((
inspired heavily extremely inspired by a Game on Sufficient Velocity))
IC-ThreadThe year is 2120. Mars, Luna and Earth have enjoyed years of relative peace as the big three: Japan, Germany and the Imperial Federation found their thirst for ever greater heights of power and territory quenched by the terraformation and settling of both Mars and Moon, while the second and third-rate powers of the world were occupied with consolidating empires and territories they barely could hold together or attempting to play catch-up with the titanic economies of the three.
Unfortunately three decades of peace would end in January of 2120. Mars enters rebellion.
It begins with a mystery: 5 Prototype Blaszak platforms vanish from a Legation City laboratory on Mars.
Two weeks later widespread riots break out in every major martian city.
Within four weeks Mars is in open rebellion and the Free Martian Army takes over the leadership of the independence effort.
For the first time since the Lunar Wars 70 years back Earth would face the prospect of total war, as the powers that be could not accept this challenge to their authority, their power and most importantly their bank accounts.
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We find ourselves in the Kaiserreich Universe, for those unfamiliar with it:
In Kaiserreich Germany wins the First World War, causing a series of cascading events, which leads to the rise of Syndicalism instead of Totalitarian Socialism and a politically fundamentally unstable World with Germany as its Hegemon.
In this Version of the Lore, Germany did not only win the Weltkrieg (German having overtaken English as the Lingua Franca, leads to the renaming of a lot of things) but also the Syndicalist War ( Kaiserreichs equivalent to the Second World War) cementing it ultimately as the leading World Power.
However anti-colonialist waves, revanchist defeated nations and endless quagmires in all the corners of the world, have greatly diminished the Germans colonial holdings, if not their influence on the World.
Next to Germany two more nations have risen as Superpowers: The Imperial Federation and Japan. Japan has used the Collapse of the British Empire, the Chaos in China and the Russian and American Civil Wars, quite effectively to gather together its own Colonial Empire and eventually its own Sphere of Influence, the Co-Prosperity Sphere, which stretches from the Frozen Baikal Lake and Kamachatka, into the Mongolian Steppes, all the way into Indonesia.
The third is the Imperial Federation. The loss of the Weltkrieg caused a Syndicalist Revolution in the 1930s leading to a flight of the British Aristocracy to Canada. Under the rule of Edward VIII. The Canadians and British Exiles rebuilt the British Empire from the Ashes and in the Syndicalist War retook Britain, destroyed the Syndicalist Threat (at least for a time) and eventually in the 1960s formed the Imperial Federation. The Federation proper consists of Canada, Britain, South Africa, Australasia (Australia and various pacific holdings), India, the West Indies Federation (formerly just the various french, british and dutch colonies in the carribean but eventually all of the carribean) and more reluctantly Ireland, Iceland and Greenland.
The Imperial Federation despite its vast military and economic power and its large population...or maybe even because of it, is somewhat introspective. Most of the 20th and 21st Century were spent consolidating the Imperial Federation and creating a common identity. In the Space Race and the Scramble for Mars and Luna it fell far behind the other two superpowers and even behind several second-rate nations.
Beyond these three a bevy of second-rate powers follow, most notably Centroamerica and the Pacific States of America as major space colonizers.
Centroamerica forms the last true Syndicalist State in the vein of the Union of Britain and the Commune of France. Originally consisting merely of the smaller Central American Nations, its defeat and successive weakeness in the Second American Civil War added the formerly totalist mexico to its members.
The Pacific States of America are meanwhile the democratic remnants of the US. While it is aligned with the Imperial Federation, the PSA as an economic power house has held pace in the Space Race and has small but densely populated holdings on Mars.
The Blaszak platforms were originally a polish design created during the 1947 Ukrainian War. Quite literally named Tin Cans, the first Blaszak walkers looked like bipedal trashcans. Scoffed at initially these units were used to great effect by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth both during the Ukrainian War and later in the Mittelafrikan Quagmire and the Far East Crisis.
A Ukrainian Farmer dismantling a Blaszak I mech which broke down in front of his farm, October 1947
Seeing the efficacy of such vehicles they became ever more prevalent.
