Russian Navy (VMF) - Tier 5: Kirov

Perhaps one of my most anticipated ships when looking towards what i was actually grinding for, i knew the Kirov would be fun when i eventually reached it and i was not disappointed either.

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The Kirov, in my opinion, is the first design you can play in the Russian cruiser line that deviates from the Ironclad ship design. You feel like you're playing an actual warship rather than an armed steamship.

Design

The very appearance and design layout of the ship was enough for me to be excited about this ship. It has that proper warship look with large turrets and an actual superstructure that the previous Russian cruisers lacked.

The Guns

The guns are the best feature on this ship. They pack a huge punch and the layout of the guns - 2 turrets with 3 guns in each in the front and 1 turret with 3 guns in the rear, allows you to keep your nose pointed at the enemy while dishing out your rounds. You shouldn't need to expose your broadside at all in the Kirov unless you accidentally maneuver away from a fight and get spotted mid turn.

Unlike any other Russian cruiser before it, the Kirov finally featured good AA! I no longer found myself needing to be glued to friendly ships to protect me from incoming aircraft. When alone i could damage and deter enemy planes, but i did find that if you are near friendly ships, the aircraft carriers will take a lot of damage and often lose whole squadrons of aircraft when damaging you which i consider to be a good trade off.

The Kirov features torpedoes just likes its predecessor, the Svietlana. These torpedoes have worse range: 4km compared to Svietlana's 5km torpedoes. So you will only be using these torpedoes if someone strays into their range, never actively look to torpedo an enemy, this next point will highlight why.

Paper thin armor and basically a floating citadel

The Kirov's guns are far better than anything i've used in the previous Russian ships. The amount of damage you inflict at even the longest of ranges makes you a threat whenever an enemy dares to appear within you gun batteries maximum range. But the Kirov has a massive weakness: Its armor.

The armor on the Kirov does nothing to protect it's fragile innards - particularly the citadel (a part of the ship which takes extreme damage when hit).

The citadel in the Kirov sits above the waterline meaning that enemies aiming at your ship on the surface have an increased chance that their shells will stray and hit the citadel, often leading to you needing to make a hasty retreat or be straight up sunk.

Because of the thin armor, angling will only shield against smaller caliber guns found on small cruisers or destroyers. Other large cruisers and battleships will sink you very fast.

In my initial stages of using the Kirov i was just excited to sail a ship with huge guns, i dealt very little damage and got sunk often. I wasn't annoyed when i got sunk as i was still drunk off having so much fire power. Eventually i sunk more and more enemies and dealt more and more damage. I raised my win/loss ratio to 57% which i was proud of seeing i'm just a newbie to this game.

In the end i found myself playing the Kirov and concealed artillery from behind islands where i couldn't be seen or from range.

A persisting problem

Once again i found the Kirov to inherit the slow rudder shift and speed of the Svietlana. While i stated i parked around islands, i initially found that if i was compromised i did not possess the speed and maneuverability to get away from the island and often got run aground on it. Always make sure you can get the hell out of dodge if you sit behind an island or you'll be a sitting citadel for enemies to farm.

Using the Kirov as a slow glass cannon helped to raise my win rating to the 57% it currently sits at. Keep at range and try to dodge as best as you can and like me, you'll be sure to dish out more damage than you receive. Make the enemies respect your firepower!