Dystopian Wars vs. Real Life, Pt 2

So, last time I examined the state of naval technology in our 1870s. Obviously, real-world warships weren’t nearly as advanced as what is represented in Dystopian Wars (DW), by design. This brings up an interesting question, though: What “real” time period do  the ships from DW line up with? In making this comparison I will be focusing mainly on the battleship type, but as we will see, this isn’t an easy question to answer.

First, if you remember there were several major changes afoot in the navies of the late 1800s. Steam propulsion, iron and then steel armor, and turret-mounted weaponry were all invented. By 1890, these innovations were sufficiently developed that they could be combined in one design to create a new line-of-battle ship, or just “battleship” for short. The details of these ships varied, but in general they featured two turrets, one forward and one aft, each mounting 1 or 2 heavy guns. Between them, a number of smaller guns were mounted in broadsides along the ship’s side.

This basic type of battleship prevailed until 1906, when the Royal Navy launched the HMS Dreadnought. This ship was roundly hailed as an innovation that rendered all other battleships afloat obsolete. She was larger (21,0000 tons vs. 17,000-18,000 tons for the largest old style battleship) and faster than her contemporaries, but what really set Dreadnought apart was her heavy main armament; instead of carrying two turrets with four heavy guns, Dreadnought had 6 with a total of 12 heavy guns (10 of which could be fired on a broadside). The HMS Dreadnought made such an impression that all battleships built after her were generically referred to as “dreadnoughts,” while the older battleships instantly became “pre-dreadnoughts.”

So, how do these designs compare with the ships of Dystopian Wars? Well, the simple fact that there is both a dreadnought type and a battleship type in the game would seem to suggest that there has been a similar revolution in naval technology in the DW world. If this is the case, then the battleships seen in the game would all be older vessels that are being phased out for the new dreadnought type. As such, this would equate the DW timeframe to the early 20th century.

Of course, this is not necessarily the case; because the HMS Dreadnought made such a splash, her name has entered the popular lexicon as a type of ship that is distinct from battleships. As such, it is possible that battleships and dreadnoughts are still being built alongside each other in the DW universe. Also, aviation technology is much more advanced in DW, being more akin to WW II than to what was seen in the WW I era. Likewise, many of the battleships in DW do not match up to the “pre-dreadnought” design paradigm of the real world. The FSA battleship is pretty close, but the multiple turrets of the PE and KoB battleships are much more akin to an early dreadnought design.

Thus, the ships in DW do not precisely match up to any one era of “real life” naval technology. The designs seem to capture the technology seen from about WW I through WW II, with a few advanced features (like shields, tesla weapons, etc) added to the mix.