Blaszak I mechs are pure ground vehicles, nothing more than tanks with legs. Nonetheless while other more advanced versions exist, Blaszak Is are still in use today due to their cheap production values
Blaszak II mechs were developed during the Mittelafrika Quagmire as Reichspakt nations needed quick armored response teams, which helicopters or standard armored units could not provide.
Able to both function on ground and in the air, Blaszak IIs have since become obsolete due to the presence of Gen IV models. Nonetheless nations without large space forces or the capabilities to maintain large Gen IV Blaszaks contingents rely on these Generation IIs even today.
Blaszak III mechs were designed for use in space. While exceptional at this task, Gen III mechs need major refitting before being able to be used within planetary atmospheres. They are the mainstay of any space force.
Gen IV Blaszaks are the natural conclusion to the advent of mech warfare. All-purpose vehicles, Gen IV Blaszaks can be used in any condition (except underwater). However due to design limitations they do not excel at any of the three tasks. Nonetheless Gen IV Blaszaks are in wide-spread use.
Gen V Blaszaks are at the moment highly experimental and only a handful exist (all of which have been aquired by the Martian Rebels). A Gen V Blaszak is capable of dismantling entire squadrons of older mechs all by itself.
Beyond these standard models there exist a variety of more specialized pseudo and near Blaszak mechs, which shall not be covered here.
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Playable Nation Overview (Warning Walls of Text, skip to the next post if you just want to sign up)Winning the First World War and the Syndicalist War left The German Kaiserreich as the Premier World Power with an Empire almost as big as the British one.
However crisis after crisis plagued the ambitious Germans as they tried to hold on to far-flung rebellious colonies and neighbouring satellite states clamoring for self-determination.
The first of these appeared in the form of the Far East Crisis. China had long been unstable and the collapse of the League of Eight Provinces and later American Withdrawal from the Legations cause the powder keg to explode. In short order Germany had to deal with Chinese Nationalists, Vietnamese Syndicalists and Japanese Expansionism, all of which it couldn't afford in the wake of the Syndicalist War.
Due to popular pressure and the limited value of territories in the Far East, Germany, Japan and the resurgent British Empire, came to an accord in the second Shanghai Conference.
It contents not only resulted in granting the Japanese Puppet/Ally Transamur the Russian Seat (which had been sitting empty since the Red Revolution), but also the cessation of a series of islands and the acceptance of most of the Pacific as the Japanese Sphere of Influence. In return, both the Danubian Federation and the British Empire gained (or regained) seats at the table and Japan recognized the remaining German Territories in the Area as well as the Australasian Sphere of Influence in the Southern Pacific.
In the following years the Treaty of Bangkok and the Treaty of Bangladesh saw both Germany and the Early Imperial Federation working together to achieve a mutual accord with the Union of South East Asian Communes, which resulted in the modern borders of India and the Independence and recognition of Vietnam.
Further treaties with China and the Legations saw Germanys presence in the Far East reduced to Singapore, Ceylon and Brunei. These days Both Ceylon and Brunei are nominally independent but much of their industry and economy is built around servicing the blue-water fleets of the Reichspakt, while Singapore has becoem the 27th State.
The reason for Germanies gradual withdrawal from the East was mostly due to the ever increasing and draining African Quagmire as well as unrest within the Reichspakt.
It was in the 1948s when territorial disagreements between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, White Ruthenia and Ukraine ultimately boiled over when several referendums in the region would cause major territorial exchanges in favor of Poland. This resulted in the Ukrainian War of 1948 which saw the first deployment of the Blaszak and ended ultimately in a resounding Polish Victory.
A victory which almost tore the Reichspakt apart, and was barely held together through no small effort by german diplomats and then Reichs-Chancellor Kurt Schumacher.
As that Crisis simmered down another arose in the form of Mittelafrika.
