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Mikhail Kutuzov

19km+ reach with access to smokes and 32mm of HE penetration. What could possibly go wrong?
Captn_Thatch

Cruiser Mikhail Kutuzov

  • Long Range Gunnery
  • Smoke Generator
  • Solid DPM

Scope:

It's v 3.9 on the second half of the Origin of Wisdom Campaign for Mainz, and surprise, there are now Pan-Asian Destroyers, literally, everywhere. Kutuzov brings a continuation of the current cruiser focused reviews. Another older foundational cruiser, Kutuzov sparked what would now be considered the ranged HE and Fire spam meta we see today. Arguably so, Kutuzov resists the corrosion of power creep, holding onto earnest rankings. Kutuzov is a GOOD ship, with a MODERATE skill floor and a very HIGH skill ceiling.

Currently, the ship is unavailable.

Rating Matrix:

  • [BAD, WEAK, AVERAGE, GOOD, GREAT]
  • {LOW, MODERATE, HIGH, EXTREME}

History:

Mikhail Kutuzov is a Sverdlov Class Cruiser and was laid down by the Black Sea Shipyard in Nikolayev February 1951. Soviet designation Project 68bis were the last conventional gun cruisers built by the Soviet Navy. The design focused on other Soviet, German and Italian designs, improving them for better sea keeping, which would allow them to run at higher speeds through the rough waters of the North Atlantic. The ship was commissioned into the Soviet Navy after completing sea trials in January 1955.

The design incorporated twelve x 152mm/57 B-38 rifles mounted into four-triple Mark 5bis turrets in a conventional A-B and X-Y super-firing fore and aft with twelve x 100mm/56 mod 1934 in six-paired S-M-5-1 mounts at 3 a side. The design also bolstered sixteen pairs of 37mm AA mounts and ten 533mm torpedo tubes mounted in two-quintuple turrets. The ship also incorporated a wide array of radar surveillance capabilities.

The design was heralded to be vastly superior to rivalling navies gun cruisers; while projecting Soviet might, and protection along her vast coastlines and shipping routes, including the Soviet Black, Baltic, Arctic Mediterranean Sea interests.

However, the design was strategically obsolete by the time of her completion due to the introduction of Guided Missile Cruisers earlier in the same decade, and advances in Carrier Based Naval Aviation.

Mikhail Kutuzov is still afloat today, opening to the public July 2002 in Novorossiysk as a Museum Ship. She was made a branch of the Central Naval Museum October 2012.

Strengths:

  • Smoke Generator
  • Excellent Ballistics
  • Long Range Gunnery
  • Adept Fire Starter

Weaknesses:

  • Atrocious Concealment
  • Huge Exposed Citadel
  • Mediocre HP
  • Squishy

The Basics:

Kutuzov rings in a familiar tone. Her essentials are simple and straight-forward; find a good spot, smoke up, and fire. No, literally, burn everything. Once the smoke subsides; reposition using some fancy long range HE spam, followed by more smoke, and more of the good ol' burny burny.

Yep. It's literally that simple. No more. No Less.

Kutuzov on the whole and similarly has some simple arguments to be put forth and understood, and then this ship equally can become the bane of your opponent's existence.

Kutuzov has a pale 25mm of HE penetration. Equilibrium of Power is a serious consideration for this ship in the sense that it will nudge Kutuzov's base HE penetration to 33mm; which breaks the significant plane of 32mm found on most BBs of the tier.

Is this worth half the fire chance while removing anywhere from -20% to -10% of your alpha strike?

Another key facet to consider, Kutuzov is thinly armored at best, with a pale 100mm of armor at the belt, which abuts the vital parts of the ship directly. Genuinely speaking, most destroyers will reliably citadel a Kutuzov inside 5km.

Offense:

  • GOOD

Kutuzov is simple, but that doesn't mean she should be overlooked. When one starts thinking about older premium cruisers, one starts to think about power creep.

(Looking at you, Atago, Eugen, Sigfried...)

With Kutuzov, that's not quite the case. Though Kutu will never truly run circles in the competitive ring, she's excellently adept at random matches and the semi-occasional run through arena. Smoke and sonar are and excellent combination for a seemingly endless reach found on this ship.

