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

[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.

[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.