The Caliphate is having trouble in Spain, they are trying as hard as they can to push back but the Caliphate has a hold on them. With organization, the Caliphate establishes military outposts and controls the entire region. The Iberians are given a great opportunity, leave the Federal government to the Caliphate, leave the city building and basic economics to the Provinces, basically, give the people what they want but don't give them immense federal power. It works, for now.
SEU might rescind trading permission with Zaire later on... but for now SEU senses a line would be optimal for their interests. In any case, SEU has little to gain by attacking the Mediterranean Sea. They will interdict Caliphate supply lines in Africa, and let the Fascists kill themselves in Russia trying to hold the vast lands.
The World Draws Ever Closer... To World War II. Welcome to the build-up times, where secret diplomacy reigns and superpowers bring their armies to bear, waiting for War. Italy is taking greater control of Libyan oil fields. The other Fascists have urged them to do so. The Socialists strengthen their Army, while deciding to scrap 1 of the Revolution-Class Battleships and 1 Fleet Carrier. The other Revolution-Class, Revolution herself, will be preserved as a museum ship, which could be returned to service if absolutely needed.
The Caliphate develops critical defences for their trade routes, training for months on end to recept against the SEU's commerce raiders, progress is very good, although it is doubtful that every attack will be repelled, the Caliphate definitely has a chance to repel quite a few attacks. Abyssinia is becoming a massive threat in Africa, their imports of petroleum and gas from the Caliphate has boosted their military and economy, their Navy is large for its size, supporting quite a few cruisers, a few battleships and battlecruisers and a hell of a lot of destroyers. Abyssinia can pull their own weight, as well as Pakistan. Ship production has gone up heavily, 20 new Nile Destroyers, 2 Euphrates, 2 Ninurta, 10 Little Tigris and 2 new Fatimid Class aircraft carriers are being produced, within 1 to 1.5 years. Aircraft numbers are up to 10,000 (I hope the number is accurate), and military personnel have risen to 550,000 Active, and 1,125,000 Reserved. The Caliphate has been training the best of the best for years and has mapped out their terrain for a good decade, deciding on the best defensive locations and pulling out testing scenarios. The Sunayyad Empire is going to be insanely difficult to invade. (I'm probably going to invent the Sherman now, New Nation wars are really short, and it would be better to spend the majority time with lower tiered tanks.) The Caliphate is stocking up on Heavy Artillery. Any marching army would only make it past the frontlines with a literally shredded in half army with half the men they came with.
SEU is training their Submarines to raid commerce. They will be exceptionally lethal in Wolfpacks that allow for significant sinking. They will take out defenses and attack Convoys. The Mings are undergoing a modernization to yet again improve speed, another knot. Nothing that can catch then is strong enough to fight them. SEU knows how to attack commerce. They've done it countless times, in 2 whole wars. All the Caliphate's training is theoretical. They've never gotten commerce attacked. This is going to be crucial.
The Caliphate has begun rigging their ships with radar systems (I hope SEU already invented it so I'm not being unfair) Submarine technology is underway, and the first modern sub in the Caliphate army is being constructed and designed... More details later..
SEU is very secretly trying to create a Proximity Fuze, with debateable results. They're on track to finish by 1939. This will improve kill rates by 5 to 10 times in AA. First, SEU needs to develop a minature Radar. Despite the fact SEU is widening the Radar gap with other Nations, they haven't been able to crack the secret.
Land Based Radar is being set all around the Caliphate at key locations used to snuff out incoming enemy aircraft and ships. It isn't better than what the SEU has, but the SEU is now realizing they are being trailed at a very close rate. The radar is being hidden as well, but the truth of Radar and how its worked is accidentally being leaked. A new submarine has merged or submerged if you will. It isn't the best, nor the worst, submarine development has been limited with the Caliphate, but through countless records and prototypes, the Deniz Class 3,000 tons submerged 21,000 kilometers range surfaced at 10 knots 10 x 21 Inch torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedos 48 hours endurance 2 knots submerge 250 ft depth The sub is directly meant for the use of destroying SEU ships, especially any commerce raiders. The Caliphate takes the SEU's commerce raiding as a big deal, anything which can be used to repel them is given. The key for taking out the SEU is to take advantage of their massive size. The Caliphate is based on oceans and seas so close to their landmass and docks, responding to an attack is quick and adjustable, it's more difficult for the SEU. OOC: (Warlord, just realized we both based it off the Tambor-Class Submarine... Oh well, I don't want to flat out copy, so I nerfed it a little bit.)
