I would particularly enjoy the option of "ii) Carrier design and theory in the post-Abyssinian War world", but should that option be struck, then clearly--and in keeping with the best traditions of the El Pip'ian world--the vote should go to "3) Tanks. Specifically armoured units and the theory of the rest of the Empire."
Which, I must confess, sounds like another thirty chapters worth of material... Armored Units alone would be worth at least three, but the Theory of the Rest of the Empire part is intriguing and should be explored.
Counting that as carrier vote.
You have rumbled my cunning scheme. For I intended to use the review of the various Dominions armoured units as a way to look at how the various member states see the Empire working. Who decides what 'Imperial Defence' requires and who supplies what? For example if Australia wants to build heavy bombers for domestic industrial reason but the defence of the Malay Barrier needs Marines then how does that get sorted? (There were never any Royal Australian Marines or similar). It could indeed be several chapters and still not go into the depth required. It would also feature a lot of discussion about tanks, heavy industrial plant and related items.
As I recall, that moral involvement led to US firms (stop me if you've heard this before) accepting tons of bad credit from a group of people who didn't have the money nor any real chance of victory. It's a little sad they began to emerge from the Depression and immediatly began doing this speculation stuff again.
But yeah, there's a foreign issue that's going to impact domestically. Hard.
Doing such speculation is, in part, how they intend to pull themselves out of the Depression. Fulfilling all the contracts is a shot in the arm for the economy, maybe not decisive given the relative size of the two countries, but it all helps. As long as the Republican's credit is deemed good and the banks accept it, lots of jobs will be created and things will ripple out from there. Of course it could all be built on sand and it is exactly the kind of thing Senator Nye was worried about, but it's not gone wrong yet so most of Washington has a vested interest in looking the other way.
I am indeed known for being that influential. Especially for the 9 years of delays that happened before I joined the forum.
To quote
@Davout - "People assume that AAR's are a strict progression of cause to effect... but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, the Butterfly Effect is more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly.... timey-wimey.... stuff."
I'll vote for Ireland because God knows, no one else ever does. Also Japan's gov might be interesting because the naval faction or more anti-soviet faction might end up with more power here just to further complicate the world order.
Ireland is a good choice and as you say Japan is also interesting. Not completely sure who I weld the two together beyond chronologically (they both have elections at about the same time), but I'll think of something.
I'd also vote for Ireland and Japan. Maybe with a spice of Carrier erotica.
As i am quite interested at what kind of Anti-Comintern pact might be cooking under El Pip's crazy world of Automobile development AAR here.
A fine vote. The anti-comintern pact however is not happening in it's OTL form.
I'm not sure if germany has the credibility to make one, and italy is a busted power that can't afford to sign it (hopefully they'll be becoming democratic again at some point before the war starts. The less mussolini, the better).
Italy isn't quite a busted power. Certainly the dreams of Empire are dead and navally things don't look good. But as a regional power things are still possible, the Alpini and the various mountains troops are still respected (because they spent the war sitting on the Alps glaring at people. And were genuinely very good).
Moreover Italy did go to war (and lost, but war still happened) whereas Hitler had his bluff called over the Rhineland. In a strange way that probably gives Mussolini more credibility; Hitler now has a reputation for folding where as if Mussolini threatens something he just might do it, even if it is a bad idea.
And about time too! Just before I gave in to my angst and demanded some postal nuke porn.
Forget about suitcase nukes: postal nukes are all the go. Relying as they do on a team of highly trained postmen biking the components deep into enemy territory before assembling them and finally doing what postmen do best: deliver.
Excellent Beyond the Fringe reference, such things are always welcome here.
There is no other choice than naval pron...
Tanks are overrated as weapons of war...they are the battleships of land combat, visually impressive, but much less combat effective in practice.
Carriers, on the other hand, are much MORE combat effective than most people believe.
An emphatic vote for (ii)!
...and a small sigh for the lack of a South American war...that might have aroused the interest of the United States...
There will be things to arouse US interest at some point, it's too big a place to just ignore for the rest of the story.
A vote for II though I am intrigued by III
Blast, I'd been looking forward to that for ages.
Vote noted and it appears I will have to bring back the War of Terrible Spanish Cartography.
Come to think of it, have the Europeans ever been able to properly draw maps? South America, Africa, and the Middle East all spring to mind...
Most European maps were drawn well, as in it was clear how big the country was, where the border was and so on. The border itself may have been in a terrible location, or the country itself a bad idea, and this may have prompted decades of problem and conflict. But as maps to tell you were things were they worked well.
Spanish maps also caused decades of problems and conflict, but worse didn't even tell you were the borders were with any accuracy or reliability. They were therefore much worse, as they weren't even much good as maps.
I was also quite the partisan of Ecuador, as I recall, but I suppose that Inevitable Defeat has already given me a bit of a South American pick-me-up recently. Living with an engineer and dating a math major pretty much ticks off the boxes on my tech quota, let's see how the elections go in the Emerald Isle.
Also, having just seen Jackson Browne in concert (still pretty damn good at 71), I recommend that you adopt his approach of letting people yell what they want at you and then playing whatever you feel like.
AN election vote, an excellent choice.
I've adopted the approach that has served generations of engineers well - never offer someone a choice unless you don't care which response they pick. I was going to write about those three things anyway and I think they are all interesting in different ways, so I don't mind which wins - it only decides which I write first.
Excuse me, he's only 70. Still, very spry for someone who was a superstar when my parents were in high school (well, *star*, really, he was never that big). His birth will happen inside the timeframe of this AAR though, if it does indeed continue through to 1948. It can be covered in about a century and a half from now, at the present rate.
Century and a half till 1948. I admire your optimism about future rates of progress.
Current Voting Tally
a) The elections of island nations, featuring Japan and Ireland -
3 Votes
ii) Carrier design and theory in the post-Abyssinian War world -
3 Votes
3) Tanks. Specifically armoured units and theory of the rest of the Empire. -
0 Votes
While many have expressed an interest in tanks this has been as second preference. Alas this is first past the post and so Tanks are lingering on zero votes, a shocking state of affairs. Elections and Carriers tied for the lead, which is a good metaphor for the fundamental tension in the story well - Techporn vs Plot.
