World of Warships: Japanese Tier V Cruiser Yahagi Review
6 min readLadies and Gentlemen, you would think that Yuudachi was already enough in terms of disappointing Japanese premium ship but today, let’s talk about the ship that makes Omaha look good, the Tier V Japanese Premium Cruiser Yahagi!
Tier V Japanese Premium Cruiser Yahagi: Making Omaha relevant
Her permanent camouflage gives the standard Tier V permanent camouflage bonuses:
The Good and the Bad
The Good
- Very strong torpedo armament
- Good speed
- Good agility
- Engine Boost
- Good concealment for a tier V cruiser
The Bad
- Low HP pool
- 6 152 mm guns broadside
- Terrible ballistic
- Slow turret traverse
- Terrible torpedo firing angles
- Weak armor protection
My opinion
The Yahagi is a ship that somehow manages to make things like Omaha good looking. Her firepower is very limited and she is protected by wet tissues. She is meant to have 2 special characteristics which are her torpedoes that have a very good 12 km range and hit hard and the second thing is that she has an engine boost.
The thing is that the firing angles of her torpedoes force the ship to be literally full broadside to be able to use them and the engine boost is… close to irrelevant.
Health pool
Let’s start with the health pool that already brings her to the lower hand of the spectrum with 25 700 HP. The only ships with a lower HP pool are the Krasny Krim and the Konigsberg. While it is not the end of the world considering the fact that at this tier, there aren’t big gaps in HP pool except for monsters like Furutaka, it already gives you a first taste of what’s coming next.
Main batteries
3 x 2 152 mm/50 Type41 | |
Maximum Firing Range | 14.910 km |
Reloading Time | 9.0 s |
180 Degree Turn Time | 30.0 s |
Optimal firing angle at the front | 30° |
Optimal firing angle at the rear | 30° |
Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
Maximum Dispersion | 126 m |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 152 mm HE Type4 |
Alpha Damage | 2 600 HP |
Damage | 790 HP |
Penetration capacity | 24 mm |
Explosion size | 0.58 |
Fire chance | 13 % |
Projectile Speed | 850 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.356 |
Projectile Mass | 45.4 |
Projectile Detonator | 0.01 s |
Type of Projectile | AP – 152 mm AP Type4 |
Alpha Damage | 2 900 HP |
Projectile Speed | 850 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.356 |
Projectile Mass | 45.4 |
Projectile Krupp | 1 900 |
Projectile Detonator | 0.025 s |
As I said previously, her firepower is miles away from being her strong point. She can only bring up to 6 guns to bear and boy, these guns are not good. First, the 9 seconds reload puts her behind the other light cruisers at this tier except for the Emile Bertin but at least, that one has 9 guns and has her paper troll armor. The ballistic is also terrible making her effective range much smaller than her actual max range. You will struggle to hit anything actively maneuvering past 12 km.
These guns have one thing going for them and it’s the high alpha damage of the Japanese HE shells.
Secondary batteries
2 x 2 76 mm/60 Type98 | |
Maximum Firing Range | 4.00 km |
Reloading Time | 2.40 s |
Sigma | 1.00 sigma |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 76 mm HE Type98 |
Alpha Damage | 1 300 HP |
Damage | 150 HP |
HE penetration | 12 mm |
Explosion Size | 0.18 |
Chance to Cause Fire | 4 % |
Projectile Speed | 920 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.347 |
Projectile Mass | 5.99 |
Yes, that ship has secondaries. Basically, forget about them since they are more intended for anti-air purpose than anything else. Getting a Close-Quarter Expert with these would be worth quite some praising consider the 12 mm penetration.
The torpedo armament
2 x 4 610 mm Quad Torpedo – Type8 | |
Reloading Time | 120 s |
Maximum Distance | 15.0 km |
Optimal front firing angle | 79° |
Optimal rear firing angle | 79° |
Damage | 17 233 |
Speed | 60 kt |
Surface Detectability | 1.6 km |
The torpedoes of the Yahagi are… almost something that you could call a noob trap. They have a very good range of 12 km, they are fast, they hit hard for this tier BUT you have to be literally full broadside to launch them. A picture is worth a thousand words sometimes so here are the torpedo firing arcs of the Yahagi:
While the great range of the torpedoes will allow you to launch them from a safe distance, do never try to launch them in active combat. The enemy AP would have some fun wrecking your citadel.
