For @DoubleDouble and anyone else interested, this page on ancient port structures has some notes on the archaeological/historical use of constructed breakwaters and other artificial port structures, beginning around 2600 BCE (Egypt, Gulf of Suez). I'd recommend taking time to check through the other links and references if this subject catches your attention, though your life can end up taken over by such matters without due care...

Mystara rather passed me by @Tonnichiwa, as I'd moved on to my own version of D&D, and other RPG systems, even by the time it first featured, as the Known World (in Module X1 "The Isle of Dread" according to online sources, in 1981). I have gone back in more recent times and looked over some of what was published for the Known World/Mystara setting, though after getting back strongly involved with D&D only when 5e appeared, I've concentrated more on finding past details for the Forgotten Realms setting, because of its intimate connection with 5e from the outset.

I suspect my (ongoing) connection to miniatures (and scenery, and everything else that goes with it) is because I started out as a model-maker, and only got involved in wargaming proper a few years after that, at the end of the '60s and early 1970s. Many tabletop rule systems are, and always were slow, but most of what I've done has been for my own interest and solo, so that was never a great issue for me. And a lot of the larger-area battles are fought using the miniatures as little more than markers, so I quite understand your "scale" problems.

I never understood why so many wargames have to be "balanced", when reality very rarely is (unless somebody's really screwed-up their reconnaissance and planning), which I think is why I never took to needing a group to game with. That was just too much like chess to me, whereas I wanted to try to better understand real, or potentially real, situations.

"A" looks more natural to me too, Sue.

The cross-hatched decoration (don't know what the proper term for it is, sorry!) seems undamaged despite the roof holes beneath it. As this seems to be of fairly flimsy outer surface material (compared with the depth of roof thatching), it seems unlikely it would have survived intact when the entire thatch below it has rotted away - even if it had just broken and raggedly partly fallen-in, say. I'd guess in some cases it might partly survive sort-of intact, but not always.

It does also look a little odd that none of the holes are where the greenery is; the extra weight and implication that that's where water's collecting, so mulching the thatch down into a growing medium plants can root into, might suggest that kind of area would be ripe for collapse as well.

Ooh goodie! Not pretty!!! 😁😈

You could also have masts below the decks, from the base of the craft, though that depends if it needs to land or not, or horizontally out from the sides. There is a probable balance issue with masts only on the top - wind in the sails there will tend to tip the craft over end to end. Sailing ships rely on heavy friction with the sea, and their ballast plus keels to stay upright, but in the air, none of this is an option. Looks nice though, I know!

Magical engines would be more likely than combustion engines, I'd have thought. Combustion engines are just so incredibly inefficient, it's hard to believe those with access to magic wouldn't come up with something far better and more elegant.

As for propellers, the basic real-world concept derives from the Archimedes screw, c.200 BCE, so some bright Strompheian folks could have developed something similar for aerial use already, perhaps.

Thanks @Monsen! We seem to have amassed a lot of maps recently, given we were just at 500 back in early March! Much of that's down to the efforts of JimP and Quenten, plus other contributors, of course, so it's really congratulations all-round!

These are the "Alice" versions of the Egyptian tomb style, I see (Looking Glass) 😵😉

And maybe the player's version shouldn't have the full key listing?

And the song was converted into, shall we say, more ribald lyrics in certain quarters even long before all that came to light...

But you can sleep this week for once, @Quenten 😴