Stock Main Battery Range

  • Sigfried: 17.1
  • *Riga: 16.1
  • Bagration: 16
  • Chapayev: 16
  • Kutuzov: 16
  • Hipper: 15.8
  • Martel: 15.8
  • Azuma: 15.8
  • P. Eugen: 15.8
  • Mainz: 15.8
  • Ochakov: 15.5
  • Baltimore: 15.5
  • AL Balti: 15.5
  • Wichita: 15.5
  • Albemarle: 15.5
  • Amalfi: 15.4
  • Mogami: 15.3
  • Suzuya: 15.3
  • Edinburgh: 15.3
  • Cleveland: 15.3
  • Atago: 14.7

At face value, Kutuzov has great range and nearly tops the card with a stock value of 16km. Though the actual value of the spread between these ships is fairly narrow, they respond differently under the same percentage-based buffs that skills, upgrades and equipment provide. Meaning, one will have the choice of running either DPM or Range, or both; and have ample strength in either category.

HE Alpha Strike

  • Azuma: 4500
  • Sigfried: 4400
  • Albemarle: 3300
  • Atago: 3300
  • Mogami: 3300
  • Amalfi: 3100
  • *Riga: 3050
  • Baltimore: 3000
  • Martel: 2800
  • AL Balti: 2800
  • Wichita: 2800
  • Hipper: 2700
  • Suzuya: 2700
  • Bagration: 2500
  • P. Eugen: 2500
  • Chapayev: 2300
  • Cleveland: 2300
  • Kutuzov: 2200
  • Ochakov: 2200
  • Mainz: 1700
  • Edinburgh: 0

Kutuzov has to have some weaknesses, and it's her somewhat subpar alpha strike values. Ochakov, Chapayev and Kutuzov are all T7 RU CL's with 152mm battery, they all have unique yet impressive ballistics, and they all fire different shells from different guns. Literally, the only thing that these ships battery have in common is that they are all 152mm and share well above average muzzle velocity and ranging velocities.

HE Broadside Weight

  • Azuma: 40,500
  • Suzuya: 40,500
  • Mogami: 33,000
  • Atago: 33,000
  • Albemarle: 27,900
  • Amalfi: 27,900
  • Chapayev: 27,600
  • Cleveland: 27,600
  • *Riga: 27,450
  • Baltimore: 27,000
  • Sigfried: 26,400
  • Kutuzov: 26,400
  • Martel: 25,200
  • AL Balti: 25,200
  • Wichita: 25,200
  • Bagration: 22,500
  • Hipper: 21,600
  • P. Eugen: 20,000
  • **Mainz: 20,400
  • Ochakov: 17,600
  • Edinburgh: 0

Almost smack on the pack average of about 27k. The nice thing here, is that Kutu will follow that first salvo up fairly quickly, and generally faster than those above her on the list. In terms of punch, she's pretty average, however has a further reach on her punch than the vast majority and will similarly punch more frequently than that same majority. Generally speaking, the target may out-trade Kutuzov, it will generally not be able to outrange it. Suggesting that Kutuzov has forgiving gunnery may be the under-statement of the year.

Kit Shells per Minute

  • Cleveland: 126
  • Mainz: 120
  • Edinburgh: 109
  • Kutuzov: 102
  • Suzuya: 90
  • Chapayev: 90
  • Ochakov: 82
  • AL Balti: 55.6
  • Martel: 54
  • Wichita: 54
  • Baltimore: 50.9
  • Bagration: 49
  • Hipper: 47.5
  • Albemarle: 43.2
  • Atago: 42
  • Mogami: 40
  • Amalfi: 38.2
  • P. Eugen: 36.9
  • *Riga: 34.8
  • Azuma: 23.5
  • Sigfried: 14

  1. Ships equipped for DPM: Edinburgh, Azuma, Hipper, Atago, Cleveland, AL Baltimore, Kutuzov.
  2. Ships equipped for Range: Baltimore, Mogami, Suzuya, Albemarle, Mainz, Eugen, Martel, Chapayev, Riga, Amalfi, Bagration.
  3. Equipment only, no commander skills.
  4. Kutuzov comes with smoke and better concealment, not Radar as is found on Chapayev. This allows Kutuzov to play with a bit more risk, given the forgiveness of the smoke screen. Chapayev, however, favors even better range, as she will hardly wish to close the gap any closer than 12km except to radar destroyers. This allows both Kutuzov to be more flexible with 18.5km reach and Chapayev 19+.

