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As I love WW1 what ifs, especially in regards to the Eastern Front, here is the latest one to spring to mind.
Recently when reading "Blood on the Snow" by Graydon Tunstall, which covers the Carpathian campaigns in the winter of 1915, the author discusses three great bloodlettings that destroyed the Austro-Hungarian forces. These were the Galician 1914 campaign, the October-December battles that began with the arrival of the German 9th army by Cracow and ended with the battle of Limanova, and the three Carpathian campaigns of 1915. The last of these officially cost about 800,000 soldiers, though the Mr. Tunstall suggests the real cost was close to 1,000,000. From this point on there was literally no more trained soldiers at the front and the weakness displayed later on was the direct result of the complete destruction of all trained manpower. I think this is a gross simplification, but is definitely a major factor in poor performance of Austria-Hungary post May 1915.

Despite the losses of the Galician campaign the Habsburg forces were still capable of recovery and learning from their mistakes. Much of the dead weight at the command level (though not all by any means including Conrad himself) was gone and serious tactical reevaluations had occurred.
That said, the real turning point for the Austro-Hungarian army (IMO) was the counter offensive in October 1914 that relieved Przemysl, but by November saw the CP forces thrown back to their starting line several hundred thousand men fewer. The bloodletting continued through December, as the Russian pressed into the Carpathians and reduced the Austro-Hungarian armies in the East to little more than 300,000 men.

POD
What I am proposing is this: What if Conrad had heeded the protests of his generals and sat on the defensive after September, digging in and resisting through December? His forces were badly in need of rest, reinforcement, and reorganization, as they had lost about 45% of their forces on the Eastern front. His generals demanded a period without offensive action so this could occur, but Conrad demanded the Germans help him attack. Had the Austro-Hungarians sat still, I propose the following:

They could receive reinforcements, including from the Serbian sector where Potiorek had just suffered yet another defeat.

Defensive trenches could be dug and a proper defense line sighted on the foot hills of the Carpathians.

Przemysl could be safely left to its own devices for now thanks to being properly provisioned and defended.

Supplies could be built up for the offensive after the Germans brought in enough reinforcements from the West.

Austro-Hungarian and German cavalry formations could sabotage logistics in Central Poland before the Russians could deploy forces to the theater (i.e. in October), much like historically.

This all could work because the Russians were halted by the weather, poor infrastructure in Galicia, the change of rail gauges from the Russian to Austrian widths limiting supply to Russian forces, and the Russian repositioning of their armies to the north. The Austro-Hungarians possessed the best intelligence services of the war and knew Russian plans, which did not include attacking them for a couple of months. So they had the time necessary to create the heavy positions they needed to hold out and rebuild.

Having done so the Austrian would be well prepared for the Russian attacks in late October-November, which would save them hundreds of thousands of casualties and rely on the logistical difficulties the Russians were having to blunt their advance. If the Austrians were well prepared to meet the Russians on ground of their choosing with extensive trenches, Brussilov and Dimitriev's forces would not have nearly an easy time advancing against the Austrian trenches as they were having trouble massing enough artillery shells during this period. Basically, unlike OTL, the Russians are halted further forward near the Dunajec and Carpathian foot hills.

Of course all this requires Conrad and AOK realizing the capabilities of their armies, which is nearly ASB :( but as this is a what if, let's play along. Though ultimately the Austro-Hungarian forces would be in positions somewhat forward of their historical ones, they would be far better off with their forces being considerably more intact in 1915 than OTL. Basically by the time they were ready to go on the offensive and the Germans were ready to support them with the forces used for the Südarmee, the fighting would not be in the Carpathians, but rather forward in the foothills, where the weather would not be as harsh and the supplies lines would be secure. Also having larger and more experienced formations still intact for the 1915 offensives, the Russians won't be able to defend nearly as well against the militia sent against them historically.

I was thinking about writing a TL about this, anyone interested?
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