Unification of Germany (PS)

The Unification of Germany was a line of events that lead to the unification of the previously divided German states under Prussia, and then formed the German Empire. The Unification of Germany(UniGer from below) was caused by the rise of nationalism in Germany following the revolutions of 1830 and 1840, and lead to the creation of a grand power in Central Europe. The UniGer is characterised by the German Question, a conflict between Austria and Prussia on who should lead the new German state, and after the Prussian victory of the Austro-Prussian wars Prussia under Otto von Bismarck lead the German Empire. The UniGer is one of the main point scenarios of the A Nation Divided scenario, but can literally be done by any German state as long as they take a certain set of focuses.

Meta
Within the game, the UniGer is a giant event that largely impacts every nation in Europe, as it disrupted the balance of powers established in the Treaty of Vienna in true history. In true history the process of UniGer was gradual and done without militaristic interference until the Austro-Prussian Wars. This slow process of unification is represented as a separate part of the focus tree for German states. This focus tree is unique for German states and is a core feature of the German states, allowing any German state to unify Germany when historical focuses is off.

The Unification Tree
The Unification Tree is a tree that is quite different from other focus trees as it causes interactions with other nations in a give-and-take format. The choices you make in the UniTree effects other players' UniTrees, and vice versa. The progress of unification is entire governed by chance, but obviously one can largely alter these chances by taking decisions of the proper order. The focuses lower down the branch take exponentially more time, and make investing into Unification a dangerous, but high-returning gamble.

The UniTree is composed of largely three sub-trees(branches), the Attack Branch, the Defense Branch and the Progress Branch. All unification progresses revolve around the Progress Branch, and every focus in this branch taken annexes another country and takes one a step further into unification. The first event of the Progress Branch fires an event for annexing nations with only one state, the second does for nations with up to 3 states, and the last one for the rest. For nations that aren't Prussia or Austria, there is a fourth focus that aims to integrate one of two nations and go to war with the other; if the integration fails one goes to war with them as well.

As mentioned above, all of these actions are governed by chance; when the event is fired one 'battle' with the nations they are trying to annex. The nation that selected the focus enters the "offense" side, and the targets of annexation enter on the "defense" side. The results of the "battle" are calculated behind the scene, and leads to an event, either a victory for defense or event chain leading to annexation.

This is where the idea of the Offense tree comes in. Battles are fought with national unity and national spirits, which can be earned through going down the Offense Branch. Usually the first Offense Branch gives the basic spirit to have at least a minimal chance for Unification, "the Revolutions of 1840". After that, the next branches give more national unity, a generally positive bonus, and trigger diplomatic events. Obviously more investments into Offense increase chances of victory in "battles" and bring one closer to Unification. Nations with custom Unification Trees also receive national spirits when they take Offense focuses, and get higher chances of victory when in the offense side of a "battle". The final focus of the Offense Branch, "The Grand Picture", takes a enormous amount of time, but gives a 100% chance of victory when one takes the "offense" side into "battle", unless the opponent also has "The Grand Picture" or the "Independent Forever".

However, either losing an offense or a defense both has dire consequences; losing an offense bans a nation from trying to unify Germany again, and losing a defense leads to annexation(almost a game over for the player). The chances of loss can be avoided through the Defense Branch. Each focus in the Defense Branch give the player more national unity, and similarly national spirits that increase the chances of winning a "battle" on the "defense" side. Two final Defense focuses are given, either the spirit "Zeal for Unity", or the spirit "Independent Forever". The "Zeal for Unity" is a offensive mechanic that helps when one loses an "offense" side of a battle. Instead of being stripped of the ability to continue unification, one is allowed to freely continue unification in a month or two, depending on the situation. Since it is impossible to retake a focus already taken, after the spirit expires another offense event fires for all the failed nations, as long as they don't have the "Independent Forever" focus. The "Independent Forever" focus is a defensive measure that gives the player a 100% chance of victory for a "battle" fought on the "defense" side, and overrides "The Grand Picture". A nation that selects this is completely exempt from the process of unification through focuses, and only can be integrated through war. The "Independent Forever" focus also opens up many diplomatic events to be guaranteed by neighbouring nations that fear the rise of Prussia and the collapse of balance within Europe.

Every nation other than Prussia and Austria has to handle at least one of these nations through war to fully unify Germany. The fourth focus of the Progress Tree is divided into two, to either incorporate only Prussia or extend the reign to Austria. Trying to take Prussia only will provoke Austria

Strategy
All isn't failed when either one is taking the road to being annexed, or another nation has taken the "Independent Forever". A classical way of regaining power other from the Unification Tree is pure war; a nation annexed under one by war cannot refuse to be annexed, or demand annexation. If the player were to completely focus on military expansion and conquer the German States through conquest, it could even possibly be a quicker solution to avoid the time grind of unifying Germany. War is justifiable through focuses that branch from the Offense Branch, and takes much less than the vanilla method of justifying war. However, no matter how justified a conquest may be, for defense or conquest, a military victory cannot have no consequences; forcibly unifying a nation through force will cause revolts and a weak state compared to the historic German Empire.

Winning a war against a nation that was demanding annexation also can enforce them to repeal their annexation claims, and through peace treaty events one can revert their actions of unification, or even annex them to take their claims and continue annexation, like the "Zeal for Unity" spirit.