Once the simulation began, they had over a decade to prepare for the war to end all wars. Most of the issues that the participants of the solo match had talked about came to pass. Suleiman, who was commanding the American people, began a campaign to convince the people to go into war. In real life, it took the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor in the later parts of the war to accomplish such a feat.

One more issue that he faced was the prickly road ahead of him when he would eventually fight with Suvorov of Canada. What would his people think? Suleiman could not do it. The best he could do now was to make them allies.

Muqali did end up selling large parts of the Soviet Union to Japan. In the end, the land he controlled shrank by over 15%, but the rewards he reaped more than made up for it. Additionally, he had to make sure that when the war did come, the Russian people would be prepared to fight, unlike the massive failures that had occurred in history. That meant training up soldiers, making sure talented men stayed alive, and everything in between. Finding a reliable ally was also a priority.

Ramesses II of Germany began sending out as many alliance proposals as he could. He understood that no single country could win the simulation by themselves, presumably. They all needed some form of help. At the end of the negotiation talks, Ramesses landed two prominent allies; the UK led by Maximillian, or Max for short, and Rajaraja of France.

This alliance was a big deal because Germany was in between France to the west and Poland to the east. The UK not being too far off from its borders. This allowed him to focus his forces on his southern and eastern borders. These were where Sun Wu of Italy and Maksim of Poland were, respectively. You know, assuming the alliance held, which was never a sure thing during the best of times.

Hideki Tojo from Japan and leading Japan gave him multiple advantages. He knew the people, the situation, and the way to war better than any of his other competitors. Once the land was purchased, he sent swathes of his people to work the land. Prisoners and future prisoners of war (POW) would be sent to extract the resources and send them back to the homeland for processing. This, coupled with the alliance with the Soviet Union, led to a fearsome existence in the simulation.

Maximilian Juventus of the UK was all about alliances. Managing to score with the financially poor Rajaraja of France, as well as Ramesses II of Germany. Their respective communities had not managed to score well in the group matches, so they figured that they should team up, get rid of the other opponents then fight each other for supremacy. Another matter that Max spent no time putting together was the issue of enriching his country, then putting all that extra money into the military. A factor like this could not be understated.

Rajaraja of France, in addition to finding ways of making France rich, was in a great position geographically speaking. The only one he shared a border with, that was also an enemy, was Sun Wu of Italy. However, if Sun Wu were to attack him, then Ramesses of Germany could come down and join in the party as well. That made it so that Sun Wu had to think carefully before pushing into French territory. So Rajaraja had a brilliant idea. He would be able to defend France with relatively few forces and be able to sell whatever machines of war that his allies would be more than happy to buy from him. Which they did. War was a profitable business, and he just found one of the best ways to go about making money.

Sun Wu of Italy spent every waking moment ensuring he had all the basics of warfare down. Weapons, a stable country, people who wouldn’t mutiny when fighting, and a bunch of other factors. Then came the hard part. Preparing a strategy. He had two allies, Maksim Mikhailovich of Poland, and Erich von Manstein of Greece. The problem was that they were separated. Not by a lot, but not by an insignificant distance either. They would have to conquer through the Balkan states to share borders. Which might become a double-edged sword later on. He also eyed Africa as a potential place for conquest.

Herbert Plumer of China was not as aggressive as all of the other competitors. He understood that to rush a country into war had many disadvantages to it. Plus, being from the UK made him adore tea, which China and his newly formed ally Marshal General Turenne of India have literal tonnes of in their stockpile. He couldn’t get enough of the stuff, especially since he had the two largest and most diverse producers of tea at his command.

As for the war preparations, Herbert decided to strengthen the economy and settle the internal conflicts of the Communist and Kuo Min Tang (KMT) forces first. It was certainly no easy feat, but after a year or two, he was able to convince both sides to join forces with him. The thing is, he’s not Chinese, and no matter how well he could control armies, there would always be a level of mistrust between him and the citizens. So having these two forces at his command, both of whom held significant sway in the thoughts of people, he did not need to worry about an uprising as much as he used to. Because the Chinese sure loved uprisings. It could be considered a national pastime.

Turenne of India had an interesting choice in front of him. He could side with the UK, or he could partner with China right next door. He chose the latter. His first act was to kick out all the British soldiers from India through force if necessary. Thankfully he didn’t have to since Max of the UK agreed to pull all forces out of India. Then came the hard part. Pushing industrialization on a people that were so used to being ruled by the British.

There were a few rocky missteps, but eventually, everything panned out as he had hoped. Even if it did take longer. The alliance with Herbert of China allowed him some breathing room for now. After all, the only other competitors close to them were the Soviet Union and Japan, though they would be massive obstacles to overcome.

Suvorov of Canada was in a delicate position. On the one hand, Suleiman of the US had proposed an alliance with him. Something he had not expected. On the other hand, he knew that to refuse this alliance would mean that he would be wiped out with the full force of the United States once the fighting began. As proud as he was, he was not stupid and did not actively seek to be in an even more disadvantageous position than he already was. Suleiman and Suvorov met within the first few days of the simulation to discuss their strategies and hash out a few glaring details.

The deal they reached included a few clauses. For one, Canada would not be engaging any of the others in the simulation. It would be limited to taking countries in South America, up to a certain point. Meanwhile, the US would first take over Mexico, then move on over to attempt a full-on invasion of modern-day South Africa and the entirety of Africa afterward. They picked this point because it was the furthest point away from the other strategists. Which means, hopefully, the least amount of resistance.

Lastly, Maksim of Poland had something different that he was preparing. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the simulation, he was preparing for his satellites to launch as well as many other technological advancements that he developed with help from many other brilliant scientists, mathematicians, and physicists. He would make his inventions known throughout the planet.

There was one matter he understood exceptionally well; technological advancements make everything obsolete eventually. His arsenal now included robots, drones, and computerized weapons. These marvels of war have made so many of the weapons his competitors used close to useless. Especially since he did not require the use of his men to fight on the frontlines. He was confident in his abilities to make it through without even needing an alliance, but that would be foolhardy. To antagonize everyone would be just too hubristic, even if he could back it up with actions.

The preparation period flew by for each and every participant with a flurry of activity. No doubt there were spies and informants in high levels of all the governments trying to piece together what the others had in store. Some were successful, but most weren’t. Simply because layers of protection and secrecy were added in place to stop this sort of thing from happening. After all, they had all used spies before. So it wasn’t as if they didn’t know how to counter this sort of stuff.

All around the world were countries trying to outdo each other in terms of military personnel, military equipment, weapons, vehicles, tactics, and more. During this period, the different strategists had the task of convincing their people to go to war. This was not a very popular view among the citizens, obviously, so they had to think of ways to accomplish it. Between the hyperinflation in Germany, to the financially broke French, to the wealthy Americans, each strategist managed to find their unique solution.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression hit. Many participants used this as a reason to further their agenda. The governments sent large swathes of people to factories and to train in the military. With how devastating the depression was, it was a godsend to the twelve vying for world dominance.

In summary, there existed five alliances between the twelve countries vying for world domination. Canada and the United States being one. Italy, Greece, and Poland for another. Germany, France, and the UK. Japan and the Soviet Union forming an alliance. China and India made up the final team.