skilled), shinden, iwamoto +10
Mizuho: zuiun k2(skilled), daihatsu/minisub C +4, daihatsu, rk2 +10
Satsuki: daihatsu, daihatsu, daihatsu
Scirocco: drum, drum, drum
Libeccio: drum, drum, smoke kai +2

vanguard - diamond - vanguard(smoke) - line ahead
no support, 170FP(AP at air node)

P2(S-S-S-S-A-A)
Cavour: 16inch+GFCS +9, quad 38cm kai +9, AP kai +4, 11B(night)
Unryuu: ryuusei(CD1/skilled) +2, shinden, ryuusei(CD1/skilled), iwamoto +10
Kinugasa: 20.3cm(2) +9, 20.3cm(2) +9, fumo/searchlight +10, 11B(skilled) / moved 2nd
Honolulu: 6inch mod2 +2, 6inch mod2, SK+SG +10, 11B(skilled)
Isokaze(24): 10cm+AAFD +10, 10cm+AAFD +10, t13 radar kai +10, t94 AAFD +10 / 12.7cm D k3, sextorp +9, GFCS +2, tslo +8
Hamakaze: 10cm+AAFD +10, 10cm+AAFD +10, t13 radar kai +10

LBAS(W): nonaka, nonaka +2, B25, B25 +2

vanguard - diamond - line ahead - line ahead
no support, 176FP(AP at air node)

Made some changes after the failed kill but in the last 2 battles Cavour was heavy damaged during the day so I lacked the power to get the S-rank (Isokaze finished the boss the 2nd time).

Drops: Samuel, Asahi

[Danielosama]

E2 Medium clear:


P1 (loadout at the end):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSEpfI8AfbQ

P2 (loadout at the end):


Not worth doing this map on Hard.

Good luck to those still at it.

[Danielosama]

Decided to farm Salmon within the few hours left of the Event.

Literally drops on first try....

Won't complain