Absolute monarchy: how to not have a revolution every 10 years?

[Meneldil]

Playing as France, I saw myself quickly struggling trying to maintain public order in my provinces.

To be honest, I went a bit heavy on schools, having 6 of them at some point. And I indeed researched too many social 'technologies'.
In 1714, things got quite bad, with not only my american and european provinces rioting, but with France going crazy aswell. I had to face a revolution and decided to side with the Monarch (as I kind of wanted to trigger my own revolution later on). I won the battle and recovered my empire with an hopefully decent public order.

Thing is, ten turns later, the effects of my proto industrial-revolution are kicking in, and my public order is once again terrible. And that is, with almost all my provinces exempted from tax. So here I am, waiting for the next revolution, which will likely come pretty soon.
I can't see how I could handle things more properly. The public order malus for the low class is so bad that I can't build any workhouse/school without having people getting crazy and throwing stones at my beautiful modern buildings
Should I accept the Republic or am I doomed to face wanabee riots every few turns till my Empire is somehow built?

[Sisco Americanus]

Well, having lots of schools will increase clamor for reform, as you've mentioned, so you might knock some of them down in your more troubled regions and build church schools instead. You could do the same for factories if your biggest problem is unrest from industrialization, although building up your agriculture will help cut down on industrialization unrest if you haven't done that already. Also, it probably goes without saying, but don't research any philosophy techs for a while.

Playing as Austria, I've built up my schools and tech researching and I'm starting to see the clamor for reform as well. I seem to remember the advisor lady saying something about success in war increasing patriotic fervor and thus public happiness, so I'm thinking about picking a fight with someone soon. Something to think about if you've been at peace for a while, as I have.

[Sheogorath]

Six schools in one province?

If that's what you meant, spread things out. I try to avoid having more than one school per province. Then you can keep things nicely under control.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I am playing the Brits and have changed the government very early on. Britain is a republic now and I have build four universities in England. In England I have build only two pleasure palaces to keep public order. I have one university in India and that's it. Now public problems order whatsoever except early in the campaign when I captured Indian regions was the different religion casing some problems. If you do want the revolution to succeed get all your forces outside France and let the red forces loose.

[Megas Methuselah]

Let the republic succeed to form a republic, then go for another revolt to get a constitutional monarchy. That's the best gov't, IMHO.

[Liberator]

I'm playing with the Ottomans on VH and I had my first revolution in 1760 (and I wanted it to happen!)
-Just build one school/college/university in a region
-prefer regions with a lot of towns for building schools, so that entertainment and religious building can compensate the bad effects of the school
-do not build to much (advanced) industry in one region
-adjust taxation if nesseary

[Belid Hagen]

I've completed 5 campaigns so far, never had a single revolution.

[Melvish]

Well with 6 schools and absolute monarchy get use to see revolution in France. The solution is either get rid of the king or get rid of the schools, your choice.

I would recommend to change to republic because of the nice bonus to tech it give and the lower class will be easy manageable(no uprising) if your government maintain 40% popularity (if it drop below that just hold an election) The nobles can get tipsy occasionally but they are easily bullied by 500 republicans guards and a couple of cannons.

In my last French game Louis XIV didn't die of old age but of neck trauma. By 1750 i had ~8 schools and had only one pathetic royalist uprising (half stack) that was promptly cut to shred by my republicans guard. When you're advance enough in Tech you can start to replace the schools with economics buildings

[Belid Hagen]

There's absolutely no reason to have more than one school in any one province, and no more than 4 schools total. You will finish the tech tree way way before your game is over.

It is unbelieably easy to avoid revolutions by just having 1-2 units in a region capital, even without pleasure palaces or churches, with a popularity of about 70%.

[AussieGiant]

There's absolutely no reason to have more than one school in any one province, and no more than 4 schools total. You will finish the tech tree way way before your game is over.

It is unbelieably easy to avoid revolutions by just having 1-2 units in a region capital, even without pleasure palaces or churches, with a popularity of about 70%.

ok so that is good information. Thanks

[Monsieur Alphonse]

There's absolutely no reason to have more than one school in any one province, and no more than 4 schools total. You will finish the tech tree way way before your game is over.

It is unbelieably easy to avoid revolutions by just having 1-2 units in a region capital, even without pleasure palaces or churches, with a popularity of about 70%.

That is correct. Build a school and a pleasure palace in four regions and you should have no problem. Or let a revolution happen and build one pleasure palace and four schools in one region.

[Meneldil]

I had two schools in France, and a total of 6 schools in my empire (2 in NA, 1 in Germany, 1 in the UP).

The thing is, France has so many cities that at some point, industrialization becomes an issue. I have finally accepted the Republic, and well, everything is going pretty well. My income doubled since I've been able to upgrade my workhouse and set low taxes.

I might try to go for a Constitutional Monarchy later on.

[Zoring]

Have hundreds of Dragoons roaming about curb-stomping the populace when they get uppity. Easy peasy. My Prussians have 6 schools all over and only a single riot so far.

[Martok]

The voice of the Camel Lord:

Any further trolling, baiting, flaming, or use of naughty words will result in this thread being closed with extreme prejudice. Let's behave, folks.



