Kancolle Kai 2 : The 11th Operation has begun!

[Totaku]

Greeting new recruits,

Welcome to Kantai Collection. For those who don't know know what this game is about, Kantai Collection is a Japanese browser game that has sweeped over Japan and has become a massive hit in over the last year and has in turn gained a large fan base in that time frame.

As of today over 2 millions plus users have joined the game and the game has spawned a large doujin commuinty that consists of manga, music figurines and so forth.

There are also several official manga, light novels, and an upcoming anime, along with plenty of merchandise to boot!

What is the game about?

You play as an admiral and your are assigned to take care of ship girls known as ?kanmusus?. Theses kanmusus are under your command and you are left with the task of taking these girls out to the battle field and train them. They are tasked with taking about a mysterious unknown enemy known as the Abyssal Fleet and mysterious demonic alien like race of ships that have appeared out of no where.

It should be note that the ship girls are also based after ships from the WWII era.
So how do I get into this game?

The first thing you are going to do, is get access to the game which while the requirements might seems surprising, it turns out the whole doesn't take much time at all to do!

First you'll need to get a VPN because in order to access the game you'll need a Japanese IP address. Following that you'll need to get an account on DMM, and then go partake in a lottery. It's highly recommended you follow the link on the Wikia for advice on how to prepare for the lottery and what you need to do to access the game.

Wikia guide to how to register to play Kancolle and basic how to play
Wikia guide to how to get a Japanese VPN to access the game and how to guide on managing your VPN.
Kancolle Staff Twitter (use this to read info regarding lottery and updates)

Most of the game has you managing your ship girls, their equipment, building them, crafting their equipment, modernizing them, and repairing them.

And once you're all set you can send them out to battle against the abyss, against other players fleets, and go on expiditions to collect resources.

Most of the important tutorial regarding how to play the game can also be found on this Wikia. It's not that difficult to do and can be easy to remember what to do since the game resolved around simple mechanics.

Basic how to play Tuorial
FAQ section (important to read)

The Kancolle Wiki and everything you need to know about it.

What's currently going on?

Anti Air Cruiser update



Once part of a series of strong cruiser ships that all were well verse in firepower, eventually one of the cruiser returned to port to get a massive refitting. She would have her 20.3 cm gun removed and in place of it be given a seires of 25mm guns, an AA director, and other various machine guns. Ultimately the Cruiser would return to servicei the spring becoming reborn as an Anti-Air Cruiser....

Maya has gotten her kai ni, and along with it there are various AA associated equipment, and quest that have popped in this week to explain the main part of the update.

Also White Day is here, time to return your love to the kanmusu.

Also to celebrate Paul Allen's discovery of the wreckage of Musashi, Musashi's drop rate has increased!

What's coming up next?

Choukai is expected to get her Kai Ni within this week. and besides that series of Destoyers will be getting Kai Ni over the Spring season, among them one of those DDs will be a special type Destroyer.

List of Admirals in Office
Totaku
Kasu
Abraham Lincoln
DeltaSierra4
Red Frost
qMyon
HighZealot
Labuto
GPoP
Charoe
Sixten
Yukarin
MewMewHeart
Rune Devros
Calamity
Think Komachi with a Rifle
Zengar Zombolt

[Gpop]

Sad you didn't call this Kancolle, ver. Kai, though it might be confused with the upcoming vita game :V

[Totaku]

Sad you didn't call this Kancolle, ver. Kai, though it might be confused with the upcoming vita game :V

Perhaps since that was the one reason I didn't do it, but we could call it.. since it's the "second thread" Kai 2. Would that sound better?

[Kasu]

I know this may sound like a stretch to ask but have you considered using a support fleet if it's really that hard? Perhaps it might be the quickest way to put the boss out of it's misery so you can get Harusame. I would be a shame to not be able to get her after all the work you put into this. : <

I've been using support expeditions to get me through the rest of the nodes first, but it seems like I should attempt to go for the boss expedition as well so I'll give it a try.

I really don't understand why I've been having so much trouble with this.

[Mеа]

I'm interested in trying this out (after seeing a ton of Armored Core crossovers with it on nico. Being a mecha fan, can't resist)
Will come back to this thread after getting into la lottery

[highzealot]

Kitakami, Nagato, Yamato, Akagi, Kaga and Taihou are doing better in E-6 than I was expecting. Since 3 CV goes to the sub node and is random from there, it's actually not too bad. Still debating if I should stick to this for the final kill.

[Red Frost]

Nendoroid Hiei is ready to give it her all!
 

