K-2

Last updated 14 June, 2024.

K-2 is a tier 8 Soviet heavy tank. It has a strong turret with good hull armour and low speed. Its gun is a typical Soviet 122mm, but its slightly more accurate with less DPM.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, consumables, & provisions
5. Gameplay advice
6. Tank gameplay:
7. Overall
8. Is it worth getting?
9. Most recently sold for:
10. Camo cost:

Armour

(The K-2 in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Drag slider right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 265mm APCR

When facing head on:
Upper plate 295-310mm
Hull shoulders 295-315mm
Lower plate 180mm

Turret front 240-360mm
Turret cheeks 430mm+
Gun mantlet 225-400mm+
Cupolas 110-180mm

Side armour:
K-2 has great side armour, 100mm base along the flat side armour (between tracks) and the upper angled armour. 30mm spaced armour covers that upper angled armour (much like an IS-3).

The angled armour behind the tracks (at the bottom of the hull) is only 55mm thick. This part of the side armour is the easiest to penetrate, shown below.

Armour vs tier 7:
Against tier 7 the K-2 has very solid armour. Its lower plate will be red to most enemies, especially if you angle slightly. Some higher penetration (USA & German) heavies will be able to reliably penetrate the lower plate.

The turret is essentially impenetrable except for the cupolas.

(Due to low penetration of tier 7 tanks, angling the hull is worth doing, as it makes the lower plate much harder to penetrate. The hull shoulders will still be hard to penetrate as tier 7 tanks just don’t have very high penetration.)

Armour vs tier 8:
Facing tier 8 enemies, the lower plate is weak to almost all enemies on flat ground. Its worth angling it against medium and light tanks, due to their lower penetration.

Angling against heavy tanks or tank destroyers is pointless as their penetration is too high for this to be effective (If you angle too far, the shoulder becomes weak, if you don’t angle enough, the lower plate is still weak.)

The upper plate is impenetrable to nearly all tier 8 enemies due to its high thickness, but enemies with calibrated shells (or TDs with good penetration) can penetrate the upper plate with premium ammo.

The turret is essentially impenetrable, its weakpoints are the cupolas and the spots right next to the gun mantlet. These are very hard to hit due to their size, and the turret cheek armour is impenetrable.

Armour vs tier 9:
Due to tier 9 enemies having much higher penetration, the upper plate is les reliable in tier 9. Most enemies you face can use premium ammo to penetrate the upper plate, but against standard ammo its still very strong.

When the hull is turned against tier 9 enemies, the hull shoulders are much weaker and easier to penetrate, and the lower plate is too weak to bounce (even if angled), so there’s no point to angle the hull against tier 9 tanks.

The turret is still very solid due to its weakpoints being very small. However if enemies can hit right next to the gun mantlet, they will penetrate.

Gun

The K-2 mounts a 122mm gun.

-Alpha damage is 400 on AP, 340 on HEAT, and 500 on HE
-It has a 12.8s reload giving it 1873 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 230mm, HEAT is 277mm, and HE is 69mm.
–Estimated aim time is is 5.3/5.6s
–Base aim time is 3s, but it can get down to 2.31s
-Dispersion is 0.353/0.300
–Gun handling is 0.25/0.25/0.17, or 0.22/0.22/0.15 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -7 degrees.

Overall this is a decent gun. The DPM is low, even for a 122mm gun, however its made up for by great penetration. 230mm on AP is far better than any other 122mm gun (most of which use APCR), and the HEAT penetration of 277mm is also slightly better.

Gun handling and aim time are both terrible, but dispersion is decent and noticeably better than other 122mm guns. -7 gun depression is also very comfortable and lets the tank hulldown easily with its strong turret.

Mobility

-Top speed is 32km/h forwards, and -12km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 34 deg/s on hard terrain, and 23.4 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 14.8 hp/t, it has a strong 920hp engine for its 62 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 14.8 hp/t on hard terrain, and 10.2 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.45/2

This is quite mediocre mobility. The acceleration is good on hard terrain, and decent on medium, the tank can easily reach its top speed, but 32km is quite limited. Traverse speed is average on hard terrain, but very poor on medium, 23 degrees/s is one of the slowest in tier 8. 
The mobility for this tank’s amour isn’t terrible, but its quite mediocre compared to other heavies.

Equipment, consumables, & provisions

The K-2 has the standard consumable/provision set, with no special consumables/provisions.

Gun Rammer:
The K-2 has impressive penetration for a heavy tank, but lacking DPM. Due to this there really is no reason to use calibrated shells, as the tank rarely struggles to penetrate enemy tanks; on the other hand, improved DPM from gun rammer is very useful for brawling.

Use gun rammer, this will improve its reload time from 13.5s to 12.8s, and DPM from 1778 to 1872.

Enhanced Armour:
As the K-2 is a very armour-focused heavy tank, its worth improving it with equipment. Its high base HP of 1900 means it can still soak damage without needing improved assembly (which only gives the tank an extra 76 HP).

Using enhanced armour importantly makes the armour much more reliable against very high penetration tanks (with around 300-310mm penetration) on the upper plate, but it also makes the hull shoulders stronger against same tier heavy tank penetration.

Enhanced armour improves:
Upper plate from 295mm up to 304mm.
Hull shoulders from 295mm up to 304mm
Lower plate from 180mm up to 185mm
Turret weakest point from 240mm up to 247mm

Vertical Stabilizer:
Don’t use refined gun on this tank. It already has pretty good dispersion of 0.353, much better than competing tanks in tier 8; however its gun handling is much worse than other tier 8 tanks, and this is very noticeable in battle.

