Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I am working on plans for a docked naval vessel terrain but I am having a hard time on figuring out what type of warship it will be. I think Warmachine is somewhere in between Early US Civil War to somewhere in the mid 1880's. In the fluff they talk about steamships in the different navies but that is a wide varity.

So, I have a choice of different vessels such as:

Paddlewheel steam gunboats
Steampowered ironclads
Steampowered ironside vessels with aux sail masts
or early pre-dreadnaught style vessel.

We have all the factions in our gaming group and we are making a 6' by 4' board so size isn't really an issue if the boat sticks out over the 4' by 4' playing area. Also, if the vessels are small enough I might be able to put two on the board with gangways to the two vessels. So what vessel type is closest to Warmachine?

Thanks.

I'd prolly lean more towards the steam-powered ironclad maybe with the aux sails as being the preferred warship and then pirate like sailing ships being the majority for everything else.

All the artwork has so far shown wooden sailing ships with steam engine assistance. See page 2 of NQ #36 for 2 full ship examples.

The Minions Forces book DOES mention a Mississippi River style paddle boat, though.

For my money I picture this: "Steampowered ironside vessels with aux sail masts" but based on 17th century sailing vessels rather than 19th century (to keep in the fantasy vain).

Finally found part of the image from NQ #36, but it's cropped to only show the Talion and not the full ship behind her:

Both the Talion and the Calamitous behind her are steam powered with sail assist. You can see the Talion's smoke stacks in that picture, as well as the top of her paddles.

I seem to remember seeing a naval battle depicted in the old Pirates of the Broken Coast book, but I don't own it, so cannot confirm that. If my shakey memory serves, they look very 'age of sail' in terms of hull and sails, but with steam power additions.

The Pirate book mentions barnacle infestation problems with ships so they haven't mastered 'copper bottomed' ships yet.

This is going to be an interesting build. Now all I have to find is a mess load of ship guns. Thanks for all the help and keep the info coming because the more info the better the terrain will be.

If you can find a copy of the old Pirates of the Broken Coast, there's (IIRC) orthographic views of the Talion and Calamitous.

What others have said about Pirates, I have a copy I'm willing to part with if you're interested.

The closest real world example would be late 1800's era steam vessels with paddlewheels and sails (sidepaddle steamer?):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Great_Eastern_1866.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SS-Savannah.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Mississippi_1863.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Fulton_%281837%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Susquehanna_%281847%29

The plans are there, on page 9.

In general the most advanced navy seems to be Cryx, as the Black Fleet tends to be viewed with quite a bit of fear by the rest of the world - or would be if they had any idea how big it was an how nasty the ships are. There doesn't seem to be too much of a tradition of long distance blue water sailing - most ships keep to the near coastal waters without ever venturing out beyond the usual trade routes near to the IK proper.

While there is some long distance exploration, a combination of steam assisted wooden ships that tend to stick closer to shore than far out at sea seems to be more accurate. Cryx's Black Fleet OTOH, seems to consist almost entirely of ironclads driven by steam - most likely because Necrotite is dramatically better than coal as a power source.