The 'historian' was incredibly surprised by the change in the atmosphere of the room - the minimalist interior impressed him much more than the baroque of the previous meeting.
In the room the other participants of the meeting were already waiting, they were the 'Flyer' and 'Kamchatka'.
The meeting itself was opened by 'Kamchatka'.
"I propose to skip all unnecessary welcome "rituals" and go straight to the tasks, today I have a tight schedule and we have a lot of work ahead of us".
The 'historian' was prepared for this meeting, he spent hours analyzing the course of the September campaign, available equipment and designing possible counters based on existing components.
After all, this was not his first rodeo - he knew what he wanted - he wanted to make a positive impression on the famous 'host' team, and he knew how to achieve it - by doing as much as he could before the crunch begins.
"I completely agree with you, I have already prepared proposals for several plans. Everything optimized for 1939, using mostly historical equipment and impressing a minimum number of new designs."
The 'historian' suggested a significant increase in the production of historic Bofors anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns - so that all divisions could reach full strength in that department before the war.
Another point was the installation of new sights on the existing 75mm infantry guns to enable direct fire, and the development of basic rocket artillery as the main firepower of infantry divisions.
'Historian' also sketched out the idea of creating armored brigades equipped with newly designed but mundane equipment.
The proposal was feasible, but 'Flyer' protested - using the logic that since 39 we will be in a state of permanent war, and in these conditions the implementation of new generations of armaments will be very difficult.
'Historian' was prepared for such a counter-argument.
He argued that his projects were either very cheap or suitable for permanent modernization, and gave examples of other 20th century designs - the B52 bomber and the AR carbine - both of which had not been fully replaced in the Army in over 200 years.
A discussion ensued in which they got more and more into the details. And in the details, the historian's better preparation allowed him to outdo his competitor in every area except aviation.
He had just started to talk about the design of an IFV armed with the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun, already produced in Poland, when he was interrupted by laughter.
'Historian' and 'Flyer' fell silent for a moment, and when asked why 'Kamchatka' was laughing, he replied:
"You seem to talk all right to yourselves, missiles, aircraft, motorization, military ... except that . in 36 this country was not able to produce armored sheet and in 39 could not find drivers for the available cars, so yes IFVs make me laugh ..
Your dilemma is a waste of time, because you start from the ass".
It was difficult to discuss with such an attitude, the historian reluctantly in his mind admitted his mistake - in the previous team they played Britain, therefore overlooked that in "primitive" countries analysis of industrial capacity and not deployed equipment is the basis.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
'Kamchatka' displayed on the wall some historical document, all the pages at once occupied the entire wall.
"I have only reviewed apsingle report of the Statistical Office from the year 37, so it operates without proper context, nevertheless, I have some observations".
Kamchatka pointed out the import of metals and machinery, a large percentage of the population engaged in technically backward agriculture, the fragmentation of land in the hands of peasants .... He dwelt on literacy and social data.
'Historian' was impressed by how much information this sinister old fat man pointed out. After about half an hour, Kamchatka concluded
"We can influence the economy in 3 ways:
One - influence state policy by infiltrating state institutions (this will be difficult, of course, but it is almost 30% of the economy, and the infiltration itself need not be direct).
Two - Influence or take over large land estates.
Three - development of our own factories in the central industrial district,
Gentlemen, we are not going to get complete control of the economy to produce what we want and how we want it.
So why don't we start by asking what and where we can influence?"
'Historian' tried to argue for a while that in 3 years he could build a factory from scratch and start producing equipment....he heard that he could and then throw his products out the door - he did not argue any further, he knew he was wrong.
They spent the next several hours
discussing imports and exports.
(This country imported textiles, automobiles, rubber, machine tools, and electronic components.)
They discussed the opportunities presented by the construction of a central industrial district.
(Poland was building a new industrial base because the previous industrial center had been taken from the Germans in 1918, so it was right on the border.
And spent ages doing the laborious work of plotting locations and assigning point values to national deposits, factories, power plants .... etc. on a common map.
The meeting ended with Kamczatka:
"Gentlemen, let's think about what we've talked about here - find out what can be done and what needs to be done in order to do it, and be ready to discuss it at the next meeting, when we already know what we're talking about".
Kamchatka' was the first to log out, and after a while the rest left the meeting.
----------------------------------------------------------
Both 'flyer' and 'Kamchatka' re-logged.
But they looked very different:
'Kamchatka' went from looking like a fat and ruthless industrial baron to a skinny woman.
'flyer' the other hand, became a small Asian man.
'Kamchatka' took a long drag on her cigarette and asked.
"What is your plot?"
'flyer'
"With aviation and radio is not bad, there is a large pool of experienced operators - here the problem is the scale and available engines -.
Radios are simply expensive, while engines have to be produced domestically and their supply can be a wedge to get into government.
Still, if we want to count on a pat in the air, we need full control over operations and production (at least 500 of our machines)."
---
'Kamchatka'
"You know, in 3 years it will be very hard to put you behind the desk.
And it's more possible from the side of industry and government rather than military."
---
'flyer'
"Hahah!
No, we don't even have 2 years for that - after all, I have to train this circus
Don't look at me like that, love - without that we might as well not start.
At least we have to control our territory."
---
'Kamchatka'
"You know, I'll do what I can from the industrial side, the rest is up to our special two."
---
'flyer'
"Yeah, right, I'll talk to the 'samurai'."
---
Before the 'flyer' left the meeting, 'Kamchatka' broke through and shouted.
"Wait... I think you schoud be redy to take over the rest of the industry."
---
'flyer'
"What's going on?"
---
'Kamchatka'
"Nothing special lately, I can't make it financially and this game takes a lot of time."
---
'flyer'
"How much do you miss?"
---
'Kamchatka'
"in this cycle 30 to come out at 0"
---
'flyer'
"will send you 100"
---
'Kamchatka'
"Don't... You know I can't pay you back."
---
the 'flyer' smiled
"it's not a loan"
and before Kamchatka could answer, the he logged out.
---
A moment later the ping of an incoming transfer sounded.