REVIEW: Kantai Collection Summer 2016 Event, Intercept! 2nd Naval Battle of Malaya!

Kantai Collection has launched their Summer 2016 event, which is called ” Intercept! 2nd Naval Battle of Malaya!”. Admirals have the opportunity to obtain four new ship girls, Italian Aircraft Carrier Aquila, Submarine I-24 (aka Nimu), Destroyer Minazuki, and of course, the highlight of this event, Battleship Warspite, the first ship from Britain’s Royal Navy.

God Save the Queen indeed! This royal Queen Elizabeth-class battleship is actually the reward for clearing the entire event, so we’ll get to her highness later. The first thing admirals should do to get their hands on her is to Clear E-1, which is relatively quite easy, and since I wanted to get Warspite as fast as I can, I played the map on medium.

The map’s boss is the Submarine Summer Princess, so I equipped my fleet with plenty of Anti-sub equipment like sonar and depth charges. I selected a fast fleet line-up comprised of two light cruisers, three destroyers, and one fast battleship. My fleet, which consisted of Libeccio, Yuubari, Hatsuharu, Murakumo, Haruna, and Isuzu went the long route for the map, going B-E-F-G-I, however, with Isuzu and the destroyers on submarine-hunting mode, the breezed through the map easily.

I also got a bit of luck in this map, as I got I-26 (a.k.A. Nimu) to drop on my very first boss kill. Seems like I didn’t have to go “Finding Nimu” after all, and a lot of admirals I know have had trouble finding her.

After breezing through E-1, I then went from Medium to Easy on E-2 since I just wanted to finish early. The map is known as a “farming map”, which means this is where admirals go to search for rare ships to drop, and in particular, a certain rare German heavy cruiser. This is a TP gauge map where admirals don’t have to sink the boss to clear, but if you want Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen, you might want to bring some fire power with you and sink the boss to get the chance for good’ol Pudding-chan to drop.

Since I wanted some firepower to find Prinz Eugen and sink that boss, which is a Battleship Summer Princess, I went with a line-up consisting of one light cruiser (Kuma), one torpedo cruiser (Kiso), and four destroyers (Kisaragi, Akizuki, Satsuki, and Kasumi) to carry those all-important TP-depleting drums and Daihatsu landing crafts.

I went on a slow and steady pace for this map, and sure enough, I got me some German pudding after I cleared the map, which was fairly easy, especially since you could use Land-Base Air Attack support to weaken the boss before the battle even begins.

While I got my pudding fix on E-2, E-3 provided a much tougher challenge. Ship locking is in effect in this event and specific ships were required in this map, which meant that I wouldn’t able to use Haruna if I went to Medium difficulty, so I chose Easy instead. But even in choosing easy, the map is a lot more difficult than the previous ones. E-3 is a combined fleet map, and airstrikes from your land bases are possible, but a certain Node H would be a pain in the butt and would be preventing you from even reaching the boss node.

E-3’s boss is the Harbour Summer Princess, but the real challenge is getting through Node H, which is guarded by TWO Battleship Summer Princesses. And you thought one was bad, huh? For this map, Kongou, Haruna, Suzuya, Kumano, Mogami, Mikuma, Choukai, Fubuki, Shirayuki, Hatsuyuki, Kinu, and Yura are required, or at least six of them, so I went with Kongou, Haruna, Suzuya, Mogami, Mikuma, and Fubuki, together with additional ships, Italia, Iowa, Katsuragi, Ushio, Maaya, and Abukuma. Getting to the boss was pretty tough, but my fleet somehow managed to survive and get to E-4.

And finally, one last map separated me from Warspite, and that is E-4. This one is also a combined fleet map, and I decided to bring out my big guns to take down the final boss, the Heavy Cruiser Summer Princess. After the hell that was E-3, I thought that E-4 would be tougher, so I went Easy.

The main issue for this map is that this map is long, really long, and it will drain your resources. One of the best tips I can give for admirals who haven’t cleared this map yet is to stock up on resources and group all your land-based bomber aircraft into one batch and throw it at the boss. Ordinary aircraft won’t have enough fuel to get you to bomb the boss node, so you will have to rely on those powerful long-range bombers to get the job done. That being said, the map is actually easier than E-3, albeit just resource draining, and I breezed through the map with my only problem being that damn Battleship Summer Princess at Node K, which is a night battle node. After a few runs, Kiso finally got to sink that boss, and I got my Warspite!

Warspite’s seiyuu is still a mystery, but she speaks English with much more clarity than Kongou and Iowa, and that English clarity has led to a whole lot of memes. That being said, this year’s summer event was a fairly easy one, even with E-3 being a bit difficult to get through.  Oh, and I also got Aquila to drop midway through E-4.

So how is the event going on for you? The event will only be until the end of the month, so better try your hardest in trying to find those rare ships, or in clearing the maps! And good luck finding Nimu… and Prinz Eugen and Aquila!