Marlborough

Firepower

Marlborough’s firepower is an enormous battery of sixteen, fast-reloading, but crappy guns. On an individual standpoint, Marlborough guns are awful. They have the lowest shell damage values at the tier, which is compounded by very low penetration. Marlborough is also rather short-ranged for a T9 battleship, and her firing angles are not particularly good. Overall, Marlborough sacrifices a lot to have 16 guns- but the payout is fortunately quite good.

Having sixteen, fast-reloading guns solves a lot of problems. Owing to sheer volume of fire, Marlborough boasts:

• The highest raw DPM for a T9 BB

• The highest firestarting potential for a T9 BB

• The highest HE alpha strike (and third highest AP alpha strike) for a T9 BB

Marlborough wins no awards for her accuracy, but decent dispersion with 16 shells at once is more than enough. Combined with one of the fastest base reloads for a T9 battleship, Marlborough can spit out a massive amount of damage very quickly.

At longer ranges, Marlborough should usually fire HE shells against enemy BBs. Her penetration is low on both shell types, so the consistency of AP damage simply isn’t high enough beyond 10km. Firing HE removes the possibility of 0 damage hits, and thanks to sheer volume allows for very good firestarting. At close range, Marlborough defaults to AP shells. Her AP penetration is so bad that Marlborough will NEVER overpenetrate the bow and stern hitboxes of enemy BBs. Farming these points at close range allow Marlborough to obliterate enemy ships in short and lopsided duels. Quickly removing a full health BB is an easy way to start a “snowball” push that can decide a game, so keep your eyes open for opportunities to get in close.

Protection

Marlborough’s survivability is, for the most part, rather poor. Like many other Royal Navy premiums, good belt armour and a large HP pool are the two main upsides. Assuming Marlborough doesn’t get deleted quickly, her potential HP (HP pool + heals) is quite large, allowing her to absorb a respectable amount of damage for her team. 

While her HP is high for a T9 ship, it is low by T10 standards- in a T10 battle, Marlborough must play more cautiously than when she is top-tier.

Aside from HP and belt, Marlborough is not a very durable ship. Her deck armour is among the worst in the tier, meaning enemy cruisers and battleships will reliably deal heavy damage here. Additionally, Marlborough’s deck+superstructure hitbox is quite large, making this weak point very easy to hit. The issue is compounded by low damage reduction and fire resistance values, which ensure that she takes significant amounts of damage from shells, fires, and torpedoes.

Due to her fragility, Marlborough generally plays passively in the opening of a game. Stay at longer ranges, and avoid becoming the centre of attention. Try to bait enemy salvos into your belt armour to reduce damage taken. However, a full health Marlborough can be dropped to zero very quickly by focus fire- If you are in a position where focus fire seems imminent, get out! Keep your DPM floating in the early-game, so you can exert influence on the later stages of battle.

Evasion

Marlborough somewhat compensates her weak protection with good scores in the evasion department. She is fairly quick for a battleship, allowing her to change flanks, lead pushes, or reposition without too much difficulty. While her turn radius is unremarkable, Marlborough also enjoys a reasonably fast rudder shift time. During long range gunnery duels, this is useful- frequent and erratic course changes will sometimes throw off enemy aim, baiting their shots into your belt armour, or causing them to miss altogether.

Marlborough also has access to sonar. In conjunction with her decent response times, she is able to avoid torpedo drops without too much difficulty. Like any battleship, situational awareness is important. Anticipate the torpedoes before they get spotted! However, sonar provides an additional buffer of safety- activate it when you suspect torpedoes may be on the way, and prepare to evade.

Concealment is Marlborough’s biggest asset in this category. She uses it to avoid early-game focus, reach forward positions, and generally get the best use of her firepower. Provided you don’t open fire the instant a target is in range, your teammates will be spotted before you. Wait for enemy ships to tunnel-vision, then break cover and open fire. Simply letting the enemy pick (more durable) targets before revealing yourself dramatically increases the chances of survival! Concealment also allows Marlborough to reach closer ranges without being lit up, giving her the best opportunity to maximise damage output. Of course, concealment serves as an escape option too. If confronted with heavy focus fire, hold fire and get out of detection range. Proper use of evasion will keep Marlborough alive through the early-game, so she can use her destructive firepower to its full potential in late-game pushes.

Anti-Air

Marlborough’s AA wins no awards. Despite her small calibre AA damage being more than doubled in the latest patch, she is by no means a threat to CVs.

Fun fact, Marlborough's short range AA was more than DOUBLED in 6.1. No, it didn't make her a competitive AA boat.

While Marlborough’s total AA damage is not bad for the tier, the majority of her damage output comes from the short range mounts, only activating at a measly 1.80 km. At this point, it is too late to prevent the incoming strike, so Marlborough is largely relegated to shooting down a handful of aircraft after being hit. Due to her large calibre AA damage being quite bad, she does not cover teammates very well either. Self-defence is all her AA is used for, and it does not do this job well enough to matter. Her best defence against CVs is to keep a low profile, and hope they attack something else.

Final Evaluation

Marlborough has 16 guns. That’s why you’re here, that’s why I’m here, it’s the only reason anyone cares about this ship. Fortunately, this gimmick makes her hilarious. Marlborough spits out fire damage at long range with a consistency the tech tree BBs can only dream of. And at close range, the sheer obliteration power of her fast-reloading broadsides is incredible. There’s nothing like the hasty deletion of a full-health enemy battleship to start a push! Duels at close range are incredibly lopsided in Marlborough’s favour, allowing her to quickly change the balance of power on a flank- She won’t always survive this, but trading a Marlborough for a full-health T10 battleship, PLUS inflicting damage to other enemies is often sufficient to start a “snowball push” that even your random teammates cannot mess up!

Sometimes the flank demands a sacrifice. As a DPM-battleship, Marlborough is that sacrifice, and it’s a very fun job to do. If you like what you hear, consider picking up this ship.