Hmm... i like the idea that there should be a Prussian chance for a comeback in Germany. My own events through which Austria can rebuild the German Confederation are not meant to be the final answer to the German question... I've seen Austria beat Prussia in the game many times, and I wanted to make events that help the game develop along a more likely path. At some point Prussia would of course need to be incorporated within the German confederation... an amputated Prussia (minus Silesia) would, however, only be able to play a secondary role. What I have been thinking about is an even that brings Prussia back into the Confederation if they accept the Austrian leadership... basically what was proposed at the Frankfurt Fürstentag in 1863. In the game this would be represented by giving Prussia alliances with all the German minors and Austria - alliances which are all invalid against Austria, to show that Prussia is again part of the German mutual defense system as existed before 1866, but if it challenges Austria again it cannot count on any support from the German minors. Prussia would be number two in the confederation... any other role would be unrealistic because even a defeated Prussia would still be the most modern and most industrialized German nation except for Austria.
But... well, I'd rather have no events than bad events, and since I haven't been able to come up with a good "flavor" idea and a good context within which Prussia would be allowed back, I haven't made such events yet.
And as for the "Austria unifies Germany" scheme... well that would of course only be a thing for a human player. It should be hellishly hard, and no AI should ever be able to pull it off. Unification should only come in very, very tedious steps - an SGF should be established as a first step, and an NGF allied to Prussia.
Here's my brainstorm on the topic: (meant as the start of a debate, not as anything binding)
Before _anything_ happens, Austria will have to declare itself a "German nation" in 1848/49 - that means that the revolts of the non-German parts will be very, very nasty since the player has basically destroyed the premise that the Habsburg empire can be a supranational entity. The player can defeat them, however (rebels are pathetic) and once he has managed to do so he will have to disband the Habsburg Empire. I think a good and plausible way for this would be to let Hungary independent under a brother of Francis Joseph. Hungary start off as an ally of Austria, and Austria would have to let them have Croatia as a vassal in order to keep them as allies. (Everything must come at a price!)
This should be around 1855, and instead of a fighting each other in the Crimean War, France and Austria would suddenly get involved int he dissolution of the Empire. Russia would demand that Ruthenia be made independent and a Russian protectorate... Hungary would be against it and the player will have to decide if he wants to fight it out of back down. If he fights it out (Talk about a tough fight... rump Austria and the little German countries against Russia!) he can cause southern Germany to unite as the SGF, and keep Ruthenia as a satellite. Prussia would become an ally at this point. If he backs down, Ruthenia becomes independent (a new tag would be needed) and a Russian satellite, to be annexed a couple of years later if things go wrong for Austria. Russia will get a free hand to remodel the Turkish balkans as it sees fit. (Encirclement against Austria and Hungary.)
Then all the Balkans would go havoc - the status of the city of Rijeka, the Slovenes, the inner-Hungarian conflicts all would break out and the player would need to stomp them out. At the same time the Italian holdings would revolt, and France gets involved as well. Austria would need to fightr France back - if they succeed, the north German minors will unite as NGF and become an ally of Austria. The SGF would become an Austrian satellite at this point. (Still no unification!)
Even if France can be defeated, Poland will have to get its independence. If Russia has been defeated earlier on, the Russian Congress Poland will be united with the Austrian parts and become independent as... ummm... well, some kind of pro-Austrian but also Francophile entity. Lombardy and Veneto also need to be released at this point as satellites if Austria wants to continue down the road to unification.
When all these things are over (Crimean war events need to be slept, they would make no sense under these circumstances) Austria would finally get a chance to merge with the SGF... I think this would need to happen through an Austrian "coup" within the German Confederation, very much like the way Bismarck united Germany. Only this time rump Austria (new tag: "Deutsch-Österreich", or "German Austria") and the SGF will need to defeat the NGF and Prussia - and Bohemia, which ought to attempt an outright rebellion at this point, not just ordinary rebels but a real secession. France could also come into play again. Russia should be busy stomping out revolts within its own domains at this point... there were really nasty peasant revolts in 1861 historically and it would only make sense that in this outrageous scenario this would take longer and keep Russia from intervening again.
If in the end Austria triumphs, it will have united Germany - that means, the modern-day republic of Austria, Slovenia, all of Tyrol, Bohemia, Moravia and all of Germany west of the Elbe river. Prussia _could_ remain independent, but it would fall apart. The German people will revolt against the Hohenzollerns, and in the end all that would be left under Wilhelm's heir Friedrich III (historically the 99-day Kaiser, here daddy Wilhelm should abdicate much earlier) would be East Prussia, Danzig, West Prussia and Pomerania. Posen would go to the Polish Kingdom, whatever master it may have at this point. The Hohenzollerns would be chased out of Berlin and only British intervention would keep a rump Prussia independent. (Yeah, the UK also needs to meddle in this!
) This Prussia would seek to integrate its Polish citizens and become more and more dependant upon Russian and English support.
Result: When the smoke has settled, Germany is still a colossus in terms of power potential, but it will need to maintain a very, very fragile status quo in Italy, where Lombardy and Veneto are vassal principalities under Habsburg rulers and an Austrian occupation force keeps the city of Rome quiet. France will be planning the next war already.
Hungary will be the natural #1 ally of the new Germany, since they have come out of the dissolution of the Habsburg empire with a hefty profit. (Essentially k.u.k Hungary borders - that means lots of uneasy minorities
)
Russia, although hurt, has found new allies - temporarily Britain, and permanently rump Prussia. Russia will also have gained a foothold in the Balkans - Vallachia and Moldavia will be Russian satellites, and the detachment of Poland from the Russian Empire will only have angered the Czar more.
Bohemia-Moravia will have become part of the German Empire, a natural consequence in the eyes of the Germans, but not of the Czechs.
Rebellion will remain a constant threat. This is the 19th century, after all, the age of hyper-nationalism and stupid political ideas in Germany... if you want a frightening preview to what happened in the 20th century, read what 'normal' Germans said about Bohemia in 1848, Slavs being "undeveloped" and "a mortal danger to the German nation". (They really thought this way! There was tremendous applause in the Frankfurt assembly whenever delegates called for support of the Austrians in Italy, Bohemia or Croatia, Austria was hailed as the harbinger of civilization in all of eastern Europe and as the shield which protected the German nation from the Slavic and Italian peril. Literally.)
An Austrian unification should be hellishly hard. There were, after all, good reasons why the Austrians didn't want to have anything to do with a German nation-state in any form, and tried desperately to stall any attempts to foster German nationalism among its own citizens.
What do you think of these ideas? The 19th century would become very different from how we remember it...