SEU has ordered Destroyers to escort all surface commerce raiders, the Battleships have a secondary Oil Tanker capacity for them in order to replenish their fuel and to extend their range greatly. This is directly to counter the Caliphate Submarine Warfare, as SEU Destroyers have advanced Depth Charges that allow them to defeat the Submarines. In addition, the exceptionally long range of SEU Destroyers due to their large size allow for them to work long-term and hound convoys as well as protect Capital ships from Submarines long-term, while Caliphate Destroyers cannot do this. Instead, they must refuel at port, Oil Tankers (SEU has a lot of these things) or near Battleships, but that drains fuel while at sea, where fuel is crucial.
SEU's Naval Radar is being equipped onto AA guns to make up for the abysmal targeting and training of the Gun Crews. Yes, Abysmal. They'll only be slightly worse than Caliphate AA crews! Yi Sun Shin-Class Battleships posses many AA guns, everywhere there is space there is an AA/secondary gun due to the monstrous length of 1,094 feet (which makes it terrible at maneuvering. it displaces a lot due to excellent compartmentalization and damage control). With 42 5-inch Dual-Purpose guns, 152 Bofors 40mm AA guns, and 50 20mm Oerlikon AA guns, the AA armament is formidable. Unfortunately for the Battleships, the AA gun crews are badly trained and simply not very good at their jobs, though the sheer number and high quality of the Guns involved make up for this somewhat.
EVEN MORE SHIP AESTHETICS SEU Battleships: Java-Class: Workmanlike, cold, indifferent, and slightly cluttered. Ming-Class: Unbalanced, ugly, messy and generally bad to look at. Zheng He-Class: Ugly, but photogenic from certain angles. Yi Sun-Shin-Class: fitting as the pride of the SEU Navy, combined with Atlantic Bow creates an impressive look. SEU Heavy Cruisers: Petrograd-Class: Smaller version of the Java-Class. Similar outline. Caliphate Battlecruisers: Nergal-Class: Much like the Italian Littorio-Class, has a certain appeal. Caliphate Battleships: Euphrates-Class Battleship: Similar to the Hood, but stockier and less graceful. Ninurta-Class Battleship: Graceful and Photogenic, long and balanced.
SEU's economic improvement is slowing down, directly due to the Economic growth being so fast. All the infrastructure had been built, big towers went up, and so on and so forth. SEUS Myeongyang is once again undergoing some modernization to assist the ship maneuver, but this can only do so much due to the sheer length and size of the ship.
After the continuous research, observations and testings, the Caliphate finally has the medium tank they are looking for. The glory to the Islamic Caliphate, the MBT-4, or better known as the M4 Saladin. Best described as an all-around quantity over quality tank, as well as the T-34. It is cheap, relatively easy to build and produce, reliable, easy to maintain, roomy, sturdy, fast well armed and well armoured. It follows the quantity over quality trademark, as it is designed to be easy to produce and easy to repair, but that does not mean it's bad. It cannot meet the standards of a complex German tank which are well equipped with massive guns and heavy armour but are very expensive. The M4 is a "good enough to do the job" tank, nothing more needed. 66-88,000 lbs, 5 crew members all in relatively well fit and comfortable conditions for a tank, 12-177 mm of armour A 75 mm M3 Arabic Gun 1 .50 calibre machine gun, 2 x .30 calibres, turret machine gun capable of anti-personnel and even AA action. 400 hp air-cooled Continental 9 cylinder radial gas Engine, Spicer manual synchromesh transmission, VVSS suspension 22-30 mph The M4 Saladin is best described as a taller, roomy tank with a strategically angled sloped and glacis. As far as conditions go, the M4 is specifically ventilated to give the best conditions while fighting in hot Sunayyad conditions, the ventilation systems have been perfected by the Caliphate for years and are truly the greatest. Although no tank is a 5-star hotel room, the M4 is definitely spacious and comfortable, with enough space to fit 3 people inside of the turret, the tank even has many accessible exit points. To match the rough terrain of the Sunayyad Caliphate, the tank's tracks are widened and fitted with special rubbers and shocks designed to give a durable and smooth ride. Compared to the T-34, this tank is quite better. The only thing the T-34 has against the M4 is that the T-34 is insanely cheap, easy and fast to produce, and very easy to repair. The only problem is that the T-34 is mediocre at best and quite unreliable. Due to it being produced as fast as it is, it is very prone to exit the factory with mistakes. The M4's main and most secret weakness is that its prone to exploding into flames if its fuel tank and ammo rack are hit. Overall, it will not go well alone against a stronger tank, it works best in numbers, but it still gets the job done. It will enter full production in 30 posts, where 1,000 will be made every month. Variants such as the Saladin Crocodile are being made, this is a variant in which the M4 would become a flamethrowing vehicle, dragging around a heavily armoured cart of fuel with a flame thrower at the front. It is said to be highly effective and will more than likely cause enemies to surrender very quickly.
