<Snipped quote by Alfhedil>And how a "ring of iron" is supposed to keep aircrafts away?
They can be paranoiac all they want. It doesn't change the fact that in WW2 there's no such thing as absolute AA defense.
I'm going to keep it simple, because you're inevitably going to challenge me on this again and again until one of us accedes the point.
First and foremost, thing to remember here is that Eisenkreis, and the Hegemony as a whole, does not have either a naval force or an air force. That means that all of that money that your nation and others spend on such things, is instead funneled into the defensive perimeter and the ground forces. I like to think that out of all the nations in the RP, Eisenkreis has the most advanced armor units on the ground and the best funded military, but I don't like to use absolutes in those regards, doing so makes it seem as if other nations are arbitrarily lesser. That's something I prefer to avoid, and so I use more vague terms for my nation than definites, because I don't want to start conflict over something as trivial as what one person has over another. Back to the point at hand, without a naval force or air force, of course it stands to reason that the nation will have better defenses with the expanded budget, and that's something I will get around to detailing out. The "Iron-Ring" as it is referred to, is a name given to the ring of mountains surrounding the states originally comprising the Hegemony, and have been fortified against the outside world. Think of the beaches of Normandy, except completely surrounding the nation and beefed up AA. Can one or two planes get through if they're particularly daring? Possibly, can't say for sure. However, what I will say is that the radar stations in each fort will detect them long before they get into range, and the skies will go black with flakk. Think about it. This is a highly industrialized nation with nothing else to spend their military budget on other than regular advancements to their ground forces. To brave the Iron Ring is suicide at best.
Second, think of the cultural aspect for a moment. The founding moment of the nation was against an outside threat which sought to change them, and since that day, they have lived in paranoia that the same would happen again. Almost the entire core speaks only Eisenkreis, and those who speak both the native language and our equivalent to common, they are the elite nobility and merchants. Out of ~18million people, perhaps a thousand have taken the initiative to grace the other nations of the world with the time to learn their language. This is not only because of fierce national pride, but also because they simply don't
want your nations to have a presence in theirs. Even foreigners who have been allowed into the nation are treated as less than second-class citizens, and dignitaries are strongly suggested to remain within the embassies unless under escort. I mean, even Marianna herself was, and still is, discriminated against due to her heritage being that of human/lindai, and she was
royalty. To those men and women manning the battlements of the Iron Ring, it's not a matter of just missing one or two aircraft flying over head. It's a failure to their families, to their friends, to their people, and to everything that makes them who they are. This is a society of paranoia taken to zealous extremes, and if the Iron Ring was to ever fall, they would sooner destroy everything than allow a single trace of foreign rule into their country.
You can go ahead and try to quote me all sorts of sources on the effectiveness of AA in WW2, but in the end, you have to realize that we aren't dealing with a scenario in WW2. We are dealing with a fantasy world with non-humans and humans living together, sometimes in harmony and sometimes not, and there are going to be differences between reality and this world. Eisenkreis was a nation born of paranoia and the fear of outside change, and everything they have done has been in the name of preventing that change, and even change as a whole. Invading or even attacking their nation is not going to be as simple as doing so to another nation. They will bring the very skies down upon anyone who tries, and turn the mountains red with blood. Conversely, don't really expect them to come and get you in your nation. Marianna can say the nation is at war with you, but really, until you bring the war to Eisenkreis, nothing will really happen unless Kzechverin puts the man-pants on.
And let's be honest here, what are they really going to do? Kzechverin is the 1400's Poland-Lithuania of the setting, complete with horses and Men-At-Arms. If it wasn't for their nobility and the sheer amount of mans they can raise for an army, they could be rolled over by anyone.
1x Laugh