This translates almost directly into DPM, as you can probably correlate without the need of the HE DPM chart. Kutuzov is capable of throwing out a lot of shells.

In terms of firing angles, Kutuzov is flexible, but not so hyper-flexible she gains supremely advantageous angles your angles are good, but your armor is not. There are ships with both more forgiving forward and afterward firing angles. Kutuzov is bolstered more-so by range than her angling as her armor as it is frankly just plain weak. To summarize, it's not to say that these angles are so unremarkable they are worth glazing over, but rather, Kutuzov needs to stay so far back that armor and firing angles become more of a moot point.

Muzzle Velocity:

  • ~930m/s

Before we delve into the torpedoes, let's brush over the muzzle velocity in such a context that will help the captain understand the true level of utility of these guns. Though the Russian 152's have a high initial velocity, they are also similarly low drag shells with flat ballistic arcs. This means precisely two things: first, Russian ballistics on the whole do not easily facilitate firing from cover, and second that Russian ballistics also on the whole will tend to retain higher velocities. As the projectile flies down its trajectory, the shells will tend to be on the upper echelons of these lists as it pertains to retaining velocity. In terms of velocity, the true average spread of Muzzle Velocity barely holds onto the mid-low 800m/s on this list. 850m/s on Baltimore is a gift, compared to AL Balti's 780'sm/s, both are relatively sitting still under Ochakov and Riga's 1000m/s. Chapayev has very similar, albeit minutely different statistics than even Kutuzov, but shy of a stopwatch, calculator and notepad; the average captain will not feel these differences.

This, again; is exactly half the battle. The faster the projectile, the easier landing shots becomes. The other half is dispersion and sigma; it's not enough to just be fast enough to hit your target, you must also have the accuracy to tie it together. RU CL 152mm battery fire will feel about the floatiest of any of the RU main battery, and as the shell gets fatter and heavier, the arcs become flatter. The CL's of the tree tend to have better dispersion and sigma values than their up-gunned Soviet sisters and compatriots.

Now let's queue up the torpedoes.

Torpedo Alpha Strike

  • Chapayev: 17,933
  • Mogami: 17,233
  • Suzuya: 17,233
  • Martel: 15,833
  • Edinburgh: 15,533
  • Albemarle: 15,533
  • Atago: 15,300
  • Ochakov: 15,100
  • Kutuzov: 14,400
  • Bagration: 14,400
  • Sigfried: 13,700
  • P. Eugen: 13,700
  • **Mainz: 13,700
  • Hipper: 13,700
  • Amalfi: 12,667
  • Azuma: 0
  • Baltimore: 0
  • Cleveland: 0
  • AL Balti: 0
  • Wichita: 0
  • *Riga: 0

In terms of alpha strike, not too bad. Kutuzov carries 10 torpedoes, 5 per side.

Stock Torpedo Range

  • Amalfi: 12
  • Mogami: 11
  • Suzuya: 11
  • Edinburgh: 10
  • Albemarle: 10
  • Martel: 10
  • Atago: 8
  • Kutuzov: 8
  • Ochakov: 8
  • Bagration: 8
  • P. Eugen: 8
  • **Mainz: 6
  • Hipper: 6
  • Sigfried: 6
  • Chapayev: 4
  • Baltimore: 0
  • Cleveland: 0
  • AL Balti: 0
  • Wichita: 0
  • Azuma: 0
  • *Riga: 0

8km is too short ranged to be worth building heavily into; and will never become a dominant system. Enjoy the fact that this weapons system is long ranged enough to be practical for more than just a last resort self-defense; and that will generally be a final word on those things that wander too close. Kutuzov has horrid a detection radius, and as such is neither worth maxing into concealment nor torpedo range to make this more adept than beyond its face value.