 
Fully poseable gun turrets and the wave effects are pretty cool, so I'll probably end up preordering her.  She also comes with her famous curry and a tea stand/table so you can display her with Nendoroid Kongou.  They didn't announce any of the other sisters at WonFes _{(or Tenryuu/Takao/Myoukou-class)} but they did announce Ryuujou, Kumano, Suzuya, had a prototype of I-401(Shioi) and a colored version of Amatsukaze.  I'm also looking forward to Max Factory's 1/8 scale Darwin-chan/Seaport Hime figure.  If it looks good I'm willing to throw all my money at it.
 
So far I'm 8 kills in on E-4 and ready to try for #9.  As much of a pain E-6 sounds like, it'll be nice to only have to worry about 6 girls instead of 12.
 

The CVL Kai 2 update 8/29

A CVL is being planned to get upgraded for next maintenance. The set date is 8/29 on the day the event ends...

I hope it's Shouhou and pray they leave Chiyoda's boobs alone.

[Totaku]

I hope it's Shouhou and pray they leave Chiyoda's boobs alone.

HAhahaha, I think Chiyoda's gotten enough of a "boost" as is, given the among of modernization she and her sister have gotten as they got remodeled and upgraded.

Actually the rumor is, part of the reason this Kanmusus is getting this upgrade is because she's featured on a promotional pretzel snack that's sold in Japan now.



So chances are.. the candidate is Jun'you. So get her up to level 70-80 for potential kai 2 upgrade.

(And yes I updated the first post with this info.)

[qMyon]

HAhahaha, I think Chiyoda's gotten enough of a "boost" as is, given the among of modernization she and her sister have gotten as they got remodeled and upgraded.

Actually the rumor is, part of the reason this Kanmusus is getting this upgrade is because she's featured on a promotional pretzel snack that's sold in Japan now.



So chances are.. the candidate is Jun'you. So get her up to level 70-80 for potential kai 2 upgrade.

(And yes I updated the first post with this info.)

Oh, damn and blast.....I used her for AL so I can't level her at MI.

[Totaku]

E-6 Continuation report

If there's anything I can say about this map it's that this map REALLY tests you're understand of the game's mechanics. In all the times I face an event map, I never faced one as challenging as this.

But as I learned there are mutiple ways to thrawt the himes and at the very least gain a shot at taking on the Battleship Hime. Most of it invovles keep your CVL's secured. Yes, your CVLs, because they will become your Acheliees heel in this battle.

Though most people don't do this, I put one of my CVLs in the flagship position. And yes, this puts me at risk of getting wrecked by the BB hime, but I'm willing to take chances with this. Because as long as the flag ship is guaded, the chances your other CVL getting hit becomes so much smaller. And since you're using BBs fighing th CV hime, she's the real threat in the map because she has amazing accuracy and power which allow her to damage your ships real quickly. And if she strikes your CVL it's practically over.

However when the change in the formation getting sent home become rare and the door of opprotunity becomes much larger!

Reaching the BB hime is not hard now, but it does still require persistence and determination.

As it stands for me, a lot of the battles of the BB hime rides on two factors.... taking out her fleet, and not getting too many Kanmusus damaged badly. And yes damage is almost garunteed here.

As long as all but the BBhime and maybe one more ship are sunk, my odds of killer her are strong... but only because I'm still working on beating her down. Otherwise, as long as I chip her health, then all of the run will be worth it's cause.

I feel more confortable doing this route honestly since the other night battle route is extremely luck based.

But as it stands this is where I'm at...



... and I have one more week to do this.... Do you think I'll prevail? Because I sure hope so.

The current fleet I'm using is:


Hiyou
BIsmarck
Mutsu
Kirishima
Kitakami
Chiyoda

In that exact configuration. Most are equiped with Reppus, Saiuns , Hiryuu and Souryuu's special planes some observation planes and so forth. It seems to be enough.

But yeah it's still difficult none the less. I'm just hoping what I have hear will allow me to beat this BB hime in a week.

[LHCling]

E-3 through -5 completed yesterday evening. Nothing special, aside from a ton of duplicate destroyers (amatsukaze why). total resources spent between the three is approximately 17k, 4/5/8 respectively
something like that don't bother with specifics but for the most part it was fair smooth outside of rolling double-night on E-5 usually causing me to go packing (i don't bother with sparkling)

that said E-6 is proving to be incredibly silly; and most def sparkling... or I might chance it with the night and ignore the northern route
the one time i made it past northern i failed LOS :oops:
resources are in the 15ks currently (and building back), which makes the current fleet below not really sustainable at the current point

Fleet (tentative):
Yamato
Musashi
Kirishima (might switch out for Mutsu/Nagato)
Kitakami
Chiyoda (Chitose went to E-5)
Hiyou

[Chaore]

akagi kai ni where ;w;

kadokawa i trusted you

[Red Frost]

When maintenance was finished and all the new details came flooding in, I remember thinking I wouldn't get very far.
 

