Through the Spy Glass: Marlborough & Marco Polo

The dynamic duo of Tier VIII Premium battleships is here! Meet Italian Marco Polo and British Marlborough. The former is based on the UP.41 design, initially created by Italy for the Soviet Navy, while the latter looks a lot like Vanguard but sporting the same quadruple turrets found on battleship King George V. TheSailingRobin is on hand with sage advice once again, providing an all-around overview of these ships with suggested Commander builds. Enjoy! 

VIII Marlborough

This unusual battleship could be considered somewhat demanding to play. Her 14-inch (356 mm) main battery guns will struggle against anything but destroyers and light cruisers when firing AP (armor-piercing) shells. However, Marlborough benefits from a sizeable health pool, a rather quick rudder-shift time, good speed, and concealment paired with a quite short main battery reload time. How does this translate into gameplay, then? The main advice we should give you is to watch your broadside, as Marlborough has a large and extremely exposed citadel for her tier. It might be tempting to bring all sixteen guns to bear in an engagement, though one will notice that the firing angles of her four turrets are not ideal, either. The strength of the ship resides in her quick reload, speed, maneuverability, and concealment. Scan the battlefield and look for broadside targets, and if there aren't any, load her HE (high-explosive) shells with improved penetration and whittle down enemy ships with barrages of sizeable salvoes. 

Let's get down to business and propose our build for the ship:

Andrew Cunningham with his Concentrated Devastation base trait, improving the main battery shell grouping.

• Flammable Cannonier for the extra range and accuracy.
• Crisscross to improve your main guns' traverse speed.
• On Second Thought... to make sure you have the right ammunition type at the right time.
• Reaching Out XXL for the additional firing range.
• Fight Fire With Fire to counteract Flammable Cannonier's debuff.

For inspirations, we recommend both Italian battleship Commanders:

• Paolo di Revel's Time Is of the Essence, decreasing the main battery reload time.
• Angelo Iachino's Go Away for improved shell grouping against cruisers, battleships, and destroyers.

VIII Marco Polo

While not the first ship in Legends to bring SAP (semi-armor-piercing) shells to her main battery, Marco Polo certainly yields the largest caliber. With nine 16-inch (406 mm) guns in 3x3 turrets—a rather classic configuration one might say—paired with the usual tools and toys of Italian battleships (Exhaust Smoke Generator and Enhanced Secondary Targeting), one of the few drawbacks of this elegant ship resides in her longer than average main battery reload time and rather small HP pool. You will however be presented with a choice in the ship's upgrades to switch back to a more conventional AP (armor-piercing) / HE (high-explosive) setup should you find the SAP option be too exotic. Marco Polo will make battleship players feel right at home with her sturdy hull when angled, but you should be aware that exposing your broadside could turn out to be more punishing than you might expect.

Here's our proposal on how you should set up this new toy:

Angelo Iachino with his base trait Go Away, improving shell grouping against cruisers, battleships, and destroyers.

• “A Good Day's Work” for a better Damage Control party cooldown time.
• Crisscross for improved main battery traverse speed.
• Marksmanship to refine the ship's accuracy even more.
• Iron Resolve for a bonus in duration of Repair Party and Damage Control Party when both are activated simultaneously.
• Testudo for an extra Repair Party charge and reduced incoming damage when the consumable is active.

Regarding inspirations, our picks are as follows:

• Andrew Cunningham's Concentrated Devastation, because who doesn't like greater accuracy.
• Paolo di Revel's Time is of the Essence to compensate for the above average reload time. 

Hit hard with this double impact of battleships, and turn the tide!