Torpedo Broadside Weight

  • Mogami: 137,864
  • Suzuya: 137,864
  • Atago: 122,400
  • Mainz: 109,600
  • P. Eugen: 82,200
  • Hipper: 82,200
  • Ochakov: 75,500
  • Kutuzov: 72,000
  • Bagration: 72,000
  • Edinburgh: 62,132
  • Albemarle: 62,132
  • Sigfried: 54,800
  • Chapayev: 53,799
  • Amalfi: 50,668
  • Martel: 47,499
  • Azuma: 0
  • Baltimore: 0
  • Cleveland: 0
  • AL Balti: 0
  • Wichita: 0
  • *Riga: 0

At 72k alpha punch before bonuses and reductions, that will generally be more than enough to finish off even the largest of slightly injured targets. Kutuzov's torpedo firing arcs are not the most forgiving either and will generally come down to the wire of kill or be killed.

On the whole, there's a lot going on here with Kutuzov in the offensive category. Kutuzov chimes in with a very hearty GOOD rating, propped up by excellent gunnery and weighted down by average torpedoes.

Defense:

  • GOOD

I'll be honest. This rating is almost a gift, not unlike Kutuzov's access to her smoke generator consumable. The numbers are surprising, but that doesn't mean they're wrong, only that there's more to be spelled out with simple theorem than the numbers will grasp. On the whole, Kutuzov is absolutely sub-par defensively, and is propped up heavily by her offensive capability, and smoke generator.

Kutu also has access to the cookie cutter Hydro-Acoustic search, but one should not expect to make use of this beyond self-defense. Destroyers will readily out-spot you and most will be generally smart enough to stay away from you. This Hydro serves more to help dodge torpedoes rather than to charge smoke.

Consider Kutuzov is generally able to control her own engagements with range, and smoke generator. This represents a powerful defensive ability, that will not generally show up in defensive numbers. Let's bring up the exact argument brough forward with Atago, except, Kutuzov has amongst the best gunnery range, not the worst, and is also heavily buffered by her smoke generator which allows Kutuzov to break engagement at will. This is strong and should not be overlooked; and most of her other defensive qualities more-so rightfully bring Kutuzov back down to Earth.

Base HP

  • Sigfried: 55,500
  • Azuma: 52,500
  • P. Eugen: 45,000
  • Hipper: 43,800
  • Amalfi: 42,800
  • Mainz: 42,500
  • Baltimore: 42,400
  • AL Balti: 42,400
  • Bagration: 42,000
  • *Riga: 42,000
  • Kutuzov: 40,700
  • Atago: 40,100
  • Albemarle: 39,400
  • Mogami: 39,100
  • Suzuya: 38,000
  • Martel: 38,000
  • Wichita: 37,900
  • Chapayev: 37,000
  • Cleveland: 36,900
  • Edinburgh: 36,400
  • Ochakov: 34,730

In terms of a CL, Kutuzov has pretty solid Base HP hovering over the rest by about 2k.

Effective HP

  • Azuma: 86,184
  • Sigfried: 73,980
  • Albemarle: 70,880
  • Baltimore: 65,624
  • AL Balti: 65,624
  • Edinburgh: 65,480
  • Amalfi: 60,692
  • P. Eugen: 60,120
  • Hipper: 58,472
  • Mainz: 56,780
  • Bagration: 56,112
  • *Riga: 56,112
  • Atago: 54,440
  • Kutuzov: 54,364
  • Mogami: 52,204
  • Chapayev: 51,504
  • Suzuya: 50,768
  • Wichita: 50,612
  • Martel: 48,584
  • Cleveland: 47,204
  • Ochakov: 46,378

54k EHP isn't bad, but it's not great on the whole. It's worth pointing out, that Kutuzov tops all the other CL's, in terms of EHP, but this is more so to better base HP comparatively, coupled with a rather mediocre heal. These values on their face are quite average, but in their own specific categories are quite slightly more above average. For those who characterize EHP in terms of percent, here's your first official and tallied loss: Kutuzov has a higher Base HP and EHP, however Chapayev has the better heal and is capable of regenerating more health.

Armor Layout:

26mm plating literally everywhere, extremities, amidships, freeboard, everywhere. 100mm belt, with a large above water citadel abutting the plating directly. I won't say awful. I won't. Primitive? Simplistic? Thin? Weak? These are all probably accurate to a certain degree. This armor scheme will probably keep a destroyer at bay, at least for a little while... I can't say the same for anything bigger though. I can say this is a drawback and hinders her defensive ratings. Bluntly, Kutuzov does not like to be shot. There are softer ships, but not many.

