Kongō — Japanese Tier V battleship.
When she was commissioned, Kongo was the most advanced battlecruiser in the world. She was the first among battlecruisers and battleships to be equipped with 356 mm main battery guns. Unlike previous Japanese dreadnoughts, Kongo received a thinner armor belt while her deck armor and torpedo protection were reinforced.
Modules
|
Rate of Fire (shots/min) | 180° Turn Time (sec) | Maximum Dispersion (m) | Maximum HE Shell Damage (HP) | Chance of Fire on Target Caused by HE Shell (%) | Maximum AP Shell Damage (HP) |
|
(exp) |
() |
356 mm/45 41st Year Type in a twin turret | 1.9 | 60 | 236 | 5,700 | 25 | 10,000 |
| 0 | 190,000 |
|
Hit Points (HP) | (mm) | (mm) | Main Turrets (pcs.) | Secondary Gun Turrets (pcs.) | AA Mounts (pcs.) | Torpedo Tubes (pcs.) | Hangar Capacity (pcs.) |
|
(exp) |
() |
Kongō (A) | 49,500 | 13 | 254 | 4 | 4/14 | 12/4 | | |
| 0 | 230,000 |
Kongō (B) | 54,100 | 13 | 254 | 4 | 4/14 | 4/2/6/4 | | |
| 6,500 | 480,000 |
|
IDS_SHIP_PARAM_SUO_INCREASE_DIST (%) | Maximum Firing Range (km) |
|
(exp) |
() |
Type5 mod. 1 | | 0 |
| 0 | 76,000 |
Type5 mod. 2 | | 0 |
| 3,600 | 240,000 |
|
Maximum Speed (knot) |
|
(exp) |
() |
Propulsion: 75,000 hp | 24.9 |
| 0 | 110,000 |
Propulsion: 136,000 hp | 30 |
| 2,000 | 240,000 |
Compatible Upgrades
Player Opinion
Performance
Pros:
- Great gun range: Reaching out to 21+ kilometers, she has the second highest range in the mid tiers after Fuso
- Impressive speed: Kongo can reach 30 knots, allowing her to keep up with cruisers and relocate if needed
- Decent agility: She is surprisingly maneuverable and can cover her turning circle quite quickly
- Good gun characteristics: her guns are accurate, powerful, and have decent penetration
- Feels like a modern battleship in a world of outdated WW1 era ships
Cons:
- Low AA suite potency: Her AA suite will not do much against higher tier aircraft
- High detection range: She is easily seen at 16km
- Battlecruiser armor: Her weak armor is easily penetrated by battleship shells, though it can be partially overcome with angling.
- Sluggish rudder shift time: It takes a long time for her to start turning compared to USN Battleships
- Being a mid tier battleship, her dispersion is still quite high at longer range
- There is little point of using spotting plane when having the longest based firing range of her tier
Research
As Kongo is a Battlecruiser and needs to be able to dictate the terms of the engagement as she does not have a lot of armor, upgraded propulsion is the way to go. After this, you should get the B(formerly C) hull not for AA, but for her upgraded shells(like the Germans get with each hull upgrade as well) and a little bit faster turret traverse, and then the range upgrade. Without a C hull anymore, Kongo is a rather short grind these days. As with the propulsion upgrade, the range upgrade helps dictate the terms of the engagement, something that is quite important on a thinly armored Battlecruiser. Getting the range upgrade increases your maximum dispersion, but only by 17 meters which for a battleship is unnoticeable.
For her Equipment, as usual the Main Armaments Modification 1, improving the resilience of her main batteries, and the Damage Control Systems Modification 1, giving a minor improvement to her fire resistance and torpedo protection, should be fitted. At Tier 5, Kongo can mount Slot 2 equipment, of which the Aiming Systems Modification 1 is generally the best choice, improving her accuracy at the long ranges she can fire at.
Her captain, if carried over from previous ships, should already have either Basics of Survivability or Basic Firing Training, Expert Marksman, and either Vigilance, High Alert, or Superintendent. For her fourth skill, Advanced fire control, which extends the range of her AA and secondary batteries should be selected. If keeping her or outfitting her almost identical Arpeggio of Blue Steel counterparts, you can ignore Advanced Fire Control, and select among the lower skills, or alternatively select Manual Control for AA Armaments (which requires manual targeting to activate, or your long ranged AA guns won't even fire), which can be combined with the Basic Fire Control Skill and the AA Guns Modification 2 Equipment upgrade to give her fearsome AA capabilities that can shred aircraft squadrons at her tier and lower from long range. If you have the time to grind her or are bringing a captain from higher up the line, getting Concealment Expert reduces her detection range to 13.5 km (14 km for her ARP counterpart), and can make her quite flexible at fighting at medium ranges.
Gallery