Suffering under the atrocity ridden regime of Hermann Goring, things came to a head when Amerosulian sponsored syndicalit uprisings tore through the Afrikan interior. The Mittelafrikan quagmire was a generations lasting endless series of bushwars, skirmishes, occupations not only between Syndicalists and Germans, but also between Africans and Africans, Mittelafrikans and Germans, Boers, French, Portugese and Anglo minorities, independent warlords, mercenaries and a variety of nations which gleefully put oil in the dumpster fire that was Afrika.
Mittelafrika was a nightmare Germany simply didnt seem to be able to wake up from. between 1944 and 2000 Germany spend untold billions and tens of thousands of lifes to fix a continent.
The End Result is Afrika as it is today.
The Mittelafrikan quagmire is to complex to cover here, so we shall simplify it down for brevities sake. By 1974 Germany had effectively ceased all military operations within large parts of Mittelafrika and in a momentous peace conference, signed the Treaty of Adis Abbeba.
The Treaty was lining out an ambitious process of slow decolonization, nation building and eventualy independence in some parts of Afrika, immediate retreat from other parts and ultimately full integration into the Reich in the case of Sudwestafrika and Tanganiyka.
The African Peace Project was slated to end in 2000 but dragged on well into the early 2050s until the last nation was released into independence.
Of Germanies African Colonies today only remain Sudwestafrika which even back in 1970 had been become majority white and Tanganiyka, both now full federal states of the Empire.
To distract from the mess that was Afrika, Germany turned towards another expensive diversion: Space.
Embracing the Space Race in full and spending more money than was ever spent on Mittelafrika, Germany was racing ahead of the World. First Space Probe, First Animal in Space, First Man on the Moon, First Man on the Mars.
And as it turned out Space was easier to handle than Afrika...mostly because there were no indigenous people in the way of colonization.
If one is honest the Space Race wasn't so much a Race, as Germany going everywhere and everyone else arriving late and finding German Flags everywhere. Especially in light of the secrecy of some projects spearheaded by the Kaiserreich, one occasion saw Japan triumphantly send the first Man to the Mars only to find out that Germany had had Colonies there for the better part of five years.
Space was Germanies vacation from the madness that was Mittelafrika...until the Lunar Crisis. It is almost cruel fate that when 2052 the last German support personnel left Cameroon, The Lunar Crisis began.
Despite German first dibs on both Moon and Mars, Japan had plopped down colonies on both planets. On the 5th of May 2052 a small disagreement between two prospectors (one japanese, the other german) ended in a broken spine. Within 3 weeks the situation had escalated into the first War in Space. This was the first extraterrestial conflict...and no one was prepared for it. While fighting went on on earth, the most pivotal battles happened on the surface and Orbit of Luna. A Few hundred specialists fighting a few hundred specialists, at first not even decently armed, but it would lay the foundations of modern warfare. The Lunar Crisis saw the development of third gen mechs and the foundation of space warfare.
In the end Germany won. But it was the straw that broke the camels back. Since then the Reichspakt and Germany especially have entered a period of isolationism as a people thoroughly sick and tired of war, tended to their homes. While Mars and Moon Colonies flourished, they did so without any further armed conflicts involving Germany, The Kaiserreich seemed to have completely withdrawn into itself. Now 70 years later Mars rebels...will the sleeping dragon be roused?
Advantage: Luna (The Lunar Shipyards are at your disposal)
Advantage: Martian Loyalty (The German Colonies are pretty ambivalent about that entire rebellion business, retaking them won't have you deal with any big partisan activity)
Disadvantage: Obsolete Blaszak Forces
Disadvantage: Tired of War (your people seem pretty unenthusiastic of embarking into what they percieve to be yet another Mittelafrika)
When the British Empire fell, then Prince Edward fled like a common criminal.
When the Union of Britain fell, then King Edward returned like a conquering hero.
When The Princely Federation fell, King-Emperor Edward VIII. was the leader of a young Federation.
The Mythos of how the Imperial Federation became what it is today is a long story and one too long to be told here. Suffice to say it was rebuilt from the Ashes of the British Empire and reached for even greater Heights.
The deciding Factor of the success of the Federation was not the Canadians or the British however. It was the business acumen of the men and women of New England. When the Second American Civil War broke out it was New England arms, new england ships and new england loans which bankrolled the PSA Campaign, the Return to Britain and finally the retaking of the Raj.
