"Hmm, zis should work very well for now, any news on the diplomatic front?
"As it is, we are the leader of the Central Powers and... with only us and the old and stagnant Austro-Hungarian Empire as members, this is partially addressed by our military alliance with the Kingdom of Italy even though their loyalty may waver if we don't fully bring them into our faction, not to fret though, many nations have started to align to us of their own accord, including Bulgaria and Japan!"
"Correct me if i'm wrong, but ze upstart Japs also have dreadnoughts correct?
"Ja, not even France or Russia seem to even be interested in building any if our spies reports can be considered reliable, if relations can be patched up and our diplomats can pull them out of the United Kingdoms influence, they may forsake their alliance with them and join our cause, but we might have to give them concessions in the Pacific to secure their cooperation"
"That would be embarrassing, but I know Bismarck would do it in a heartbeat if it tipped ze scales in our favor..."
"Did you not force the resignation of the Iron Chancellor many years ago?"
"Of course I did you nimcompoop! But I may be ze real fool, since I'm regretting it now, but moping about it won't win Germany her spot in ze sun, I better check the state of the government and appoint/dismiss some ministers as necessary and maybe change our laws so we can build more with what time and resources we do have"
"I can understand the rationale behind most of these appointments, but reducing our laws like so will only weaken our armed forces and our military buildup!"
"Our army was consuming too much supplies as it was under ze Mixed Industry laws, and I reduced our training laws so as it compensate for that, there is no experience like battle experience after all."
"Very good, sir"
"Now how about ze state of our production?"
"Here it is, 3 new capital ships along with a light cruiser and destroyer flotilla due to be commissioned over the new few months, we are also selling energy and metal to many other countries and buying rare materials from the United States, Italy and Russia."
"Zis is brilliant! Ze practical experience gain from those vessels will make building newer dreadnoughts and battlecruisers much quicker and less industry-consuming, order 7 new dreadnoughts when these are done, along with a few more light cruisers and destroyers."
"Very well, your Majesty, though I strongly suspect that the most we can manage is 4 with our current industrial capacity."
"Better see what our spies report on ze British."
"Their newest ships will be ready later than ours, but they still hold a large numerical advantage over us in all ship types, it would be best to concentrate all our forces at home."
"It would be shameful to just abandon the colonial empire as such, but any British blockade would have to be broken first, or even impose a blockade of our own on their island nation."
July 1911
News breaks out of the crisis in Agadir following the deployment of the SMS Panther to support Morocco, the British and French immediately paint the Germans as the boogeyman in this, news eventually reaches the Kaiser, who immediately enacts War Economy laws and starts producing more forces for the coming storm.
"War may have been averted for now, but time is running out, we must begin full-scale armament! Good thing our agents are also raising the threat of our enemies"
"We've just ordered 6 submarine flotillas of the U19 class to be produced, I also highly recommend we build several scout squadrons"
"We could be building 3 more dreadnoughts for the cost of those submarines, but the British seem to underestimate their potential so we could catch them off guard with this new weapon. But the scouts will be a low-priority project"
"Sir, I hear from many in the army that they have been completely neglected in favor of the navy, there's even rumors that Hindenburg may even be planning a coup."
"Ah, yes, we can't forget the army either, I think 15 divisions should make them happy for a while."
"Your Majesty, we are now in a position to continue production of our other dreadnoughts."
"No, for now we'll build 3 additional battlecruisers."
"I wouldn't rely of them if you're looking to build more capital ships than the British, their armor protection is lacking compared to true dreadnoughts..."
"They're still the next best thing and they can be used as high-speed commerce raiders or to hunt down damaged enemy fleets."
"This is true."
Interestingly enough, the British response has been muted thus far.
January 1912
War breaks out between Italy and the Ottoman Empire over the control of Libya, the Ottoman Empire requests lend lease from Germany but they are refused since it was hoped to bring both countries into the Central Powers (And we didn't want to alienate either one too much and force them into the T. Entente) Later that month new elections bring a change in the composition of the cabinet which is eventually switched around by the Kaiser.
"Democracy? Nonsense, but I need to be careful of ze cult of Hindenburg nonetheless..."
March 1912
The Balkan League of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro is formed inspired in part due to failing Ottoman fortunes despite the Italian stalemate in Libya. A few months later the French seize the remainder of independent Morocco.
Hopefully the League doesn't attack while Italy is still at war lest the war expand..
July 1912
Even though better designs were already available, it was decided to continue building the 3 postponed Konig-class dreadnoughts as the previous 4 were nearing completion and they would in turn accelerate the progress on the Moltke-class battlecruisers, 4 destroyer flotillas were laid down a few months prior to this and the SMS Kolberg and our submarines were also almost ready to be commissioned.
All England seems to be building in response are factories upon factories...
September-October 1912
The Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire have come to terms on September 1st, 1912, the ensuing white peace created by the Treaty of Lausanne comes as Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria begin to mobilize their reserves, with warfare breaking our in the Balkans on October 1st, the Turkish Armies initially putting up a valiant effort before the full weight of the Balkan League's forces are brought to bear on the Sick Man of Europe.
Towards the end of the month Italy is given entry into the Central Powers and efforts are devoted to bring Japan into the fold.
The Triple Alliance is complete.
February 1913
On February 4th the Ottoman Empire accept's our invitation to join the Central Powers, thus transforming the Triple Alliance into the Quadruple Alliance, in light of this increased cooperation, all of our members get a boost in leadership and supply throughput.
Our power grows by the day and the Triple Entente knows it.
)
