Project preview; Early industrial units

After the Tank killer is finished, I think the Late industrial/early moden eras will be pretty well represented, (Still not as well covered as I would like, but then again I want Everything to be ready for use in peoples scenarios) So I'm going to start on the early industrial age- flintlock muskets, ironclad steamers, armoured dreadnaughts, that kind of thing.
The first thing I want to turn my attention to is the huge gaps in naval Unit progression from the frigate to the battleship and destroyer- frigates are next to useless because they turn up too late and ironclads are overpowerfull because they have to represent evry ship build between the beginning of the age of steam and the invention of the combustion engine.

Here are some Ideas, some of which I am going to do;

Ship of the line---> battleship of the age of sail, muliple gun decks etc.. frigates actualy were only used on light scout/disruption activities for most of the time, they were not well designed to go all out for naval engagements- thats what the larger, slower ships of the line were for.
Heavy/super Ironclad---> (see next post)
Steamer/transport ---> a coal powered upgrade of the galleon, I wish Civ III had the "Nuclear power gives all ships +1 movement" tech tag from civ II cos I used to give it to industrialization to represent the switch from paddle wheels to the more effective water screw propultion. Perhaps I'll make a Small wonder that does the same. It saves making paddlesteamer variants of all the Industrial ships.
Light steam frigate/privateer ---> A lighter version of the Iron frigate that I've already done

Early battleship---> The first of my new units, not done yet; though the model is finished, the early battleship/dreadnaught represents the zenith of the age of steam- armed in a modern style, with large gun turrets able to direct all firepower in a single direction the Early battle ships were unbeatable on the waves exept by a bigger capital ship. Later Airpower was to eliminate the advantages of the capital ships though the upgrade to combustion engines and with toughened armour on top would extend the life of the battleship all the way to the sinking of the HMS prince of wales. The main improvement of the battleship over other earlier vessels was the abandonment of the smaller caliber guns (which were of little to no use during engagements with enemy capitalships) for large rotating turrets enabling massive broad sides.
Here is a preview of the coal powered battle ship- the main reason for this unit is to allow civs with no oil to continue to use a militant strategy, though at a dissadvantage to the modern battleships, and also to bridge the gap between ironclads and Battleships, it also allows the advanced battleship to have an improved Bombard ability, to better represent the power of coastal/city bombardments;

The second Unit I'm working on is the Improved/Superheavy Ironclad. Like the Ironclad these ships were not especialy fast or seaworthy, but they were heavy armoured and had more firepower than anything seen before. The idea is to give civs with coal an advantage, but not to make it insumountable; Therefore, I would make it that the standard ironclad requires no resources (it can be run on any thing that can burn, from trees to furniture- during the 19th century british Steamers operating on the Suez canal actualy used Mummies for fuel, throwing the abundant dried corpses in to the furnace). While the heavy "Super" ironclad, would require much more fuel, enough to make wood impractical. Therefore only fully industrial nations with huge Coal reserves could hope to keep a fleet of super ironcalds in battle worthy condition.

Here is a preview of the unit, I used my imagination with this unit as I couldn't find anything that realy looked the part. Its half very Early battleship (with the multiple turrets) and half riverboat cassino I just didn't want it to look too utilitarian, it marks the begining of the Industrial age afterall;

And here are closeups of the units, Any sugestions/pictures for these or other early industrial/late middleages era Ships would be apreciated;

Light steam frigate/privateer

About that, you could use Confederate raiders like the Alabama or her assassin the Kearsage as models. And about your super-ironclad, I just had to smile at your riverboat reference. All good ideas, what do you use for your 3dgrafix program??

Great Job . I cant wait for all of the units to be compleated .

Orriginaly posted by Smoking Mirror
Here is a preview of the unit, I used my imagination with this unit as I couldn't find anything that realy looked the part. Its half very Early battleship (with the multiple turrets) and half riverboat cassino I just didn't want it to look too utilitarian, it marks the begining of the Industrial age afterall;

Click to expand...

That unit reminds me of a ship in one game I used to play . The cross between an Armored Cruiser and a Mississippi River Boat, My Admrials and Captians in CivIII would want to sail on that ship . They can defend my waters while playing the slot machines . Keep up the good work Smoking Mirror . I especaly like Both the Early Battleship and the Improved/Superheavy Ironclad .

I know you (or others) have covered most of the late industrial age units, but one that is still missing is a true self-propelled artillery unit, something like the Hummel or Wespe. Something like this would be nice to have too.

The ships you're working on look great. We seem to have a lack of sea units compared to land and air, so any additions are very welcome.