While to this day nominally independent New England and the PSA are still closely-aligned with the Imperial Federation, especially economically.
They are however not the only independent members of the Federation, Costa Rica and Panama, while rather unimportant are officially aligned with the IF even if it was just to avoid becoming part of Centroamerica.
Post Raj War, the Imperial Federations Politics have been mostly concentrated on forging the myriad of different cultures, politics, economies and governments into a functioning cohesive whole. Something that left the IF too occupied to really take part in the Space Race. When they finally joined, it was late and they found themselves outstripped even by their own ally, the PSA.
While the IF has large holdings on Mars, they are thinly settled and to be perfectly honest, absolute unimportant backwaters. Nonetheless the IF has finally awakened to the importance of space and accordingly has geared up quite massively in recent years...especially its introduction of the so called Magpie, or Mobile Armoured Gun Platform as is its proper designations have shown that the Imperial Federation means serious business...or that somebody needed to compensate...
Advantage: Magpie (Massively oversized and overpriced Blaszak mechs, whose exact efficacy can be debated, exclusively used for space combat.)
Disadvantage: Small Space Presence
Japans foreign politics have been adaptable and pragmatic...or as detractors would put it without any clear goal or direction. Emerging from the Syndicalist Wars, the Russian Civil Wars and the Far East Crisis with a massive Colonial Empire, Japan was at first uninterested in stretching its already overstretched resources one inch further. By any reasonable standard their Colonial Empire should have collapsed...if it weren't for Kolchak, Ungern Sternberg and a desperate Philippine people.
Each had their own reasons for joining the Co-Prosperity Sphere, but in the end it was their otherwise political isolation which kept them together.
For Sternberg it was the Russians, same as for Kolchak, so both had a vested interest in Japan staying stable. For the Philippines it was economic reasons. Where no help came otherwise Japan provided...at a price.
And so Mongolian Horsemen, White Army Veterans and Filippino Auxiliaries helped keeping together the Japanese Empire. Eventually Insulindia would join for the same reasons at the rest and so the Co-Prosperity Sphere slowly changed. True Japan had intended to eventually colonize both the Philippines and Transamur, but it turned out space colonization became more viable than supressing yet another people.
Japan went into the Space Race comparatively early, but still lagged far behind the Germans. nonetheless vast Colonization programs on Moon and Mars soon granted the Sphere resources and lands beyond their wildest dreams.
However there was a second Imperial Venture Japan has been undertaking to this day. China. Following the Far East Crisis, designs to conquer the whole of China or at least annexing the Legation Cities have proven infeasible and so they settled for the second best option: becoming the Head of the Legation Council and expanding the Cities.
With tacit support from all the major world powers, Japan had held the Seat of Chairman within the Legation Council since 1948, ensuring that all could profit at the detriment of China. A constant influx of drugs and weapons, careful bribery and the occasional "extension of the neutral zone" saw the Legation Cities grew from a mere array of concessions and cities to covering most of Chinas Coastline.
And of course everyone profits...except for the Chinese people. And Japan is arguably the one profiting the most, ensuring stability in the Legations and instability in inland China.
However in recent years this has changed as finally two major warlords have crystallized out of the endless power struggle.
With the Martian uprising in full swing, Japan is torn between its earthly and its heavenly obligations...
Going by its recent advancements in Ship Building however, it seems like Japan is going for the latter...
Advantage: Strike Carriers (Ships with the Firepower of Cruisers, while still being able to deploy Blaszak units.)
Advantage: Loyal Subjects
Disadvantage: Chinese Involvement
Yes...it is the fifth. With the fall of the Union of Britain, the Commune of France and eventually, the Combined Syndicates of America and the Soviet Union, the hope and the weight of the Communist Cause fell to tiny Centroamerica. Ignored by the powers of the world in favour of other more pressing Concerns, Centroamerica rallied the Nations of Central America and replaced the totalist regime in Mexico with its own, a move that was tacitly ignored by the Major Nations...after all rather a bunch of bickering Syndicalists than a madman with total power.
