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Air force or Navy
Charon:
--- Quote from: Arktic on August 09, 2013, 02:40:43 pm ---Just because we're using Naval terminology doesn't mean that it's part of the Navy. If you go by definitions:
Navy - The branch of a nation's armed services that conducts military operations at sea.
Air Force - The airborne branch of a country's armed forces.
Then Airships are airborne, therefore they are part of the Air Force.
--- End quote ---
The Navy's got a pretty formidable airborne force in real life, man. These definitions are a bit flawed.
Each nation would call this something different, I'm pretty sure. Some would, I'm certain, refer to their fleets as a Navy. Others would likely call it something along the lines of an Air Corps. The less civilized of them might have some native word for Sky-Raider, or something equally metal. If there's a large and well known force, maybe even a common enemy amongst nations, the name of that large force might spread to several neighboring areas (including hostile ones) and replace their own word for the force.
Wazulu :
Even more interestingly, why would they have a Sea-based Navy at all? If you have a limited pool of resources to make an army with, why would you limit some of your force to naval engagements? Considering most of the factions will be waging ground wars, and will have to deal with difficult terrain (thinking The Wastes, here) it would make sense to put your resources into airships, and be able to attack any threat anywhere.
Also, we have to take into account that where we are in the timeline is at least a hundred years after Gabriel, meaning airships have been around for a while now. This leaves enough time for true Navies to be phased out, and simple fishing and immigrant convoys being all that remain. That, and we know the environment got messed up to high heaven- how the heck is there a warship in the middle of Duel at Dawn and in Dunes? It's clear the sea level must've dropped considerably, leaving many ships hung and dry. Factoring in all the environmental difficulties airships are the most sensible and easiest method of transport.
So, in terms of lore, humanity was at a WW1 stage- we had dreadnoughts, tanks and guns, verging on aerial combat. However, a catastrophic event caused a massacre of the human population. As this technology was ground breaking (and induced by an arms race) it was confined to a group of individuals, be that scientists and manufacturers. Due to the event, however, they were killed and the knowledge died with them. The reason why they held on to some technology is some people survived- say for example we had a similar event happen now. We'd retain knowledge we were taught, say if your profession was a doctor, but you wouldn't have a clue how to rebuild a car, let alone how to salvage parts from it. This is how they have partial knowledge and a disparity in technology. Some groups would've had completely different skill sets, we're still pre-Gabriel here.
Anyway, ignoring my massive tangent, there probably wasn't a proper fighting navy, simply a couple city-states defending themselves. Once air travel was perfected Empires became an option.
Gryphos:
Actually, that's a very good point that the terrain makes airships a necessity, which, in turn, makes seaships completely obsolete. And I don't think any of the factions would have needed a sea navy before the age of air, with the possible exceptions of Anglea and Chaladon, which I'd imagine probably had some form of sea navy before the age of air.
HamsterIV:
To expand upon Wazulu's point about the obsolescence of a seaborn navy. I think it is incredibly likely that the traditionalists in charge of the navy would prefer to evolve their technology than acknowledge that their institution was obsolete and hand over power and prestige to a different organization.
Pickle:
Assuming that the Handwavium physics that allows GOIO airships to fly at all hasn't completely buggered up the AM economy and moved it too far from reality..
Airships are fine for hauling high value, low volume commodities (high tech finished goods, people, ideas, etc.). But for the low value, high volume commodities (grain, coal, etc.) surface shipping is cheaper (unless there's some Handwavium thrown in to significantly up the cost of surface travel). I would assume that there is still a seagoing trade between coastal ports, and land caravans between inland cities. Where there is seagoing shipping, there will be navel forces to protect trade routes and enforce tariffs. It's cheaper to mount the armament of a Galleon into a seagoing equivalent, and the surface ship will be better able to cope with bad weather and storms. Surface ships are also effective at moving men and materiel in large numbers.
I'm interested to hear Muse's ideas for the AM economy. But I'd be disappointed if it uses airships for hauling all goods between every city.
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