I could see them buying ships from other nations (USA?  Germany?) but not building them themselves.  Even then, how many could they really afford?  As you pointed out, their economy was less than impressive at this point, historically.  OTOH maybe the industrial and technology boom caused by the Martian invasion, the space race, and the K-F Cluster have changed that?

Rich

Oh, and I like the ship designs, too...

Can you give us a rundown on fleet doctrine?

Breakdown of the two fleets' strength at the start of WW1:

(Greek/Turkish)
Pre-dreadnought BB: 2/2
Coast defense ships: 3/1
Armoured cruisers: 1/0
Protected cruisers: 1/2
Destroyers: 14/8
Submarines: 2/0

To me, that indicates the Greek fleet was more powerful than the Turkish.

On top of that, there's no WAY the Greeks are gonna sit by while their rivals get an ether navy. There has to be a sizeable Greek presence in space...

Actually Pre-WWI the Greeks did seem to have the stronger fleet and
won several Naval engaments with the Turkish Navy, also if it had not
seemed that the Greeks would have sitted the WWI out to begin with the
RN was going to supply them with sevral new ships of various classes.

Yes, the ship designs themselves look fine...it's the idea of the Greeks somehow building them themselves that bothers me.  Tell me they called in some favors to get the Brits to sell them hulls cheap and I'll believe it...or maybe they had more luck recovering Martian tech than the Turks did?  Maybe the Invasion accidentally crshed a cylinder into the Agean Sea or something?

Eh, not quite true from what I've read.  I don't have my references handy (already packed up to move home for the summer) but iirc the Greeks were just as engaged in the bidding process for the South American BB's that came up for sale just before WWI as the Turks where (being funded by the French), and had a better shot at getting them (out of the 4 countries actively trying to purchase them).  They also actively courted French shipbuilders for dreadnaught battleships.  Once I have my sources handy again I'll post a more complete summary.  But basically, the Greeks were  highly interested in acquiring naval assests to match the Turks.  In the Iron Stars setting I see no reason to believe the Greeks wouldn't attempt to do the same.

-Will

I don't have a problem with the Greeks having an ether fleet.  I'm simply saying the scale just raises some questions.  And I'm not knocking murtalianconfederacy's designs, I have them printed out.

My point was that it just feels right, in my mind, to have a fleet that roughly mirrors a state's real life capablities in the years leading up to WWI.

And as far as the whole wet navy thing, there is a big difference in courting ship builders and being interested in owning a modern BB and actually having purchased two of them and being on hand to collect them.  Intentions aren't the same as possession. 

I'm not a full-blown naval grognard, but I do know that the books I have on the naval aspect of WWI don't point to the Greeks as being on the brink of fielding modern ships.  They point to the Turks, and Churchill's decision to withhold the ships due to the fact that they could be used by the Royal Navy and because there serious concerns about where the Turks would place their allegiance once the shooting started.

And would it really matter ito enemy sailors if the acquistion of those battleships nearly bankrupted the Turks?  Wouldn't have made the Brits feel any better operating around the Dardanelles to know "well, the Turks have two modern dreadnoughts plying these waters, but on the bright side, they were really expensive." They were worried enough about the presence of Goeben.      

And the Greeks bought the Averoff with 1/4 of the money coming from a rick patriot.  It's not like they had a massive budget. 

Here's how I look at it:

Todd put together a  Spanish fleet, and he built it with the idea in mind that "the Spaniards were nearly broke and couldn't afford a massive armada.  So they have some decent cruisers, some destroyers, and the like.  I think they make sense.

The Chinese in the first IS rulebook field some really teeny tiny hulls.  They aren't packing a BB.

The Austrians have a couple of BBs, so do the Italians, so do the Turks.  Are they overpowered?  I may be biased, but I don't think so because in two cases you have nations were they did build their own wet navy BBs (even if they weren't really used).  And a 3rd state that broke its bank buying the building blocks of a navy.  They weren't close to being in Britain's league, but they had hulls all the same.

The ABC powers have one big BB in Southern Front.

I like seeing more ships popping up on the forum.  I think the Greek fleet here looks fun, and jeesh, I play enough IS on the weekends that I know it'll be used by one of the guys at the hobby shop.  But I do think if we have a big Ether-Swede fleet, and dreadnoughts operated by every state, we start to turn the IS world into a GZG setting where every faction out there has a full-blown navy.  If a dozen different powers all have the same capabilities, then they start blurring together.

Okay.

I'll be redesigning the Swedes, Danes and Peruvians. But may I leave the Greeks as-is?

I think I can scale down the Swedish battleships to heavy cruisers--just take off some of the secondaries. I did have a Swedish dreadnought design, but thats definitely gone.

Peruvians can have the same treatment. Hmm, just starting to percolate ideas...

The Danes...might be a bit tricky. Maybe the Danes built two battleships but only had the cash left for a few destroyers? It would make them different from the rest of the navies, and that might be the way the Danes go--two powerful 'ether monitor' ships with the rest of the ships (possibly smaller than the Niels Juel I've already proposed) being destroyers that can be used to protect Danish convoys and screen the battleships?

Now Im thinking about it, I've got some good ideas. I won't be able to post anything until Tuesday (bank holiday and all) but you should see some new designs coming your way.

Thanks for the ideas guys.

Oh jeez, leave it all as is.  I'm bettin there are folks who want them as they are.

I was never voicin' anythin other than how I pictured the IS universe.  It's most likely time for me to bow out, anyway.  Todd has ideas cooking for the Moon, and there has to be other folks who'll offer up some ideas for Spanish Civil War, WWI or whatever earthside conflict hits next.

I ain't throwin a snit    I just think fresh voices/input and all that.  Just trying to make room for some new input.

I still wanna write  .....I just dunno if other folks might have some better plot twists than the ones I've been thunkin up.

I got things setting up with the Spanish Civil War also that will be greatly affected with the situation on the moon and WWI.  

The Spanish second generation ether vessel designs are being worked on as well.  Including an FAC carrier and FACs.  Now that I'm home...I may actually have some time to work on them in a few days.