T-34: MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE M4 Saladin: More decent! Panther: We actually work well!
I think the war will look liked this: Naval Strength Dominace: SEU Land Strength Dominace: Caliphate Air Strength Dominace: ??????? Honestly, I don't know who's going to win WW2, I just hope the SEU won't active "we basically own every resource, we produce 100x more things than you and we are just a massive nation. We won." It's probably going to turn out to just evolve into proxy wars. Also, as far as the African lines go, just to make clear, past the 10 degree lines everything is either SEU or Caliphate turf. Inside should be a freeby zone in someway, control is not taken by one side, it should be more of a blur. Come on, the SEU just had to give the Caliphate all the Saharah nations
SEU is incredibly powerful, but India's going to swoop in just in time to slow them down from actual fighting. SEU's biggest flaw is the fact that despite their incredible size, the internal division is incredible. They're still at war with Indonesia, and India's retired because Gandhi. It's not my fault all the Muslims are in the Sahara. The T-34 contains speed and survivability in one package. The T-34-85 will have everything, the only problem is fixing the fact it fails after 500km of working and it's horribly cramped!
The Founder, now showing signs of life after years of missing, has written yet more letters. All he seems to do is that; several of the letters have been classified because he knows a lot more than he should, and he explicitly says for them to be classified. The Founder criticizes the Caliph for the savagery of his legions and Religion, as well as the accumulation of Wealth to the point where his wealth is "inconcievable", as SEU has estimated that his wealth is roughly around 491 Billion Dollars (2019 Dollars), surpassing the former richest man in History, Musa I, as well as being obseesed with the Past, seeking to rebuild Babylon. It is well known "H" dislikes religion, but as he moved out of active influencing the SEU became more friendly. This is a directly challenge by one of SEU's Founding Fathers, but SEU does not want this. Iosif Stalin is thinking of "H" more as a loose cannon than an asset, directly due to the fact that he writes letters with impunity and ignores what the SEU Government wants, instead opting to assist his own (mysterious) personal agenda, although what it is, is unknown because he lives in Korean mountains, farms his own food and only occasionally comes out to Rural Villages to trade for clothes and other needed things. He has an odd property of never being recognized, which has worked in his favor because he grew a beard. He is 36, reasonably youthful in comparison to the Caliph. This might work into it, as he is at heart a revolutionary and a believer in new things.
To test their new weapons, the Caliphate tests them on the Majmue Jihadists. Their regime has basically failed, but now they are definitely gone, especially since many of them were burned alive by a Caliphate Flamethrower design. The Caliph neither confirms nor denies the assumption of his wealth. Secretly though, he is very, very rich, his own money has gone to the construction of New Babylon even.
The Founder continues to plot and use connections that he built up. He is incredibly powerful and has siphoned off a large amount of money from several sources (he looted about 90% of the Korean treasury and drained them all into his bank account for emergencies (he's never had to use the money and considered returning it), as well as 20% of the Chinese Gold to pay his fellow revolutionaries), but his connections are rusty and his tricks old. He feels very old, he's separated himself from the outside world for years on end and all he did was farm, that was the obvious outcome. However, he is far wiser. He's read books, books, more books and gained new insights. He is still at heart a revolutionary, just now wiser and slower.
