The Horde has had zeppelins since forever, and both sides have had fully mechanical airships since Wrath. They’re not rare either, even though they get destroyed all the time there never seems to be a shortage. Why put so much emphasis on ships restricted to water when there are readily available ships that can fly? And perhaps most importantly in this setting, airships are cooler.
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For the same reason we have a Navy in real life.
Takes time and resources to build things, sometimes they aren’t always readily available.
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You and I both know time and resources don’t matter in WoW. There’s an endless supply of troops and ships.
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Oh? Did you not see the cutscene where Anduin says they are running out of troops?
Takes manpower to run those things too.
Because boats sailing across a horizon makes for cool scenery?
MoP and Legion had some interesting and brief naval moments. The Alliance and Horde naval fights. The invasion of Durotar. Sylvanas’s “lamentful” retreat from the Broken Shore. The Alliance’s war provoking aggression at Stormheim. BfA had that Talanji break out, and Jaina’s repurposed boat.
Even if they seem anachronistic and almost a boondoggle waiting to literally be sunk… boats can be cool.
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We both also know that zeppelins have a seemingly high crash rate. I swear, any time a quest requires me to fly on one of those into battle, I have to make sure I have a full stack of goblin gliders. Crash landing, it seems, is the only type of landing goblins understand.
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WoW’s airships are literally just flying boats (seriously just look at them).
In light of that there really is no reason that every single ship in both navies isn’t outfitted for flight when needed.
Speaking from a more realistic viewpoint WoW’s airships will be obsolete as weapons of war the moment fighter planes become more prevalent in Azeroth.
It’s unlikely that this much thought has gone into it in the writing, but…
Ships are more viable for transporting large amounts of cargo overseas (hence why we still do it IRL), and when you have fleets of merchant ships doing so in a world full of pirates and hostile factions with their own navies, it means you need a navy of your own to protect the shipping lanes.
Airships - including Horde ones - are shown to have engines for propulsion and so presumably run on fuel, necessitating returns to port for the purpose of refilling, while Azeroth’s ships are mostly still sail-driven, only seeming to use engines in the Northrend-introduced ice-breakers to clear the way for other vessels in the frozen north. So instead of having to go home to refill their engines they can remain at sea for far longer, as provisions for the crew can all be stocked in the hold in larger quantities when there doesn’t need to be room used up by barrels of the aforementioned fuel.
In short, flight takes fuel, sailing doesn’t. So you can build a whole lot of naval ships and keep them active at all times because wind is free, while logistically airships are a more expensive and less flexible commodity because they’re propelled by a more finite resource.
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Because magic and flying battleships don’t exist?
Way to not notice the rest of my post.
What am I, a readologist?
what is a naive
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if this bothers you dont think about portals
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If logic doesn’t matter for one thing, it isn’t going to matter for another. Why do we still use swords in a world with automatic rifles, flamethrowers and even lasers?
Just like population and resources don’t matter, logical necessity doesn’t matter. What matters is what Blizzard decides matters. Blizzard decided that navies matter.
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Fiction at times, or most of every other time also requires some sense of “magical realism” in which us the audience can relate and are able to hypothesize how it makes sense within the fictional world.
Its a way to tap deeply into stories and we crave more attention for it.
Resources are limited due to commerce, trade and also government system control in which how it should be distributed, where it should be, should it go to military, innovation or perhaps both? this is a contrast thats very basic in our modern world and way before.
Fuel in Azeroth may still be a new resource that’s still yet new and also something that’s very ecological harming to the environment. Likewise with lumber, metallurgy etc.,
Both Horde and Alliance has partners of interests within each racial faction in the matters of trade, diplomacy, mutual agreements & disputes regarding the matter of resources etc., (Like Canada & USA)
It is very complex true, but to include realism-specifics to explain the fictional mechanics is a gate for us to be able to comprehend it.
PS: Gameplay mechanics are just mechanics to suit our gameplay, but lore wise it is different and far more complex. In the instance how portals work, travel, infantry etc.,
One airship, admittedly the Alliance’s high tech heavily armed flagship, took down an entire fleet of Horde ships and required a boarding action to bring down.
Airships do seem way more powerful.
Except for the very basic and obvious fact that this would require an exponential increase in the overall resource investment in both navies.
Seriously people, this isn’t hard. Things that fly require more energy than things that float. Energy has a cost. Just because game mechanics fudge that cost here and there doesn’t mean the story should actually pretend that both factions have unlimited access to unlimited everything.
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In terms of narrative/meta reasons, it’s because sailing ships allows you to have naval battles, and ocean going pirates, port cities, blockades, etc. Just saying there’s navy lets you pull all that stuff out when you need it.
In terms of reality, air transports and naval transports are supplementary. Even these days, the vast majority of freight moved between landmasses is moved by sea, not by air. While faster, aircraft are way more expensive than naval craft to build and operate and they carry significantly less cargo relative to their size. You can’t effectively project your military across seas/oceans without a navy just like you can’t do it across land without an army.
Aircraft are always a supplement. Not a replacement.
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If I were to look at it as a strategic thing;
The resources to make a flying ship may be more intensive than just a simple boat. It may take a great amount of time to train a crew to operate a flying ship, as opposed to training sailors.
The cargo it can carry is likely less than a ship at sea.
Boats don’t make as loud of noises, unlike flying ships that have to stay at a low altitude. It can help a crew drop anchor and come ashore under the cloak of night without being seen.
Wind conditions might also ground flights, whereas boats can be paddled in some harsh weathers, if sails aren’t available.
A ship shot down in the air is far less likely to have survivors than a ship destroyed at sea, where the crew has the time to make it to boats or swim to shore, as opposed to flying ships, where a shift in balance can send all topside crew overboard and plummeting to the earth.
Just because game mechanics fudge that cost here and there doesn’t mean the story should actually pretend that both factions have unlimited access to unlimited everything.
The story has operated like this literally forever.
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