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Katori A is a Tier II Japanese all-rounder light cruiser with 140mm guns at 11.4 km: no single dominant trait, but competent at AP citadels, HE pressure, and cap support. Adapt to the team comp - DD hunter, BB chip, or cap contester - rather than locking into one role. Standout traits: best burny secondaries in T2 CAs (8) and best AA reach in T2 CAs (5 km).
Hold under 10 km with islands tight enough to break vision on demand. The HE pressure rewards a steady firing arc more than rotation play; pick a corner of the map you can hold and work fires from there. Your guns lose penetration at range, so aim AP at broadsides you can still citadel and put HE into superstructures and upper-hull sections, rather than the bow-in or belt armor your shells bounce and shatter on.
Her 140mm shells citadel cruisers on the wrong frame, and her 22,000-HP hull does not recover from a punished salvo. Pick rotations and angles deliberately; the chip-damage role pays better than the trade-blow role on a cruiser of this profile.
8.0% best HE fire chance per secondary shell (before target resistance), best of T2 CAs. Stacks fires faster than peers in a brawl.
5.0 km AA reach, best of T2 CAs.
2400.0 damage per HE shell, top decile of T2 CAs. Punishes superstructure and modules harder than peers.
Katori A is a Premium ship and not available to unlock in the Tech Tree. Acquisition path: Premium/Event.
Pair with a commander whose unique skill complements her main armament; check the build tool for current recommendations.
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Where Katori A sits among Tier II CAs (25 ships). Notable standouts are shown first; the rest of the cohort-ranked stats are in the expand below. Acquisition variants (Black Friday, Founders Edition) are counted once with their base ship, not as separate peers.
Not standouts for Katori A -- here's where she sits on every other ranked stat in the cohort. Stats tagged NORM are tied across more than half the cohort, so the value is the cohort default rather than a standout.
Damage Control Party∞ charges · 60 s reload · 5 s active
Catapult Fighter1 charges · 80 s reload · 90 s active · 5 km patrol radius All values are ship base stats with modifications and upgrade changes denoted inline.
Numbers the spec table cannot show directly: alpha-strike math, DPM, dispersion, AP penetration. Click the formula chip on any row to reveal how it is calculated.
Horizontal dispersion ellipse width at max range, from the verified WoWS dispersion model: $\sigma_H = \left(\dfrac{R}{30}\cdot\dfrac{\text{idealRadius}-\text{minRadius}}{\text{idealDistance}} + \text{minRadius}\right)\cdot 30$ $= \left(\dfrac{11427}{30}\cdot\dfrac{8-1.1}{1000} + 1.1\right)\cdot 30 = 111.8\,\text{m}$How wide your shells scatter at 10 km, from the same dispersion model as the max-range figure above. Picking a fixed range makes this number directly comparable from ship to ship: max-range dispersion makes a longer-range gun look worse even when it's tighter at any common range. The interactive Dispersion tab on the Charts card plots the full curve from 0 to max range.Vertical dispersion ellipse height at max range: $\sigma_V = \sigma_H \cdot \text{radiusOnMax}$ $= 111.8 \cdot 0.6 = 67.1\,\text{m}$How tall the same scatter ellipse is at 10 km. Comparable from ship to ship for the same reason as the width value above.50%-hit horizontal radius: $\sigma_{H,50} = \sigma_H \cdot \text{GetHalfHitsRatio}(\sigma)$ $= 111.8 \cdot 0.319\;(\sigma = 2) = 35.7\,\text{m}$50%-hit vertical radius: $\sigma_{V,50} = \sigma_V \cdot \text{GetHalfHitsRatio}(\sigma)$ $= 67.1 \cdot 0.319\;(\sigma = 2) = 21.4\,\text{m}$Canonical community AP formula (jcw780/wows_shell), evaluated at muzzle velocity: $P = 10^{-7}\cdot K \cdot m^{0.69} \cdot d^{-1.07} \cdot v_0^{1.38}$ $= 10^{-7}\cdot 1794 \cdot 38^{0.69} \cdot 0.14^{-1.07} \cdot 850^{1.38} = 199.6\,\text{mm}$. Matches the in-game spec card.Same formula at the ship's max firing range (14.3 km), where the shell has slowed to 280.2 m/s: $P = 10^{-7}\cdot 1794 \cdot 38^{0.69} \cdot 0.14^{-1.07} \cdot 280.2^{1.38} = 43.2\,\text{mm}$.23 mm ≈ 140 mm caliber / 6 (standard HE penetration ratio).floor(140 mm caliber / 14.3) = 9 mm (AP auto-penetrates plating this thick or less).AP shell over-penetration splash radius; scales with shell mass. Wickes 102mm = 3, standard 152mm CL ~ 20, Iowa 406mm ~ 270, Yamato 460mm = 400, Incomparable 650mm = 550 (max). Larger value = bigger splash damage area when AP over-pens.All 4 barrels bear on the broadside.180 degrees / 7.5 deg/s traverse speed = 24 s.2,400 HE damage x 4 broadside guns = 9,600.2,700 AP damage x 4 broadside guns = 10,800.9,600 HE full-salvo alpha x 60 / 7 s base reload = 82,286.10,800 AP full-salvo alpha x 60 / 7 s base reload = 92,571.4 broadside guns x 60 / 7 s base reload = 34.3.34.3 shells/min x 10% fire chance = 