Buoyed by a massive influx of syndicalists, communists, anarchists and totalists of all colours, Centroamericas population and economic power grew rapidly, with it it began leveraging its power to support the Argentine Commune and Chile, the Wars in South America have been often overlooked in the grand scheme of things...something that would hound the Great Powers but especially Germany to this day. For what arose in those southern lands was a nightmare of things to come.
Amerosul started out as a model syndicalist nation...the important point is: started. To Centroamericas horror it turned into a bureaucratic nightmare not so different from 1984, a totalist regime, yet ruled by councils. But Centroamerica needed allies...and a place to get rid of the totalists and so it reluctantly formed the fifth international with Amerosul. Together they brought much needed help to an endlessly beleaguered Bharatiya Commune, who, despite its union with Burma and its alliance with the Vietnamese Rebels and the Regime in Siam found itself almost unable to resist German and Imperial pressures.
When Blaszaks arrived on the frontline the Forces of the Raj crumbled. While Poland had discovered the things, a syndicalist engineer had given the secrets to Centroamerica. For the first time Blaszaks clashed with each other and demonstrated that the age of the tank was over.
Within two months peace was signed and the Bharatiya under the leadership of a certain Ghandi decided that the best cause of action was to stay as far away as possible from Centroamerica and its rabid dog on a leash, Amerosul.
Indeed it became quite apparent that the Anarcho-Syndicalists of India and South-East Asia had very different ideas of how to deal with the World than the International had. Grudgingly the South Americans left, secure in the knowledge that they might get help someday...or not.
With the Indian War over, Centroamerica turned inwards and to space. This isolationist stance actually melted many of the reservations the powers of the world had towards the socialist countries and as it turned out Ghandi helped in some way, as he turned out to be a diplomatic genius managing to assuage the fears of those great Imperialist Powers.
It all would have been well, if not for Amerosul, as the years passed the country grew ever more closed and few if any ifnormation went out on what passed behind the secretive land, besides its perpetual skirmishes with the Integralist Alliance in the Northern parts of South America.
So it came as a suprise when the formerly disjointed African rebels and warlords in Mittelafrika grew ever more organized and better equipped...soon it became clear who was at fault. Amerosul had geared up for war...but not its own. Weapons, Trainers and Equipment flooded into Mittelafrika and to the rebel forces either directly by ship or via Abyssinia or Liberia who gleefully served as middlemen to bring down the hated Goering. But just like the Germans bled so did the Africans and the Amerosulians. But unlike the Imperials, the Socialists were fighting for something more than a mere colony and so they dug in with a determination which broke the German Spirit thoroughly. The invincible German Army, was broken. The massive German Navy was ridiculued. And then the Blaszak Gen IIs showed up. The Germans answered with fire and fury and tin buckets. What German Willpower could not halt, Polish ingenuity did...for a while.
By 1974 the Mittelafrikan Quagmire had not only tired out the Reichspakt but Amerosul and the African Communists as well. Amerosuls economy was at a breaking point, the nation threatening to starve or collapse if the war effort continued. Luckily for them everyone wanted peace...well everyone except for those still loyal to the now dead Goering.
The Treaty of Adis Abbeba left no one satisified but finally ended the fighting...officially. The Kongo Soviet was the result of more than 20 years of sweat blood and the lives of countless people...and it was still under attack. For while the Germans adhered to the treaty those who considered themselves Mittelafrikans and the more radical of the Boer, British and Portugese settlers refused to give up. By 1985 finally an agreement was reached the Treaty of Johannesburg saw to the disgust and disappointment of both Africans and Afrikans the establishment of Rhodesia.A Majority white state it contained all those who didn't want to live under German Rule but refused to accept African rule.
While Centroamerica reached for the stars, Amerosul dealt with an collapsing economy and The Kongo fought endless border skirmishes with the Rhodesians, tried to bring peace and order to a wartorn continent and somehow keep it all under the banner of syndicalism.
