Guild Wars 2

From what I’ve observed charr technology seems to be based off of combustion and steam, whereas the Asura have tech based on magic akin to nuclear tech.

IIRC, just outside the black citadel in the diessa plateau there is the remnant of a charr caravan that got blown up by separatists. IMO, this dosent make sense since the charr have already have cars/helicopters/tanks so why not just transport them that way.

I think that once they finally allow us to visit the other charr legion HQs they should have some kind of railroad installed. Makes sense that they’d have made one

Charr are somewhere between WW1 and WW2 technology wise but they still don’t have quite the infrastructure.
Mind how it was back then: At the front line tanks, a bunch of trucks etc…
…And behind that large amounts of horses carrying supplies. Charr are no better… No… Even worse, cause they don’t have railways, large roads etc while constantly having to fend off partisan attacks on their supply routes. It’s not like they CAN have enough transportation to both wage war AND carry supplies.
Now take into consideration, where the real front line is for the charr. The heavy equipment is needed to take out the dragon’s servants.

Well, first of all, this is not Earth technology. Most Charr machines would just sit there or immediately break in real life. The choppers are probably the worst. The most effective way to use it would be to let the enemy surround it and turn it on and let the ensuing flying debris hurt the enemy.

However, just because they have other machines for transport does not mean they are cost effective. Automobiles were favored over horses in real life because they required less care, did not panic and did not produce droppings. It was not until automobiles had been around a long time that they became cost effective with respect to horses. Automobiles use denser fuel and have more compact engines than the steam tech the Charr are aesthetically based on (emphasizing aesthetics, because it is clear that these machines would not perform well if at all IRL). Transporting cargo by air has never, ever been cost effective compared to ground transport. Air freight is used when time is more valuable than fuel or weight. Helicopters are not cost efficient compared to airplanes, either. Airplanes are most efficient when they reach very high altitudes where wind resistance is low.

There is no good IRL reason why the Charr should not be using rails. They are clearly willing to splurge on producing excessive metal for purposes where wood or stone would be much cheaper, low maintenance and last longer IRL. Rails are economical even with using pack animals to pull cars (the earliest railroads were drawn by pack animals IRL, dating back to ancient times). However, I have seen no indication that ANet has given much thought or care to realistic economic considerations, either.

Best just to assume that with the available magic and differences in Tyrian physics, biology, etc. v. real universe, this all somehow makes sense.

Rails are good for transport through friendly territory. Not so much for anything in areas with hostiles, as it provides an easy target for sabotage.

Considering the Flame Legion, ghosts, and only recent treaty with humans (though still in struggle with seperatists / rebels)… yah, I think Charr have a few too many enemies to be utilizing rail systems.

Remember, the other big limiting factor on Charr logistics is Charr are primarily carnivorous. It’s a lot harder to transport meat than grain based hard tack. Jerky helps, but it’s still going to be more bulky. The Charr are also not blessed by Geography, no easily navigable rivers, no coastline. Land transport has always been slower. Once the Charr get enough airships free from fighting dragons though, they could be set for a major expansion, since airships would be able to rapidly deliver supplies to armies far from the Charr centers of supply.

Bathos.6341:

Once the Charr get enough airships free from fighting dragons though, they could be set for a major expansion, since airships would be able to rapidly deliver supplies to armies far from the Charr centers of supply.

That depends on how Tyrian airship physics work. As a turbine engineer I used to know liked pointing out, IRL airships are woefully inefficient (speed, energy efficiency, maitenance, reliability) compared to alternative means of air transport for nearly every purpose.

And what alternate means of air transport do the Charr posses? Somehow I think airships have the edge efficiency wise over Charr choppers for long range supply work. Helicopters after all have to burn fuel for every second of lift, the airship gets lift for free from it’s lift gas, and only needs fuel for propulsion. I think it’d be a boon for them as it’d be a lot faster, and freer from interdiction than pack dolyak/mamox trains.

The Cattlepult solves for all logistical transportation issues, it only lacks a parachute equiped landing vehicle for more fragile cargo and passengers. Screw the Asura and thier teleport fees, send me via air mail!

Bathos.6341:

And what alternate means of air transport do the Charr posses? Somehow I think airships have the edge efficiency wise over Charr choppers for long range supply work.

If we use real life physics, we can compare helicopters and airships. I used the Chinook helicopter and Hidenburg-type zepplins to compare flying cargo 500 miles. This is about 2.5 hours of flight requiring 6000 pounds of fuel, a crew of 3 and it can carry 4000 pounds of cargo.

The most efficient airships ever made, Hiddenburg-type ships,* could make the journey in about 7 hours at 2000 pounds of fuel. The amount of cargo it could carry with a normal crew compliment of 40 (assuming average crewman + personal equipment 175 pounds) would be about 13,000 pounds.

*No, further research has not made them substantially more efficient, and not for a lack of effort.

Sounds great, right? However, remember the helicopter can transport this with about 3 crew in 2.5 hours while the large airship takes 40 crew 7 hours. This kills airships economically unless fuel is far more valuable than crew time.* Furthermore, the Chinook can land in a small clearing and offload in minutes with a ground crew of half a dozen. It can be easily refueled and out of there in no time. The airship requires a ground crew of dozens and specialized landing platform. It cannot even land in certain kinds of terrain and requires a special frame to land for extended periods. It takes an hour to unload under the best of conditions, and a similar time to refuel. Without a specialized landing platform, your fuel economy in killed because it has to stay aloft (using fuel) and becomes much harder to unload and refuel. Maintaining that huge frame is a huge job.

*In which case, you would not be using air transport.

You can get by with smaller airships, but those are less efficient in terms of fuel per pound cargo by about 40%, and even less efficient in terms of man-hours per pound cargo by about 50%.

We have already seen the Charr don’t care squat about energy economy (otherwise they would use more wood and stone and less metal in construction – wood and stone last longer, too). I conclude that the Charr would use choppers for cargo over airships. Furthermore, if you are worried about fuel efficiency, you are NOT using airships. Pack bulls run on grass, and can be eaten when they wear out.

There are reasons airships fell out of use whenever airplanes or helicopters could be used instead. Today they are relegated to air cranes and a few, highly specialized cargo and passenger applications.

All this assumes real life physics.