3.43.detectability / (speed kt x 2.6 community game-speed factor).range / (speed kt x 2.6 community game-speed factor).2 launchers x 2 tubes.tube count / 2 (symmetric port/starboard launcher layout; common on cruisers and battleships with deck torpedoes).All tubes hitting one target: tubes x per-torpedo simulated damage = 4 x 8,267 = 33,068.One side firing, all torpedoes hitting: per-side tubes x per-torpedo simulated damage = 2 x 8,267 = 16,534.Sum across every AA aura on this ship of (aura.continuous_damage x 3.5 x aura.hit_probability). Here: (18×3.5×0.9) + (6×3.5×0.9) = 76. Covers AA-only mounts plus dual-purpose secondaries (Bismarck 105mm, USN 5"/38 cruiser secondaries) and dual-purpose main batteries (Sumner-class 5"/38, Akizuki-line 100mm). Formula validated against in-game captures on California, Sumner, Manfred von Richthofen, Dante Alighieri (exact) and within +/-17% on the remaining verified ships.Longest-reaching aura across AA-only + dual-purpose auras.SUM over AA auras of (aura DPS x aura range km). A plane crossing the AA bubble is exposed to each aura for a time proportional to that aura's range, so long-reach DPS is worth more than the same DPS in a short bubble. Units: DPS*km; used to rank overall AA threat across the cohort.Max dispersion = range (km) × 57 + 30. Each dispersion type sets its own slope; this is not a percentage applied to a standard baseline.3 km × 57 + 30 = 201 m.Sum across all secondary families of (per-side barrels × 60 / reload_s × alpha), where per-side barrels = mounts × barrels-per-mount / 2 (the guns that bear on one broadside target). Per-family: 1×2 127 mm (1/side) × 60/5 × 2100 = 25,200. Assumes every shell hits (real hit rate is lower; the Brawl matchup tool on the Compare page folds in dispersion + target armor).Maximum HE damage per shell across secondary HE families. Best on this ship: 2100 from the 127 mm family.Maximum per-shell fire chance across secondary HE families (before target fire resistance is applied). Best on this ship: 8% from the 127 mm family.Maximum HE armor penetration across secondary HE families (caliber × 1/6 for most nations; 1/4 for German/UK BBs). Shells whose pen falls under a plate's armor thickness shatter for 0 hull damage though fire chance still applies. Best on this ship: 21 mm from the 127 mm family.Hull HP 22,000, distributed across 5 hull zones, each with its own plate thicknesses, saturation cap, and pen thresholds. HP caps are estimated from the standard WoWs damage-allocation model.
Overmatched by 106+ guns across the bracket. Can’t reliably bow-tank; gets bow-citadelled and overpenned.
Superstructure and extremities take HE pens and AP overpens from nearly any gun: steady chip damage. Fire resistance 3%, fires burn 30s. Range-by-range in the ballistics tool →
| Section | Plates | HP cap | Threats | Tactic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bow | 6 mm primary (range 6–10 mm) | ≈ 1,100 (~5% of HP) | Overmatched by 127mm+ (Farragut, Shenyang)6 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Bow-tank fits behind this exterior plate. Saturation is FAST here; the cap is often only a few thousand HP. |
| Hull (midship) | 6 mm | ≈ 16,500 (~75% of HP) | Overmatched by 127mm+ (Farragut, Shenyang)6 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Largest HP pool. Citadel sits behind these plates; thinner deck and side plating absorb the rest. |
| Stern | 6 mm primary (range 6–10 mm) | ≈ 1,100 (~5% of HP) | Overmatched by 127mm+ (Farragut, Shenyang)6 mm: HE pens from 127mm+ | Mirror of bow. Same fast saturation. |
| Citadel | 32 mm primary (range 6–32 mm) | no cap | Citadel pen: full damageOver-pen: ×0.10 damage | Effectively no cap; citadel pool sits at ~165k HP on every ship. An AP citadel penetration deals the shell's full damage, the biggest single hit available; only over-penetrations are damped, to ×0.10. |
| Superstructure | 6 mm primary (range 6–51 mm) | no cap | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage | Any HE ≥16 mm pens at full damage. HE-spam target, and the section saturates fast (often only a few thousand HP). |
Saturation cap = HP a section can absorb before further damage to it is reduced (the "bow-tank" effect). Citadel pool is ~165k on every ship (effectively no cap); damage is gated by pen/over-pen multipliers instead. Superstructure saturates fast but HE always pens regardless of the plate thickness. Rudder (and other module HPs) are a separate pool from ship HP: damaging a module doesn't drain ship HP. Incapacitated modules like the rudder and engine are restored by DCP, but secondary and AA mounts destroyed at 0 HP stay out for the rest of the battle.
Every custom exterior Katori A can equip, from in-game data.
GamingDiver has not indexed a focused official WG source card for this ship yet. The guide still uses the spreadsheet, in-game data, balance history, and community-data pipeline where available.