World of Warships Final Review: Pan-Asian Superdestroyer Kunming

Ladies and Gentlemen, a new pair of superships are getting released and considering that their Auction is just around the corner, it’s time to see what we are dealing with.

First and foremost, let’s talk about the auction as Kunming and Joshua Humphreys won’t be alone.

Items available at the Lighthouse Auction:

• Commonwealth Tier VII Premium Destroyer Haida
  • 15 000 doubloons as the minimum bid
  • 750 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers
• U.S. Superdestroyer Joshua Humphreys
  • 100 000 000 credits as the minimum bid
  • 825 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers
• Pan-Asian Superdestroyer Kunming
  • 100 000 000 credits as the minimum bid
  • 825 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers
• 110 000 Coal
  • 325 000 Free XP as the minimum bid
  • 3 525 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers
• Commemorative flag of the U.S. Tier IX Premium Battleship Georgia
  • 37 500 Free XP as the minimum bid
  • 450 lots available shared by the EU, NA, and SEA servers

If you have doubloons to spare, Haida is definitely something that I would recommend you grab. Quite the powerful ship to say the least.

Historical background

Kunming is a Wargaming-made design of destroyer. She is based on the U.S. Somers-class of destroyers but is much larger and the turrets are dual-purpose 127 mm/38 Mk.38 twin turrets instead of the older single-purpose Mk.22.

Unlike most other superships, Kunming doesn’t have any sort of alternative firing mode or alternative torpedo armament. She is just a bigger Yueyang.

Ship’s preview

The camouflage

The permanent camouflage of Kunming comes with the standard permanent tier X economic bonuses:

• +200% XP
• +200% Commander XP
• +100% Free XP

The Good and the Bad

The Good

• Good firing range compared to other destroyers (for some reason)
• Heavy torpedo armament with fifteen torpedoes per salvo
• Deep-water torpedoes with a low detection range
• High torpedo flooding chances
• Access to the Torpedo Reload Booster consumable
• Smoke Generator with a short cooldown
• Can switch her Smoke Generator for a Surveillance Radar

The Bad

• Poor firepower compared to other super-destroyers
• Long torpedo reload time
• Torpedoes are unable to hit destroyers
• Large size
• Poor concealment, especially for a torpedo-focused destroyer
• Short-duration smoke clouds
• Taking the Surveillance Radar is almost detrimental as, without proper backup, Kunming can’t get proper value out of it with her weak firepower

Modules

Hull	Engine	Gun Fire Control System	Main battery	Torpedoes
Kunming	Propulsion: 70 000 HP	‎Mk11 mod. 1	127 mm/38 Mk.12 on a Mk.38 mount	‎Mk16 mod. 1

General Characteristics and Playstyle

Consumables
Slot 1	Slot 2	Slot 3	Slot 4
Damage Control Party Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s	Smoke Generator Number of charges: 5 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 100 s Smoke radius: 450 m Smoke duration: 70 s	Engine Boost Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Speed bonus: +8%	Torpedo Reload Booster Number of charges: 2 Work time: 1 s Cooldown: 300 s Torpedo reload time: 8 s
	Surveillance Radar Number of charges: 3 Work time: 25 s Cooldown: 120 s Ship spotting range: 7.5 km

Well… I think we found the ship to crown the weakest supership of the game. Kunming, for all intents and purposes, is a torpedo-focused destroyer with the classic characteristics of weak firepower but great torpedo armament. The problem is that she has to deal with what is basically the worst nightmare of a torpedo destroyer. Her concealment is a big disappointment.
To give you an idea of what we are dealing with, Yueyang’s spotting range is 7.2 km while Shimakaze’s is 6.9 km and Halland’s is 7.39 km. Meanwhile, Kunming has to deal with a 7.81 km concealment compared to 6.9 km for Yamagiri and 7.51 km for Dalarna. For whatever reason, Kunming’s concealment goes up like crazy and because of it, she ends up getting outspotted by much stronger ships. Another one to mention is obviously the Joshua Humphreys with a spotting range of 7.32 km that would easily shred Kunming in a gunfight. At this point, I think you understand the problem. The thing can easily get zoned out of the action, forcing her to stay at range and sling torpedoes at enemy cruisers and battleships. While you might get some lucky torpedo salvos, her overall game impact will be minimal due to her great limitations of low HP, large size, poor firepower, and poor concealment.