To summarize briefly, Kutuzov has a pale armor profile, above average health in terms of Base and EHP, carries smoke, sonar and adequate anti-air. This blessing of a GOOD rating breaks down easily and hits the mark, but only barely so, and primarily because Kutuzov is far more adept at disengaging to reduce damage than her contemporaries. Where Atago rounded down, Kutuzov rounded up; the difference was that narrow.

Anti-Air Suite:

  • AVERAGE

At 264/s Kutuzov is almost smack on the average. The delightful part is that this means somewhat functional Anti-Air. While Kutuzov won't drop full squads out of the sky, she can be described as adequately able to defend herself.

Anti-Air Average DPS

  • Baltimore: 365
  • AL Balti: 365
  • Cleveland: 363
  • Mainz: 357
  • Sigfried: 354
  • Azuma: 342
  • Hipper: 288
  • Bagration: 280
  • P. Eugen: 279
  • Kutuzov: 264
  • Edinburgh: 263
  • *Riga: 262
  • Amalfi: 240
  • Wichita: 217
  • Albemarle: 211
  • Chapayev: 207
  • Martel: 204
  • Ochakov: 196
  • Mogami: 127
  • Atago: 90
  • Suzuya: 67

Maneuverability:

  • AVERAGE

It's close. This is Average leaning on Good. Maybe Above Average.

Top Base Speed

  • Amalfi: 38.1
  • Ochakov: 36
  • Chapayev: 35.5
  • Atago: 35.5
  • Bagration: 35.5
  • Azuma: 35
  • *Riga: 34.5
  • Mogami: 34.5
  • Suzuya: 34.5
  • Martel: 33.5
  • Sigfried: 33.5
  • Wichita: 33.5
  • Mainz: 33
  • Albemarle: 33
  • Cleveland: 33
  • Kutuzov: 33
  • Edinburgh: 32.5
  • Baltimore: 32.5
  • AL Balti: 32.5
  • P. Eugen: 32
  • Hipper: 32

33 is slow. No other way to put it.

Turn Radius

  • Azuma: 920
  • *Riga: 920
  • Bagration: 890
  • Chapayev: 890
  • Sigfried: 880
  • Atago: 790
  • P. Eugen: 770
  • Kutuzov: 760
  • Mogami: 750
  • Suzuya: 750
  • Ochakov: 750
  • Hipper: 740
  • Baltimore: 730
  • AL Balti: 730
  • Mainz: 720
  • Albemarle: 720
  • Martel: 690
  • Edinburgh: 680
  • Amalfi: 680
  • Wichita: 680
  • Cleveland: 660

760m is the worse side of average, but it's not awful.

Stock Rudder Shift (s)

  • Sigfried: 14
  • Azuma: 12.3
  • *Riga: 11.5
  • Amalfi: 11
  • Albemarle: 10.7
  • Bagration: 10.5
  • Mainz: 10.5
  • P. Eugen: 9.8
  • Hipper: 9.7
  • Martel: 8.9
  • Chapayev: 8.7
  • Edinburgh: 8.6
  • Atago: 8.1
  • Ochakov: 7.4
  • Cleveland: 7.2
  • Baltimore: 7
  • AL Balti: 7
  • Kutuzov: 6.5
  • Mogami: 6.4
  • Wichita: 6
  • Suzuya: 5.6

The final number here with the rudder shift of 6.5s is actually quite strong, and this is what pushes Kutuzov up. Kutuzov has the natural ability to dodge most incoming long-range fire. On its face, Average overall, maybe leaning on good.

