Constitutional Monarchy is a government type in Empire: Total War and Napoleon: Total War.
Empire: Total War[]
Constitutional Monarchies are created when the upper class in the home region of Republics successful revolt. For more information, see Revolution.
Head and Cabinet[]
The head of a constitutional monarchy is the king, who sits for life and is replaced by a biological heir. The cabinet is elected through popular vote, and serves for five years (10 turns) before another election. The cabinet may be re-elected for a potentially infinite number of terms. Should cabinet members die, they are replaced by their sons. Players may force an election once per turn; the less popular the current cabinet is, the more likely it would be replaced by a new one. Government popularity depends on a variety of reasons, including satisfaction with taxes, successes and failures with wars, and popularity of ministers within the cabinet.
One cabinet member may be kicked per turn, generating a new cabinet member with random attributes. As whole cabinets may not be replaced at will (as is the case for an Absolute Monarchy), constitutional monarchies may only gradually improve their cabinets over time. With careful tending, however, a constitutional monarchy's cabinet can eventually be just as competent as that of an absolute monarchy.
Diplomacy[]
Constitutional monarchies enjoy a large bonus to diplomatic relations with other constitutional monarchies, but suffer a small penalty with both absolute monarchies as well as republics. Uniquely, constitutional monarchies do not react strongly to other factions changing government types, nor do other factions react strongly to a nation becoming a constitutional monarchy.
Unit Roster[]
Constitutional Monarchies have identical unit rosters to absolute monarchies: the full standard roster, as well as Guards and their equivalents, and the various guard cavalry types. They cannot recruit Conscripts and the Republican Guard, which are available only to republics.
Other Effects[]
- Repression: 3
- Nobility Class Happiness: +1
- Lower Class Happiness: +1
- Effects of Clamour For Reform: -25%
- Minister Growth In Home Theatre: +3
- Town Wealth Growth: +5
- No Penalty to Happiness for Industrialization
Overview[]
Constitutional monarchies are a compromise of sorts between absolute monarchies and republics. There is still a king who sits for life, but the Cabinet are elected through popular election. Research rates, happiness bonuses/penalties, repression, clamor due to reform, and town wealth growth are all middle of the road. Probably most notably, constitutional monarchies do not suffer any penalties to happiness from industrialization whatsoever, essentially making cultural and religious buildings redundant.
In many ways, constitutional monarchies are the best government type--particularly for the mid-to-late game. Their town wealth growth rate is superior to that of absolute monarchies, and is only somewhat surpassed by that of republics; this, in turn, is more than offset by the ability to build as many industrial buildings as one desires without risking riots or rebellions. With most to all of the research completed by the late game, the bonus to research that republics hold over constitutional monarchies become a moot point. On a related note, with most to all technology research completed, schools lose their purpose, and their removal makes reduction of clamor for reform unimportant. Cabinets may not be altered as much as those of absolute monarchies, but can be improved gradually and can be made to sit for life. Additionally, being a republic locks many unique and/or useful units, which is a constraint that constitutional monarchies do not need to worry about.
List of Constitutional Monarchies[]
Napoleon: Total War[]
Constitutional Monarchies return in Napoleon: Total War. They are very similar to their previous incarnation: they are a compromise between absolute monarchies and republics. In order for a faction to become a constitutional monarchy, it must first be a republic and have a successful middle-class revolt.
As with its Empire: Total War incarnation, constitutional monarchies have heads of government that sit for life, and a cabinet that is elected once every five years. Whereas five years in Empire is represented by ten turns, it is represented by 120 turns in Napoleon, meaning that over the course of an entire campaign a constitutional monarchy would have to deal with one or two elections at most. At the beginning of the Campaigns of the Coalition, Great Britain's (the only constitutional monarchy) cabinet has served most of its term and is set to hold another election in 34 turns, or one year and five months.
Individual cabinet members may be replaced once per turn. Should they die of natural causes, they are replaced by their sons.
Bonuses and penalties for constitutional monarchies are as follows:
- Clamour for reform: +25%
- Lower class happiness: +1
- Upper class happines: +1
- Repression: +3