 

 
If E-6 goes terribly, I can still walk away very happy.  I'm thinking about running an all-fast fleet with Haruna Kai II, Kirishima/Bismarck, KTKM/Ooi, Chiyoda Kai II and RJ Kai II.  If I need to, I can mix it up with Myoukou/Haguro Kai II, Nagato/Yamato, and Taihou/Shoukaku/Zuikaku.  The leftover Carriers and Mutsu/Hyuuga/Fusou/Yamashiro will be used for support.
 

akagi kai ni where ;w;

kadokawa i trusted you

They tried to but there wasn't enough Bauxite in the world.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Am I the only one who thinks that the Aircraft Carrier Princess looks too similar to Shinki?

[highzealot]

I've past the 9/10 kills mark for E-6. The real hell begins now. Hoping to complete it before the weekend is over as next week is orientation week at UTSC.

[Totaku]

Just letting you guys know, I'm doing another stream tonight, to hopefully conqure E-6. It's been one hell of a ride. So hopefully it'll end soon. So if want to watch me tourture myself, please feel free to join in.

http://www.livestream.com/totaku

I will write a report on this weekend later after the stream.

[Gpop]

So I'm gonna decide to say fuck it, let's try Midway now. I'm already happy with just beating AL because this event wasn't too interesting in terms of rewards.

My only problem is that I only have 2 CVs, so my main fleet will consist of 2CVs and 2BBs at least. Problem is I have no idea who to replace the other two spots with. I already used my only other two CA(V)s I have for AL, so I'm a bit in a pickle, and I have no other CVs for this. Nor do I have any trained CLT at all (Ooi was my only one but she's a shit atm anyways).

So what should I do? :V

[Totaku]

Do you have any CVLs GPop? They might work somewhat, but you might need to have more Saiuns prepared to make some headway in Midway during the LoS check. Because the LoS check needs to be high from your carrier fleet in order to reach the boss, otherwise you'll always be misdirected.


Anyways, I didn't do this last night, but here we go... report from last night...

E-6 - the final strech

After nearly 160 buckets of net loss used I've finally reached the final form of the BBhime.

The catch is... she now has a dopplganger...

So I'm fighting against two BB himes now. As usual the real target is the flagship. But since she now has a meatsheild that protects her this makes the battle VERY HARD.

The enemy formation consist of 2 BBhime, 1 Gold Ru, 1 gold Wo, an 2 late model destoyers. Taking out the minions is the easy part. It's dealing with the BBhime that isn't.

They have four shots at critting you ship girls making them incapacitated during the day + 2 possible cut ins at night. The whole idea of fighting them will require a hell of a load of luck in order to survive. Because you have to hope that again, you shipgirls don't get mangled, and that ultimately they will aim for the core target... the flagship BB hime.

For this, I'm using my kill fleet, which I have two types of kill fleets set up.

1. BB / CTL kill fleet: Hiyou, Mutsu, Kirishima, Ooi, Kitakami, and Chiyoda.

This team is mainly set up to be an more defensive fleet to resist damage bit usually faces the confilct of of the CV Hime's 3 attacks during pre boss which can be problematic. It'll consume steel like no ones business....

For the kill here, I'm fully depending on the CLTs to perform the final kill. They will need to be able to perform this and aim for the BBhime, since BBs at night can only do much agaisnt tanky BBhimes (they are NOT very good at damaging them)

2. CA / CTL kill fleet: Hiyou, Haguro, Myouko, Ooi, Kitakami, and Chiyoda.

Very similar to the BB / CTL team, just with CAs... why? Two reasons:

With no BBs, the CV hime has one less chance to send your team back home! And also if the CAs and CTLs survive the BBhimes with minimal damage, it'll give a big door of opportunity to deliver the final kill.

As both CAs and CTLs are truly monsters in night battle. So they should be able to down right cripple the himes and possible kill BOTH of them if all goes according to plan.

Otherwise, it increases the odds the flagship will fall.

Also I'm using a support fleet because that's practically required here to help soften up enemy force in the boss node for the final blow.

Now the only thing I can do now.. is hope all falls in my favor during the final kill because I'm going to need the perfect chance to deliver the final kill no matter what.

[Gpop]

That's the biggest problem. I have CVLs but they're all level 1 except for the two I used in AL that proved to be worthless and dropped them out for my CVs in the end.