If you want to see this ship…. in action… here is a replay of one of my games:

Main Armament

4 x 2 127 mm/38 Mk.12 on a Mk.38 mount
Maximum Firing Range	13.390 km
Reloading Time	5.0 s
180 Degree Turn Time	7.2 s
Optimal firing angles at the front	33°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	33°
Sigma	2.00 sigma
Maximum Dispersion	115 m
Shells
Type of Projectile	HE – 127 mm HE Mk32
Alpha Damage	1 800
Penetration capacity	21 mm
Explosion size	5.7 m
Fire chance	5 %
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.347
Projectile Mass	24.5 kg
Type of Projectile	AP – 127 mm AP/SC Mk38
Alpha Damage	2 100
Projectile Speed	792 m/s
Air Drag	0.347
Projectile Mass	25.0 kg
Projectile Krupp	2 598
Projectile Detonator	0.01 s
Detonator threshold	21 mm
Ricochet Angles	45° – 60°

While the alpha damage per salvo is high on Kunming, it is only to somewhat compensate for the reload time of 5.0 seconds. In a gunfight against any of the other super-destroyers, Kunming would be at a neat disadvantage unless the opponent was already low HP.
That lack of firepower is also why I don’t recommend running Surveillance Radar on her as, for one, she wouldn’t be able to capitalize on it without proper support, and two, you want the Smoke Generator in order to bail out of a fight.

The only real good point of her main battery is that, for whatever reason, the firing range is among the best of all destroyers, making it easy to farm damage on enemy battleships or cruisers if you get the opportunity. Then again, it would mostly be cheap damage.

Torpedo Armament

3 x 5 533 mm Mk14 Mark 17* Can only hit cruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers
Reloading Time	139 s
Maximum Distance	13.500 km
Optimal firing angles at the front	64°
Optimal firing angles at the rear	67°
Damage	18 800
Flooding Chance	389%
Speed	69 knots
Surface Detectability	0.8 km

The torpedoes of Kunming are her main tool to impact the battle. Compared to Yueyang, she gets a whole additional launcher for five more torpedoes but at the cost of 10 seconds of additional reload time. Combined with the Torpedo Reload Booster consumable and if you unlocked him, the commander Sa Zhenbing, it is definitely a formidable torpedo armament. If you are able to get a good position on a flank and remain unnoticed, these torpedoes can do some serious damage to a pushing enemy battleship or cruiser.

Anti-air Armament

While the DPS on Kunming’s anti-air armament is pretty good, it isn’t exactly anything to celebrate as it will not really stop a carrier that would really have a hard one for you.

ASW Armament

Shipborne depth charges
Reloading Time	40 s
Number of charges	2
Number of bombs in payload	12
Damage	1 700
Sink speed	21.5-32.2 m/s
Explosion radius	800 m
Fire chances	10%
Flooding chances	15%

The Armor

External armor protection:

Final Opinion

Basically, just save your money. Kunming is by no stretch of the imagination a worth investment and beyond her torpedo armament, she is effectively a downgrade to Yueyang. Because of her size, concealment, and firepower, she is just easy food for destroyers of the same tier while also having a low influence on the battle outside of lucky salvoes of torpedoes.

Recommended Build

For Kunming, I recommend the following commander build and upgrades:

If you have the commander Sa Zhenbing, I recommend using him for his Torpedo Attack Expert talent.

This concludes my review of Kunming. Thank you for reading this article!

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Yuzorah

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