Supertest: British Tier IX Premium Battleship Marlborough

Historical 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

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

Consumables

Slot 1	Slot 2
Damage Control Party Work time: 15 s Cooldown: 80 s	Repair Party Number of charges: 4 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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Yuzorah

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