While Amerosul recovered and held out a helping hand to the Kongo, Centroamerica refused to throw its resource into what they considered an endless pit. The result was obvious, Amerosulian Influence slowly changed the nature of the Kongo Soviet from its origins of a syndicalist democracy it slowly turned into a second Amerosul.
These Days the Fifth International is at a breaking point...in many regards.
Centroamerica and its two allies have long been at odds with each other and it is questionable whether the alliance will hold much longer. Amerosul and the Kongo while having turned into economic Powerhouses still deal with their reactionary neighbours on a daily basis, in bloody seemingly endless conflicts over ideology.
Advantages: Stealth Technology
Disadvantages: Alliance of Convenience at an End
Disadvantage: Brush Wars
The Legation Cities thank their existence thanks to European Greed and the Weltkrieg. Since then more than two centuries have passed and the Leegations have never been richer. While in theory ruled by a Council of Nations, the truth is that the Legations are effectively governing themselves.
Long gone are the days when they relied on the Wealth of China, with the advent of Space Colonization the Legations looked to the skies and found more profit.
While relatively small in territory and holding no directly owned colonies of their own, they wield a power disproportionate to their size. After all the Money must flow and no one would dare intercept it...except for the Chinese...or the Syndicalists...or the Martians. Or Japan if it could.
In truth success and failure are very close to each other in the Legations. That is true for its business and that is true for its existence. At any moment it might be swallowed up by the Chinese or the Japanese or by any of the other powers having interests within it...which is all of them.
And so the Legations prepared its defenses...gone are the days of the Shanghai and Hongkong Volunteer Forces. The Legation Cities posess the most modern military on the planet, notwithstanding its development of Generation V Blaszaks.
Now if the Martians hadn't stolen those experimental models...
Advantage: Cutting Edge Military
Advantage: Gen V Production Capabilities
Disadvantage: China is looming
Disadvantage: The Money must flow (to the other nations)
Lesser Players on the World StageLong gone are the days of yore, when America was wealthy and powerful. Long gone are the days of democracy and freedom. When the Second American Civil War began, everyone thought that they would be home by christmas. They did not expect the war to last well into the 1950s.
When Huey Long finally won, things started to slowly settle down...and then he died.
The resulting Power Struggle was not classified as a Civil War but still ended the lives of thousands more. By the end of it all, The Union State was on the brink of collapse, economically as well as socially. Deep divides between the hardcore syndicalist remnants, the federal holdouts, the union state supporters, the various minorities (especially the afro-americans in the south) threatened to boil over, even as millions fled the country to the far more prosperous and peaceful PSA or New England.
It took decades of work for the Union State to work its way back into prosperity. By the 1990s it had finally stabilized but become utterly technologically backwards, politically isolated and largely irrelevant on the world stage.
Now in 2100 the AUS is back on track, its economy stable, its divides mended and the Longs as benevolent Dictators rule the country without opposition.
Disadvantage: Almost no Space Presence
Oh how the little cubs cried when the big bear suffered...then they devoured it.
Russias history had always been one of suffering, but when the Second Russian Civil War broke out, they learned true suffering. The Struggle between the Savinkov and The Reds was one of the most brutal and inhumane conflicts ever fought between humans. When all was said and done, The east had been lost to Transamur, the South to Turkestan and the Mongols and the West to the Reichspakt.
Russia returned to the World Stage a weakened third rate power, stuck in an eternal brush war with the Successors of Kolchak in Transamur...Only the intervention of the Japanese and a recognition of the Eastern Russian State finally brought a measure of peace.
Now finally recovered and somewhat stabilized the Military Dictatorship of the Russian State is looking to the stars. They have no Blaszak technology, but they have learned how to defeat them. Their men spent more than enough time overseas as mercenaries after all.
Advantage: strong Anti-Mech Weapons and Tactics (it remains to be seen if these tactics truly prove effective)
Disadvantage: No Space Presence
Disadvantage: Backwater Economy
When the Empire of France finally returned gloriously to Marseilles at the end of the Syndicalist War, it found its nation occupied by the Germans. Unwilling to fight another war, it took another 30 years until finally reunification was complete. The Stipulations where harsh, the Germans did not want to fight yet another war with the French...and while officially demanding back the Territories all the way back to the War of 1871, in their deepest of hearts the French were tired of it as well.
