If we can't make that assumption, then from my perspective we need to rapidly prepare for a war in five years and need to radically change our plans. Because if we can't grow faster than them even while the Victorians are tearing themselves apart, then why should these potential allies back us to begin with and bet on the losing horse? We need to persuade them that's not the case and that our victory over Victoria wasn't just some fluke. Which means showing our sustained might. That means economic power.
I will say that at this point, our plans aren't that dissimilar. I have +2 to Green Energy, while you have +1 to gunboats and the Minnesota thing. I can concede lowering Green Energy to 2 while adding 1 to gunboats, but I am absolutely convinced we should have at least 2 committed to Green Energy. We have a chance for guaranteed successes here on something which is incredibly useful for us and the entire world in the short and long-term. That's not just something to look at and say "Nah, I'm good."
-We can grow faster than a Victoria that's tearing itself apart.
We can even grow faster than a Victoria that has stopped tearing itself apart and is healing. But when you have a superpower's military arsenal available to you, regenerating your military capacity does not necessarily bear any relationship to your nation's economic capability to raise or maintain such forces unassisted.
That's why Russia is a wild card.
We'll hopefully be able to get friends/allies of convenience abroad who will similarly assist us in jumping our own economic and military capacity faster than we can do on our own, but thats a hope, not assured.
-Said allies will back us because we will make Victoria, and by extension Russia, bleed.
Some for pragmatic reasons, becuse splitting Russia's attention and resources prevents them from concentrating or distracts them at a critical momet. Some out of moral outrage, like any Africans who see the stories about black people. Some just for revenge; the Chinese have certainly not forgotten the Vics fucking with them back in the 2040s,nor has Cali or France. Countries have long memories.
When the US was backing the Khmer Rouge against Vietnam in the 1970s and 1980s, they certainly didnt expect them to win.Just to bleed the Vietnamese. When the Soviets and Chinese backed North Vietnam, the same dynamic was in play. Winning was a stretch bonus; tying down hundreds of thousands of US soldiers and getting intelligence on their gear was gold.
-The Crusaders torched Augusta and are explicitly called out as doing the sort of infrastructure damage we declined to do. The Vics are going to have to repair that damage, rejigger large parts of their economy, from dumping coal trains and going electric/hybrid, to replacing their vehicle fleet wholesale, to actually setting up local logistics, to training a new army from scratch. Im not even talking about replacing the lost manpower.
Five years is the hard minimum I can see it taking assuming everything goes their way and Little Nicky ensures the resources are always available.
It will almost certainly take longer
-I think Green Energy is important. I just dont think its critical this turn, not compared to things like Refugees or Farming.
In this case I agree with Simon.
Nor am I afraid it will go away due to Plot; we already paid for it, and Poptart is Lawful Evil, not Chaotic Evil.
