Agano

The Ship

Tier V Agano introduces players to the key features of the Japanese light cruisers. She has a powerful torpedo armament and good HE shells, but also has a slow reload and poor AP shells. Agano shares much of her play style with Yahagi albeit with a few tweaks.

Agano’s 35 knot top speed allows her to keep pace with all but the fastest cruisers in her tier. Combined with her good concealment, as low as 9.9 km, she can easily reposition. She has a rather large turning circle of 690m, whilst this is only slightly larger than the average for a tier 5 cruiser, her 7.4 second rudder shift time makes her much less maneuverable than Yahagi. Agano carries a standard cruiser Damage Control Party  with a 5 second active time and 60 second cooldown. She also carries a Hydroacoustic Search  and Catapult Fighter . Her standard hydroacoustic search which will detect torpedoes at 3km and ships at 4km for 100 seconds. The catapult fighter will launch 2 fighter aircraft that will patrol around the ship for up to 1 minute.

Armor

Agano is poorly armored and has a vulnerable citadel, her 60mm main armor belt is one of the thinnest among all Tier V cruisers - less than Omaha which has a reputation for exploding easily - and provides almost no protection against broadside shots. Her bow and stern plating and deck armor are only 13mm thick, which can be overmatched by 203mm AP and penetrated by all HE. Her turrets are protected by just 19mm of armor, some of the weakest in her tier, which can allow even destroyer HE rounds to penetrate. In a gunfight Agano can easily suffer from disabled guns when facing any opponent. With one of the smaller hitpoint pools - 25,800 hp on her upgraded hull - and weakest armor protection within Tier V, players can easily find their hitpoints stripped away by many enemy ships.

Armament

Agano mounts a small main battery of six 152mm guns, with a long reload time of 9 seconds and a slow traverse time of 30 seconds. Her front turrets can rotate 360°, which partially offsets the slow traverse. Her shells have one of the slowest initial velocities at Tier V and they lose velocity quickly and will float at longer ranges, making long range gunnery difficult. Her AP shells are weak, combining some of the lowest damage in her tier with a maximum penetration of 54mm. This means that she will struggle to penetrate the armor of all but the lightest armored cruisers in her matchmaking spread and many will be immune to taking citadel penetrations. Her slow reload time leaves her with some of the lowest AP DPM of Tier V cruisers, and her low AP penetration limits its effectiveness even further. However, Agano has some of the best HE shells at her tier. Her HE has a good fire chance of 13% and a high damage per shell. While the shells are individually good, their effectiveness is reduced by the slow reload which means that her HE DPM trails behind most Tier V light cruisers.

Agano carries a powerful armament of two quadruple torpedo launchers. Her torpedoes are similar to those carried by Yahagi, but they deal considerably more damage, at almost 21,000 per torpedo, and can sink higher tier battleships in a single salvo. However, her launchers have restricted angles, requiring her to turn broadside to launch torpedoes. Her torpedoes can be launched whilst undetected, this reduces her chance of receiving damage, but also gives her targets more opportunity to avoid the torpedoes. Finally, her torpedoes take 2 minutes to reload, limiting the number she can launch in a single battle.

Anti-Aircraft

Agano lacks any form of long range AA defenses, and her mid range AA is really only for self defense. Her short range mounts have some of the highest damage at Tier V, but by the time the guns are able to fire any enemy aircraft will likely have completed their attack runs.

Battle Performance

Her slow reload and turret traverse and low survivability combine to make Agano a challenging ship to play. Where possible, players should take advantage of her fast speed and low concealment to reach an advantageous position before engaging the enemy. Her strong HE shells and weak AP mean she will fire mostly HE. Agano should avoid one-on-one fights, as she lacks the ability to compete with her peers. Instead, she should focus on targets which are already engaged with friendly forces. If her torpedoes can be safely brought into the battle they can be a deciding factor, fully capable of sinking even the largest ships. Their restricted firing arcs make them a challenge to use effectively.

PROS

• Powerful HE shells with high damage and fire chance.
• Torpedoes have a long range and high damage
• Good concealment
• High top speed

CONS

• Slow turret traverse
• Slow reload for the gun caliber
• Weak AP shells
• Poor firing arcs on torpedo tubes
• Torpedoes are slow and easily spotted
• Low survivability
• Weak AA defenses