With that out of the way, I do have a question: Not having had a chance to play much of the game yet (I'm still slogging my way through the RTI campaign), I was curious as to how a constitutional monarchy compares to the other government types. Is it closer to one government type or the other, or is it truly more in between? And either way, what are the main bonuses & penalties for it?

[Eusebius86]

With that out of the way, I do have a question: Not having had a chance to play much of the game yet (I'm still slogging my way through the RTI campaign), I was curious as to how a constitutional monarchy compares to the other government types. Is it closer to one government type or the other, or is it truly more in between? And either way, what are the main bonuses & penalties for it?

Absolute monarchy has more penalties to the lower class and technological growth, and possibly trade growth (?). I believe that Constitutional monarchy is more of a middle road, letting you retain some control of your cabinet, but has lower tech and class penalties.

[Fiddling_nero]

The cabinet control is the same between a Republic and a Constitutional Monarchy ie. You can only fire one per turn and having no idea what you are going to get in replacement. The only difference is that you get to keep the Executive around longer as a Monarchy instead of changing them like socks.

[Quillan]

I would definitely recommending siting your schools only in provinces with larger base capital cities, that way you can build an opera house plus use the improved fortifications in addition to a pleasure palace in one of the towns for happiness. That'll help counteract the "clamor for reform" that comes with the universities. It's a base -7 with a Modern University, plus whatever comes from the Enlightenment techs you research.

[andrewt]

I have 8 schools right now in my UP game, having captured a few later on in the game. I'm up to 22 provinces now out of 40 needed. All of my colleges are in different provinces. Some of them I built in small provinces with not much else. Mines and towns increase unhappiness so if you build a college in a province with almost nothing else, you won't have a huge amount of unhappiness in that town. Also, you can exempt it from taxes since it generates barely anything anyway.

Keep an eye on your ministers as well. They get negative traits to happiness from time to time. Just kick those ministers out. Chances are, the ones replacing them will have no traits.

[Callahan9119]

What the hell was the warning for?

[A Very Super Market]

PMs to appeal to moderators. Or attempts at appeals....

Oh, and does anybody else find that the AI has an unusual ability to keep public order up? I gave Georgia some province (After razing everything), filled with universities, yet they hold on with barely 4 units garrisoned.

[Noncommunist]

Do the other factions ever have revolutions?

[Ishmael]

actually, thats a good point. Do countries like France (for examples sake) tend to have revolutions at all? I haven't finished my game yet so I dont know if the French Revolution is a regular thing.

[dopp]

I think like previous TW games the AI gets very large bonuses to maintain public order, so while it's possible, it's also very unlikely.

[Melvish]

Not having had a chance to play much of the game yet (I'm still slogging my way through the RTI campaign), I was curious as to how a constitutional monarchy compares to the other government types. Is it closer to one government type or the other, or is it truly more in between? And either way, what are the main bonuses & penalties for it?

Constitutional Monarchy is indeed the middle ground between Republic and Absolute Monarchy. It only give slit bonus to higher class happiness and no bonus (or malus like for the absolutism) to lower class. Also no bonus for tech or trade. You can only kick out one member of your cabinet at the time (well except if you hold an election).In absolutism you can replace them by "whoever" you wish whenever you wish.

I tend to concentrate all my schools in capital when playing with France (with the Sister Kingdoms i tend to spread them a little and build lot less).This enable me to trigger Revolution France as quick as possible and avoid a succession war with Austria and her allies. It help also, somehow, to to ease up tension with Germans OPM and forge alliances (even with Savoy!). This enable me to focus exclusively on America while i tech up. Less Army upkeep in Europe mean less tax that translate to faster trade and population growth. Witch translate to more town then more schools and wealth. No need for pleasure palace and church as the happiness of lower class always stay in the green due to low tax and Republic bonus. Nobles, like said earlier, can be unruly sometime but they are a minority and the fear of neck trauma keep them on the line most of the time.

You have to be careful to develop economically and not lose your colonies as they are your main source of income since France is turn into the World Capital of Knowledge and Enlightenment. When you are advance enough for your liking in tech, you can start replace schools with industrial and happiness buildings. By then America should be mostly in your control and you'll have have steady income to wage full time war of aggression and annexation in Europe or you can still delay that and go for India.

[Meneldil]

actually, thats a good point. Do countries like France (for examples sake) tend to have revolutions at all? I haven't finished my game yet so I dont know if the French Revolution is a regular thing.

Russia, Sweden and Persia are apparently republics in my game.

[Mister V]

With an absolute monarchy, two modern universities in one province are enough to bring your public order way down, so don't build more than two. If you want to have more (quite necessary for a proper tech advance rate) build them somewhere else.
Otherwise, watch your industrialization, the lower classes get really pissed off if you've got more than three-four steam engine factories and/or mills in one province and nothing else to quell the

If anything, I've found that it's much easier to have an absolute monarchy. You can always throw the gay ministers out.

[A Very Super Market]

You can throw idiots out in any form of government

[Mister V]

Eh? When I tried drag-and-dropping their portraits it didn't work.

[A Very Super Market]

Well, you click them, then give them the boot for republic. They aren't replaced by the opposition, just by some randomly generated guy

[Bob the Insane]

Eh? When I tried drag-and-dropping their portraits it didn't work.

There is a boot button (literally a picture of a boot) in the bottom right of the Cabinet screen, it highlights when you can select someone you are fire... Just select a guy a click on the boot...