Concealment:

  • WEAK

Kit Surface Concealment (Km)

  • *Riga: 13.1
  • Chapayev: 12.9
  • Kutuzov: 12
  • Sigfried: 11.8
  • P. Eugen: 11.7
  • Mainz: 11.8
  • Hipper: 11.6
  • Martel: 11.6
  • Ochakov: 11.4
  • Cleveland: 11.3
  • Mogami: 11.1
  • Azuma: 10.9
  • Albemarle: 10.9
  • Bagration: 10.8
  • Edinburgh: 10.8
  • Atago: 10.6
  • Baltimore: 10.5
  • AL Balti: 10.5
  • Wichita: 10.4
  • Suzuya: 10.2
  • Amalfi: 9.2

With 12km kit concealment (everything on this list has the same concealment mod, no ships have commander skills) Kutuzov is among the worst concealed CLs in her tier; being outdone only by other Russian Cruisers. Running Concealment equipment is important to bring your smoke firing detection below 8km. Edinburgh will outright laugh you off with her smoke-firing ring sub 5km.

Concealment is important, and unfortunately this number is like the kind of injury that needs to be addressed otherwise ignoring it will hurt you.

Consumables:

  • GOOD

Kutuzov has an excellent consumable loadout and is probably as good as it gets without either a super-heal or a radar.

Effective Repair Party Values

  • Albemarle: (35,000)
  • Azuma: (33,684)
  • Edinburgh: (29,080)
  • Sigfried: (18,480)
  • P. Eugen: (15,120)
  • Hipper: (14,672)
  • Chapayev: 259/s-28s. 60sr, x2~~ (14,504)
  • Mainz: (14,280)
  • Baltimore: (14,224)
  • AL Balti: (14,224)
  • Riga: 252/s-28s. 60sr, x2 ~~ (14,112)
  • Bagration: 252/s-28s. 60sr x2~~ (14,112)
  • Kutuzov: 244/s-28s. 60sr x2~~ (13,664)
  • Atago: (13,440)
  • Mogami: (13,104)
  • Suzuya: (12,768)
  • Wichita: (12,712)
  • Amalfi: (11,928)
  • Ochakov: 208/s-28s. 60sr x2~~ (11,648)
  • Cleveland: (10,304)
  • Martel: (10,080)

On the whole, this is a fairly sub-par leaning on average heal. Chapayev has far less hp, but a far better heal.

Smoke Generator: 20s onset with an 89s duration. Comes with a 240s reload and x2 charges.

Hydro-Acoustic Search: 3.1km torpedo detection, 4.4km ship detection, with a 96s duration and a 180s reload time. Comes with x2 charges, and this is the exact same sonar the vast majority carry.

Commanders:

  • GREAT

Lately, I've tended more to let the commander section speak for itself. This time, despite a small pool, Kutuzov has access to excellent commander skills that are readily available in the base game.

Nikolay Kuznetsov: In terms of the free commanders, he's one of the better ones. There's some wiggle-room here. Couple this commander with B.D. Lightful's Phantom Bane (-3% gun reload; -12% detectability after firing), and Norman Scott's Direct Impact (+5% sigma) and Kutuzov will become a long-range nuisance.

  • Follow the Sun: +6% Gun Range
  • Beyond Range: +10% Gun Range
  • Intuitive: +5% to Sonar/Radar Duration
  • Velocious: +5% Top Speed
  • Fixated: +5% Sigma, -5% Dispersion
  • Fully Packed: +1 Consumables, -5% Consumable Reload

Stepan Makarov: Not quite the skill set you would like to see on Kutuzov. Kutuzov is a ranged-monster, and a commander lacking any skills or inspirations towards bettering this is almost not applicable for Kutuzov. Does that mean he can't work? Of course, he can, but this build is far from optimal. As far as the numbers are concerned, Makarov is so not worth it, it's more worth it from a review standpoint to point that out rather than dissecting his build entirely. Go get Kuznetsov, he's free, and I'll be willing to bet that's most of your problems solved.

Ivan B.D. Lightful: This commander was from the most recent Halloween event; if you were fortunate enough to acquire him. He stacks up well, probably better than Kuznetsov (it's close) with a similar skill tree. Couple with Kuznetsov's Follow the Sun and Norman Scott's Direct Impact inspirations and this is a wonderful build.

  • Phantom Bane: -3% Gun Reload, -12% Detectability after firing
  • Beyond Range: +10% to gun range
  • Intuitive: +5% Sonar/Radar Duration
  • Velocious: +5% Top Speed
  • Fear My Roar: +8% Sigma, -8% Dispersion, +8% Detectability
  • Fully Packed: +1 Consumables, -5% Consumable Reload.

