Supertest: British Tier IX Premium Battleship Marlborough
4 min readHistorical background
None.
Or well…
Basically, Marlborough is a kitbash of a Vanguard on which Wargaming decided to slap quadruple turrets from a King George V class battleship. At least, it’s not a simple gun swap like Ohio but instead, it’s a unique model and is ever so slightly longer than Vanguard for some reason.
The engines were also improved compared to Vanguard that was limited to 130 000 HP while Marlborough pushes it to 140 000 HP.
Would such a design be possible? I honestly have no idea. The quadruple turrets from the KGV are almost twice as heavy as the twin turrets of the Vanguard so that would lead to a reduced top speed but at the same time, the engines are stronger so… I guess that works.
Ship’s preview
Ship’s commemorative flag
Camouflage
For the classic reminder, this is a ship in testing, anything can change so don’t look at her like she would already be released.
Modules
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery |
Marlborough | Propulsion: 140 000 HP | Mk IX mod. 1 | ![]() 356 mm/45 Mark VII in a Mark III turret |
General Characteristics
Tier | IX |
Health | 76 800 HP |
Torpedo Damage Reduction | 24% |
Displacement | 55 687 tons |
Dimensions | |
Overall length | 248.52 m |
Beam | 31.95 m |
Overall height (keel to the highest point on the ship) | 29.0 m |
Freeboard | 8.1 m |
Main Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 20.860 km |
356 mm/45 Mark VII in a Mark III turret | 4 x 4 356 mm |
Secondary Armament | |
Maximum Firing Range | 6.950 km |
133 mm/50 Mark I in an RP10 Mark I* turret | 8 x 2 133 mm |
Maximum speed | 31.5 knots |
Turning Circle Radius | 860 m |
Rudder Shift Time | 16.8 s |
Surface Detectability | 15.36 km |
Air Detectability | 11.94 km |
Detectability After Firing Main Guns in Smoke | 13.35 km |
Main Armament
4 x 4 356 mm/45 Mark VII in a Mark III turret | |
Maximum Firing Range | 20.860 km |
Reloading Time | 25.0 s |
180 Degree Turn Time | 45.0 s |
Optimal firing angles at the front | 42° |
Optimal firing angles at the rear | 47° |
Sigma | 1.40 sigma |
Maximum Dispersion | 269 m |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 356 mm HE Mk VIb![]() |
Alpha Damage | 5 500 |
Damage | 3 030 |
Penetration capacity | 89 mm |
Explosion size | 1.9 |
Fire chance | 24 % |
Projectile Speed | 757 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.314 |
Projectile Mass | 721 kg |
Type of Projectile | AP – 356 mm AP Mk VIIb![]() |
Alpha Damage | 10 500 |
Projectile Speed | 757 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.314 |
Projectile Mass | 721 kg |
Projectile Krupp | 2 295 |
Projectile Detonator | 0.033 s |
Detonator threshold | 59 mm |
Ricochet Angles | 45° – 60° |
Secondary Armament
8 x 2 133 mm/50 Mark I in an RP10 Mark I* turret | |
Maximum Firing Range | 6.950 km |
Reloading Time | 6.67 s |
Sigma | 1.0 sigma |
Shells | |
Type of Projectile | HE – 133 mm HE Mk IC![]() |
Alpha Damage | 1 900 |
Damage | 550 |
HE penetration | 22 mm |
Explosion Size | 0.321 |
Chance to Cause Fire | 8 % |
Projectile Speed | 792 m/s |
Air Drag | 0.321 |
Projectile Mass | 36.3 kg |
Anti-air Armament
8 x 2 133 mm/50 Mark I in an RP10 Mark I* turret | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 6.0 km |
Hit chance | 75 % |
Sector’s damage | 23 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 81 |
Flak clouds number | 4 |
Flak cloud damage | 1 540 |
10 x 2 40 mm Bofors Mark X on a STAAG Mark 2 mount 9 x 6 40 mm Bofors Mark IX on a Mark VI mount | |
Sector range | 0.1 km – 3.5 km |
Hit chance | 75 % |
Sector’s damage | 151 |
Sector’s damage frequency | 0.29 s |
Sector’s damage per second | 529 |
Consumables
Slot 1 | Slot 2 |
Damage Control Party ![]() Cooldown: 80 s | Repair Party ![]() Work time: 28 s Cooldown: 80 s HP regeneration: 0.5%/s Casemate damage regeneration: 50% Citadel damage regeneration: 10% |
The Armor
On paper, this doesn’t look very appetizing. The citadel is gigantic and sits well above the waterline on top of being fully exposed. However, it can be useful when you angle properly as shells will just be guaranteed to bounce on it.
As for the rest… well she is covered with 32 mm armor so say hello to the HE spam.
External armor protection:
Front and rear armor protection of the middle section:
Citadel armor protection:
Turrets armor protection:
Hidden armor protection inside the bow and stern:
Personal Opinion
I’m not quite sure what to expect from this ship honestly. 16 battleship guns always sound scary but here, we are talking about 356 mm guns with normal HE and the same AP as the King George V and on top of that, there is the 1.4 sigma.
For the survivability part… Yeah, that’s gonna be rough. Gigantic exposed citadel combined with some of the worst firing angles in the game and the rudder shift time is nothing good either.
Overall, the ship really doesn’t look impressive on paper but we will see.
Easter-egg
At the rear of the ship, there is a plate with the names and dates of the various battles in which a ship named Marlborough took part:
- Martinique 1762
- Havana 1762
- St. Vincent 1780
- The Saints 1782
- First of June 1794
- Jutland 1916
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I thought they said hurr durr 1947 design.
KEKW
already feels like a proper t9 DY ship. the concept is so wonky (shotgun with fast reload, that will bounce on any angled ship that isn’t t7) that the question will most likely noz be how often one plays it (no more than twice a year for snowflakes), but if the rest of the rewards are worth spending dubs on and getting HMS Malborough as a “bonus”.
looks worse than Hizen to me so far…
No way. That thing is gonna be farmed to death at 9.