Vertical stabilizer is needed to allow the gun to be more accurate after its moved and as it aims in its shots. This is necessary due to the terrible aim time, but also the poor hull traverse (meaning you often need to be moving the tank). On this tank refined gun generally misses more due to terrible aim time and also due to K-2 being a brawler heavy tank that’s constantly moving.

Gameplay advice

The K-2 is just a 122mm heavy tank, similar to many Soviet and Chinese tier 8 heavies. it plays just as a regular heavy tank role.

General gameplay:
Take this tank to the heavy flank. Its far too slow to be chasing mediums & lights. Use it in hulldown positions where it can hide its main weakpoint, the lower plate. It can also sidescrape, but its less effective due to the hull shoulder weakness.

Avoid fighting with DPM, try to trade damage using your 400 alpha. Faster reloading enemies will try to shoot you 2 or 3 times every time you shoot once, so avoid them for as long as possible until you reload. 

Generally avoid facehugging enemy tanks. Good players will know where to shoot. If their tank is too tall, they can hit your cupolas. If their tank is low profile with gun depression, they can penetrate the upper plate. Facehugging will be effective against less experienced players who don’t know where to shoot.

Try to always keep the hull front to higher tier enemies. The weak hull shoulders and lower plate mean there is no benefit to trying to angle. Only use angling against lower penetration enemies, such as tier 7 tanks or tier 8 MT/LT. Most tier 8 HT will have to load gold to penetrate the hull shoulders, so you can still angle against them.

Go hulldown:
Due to a good -7 gun depression and a very solid upper plate & turret front, the K-2 is very effective when its hulldown or using its gun depression. Being hulldown will let you be essentially fully confident in your armour and easily bounce even the highest penetration enemies,

The turret weakpoints are very small, so as long as you move slightly to throw off the enemy’s aim, the turret will be essentially impossible to penetrate.

Keep armour facing front:
There are only a few situations where you should angle the hull, and these are explained below. For most cases, don’t angle. The hull shoulders are much weaker when you turn the hull, and they are noticeably worse than tanks like IS-6 or IS-4 with a similar armour layout.

Keep the flat front to tier 8-9 heavy and TD enemies, since these will be the ones which are most capable of exploiting the weak shoulder armour when you angle.

Stay on hard terrain:
Due to the terrible traverse speed of the K-2, its best to stay on hard terrain. This improves the hull traverse speed by 10 degrees/s, which is very important as it lets you angle your armour towards enemies quicker. This lets you keep the strongest armour facing the enemy guns, otherwise they may be able to hit the hull side or the weaker hull shoulders.

Sidescrape & angle:
Angling should only be done against low penetration enemies, such as tier 7 tanks or tier 8 medium/light tanks. It makes the lower plate much more challenging to penetrate, but doe to these tanks’ lower penetration, the hull shoulder still remains strong.
(You can also angle against tier 8 HT if they aren’t in a very close range or have high penetration, since the shoulder will still be red to most tier 8 HT.)

Angling against tier 8 TDs, high penetration heavies (such as the T34) and 9 heavies/TDs is pointless, as the lower plate won’t benefit enough from it, and the hull shoulder becomes easily penetrable to standard ammo.

Sidescraping is effective in this tank, however note that the hull shoulders are penetrable to tier 8-9 premium ammo. The track wheel is also fairly weak, and in the image below it gets penetrated at that angle.

If you start sidescraping and the enemy doesn’t immediately start penetrating your tank, then continue doing it to bounce shots. However if they immediately start doing damage to you either through the tracks or hull shoulder, then it may not be worth continuing to sidescrape against them. When reversing out in a sidescrape, hull shoulder becomes visible long before your gun can be trained on the enemy tank.

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Overall the K-2 has just an standard, generic heavy tank playstyle. Its very similar to other 122mm heavy tanks, such as the Obj.252U, IS-3, or 112. It plays a standard hulldown and brawling heavy tank role.

Tank gameplay:

Overall

Armour – 7/10
Gun – 5/10
Mobility – 4/10
Speed – 3.5/10

K-2 is overall a decent tank.

Armour is good. The hull front is very strong, and the turret is almost impervious. Awkward to angle due to shoulder armour. Great HESH protection, perfect HE protection, easy to use hulldown, good side armour.
Gun is decent. Low DPM, terrible gun handling & aim time, but great penetration, decent accuracy, good alpha, and good -7 gun depression.
Mobility is mediocre. Terrible medium terrain resistance, making the tank turn extremely slowly on medium terrain. Hard terrain mobility is good, reverse speed is mediocre at -12km/h.
Speed is mediocre at 32km/h.

Is it worth getting?

K-2 is not worth getting. Its essentially just another copy/paste of the typical Soviet 122mm heavy tank in tier 8. While it has impressive armour and nice gun depression, its playstyle is still almost identical to the other 122mm heavies. The tank doesn’t offer anything really new or interesting, and has a monotonous playstyle.

This is not a tier 8 version of the “old IS-4”. Its very slow, and its armour is nowhere near as reliable as the old IS-4. Tanks such as Obj.252U, WZ-112-2, IS-6, and T-2020 provide more armour reliability with better mobility, and are more similar to a tier 8 version of the old IS-4, the difference is just gun reliability, which K-2 does better.

The K-2 worth 6,000 gold. Its a decent tank due to its solid frontal armour, gun depression, and penetration. It performs just like other 122mm heavy tanks and is not at all unique or interesting. Its a great tank for newer players as well.

Most recently sold for:

Event release – June 2024

Camo cost:

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