So, we left things in west under 'relative control' which means both sides are pretty much out of strenght and/or organization. East however, was a mess.
Now, luckily, we still have a group in the 'middle' so to say, as in the two Armee's that were left to recover Madgeburg from Prussian occupation. Alas, they only got the northern half back under control when news of the situation in east reached them around November of 1870. There was a 'small' Prussian detachment of 14000 men in Berlin, but despite their attempt to withdraw into Cottbus, they were quickly swept away by the 50000 Austrians of I. and V. Armees. Oh and some business regulatory committee interrupted a perfectly good military briefing.
While they were still on their way, remnants of II. and III. Armee managed to succesfully defend Gniezno against a larger Prussian force.
Thus, when Schobber brought his I. Armee to Posen, he half expected to find a disorganized retreating troops on arrival, unfortunately, that was not to be, so when the battle began in early December, it was suprisingly even. Then, by 31st of December both sides had received reinforcements, Austrians had their V. Armee and half of II. Armee, Prussians had found another formation of regulars to reinforce those recruits, making this largest battle in the war so far.
And with Austrians superior numbers, we actually achieved a minor victory in Posen and the following chase to Kustrin. However, with all these large concentrations of troops and battles, attrition was starting to tell and Prussians managed to escape to recover, Austrians disheartened enough to abandon chase and return to reoccupying Madgeburg.
In west, we had left you with Austrian victory at Wiesbaden, there was a followup battle in Giessen with another Austrian victory, alas, the Prussians then managed to get away via Frankfurt by throwing the minor armies of their allies at Austrians to hold them away, they eventually reached Kreuznach that had been occupied by the Austrians forces, but those forces had then left to hunt down this Prussian army and were thus not present. So, with alarming speed, the Prussians took Kreuznach back by January, and advanced on the Austrians that were recovering in Koblenz, luckily, we did have bit more troops in the area, even if they were hardly in great shape still.
Having first repelled the Prussians in Koblenz, they were chased back to Kruznach and indeed, broken against the second Austrian half army that came act as anvil for the retreat Prussians to be bashed against. This time, they would not be allowed to escape, and Steeb among other generals chased them until finally catching up on the last cannons in Trier. Steeb was baffled by how the Prussians artillerymen had managed to run faster than rest of their army, while dragging those cannons of theirs with them all the way, alas, they refused to surrender so their secrets were lost. After this, Swedes signed a white peace in May.
Prussians resisted peace until October of 1871, mainly by hanging onto their land in the East, indeed, there were even a few additional battles there, while most of Austrians were occupying the western part. So, why Westfalen you may ask, first, it futher isolates Hesse-Kassel and Braunschweig from Prussia, second, changes neighbor of Lippe-Detmold from Prussia to Austria, brings Austria into neighborhood of Hesse-Darmstadt and Nassau. This means, improved (long term) relations with 5 of the North German minors. (Diplomatic situation after the peace agreement, blue being the 'hostile' part of Germany, and green being the 'Austrian' part.)
In March of 1872, a few Jacobins rose up in a rebellion, indeed, persistent as they were, it would take the army all the way to June to sweep up the last of them. Now you might think this merits futher comments, with all those nice big stacks, but let's be honest, it's just rabble...
...few more shallow graves to be dug.
Indeed, we were quite a bit more impressed with the reverse engineered Prussian breech loaded rifles we were now able to arm our troops with, this should make the next, inevitable, war bit more even again.