[highzealot]

I made through hell and survived. Final fleet was Hyuuga, Nagato, Yamato, Kitakami, Ryuujou and Hiyou. Support fleet was Akagi, Haruna, Yukikaze, Amatsukaze, Taihou and Kirishima in that order. About 50 sorties in total. Cost about 45k fuel, 13k ammo, 36k steel, 10k bauxite and 145 buckets. Kitakami is MVP.

I swear repair teams are more of a good luck charm then anything else. As soon as I put them on my CVLs taking away any sort of offensive power they had, everyone stopped taking crits. Same thing happened in spring's E-4 too.

Second real hell begins with editing footage.

[Red Frost]

So I'm gonna decide to say fuck it, let's try Midway now. I'm already happy with just beating AL because this event wasn't too interesting in terms of rewards.

My only problem is that I only have 2 CVs, so my main fleet will consist of 2CVs and 2BBs at least. Problem is I have no idea who to replace the other two spots with. I already used my only other two CA(V)s I have for AL, so I'm a bit in a pickle, and I have no other CVs for this. Nor do I have any trained CLT at all (Ooi was my only one but she's a shit atm anyways).

So what should I do? :V

I'd say load out the last two spots with CAs but it sounds like you don't have any left?  CAs are super important in the escort (2nd) fleet because of their damage output during Night Battle and ability to equip Sanshiki for E-4.  Most of my boss kills were thanks to Night Battle so maybe you can put your best DDs/CLs/CAs in the escort fleet and set them up to do the damage.  Even if your Ooi's not at a good level, she might be somewhat helpful in the Escort Fleet since that fleet gets a Torpedo Phase on boss battles.
 
Depending on your HQ Lvl you might have a tough time winning Air Superiority/meeting the LoS requirements with just two CVs, so they might end up carrying Fighters and Saiun only.  The BBs can still have 2 red guns, a recon plane, and whatever other piece of LoS gear you can give them.  If you can allocate CAs to the main fleet, I'd give them the same setup as the BBs.  If you don't have any CAs, maybe CLs that can carry planes will help.  They can do Artillery Spotting too, but it might be more helpful to load them out with Recon planese/Radar for LoS?  You could try this with DDs too, but they only carry Radars.
 
Oh, and if you're lucky enough to have Akitsumaru, have her tag along for E-4.  She lets you start from Node B and does a fair bit of damage to the boss (even if she doesn't have any guns equipped).  I loaded her out with Fighters myself and she did about the same amount of damage as a BB with two 46cm guns equipped.  I don't know what weight class she is, so she might take up one of your BB's spots in your main fleet.

[Kasu]

Heh. Hehe... Ahahahah, FINALLY.



IT FINALLY HAPPENED. SCREW YOU E-1.

I'm finally free.

[Totaku]

Gonna be stream E-6 tonight hopfully tonight with the night this finally get put to a final end! It's time to square off against the battleship himes!

http://www.livestream.com/totaku

Well for anyone who came to the stream.... the whole session ended VERY quickly!

As in the very first run for the night...

Yeah that's right, the Flagship BB hime is dead. Surprisingly happened quicker than I anticipated.

All was my CA/ CTL to do it...

And surprisingly it was Myoukou that made the final kill.

so with that operation AL / MI Event is OVER for me!


So with that I can now rest as I now have Isokaze on my side now...


Well somewhat... there's still Kanmusus for me to catch.... and I still haven't gotten Hayashimo after all these runs... so I'm guess I have to return to MI once more to find here... Here's hoping I can get her so I can complete my event exlusive ship run.

Beside here, there's also...

Amatsukaze farming (for turbines)
Akitsumaru farming (for daihatsu)
Akashi farming (for repair facilities)
Nagato
Zuikaku
Noshiro
Agano

Yeah that's about it.

I'm pretty much down to LSC ships if I can snag these all up.

And also I will be doing streaming of farming as long as my resources hold out.

[Abraham Lincoln]

Think I'm giving up on the event for now. I'm going to wait till the next event when my ships are more powerful...

[SirChaotick]

Aaargh! It's been so long since I've been able to log in! For some reason even establishing VPN did not get me past the area error until today. No problem now, though. Oh, Kancolle, thou art a fickle mistress.
At least there was a silver-rarity ship in the construction tray when I got back. Suppose that's better than blue, not as good as gold? It's a heavy cruiser, too, with much better stats than any of my other ships. "Myoukou", the wiki tells me.