Thanks for the feedback, one other thing Iv'e been thinking about is the possibility of doing some "native American" Industrial era units, Perhaps a an Aztec style tank and battleship, or a "savage" rifleman; All the industrial (and middleage come to that) units are very westernized, they could perhaps pass as chinese, middle eastern or indian (the subcontinent) but the American civilizations developed in almost total isolation from the west, If columbus hadn't found the new world when he had, perhaps the Aztecs would perhaps have developed in to the industrial era, it would be nice to at least have a couple of units to represent that, for if anyone wanted to develop a Scenario along them line (Iv'e been thinking about it myself), And perhaps a Civilization "flavour" tank for each nation would be fun (I love tanks ).

how about the first ironclads used in the civil war? Those tin-can-on-a-raft ships. they look interesting... I forget the names of the two famous ones (they both begin with "m"), but those could add some spice to the game.

do u have any pictures of them?

Originally posted by Exsanguination
how about the first ironclads used in the civil war? Those tin-can-on-a-raft ships. they look interesting... I forget the names of the two famous ones (they both begin with "m"), but those could add some spice to the game.

Click to expand...

The Monitor is the regular Ironclad in CivIII and someone has already done the Merrimack (a.k.a. Ironram).

would love to see a Ship-of-the-Line, I had already planned to add it to my mod and will have to use the Man-O-War graphics until you put your unit together.

Smoking mirror, what about the heavy bomber? Although I must say I like the early battleship, even though it will no doubt erase mine from existance. But even I'd play with your unit over my own.

SM, what about a side wheel steamer for the light priveteer or steamer transport?

here's another. I just love the Confederate Navy.

Wow! That is really neat. Hope to see the ships soon patroling the waters off my coasts!

Originally posted by Smoking mirror
Thanks for the feedback, one other thing Iv'e been thinking about is the possibility of doing some "native American" Industrial era units, Perhaps a an Aztec style tank and battleship, or a "savage" rifleman; All the industrial (and middleage come to that) units are very westernized, they could perhaps pass as chinese, middle eastern or indian (the subcontinent) but the American civilizations developed in almost total isolation from the west, If columbus hadn't found the new world when he had, perhaps the Aztecs would perhaps have developed in to the industrial era, it would be nice to at least have a couple of units to represent that, for if anyone wanted to develop a Scenario along them line (Iv'e been thinking about it myself), And perhaps a Civilization "flavour" tank for each nation would be fun (I love tanks ).

Click to expand...

Outstanding idea! Maybe the Zulus also...

Smoking Mirror - are you also going to have a go at that side wheeled steamer that Polaris mentioned? That'd be cool...

Smoking Mirror, I love your work, and I'm very excited about these ships you're creating. You wanted some suggestions on the early industrial ships. One thing you may want to note on those "Dreadnought" type battleships is that, I believe every one of them had only 2 guns per turret which would make a nice distinction between it and the more modern Battleship.

Also, take a look at this link for more information and pictures on those types of ships. I think you'll find the information useful.

Keep up the good work.

Originally posted by Smoking mirror
Thanks for the feedback, one other thing Iv'e been thinking about is the possibility of doing some "native American" Industrial era units, Perhaps a an Aztec style tank and battleship, or a "savage" rifleman; All the industrial (and middleage come to that) units are very westernized, they could perhaps pass as chinese, middle eastern or indian (the subcontinent) but the American civilizations developed in almost total isolation from the west, If columbus hadn't found the new world when he had, perhaps the Aztecs would perhaps have developed in to the industrial era, it would be nice to at least have a couple of units to represent that, for if anyone wanted to develop a Scenario along them line (Iv'e been thinking about it myself), And perhaps a Civilization "flavour" tank for each nation would be fun (I love tanks ).

Click to expand...

An Aztec style tank would be a really cool idea! I'd like to see what an Aztec battleship or tank would look like. Would it look like a jaguar? Or what? I'd love to get it!

I think an Aztec Tank would be like a Pyramid shape, with wide tracks and a small turret on top- I think they would go for a Heavy armoured, slow, almost ceremonial design. In europe strong competition bred the tank in to a sleek fast killing machine, but the aztecs were fairy isolated with little competition (though the northern tribes may have been galvanized in to development by the threat of the aztecs). Alternativly it could be an open top Tankette, More suited to Jungle the warefare nececitated by southern expansion.

I'm fairly happy with the design of my Battleship, I think it would be a superdreadnaught, with three large caliber guns per turet, I want it to be the pinacle of Steam design to give non oil civs a chance, I may do an ealier pre dreadnaught as well.
I will probably make the steam transport as the second paddlesteamer posted by polaris- Looks good, I want it to be possible to use it for multiple roles, so best not to make it look too "Transporter" like.

The real problem is to stretch out naval development to allow all ships their 15 minutes- I think Frigates should come earlier (those caravels are around for ever and the Triremes even longer, I'd like the caravel to come earlier but then Marine expansion would happen too fast) Galleons and Ship o'the lines would come later with magnetism. Ironclads and Iron frigates would come with steam power but both would require no resources The superironclad would come with Industrilization and require Coal, I want to do a steam cruiser to be a forerunner to the coal battleship, sort of a Pre-dreadnaught. The Steam cruiser would be the culmination of the ironclad project, with forward firing guns and an Iron "beak" at the front for ramming.

Here is a picture of what the Steamcruiser would looklike;