The anti-air armament
2 x 2 76 mm/60 Type98 | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 3.5 km |
Hit chance | 90 % |
Sector’s damage | 14 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 49 |
18 x 1 25 mm/60 Type96 mod. 1 10 x 3 25 mm/60 Type96 Triple mod. 1 | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 2.5 km |
Hit chance | 85 % |
Sector’s damage | 52 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 182 |
The anti-air of the Yahagi is actually pretty good for a tier V cruiser. It’s not a no-fly zone of course but still worth mentioning.
Maneuverability and Concealment
Maximum speed | 35 kt |
Turning Circle Radius | 690 m |
Rudder Shift Time | 5.1 s |
Surface Detectability | 11.34 km |
Air Detectability | 5.14 km |
Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke | 5.28 km |
While the offensive power of the Yahagi is quite terrible, she is at least good at moving around, dodging and hiding.
When it comes to the speed, with the Sierra Mike flag and the Engine Boost, she can reach a maximum speed of 39.7 knots. Her rudder shift time is also very good at 5.1 seconds. Trust me on that, you will need that agility if you ever take that ship because she just can’t take many hits, especially from large-caliber AP.
Her concealment is also fairly good for this tier. With Concealment Expert and the Camouflage, you reach a 9.9 km detection range by sea and 4.6 km detection by air.
If you ever want to play the Yahagi, use this maneuverability and concealment because otherwise, you will really not last long.
The armor
The armor is simply made of paper. The bow, the stern and the sides are 13 mm which only allows you to bounce AP a caliber equal or lower to 180 mm. Everything above will overmatch these parts. The deck is already a bit better with 16 mm so 203 mm guns will bounce on it.
The exposed citadel is protected by, get ready… 60 mm of armor! And if it wasn’t enough, it’s well exposed above the waterline. Wait, there is more! The citadel deck is 20 mm thick. That means that it can’t bounce battleship shell (except Scharnhorst AP) and if it doesn’t overpenetrate the ship, it will be a guaranteed citadel! The small part of the citadel’s side armor that is inside the ship is also very thin with only 55 mm of armor.
It is simple, this ship doesn’t appreciate getting shot at.
The consumables
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 | Slot 4 |
Damage Control Party I Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 90 s | Hydroacoustic Search I Number of charges: 2 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 180 s Torpedo detection range: 3.0 km Ship detection range: 4.0 km | Fighter I Number of charges: 2 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 135 s Patrol Radius: 3.0 km | Engine Boost I Number of charges: 2 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 180 s Boost: +8% speed |
Damage Control Party II Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s | Hydroacoustic Search II Number of charges: 3 Work time: 100 s Cooldown: 120 s Torpedo detection range: 3.0 km Ship detection range: 4.0 km | Fighter II Number of charges: 3 Work time: 60 s Cooldown: 90 s Patrol Radius: 3.0 km | Engine Boost II Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Boost: +8% speed |
Conclusion
The Yahagi is simply not worth the money. Her firepower is terrible, her torpedo power is great but at the same time very limited in its usage due to the terrible firing angles.
Her armor is literally yelling “Citadel me senpai!” as well so that’s another black point. The only reliable good point that the Yahagi presents is her agility but sadly, agility isn’t the thing that wins battles.
Recommended build
During the testing of the Yahagi, I used the following captain build and upgrades:
Captain build:
- Priority Target
- Adrenaline Rush
- Expert Marksman
- Demolition Expert
- Torpedo Armament Expertise
- Concealment Expert
- Inertia Fuse for HE
Upgrades:
- Main Armaments Modification 1
- Propulsion Modification 1
- Aiming Systems Modification 1
Honestly she at least needs Aiming Systems Mod. 0 like Yuubari, and an improvement to her ballistics. I might even suggest a reload buff on top of that…