This event... questions!
One: I've read the event (or at least one part of it) scales with level, but I'm pretty much at the very bottom of the barrel. Level 3! Scarcely an admiral! (Or so the list would suggest. Nudge wink) Can I partake without getting ground into scrap?
Two: Supposedly there's special ships available only on these event maps. What about after the event? Will the ships be made available once more at a later date, or are they gone forever beyond the 29th? I gravely doubt I'll be able to scrounge my way up to the second map in time, so the latter would be extremely off-putting to me.

Thanks in advance, y'all!

[qMyon]

[attach=1]

And that's it! E-5 complete, and I'm done! With 2870/7705/23007/9404/17 resources left, though, no way can I finish E-6, despite having the ships. Not bad for someone who only had 25K all and 100-odd buckets at the start. Oh, and finally got a rare I didn't have - DD Arpeggio TakaoUrakaze.

Aaargh! It's been so long since I've been able to log in! For some reason even establishing VPN did not get me past the area error until today. No problem now, though. Oh, Kancolle, thou art a fickle mistress.
At least there was a silver-rarity ship in the construction tray when I got back. Suppose that's better than blue, not as good as gold? It's a heavy cruiser, too, with much better stats than any of my other ships. "Myoukou", the wiki tells me.

This event... questions!
One: I've read the event (or at least one part of it) scales with level, but I'm pretty much at the very bottom of the barrel. Level 3! Scarcely an admiral! (Or so the list would suggest. Nudge wink) Can I partake without getting ground into scrap?
Two: Supposedly there's special ships available only on these event maps. What about after the event? Will the ships be made available once more at a later date, or are they gone forever beyond the 29th? I gravely doubt I'll be able to scrounge my way up to the second map in time, so the latter would be extremely off-putting to me.

Thanks in advance, y'all!

For the area error, if the area error page appears in Japanese, a refresh will do the trick. Congrats on Myoukou - she's one of the Heavy Cruisers with the ability to upgrade to a superior Kai-2 form once leveled.

One: To be honest, not a clue, but I'm leaning on 'no'. Unless you've got the CVLs/CVs for the job.
Two: They usually come out eventually, but it may take some time.

[SirChaotick]

[attach=1]

And that's it! E-5 complete, and I'm done! With 2870/7705/23007/9404/17 resources left, though, no way can I finish E-6, despite having the ships. Not bad for someone who only had 25K all and 100-odd buckets at the start. Oh, and finally got a rare I didn't have - DD Arpeggio TakaoUrakaze.

E-5... the end of the event, isn't it? Well done!

For the area error, if the area error page appears in Japanese, a refresh will do the trick. Congrats on Myoukou - she's one of the Heavy Cruisers with the ability to upgrade to a superior Kai-2 form once leveled.

One: To be honest, not a clue, but I'm leaning on 'no'. Unless you've got the CVLs/CVs for the job.
Two: They usually come out eventually, but it may take some time.

Kai-2 sounds good! I know there's not a lot of those, so I'm definitely thankful for that.

*googles CVL/CV*

Alright, so I'm not bothering with that event, hah! I wasn't even aware there was aircraft in this game. More construction to do, I suppose! And it is a relief the ships are rereleased later on. Must sate completionism!

[qMyon]

E-5... the end of the event, isn't it? Well done! Kai-2 sounds good! I know there's not a lot of those, so I'm definitely thankful for that.

*googles CVL/CV*

Alright, so I'm not bothering with that event, hah! I wasn't even aware there was aircraft in this game. More construction to do, I suppose! And it is a relief the ships are rereleased later on. Must sate completionism!

Nah, E-5's the penultimate mission. There's still E-6, which seems to be as hard as all the other maps combined, from what I hear. Unless you've got Yukikaze-tier luck.

[Abraham Lincoln]

I wasn't even aware there was aircraft in this game.

Those are aircraft carriers, which are the greatest objects to ever come into contact with water, in my opinion, and they resemble what would be best described as an oversized cross between ironing boards and airfields. You can easily acquire one by activating the 敵空母を撃沈せよ！ quest which presents you with the IJN Akagi on a silver platter in exchange for a sunken enemy aircraft carrier.

[SirChaotick]

Those are aircraft carriers, which are the greatest objects to ever come into contact with water, in my opinion, and they resemble what would be best described as an oversized cross between ironing boards and airfields. You can easily acquire one by activating the 敵空母を撃沈せよ！ quest which presents you with the IJN Akagi on a silver platter in exchange for a sunken enemy aircraft carrier.

Alright, thanks for the information! I'll be looking for that quest, but I don't seem to have it unlocked quite yet.

On an unrelated note, got another Gold rarity. Funny name this time: "Ooi". Ooi! Comes with very strong torpedoes, it seems.
EDIT: And a silver one dropped! Starting to think I'm just making up these rarities.