Instead they turned to their meagre Colonial Empire, which had served them well and rewarded them with the promised full citizenship. Diplomatically the French found soon that their former Allies the British had turned inwards and left their many allies hanging. France took up this opportunity and reorganized the Entente, the Carlists, the Portugese joined without much of a fuss, but the true diplomatic masterstrokes came when they turned their eyes to Italy. For In Italy the Germans had given in to the wishes of their Austrian Allies and thus alienated the Reichspakt nations of Two Sicilies and The Papal States. France quickly struck agreements and in stroke of pure cruelty sold out their allies on Sardinia. Soon the newly Christened Kingdom of Italy (absorbing the Sardinians) and the Papal States joined the Alliance.
The last to be added was Greece which joined through sheer bribery, France offered to buy both Crete and Cyprus off the Germans (who needed money to fund the mess in Afrika) and thus inducted the Greeks.
Surprisingly the French were spared much of the Woes of the Afrikan Wars, its new territories already securely integrated and not wishing to change the status quo too much.
The Southern Entente has spent its years peacefully, if not exactly rich compared to other powers. Space Colonization was only haphazardly joined and only France had any fleet presence whatsoever. It remains to be seen if the Entente will rise to any prominence or will remain in its splendid isolation.
Bonus: Splendid Isolation
Malus: Stagnant Society
The African Union is an alliance of necessity turned into an alliance of profit. Formed by Liberia and Abyssinia, thw two Nations intervened as neutral powers in the Mittelafrika Crisis, and walked away as the only true winners. Offering to help the Germans in decolonization they made sure to nudge the nation building into their favour wherever they could and so soon enough most of the Gold Coast had formed a Federation led by Liberia, while Abyssinia ensured the addition of Sudan, Mozambique and Nigeria to the Union.
The African Union is a lively Confederacy of States, its House of Parliament is known for debates which often escalate into brawls and the average citizen has turned out to be quite political. How could they not? The African Union after all brough prosperity where there had been only war and opression. And with prosperity came ambition.
Especially Abyssinia profited from the Union and used those for ambitious projects, chief of which is the space elevator near Addis Abbeba which skyrocketed the Unions economies as the World payed through the nose to get their goods cheaper.
Indeed Abyssinia even had a Colony on Mars and a moderate presence in space before the Martian rebellion. All would have been well for the young Union...if not for its neighbours and the throes of Global Pollution.
On one side where the Syndicalists which still engaged in brush wars on occasion and on the other is the Cameroon Exclusion zone, millions of square miles of territory unsuited for human life. And the Exclusion Zone is growing...
Advantage: Space Elevator
Disadvantage: Ecological Disaster
Forged to bring down the Ottomans, the Cairo Pact has long since turned into an economic and diplomatic union. As the Empires and Federations of the World grew bigger, single nations had no chance surviving alone and so the Ciaro Pact stuck it out.
These days The Middle-East is growing increasingly interested in Space Colonization and most importantly Helium-3 refining. Still relying on oil and gas, the Middle-East has to adapt quickly or it will find itself in an economic crisis.
And so it tries. The Cairo Pact has begun a massive colonization program of the Asteroid Belts in recent years, concentrating on Mining and Fuel Refining to augment its economy. To ensure the protection of their interests the Kings have invested heavily in fleets. But none did so as much as the Sheiks of Abu Dhabi who build a monster to outsize them all: The Mecca.
The Largest Recorded Warship in Human history sports the armor and armarment of a battleship while possessing the mech deployment capabilities of a carrier. The Concept being one ship replacing an entire fleet...the costs suggest that five fleets could replace this ship however. So far it has been the only of its kind and at its cost, it probably will stay so.
Advantage: Battlecarriers
Disadvantage: One-Track Economy
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Topic: Mobile Suit Gundam Kaiserreich - Grand Strategy in the Solar System OOC 6/15 (Read 2740 times)