Bavaria
From VickyWiki
Bavaria is a German Regional Power. At the start of the game (in V4) you have strong allies in Prussia, Austria and most minor german states (called the Deutscher Bund in history).
At first it's best to do nothing except to stabilize your economy. You have good alphebetics, so try to enhance your think tanks.
During the liberal Revolution watch your neighbors closely. If they get revolution they can't control, check them. If they get liberal, they'll drop their alliances and you may attack them without provoking the Deutscher Bund. First casuality of the Liberals is historically Baden (in the southwest). Give them a few turns Liberalism, then attack them. Try to anney them completly, you need two wars to do this. You'll get lots of population for all German Liberals will gather in Baden. Build lots of fabrics there.
Later on, try this trick on other neighbors, Saxony usually gets liberal, too, and has iron and coals.
If you get Baden, you'll share a border with Switzerland. They have no allies, so try to anney them. They have lots of workers and fabrics, but you may get in trouble with Sardinia-Piemont or, later, Italy (historically Piemont unified Italy 1858). The Unification of Italy is not in your interests, so try to stop it. You have to take a major italian city like Milano or Torino to do so, and this won't be easy. The war of 1864 (historically Prussia and Austria vs Denmark) won't affect you, two major powers have no problems with one opponent. If they call to help, accept and do nothing.
When 1866 comes and with it the german war (historically Prussia with a few german allies vs Austria with many german allies), you may choose a side of your liking. If possible, circumvent major clashes with Prussia or Austria and try to annex or satellite minor allies in central Germany. Historically Prussia wins and unifies northern Germany in the Norddeutscher Bund while Austria gets the "Ausgleich" with its hungarian parts and a new flag. In the game it may happen or not.
Comes 1870/71, France and Prussia (Norddeutscher Bund) go to war. Historically Baden, Wuerttemberg and Bayern (Süddeutscher Bund) joined Prussia and proceeded to take Paris and unify Germany.
You won't want that to happen, so you may ally with France or use the opportunity to anney or satellite some more minor german countries. This may get you in a war with Austria and/or Italy, so better be prepared.
If you survived all this until now, you will have some bad reputations (or not, but I usually have) and therefor some big wars vs France, Prussia and Austria to do, sometimes even vs Netherlands and Italy on top of this, but this wars are winable (if barely). Bohemia shall be a major target if you win this wars (for people and fabrics), so is Mulhouse in France (they have a ressource you'll want to have!).
The next moves are unpredictable, they depend to much on what you have done so far. It's entire possible you'll have a harbour now, so you may want to go for your own battleships ("SMS Oktobrefest"?) or do other things.
It's possible to bring Bavaria in the Top 8, but its not easy!
Commants are appreciated,
yours,
Kaiu Atrovent
