The Navy of Atlantis (Ideas so far)

[Mr.Marx]

Hey all.

I’ve been doing a fair bit of work putting together a historical 1/2400 fleet of Ironclads, and I think its time to add a little in the way of ‘Scientific Romance’ into the mix.
Soon, I’m going to be adding in some war-balloons and things, but I think I’m going to take it a step further. So I’ve decided to invade Atlantis.

My problem is though, what should the ships of Atlantis look like? I thought perhaps similar to Triremes and other Ancient Greek ships or perhaps some Renaissance Galleys or Galleasse?





Firstly, I’m looking for ideas on what sort of ships would be good to use?, and secondarily, ideas on manufacturers?.


Any ideas?

Marx

[HerbyF]

I am kind of invissioning a fleet of ships using ancient or renaisance galleys. VSF or steam punk them up with smoke stacks & gun turrents.

[Red Orc]

Are you thinking Atlantis, 9000BC, or Atlantis, 500BC, or Atlantis AD1889? Or does that not matter?

My own take on what an Atlantean navy would look like is 'similar to Ancient Greek, but with unexplained bits' - a big platform that should somehow look like a step-pyramid with a huge crystal on it (my Atlanteans use crystals to manipulate energy fields), a giant reflector for focussing energy somehow, or some big mechanical device like a giant grabber powered by slaves turning a wheel, that lifts enemy ships out of the water; that sort of thing.

Also, the Atlanteans mighht well have powered craft (from the crystal energy technology or some other source, perhaps even of alien origin) and armoured vessels. An Ironclad Trireme would be pretty special. Maybe a submarine? Or how about a ship on a much larger scale, as a massive floating fortress - think a trireme-styled ship the size of an aircraft carrier (OK so the engineering would never work, but hey-ho). Basically, 'Ancients plus mad science' is where I'm at.

Not a clue about sourcing minis however. My instinct would be to try looking for Ancients stuff and converting the weird science bits.

[Mr.Marx]

Are you thinking Atlantis, 9000BC, or Atlantis, 500BC, or Atlantis AD1889? Or does that not matter?

My own take on what an Atlantean navy would look like is 'similar to Ancient Greek, but with unexplained bits' - a big platform that should somehow look like a step-pyramid with a huge crystal on it (my Atlanteans use crystals to manipulate energy fields), a giant reflector for focussing energy somehow, or some big mechanical device like a giant grabber powered by slaves turning a wheel, that lifts enemy ships out of the water; that sort of thing.

Also, the Atlanteans mighht well have powered craft (from the crystal energy technology or some other source, perhaps even of alien origin) and armoured vessels. An Ironclad Trireme would be pretty special. Maybe a submarine? Or how about a ship on a much larger scale, as a massive floating fortress - think a trireme-styled ship the size of an aircraft carrier (OK so the engineering would never work, but hey-ho). Basically, 'Ancients plus mad science' is where I'm at.

Not a clue about sourcing minis however. My instinct would be to try looking for Ancients stuff and converting the weird science bits.

...Do you mind if I steal most of those ideas?

I think Im going to go with the idea of Atlantis going into ‘splendid isolationism’ a long, long time ago and only being discovered somewhere around 1870. I can then have the major powers of the world try and colonise this new continent.

Atlantian naval technology – or just technology generally within their civilisation - could have developed totally differently to that of Europe and the rest of the world. I’m going to go with Triremes for smaller ships and Galleasses for the larger ones. I like the idea of them having extensions of Greek science (prism or mirror based heat rays ect) but not having common western technologies such as the steam engine. I think I’ll let them have had invented gunpowder though because that just sort of makes sense to me. I think Ironclad Galleys sound really cool too.

Ignoring Physics and maritime engineering for a bit, I think I can get away with using ships ranging from 1/3000 to around 1/1200 ish for this as size and realism are really just secondary factors to the main point of making something that looks both cool, and rightish on the table.

Marx

[The_Beast]

Where did you get the second picture? 

Doug

[Dewbakuk]

Where did you get the second picture? 

Doug

It's a Venetian Galleas. I have the plans for a VSF aeronef based somewhat on the design.

[Doomsdave]

They should have Greek fire...or Atlantean fire (maybe generated by above mentioned crystal energy) something like electricity rather than like napalm. I like the aircraft carrier idea with Atlantean style flyers launched from it.   I imagine that the design aesthetic for the aircraft would be like those curious meso-american "model airplanes"  discovered in Central America:

[Red Orc]

... size and realism are really just secondary factors to the main point of making something that looks both cool, and rightish on the table.

Marx

I couldn't agree more. There's a place for realism and it probably isn't Atlantis!

...Do you mind if I steal most of those ideas?

I don't mind at all - I can't really claim that any of them are original, I probably stole them all in the first place. I just can't remember where from 

[Bullshott]

Submarines - like the terrorfish from Stingray!

[Mr.Marx]

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_ika.html

I think they can have some of these

[jamesmanto]

Ridiculously large gallies with lots of towers on them. Think a castle ontop of a catamaran.

Add greek fire projectors, armour plating and heat rays made from mirrored dishes to burn enemy gallies.

Maybe also get inspiration from the Korean turtle ships and Japanese warships which looked rather like belligerent floating boxes...

[Furt]

I love the galleas! I would use that design and replace the oars with banks of "solar sails" attached around the hull's bottom. I've envisioned these for a Martian fleet before.