[Estavali]

Spoiler for We're done here.:

Spoiler for Добро пожаловать, товарищ Гангут:

Spoiler for Resource status:

Resources when I started (05/05/17, 23:22):
Fuel, Ammo, Steel, Bauxite, Buckets: Max

Resources after clearing E5, repairs and resupply (18/05/17, 14:45):
Fuel: 299792
Ammo: 299823
Steel: 299625
Bauxite: 299980
Buckets: 2922

Spoiler for Battle log::

Except for the first three sorties, which were for getting the S-rank at node C, the subsequent sorties were all conducted with CTF. The fleet that I used for most of E5 is as follows:

Spoiler for Main fleet for E5:

Akatsuki were swapped for Ayanami K2 with TCI setup immediately after this image was taken, as I had reckoned that I should gamble for more cut-ins. Surprisingly, the thought of using Yukikaze didn't cross my mind, even though Ayanami has not been luck-modded yet. This setup served me well for the BB Princess round (3 sorties).

At the Northern Water Princess round, Warspite was swapped for Yamashiro K2 (41cm (9★) + Proto 41cm (6★) + Type 2 Seaplane Fighter Kai (max★, <<) + Zuiun T12 (<<)) after the first sortie. The ladies had taken a rather hard knock at node F and I thought it might be good to get more air power. This would be the arrangement I took to the boss node, five times consecutively including with two clean boss kills.

The first time I attempted last dance with this fleet resulted in a C-rank and I thought more dakka is in order. Maya, Yamashiro and Ayanami was then swapped out for Nagato K, Musashi and Bep (to replace Maya as the AACI member and also for her damage bonus), and ironically, a couple of Reppus were changed for dive bombers for more damage at the boss node:

Spoiler for Last dance setup w/ support fleets:

The first sortie after the roster change ended in F again, no thanks to the Ta-class and closing torps. The second run was much better, arriving at the boss node with relatively no damage. Day battle ended with only two casualties with medium damage (both Cranes, much to my amusement) on my side; on the enemy side, only the Water Princess remained and at medium damage. ABKM took a good chunk of what's left with a TCI and Nachi sealed the deal with a DA.

On hindsight, I might probably have gotten though even if I kept my original setup. What could have tipped the scales in my favour may be me sending all three LBAs to the boss node instead of the original two-for-boss, one-for-air-raids deployment. While they didn't do much by themselves, they did contribute to reducing the number of trash I would have to deal with.

BTW I came across this titbit in the Chinese forums, not sure if folks here know about it already. For CTF and STF, a BB can be added to the second fleet if her speed is at least Fast+:

Spoiler for Heck, it's actually true:

CTF:


STF:

Not that this would be helpful though. In the examples above, Musashi had to waste three slots for turbines and stuff to meet the speed requirement. But at least we now know that the 2nd fleet checks for speed instead of ship class when accepting BBs.