Nik Von Essen: Eh, no. Not worth delving into, exactly like Makarov there are just far better choices on the whole.

Equilibrium of Power: (+30% HE Armor Penetration, -10% HE Alpha) Halfed Fire Chance

  1. There are arguments for and against this skill. Breaking the 32mm plane allows Kutuzov to penetrate the vast majority of the ships she will face; however, there is a steep cost. Owing to a base 12% Fire Chance, Kutuzov is fairly well off especially in terms of other light cruisers. The loss in alpha is not felt as much as the 6% fire chance. Furthermore, running this skill also negates the choice of adding additional consumables; including heals and smoke. Generally, as described I tend to run Fully Packed. Extra smokes, sonar and heals are often invaluable in terms of deciding engagements, arguably more-so than gaining an additional 8mm of pen. However, there is absolutely an argument to be made for better access to that damage potential.
  2. Let's step back here and broadly accept the meta at the moment; Mainz are starting to pop up and are not nearly so damning as Weimar in her tier. This paints the picture that HE Fire spam is more conducive to damage attribution than overall HE Penetration capacity, though, it's nice to have both. Mainz faces greater armor resistance in opposition to Weimar, and as predicted, the sub-par fire percentages fall short when compared directly when facing up-armored opponents.
  3. Kutuzov faces a similar dilemma, albeit with better fire chances, and worse HE Base Penetration at 25mm as Mainz, without access to EoP but with 1/4 Base Pen, rests at 37mm. This means almost directly, Fires>HE Pen. It's important to watch over the next few weeks as the ship becomes more popular as more and more complete the campaign. This will hint at the meta's subtle direction of the ever-raging Fires v. IFHE debate.

Upgrades:

  • Kutuzov is a premium ship and has no researchable upgrades.

Modifications:

Slot 1: Aiming Systems Mod 1

This is your best choice captains. An additional -7% to dispersion is the key marker here.

Slot 2: Steering Gears Mod 2

Also, your best bet. This will help shave off that mediocre handling performance. (-20% to rudder shift)

Slot 3: Concealment Mod 1

There is truly an argument to be made for the double steering gears option; however, Kutuzov absolutely needs this concealment mod to be able to push anywhere near a contested area. In almost undeniable terms, closer is always better in this situation and Kutuzov is undoubtedly handcuffed in this area. Save the double rudder mod for Suzuya and take the concealment mod here. Bonus point: this will also buff your smoke firing concealment.

Slot 4: Main Battery Mod 3

Let's be real. 18.5km+ is more than negotiable for a cruiser. Adding insult to injury might make those Battleship Mains tears taste that much sweeter and saltier, (especially coupled with EOP) however I'm more partial to knocking down that 8s reload. Kutuzov gains more by shaving off a second from her reload time than she would likely find engagements beyond 19km. Honestly.

Research:

  • Worcester
  • Khabarovsk

Summary:

  • GOOD

This thing is often a pain in the butt to deal with, but you probably already knew that. Kutuzov is found on every version of this game, coming to Legends last. Everywhere you find her, she's a pain in the butt to deal with. Somewhere between strong HE DPM, access to EoP, smokes, excellent ballistics and god-tier range, this ship will almost find immortality. Luckily for us all, she doesn't have radar. I mean, really, there are so few things holding this ship back from greatness, mainly concealment, HE penetration, armor, and..... I literally can't think of very many more.

Does Kutu need these things to be successful?
-No.

Kutuzov is rightfully still very strong and simple to use. Maybe there are some ships than can outperform her in some categories, but few will on the whole. I would not say Kutuzov is a necessity for competitive, but I would not rule out her appearance. However, on the random side of things, Kutuzov is extremely adept at farming damage and making her presence felt. Fortunately for Kutuzov, she has many tools at her disposal at putting space between her and incoming damage.

One key facet of Kutuzov is that she is easy to use and is not so difficult to learn as to be able to force an impact on the battle. As the captain gains experience and skill, the ability to force an impact will similarly grow. Kutuzov certainly is not the highest skill ceiling ship in her spread, but she's still wonderfully capable.

19km+ reach with access to smokes and 32mm of HE penetration.

What could possibly go wrong?