For the Empire: Total War building, see Great Estates (Empire: Total War).
Great Estates are a type of agricultural building in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
These estates add substantially to the agricultural wealth and the replenishment rate of a region.
Large estates are a statement of wealth, complete with dazzling palace-sized grand houses built without thought to the expense. Landowners and the great nobility vie with each other to produce not just houses, but also idealized landscapes around them. Where the terrain is not dramatic enough, it is ruthlessly reorganized to suit the owner's tastes, and to the misery of the lower classes who are forced leave [sic] their homes to make way for deer parks and Classical follies.
Historically, a group of landscape architects in Europe completely remodelled many country estates into idyllically perfect vistas for their clients. They created the fantasy of a natural landscape, improving on what was there to make entirely artificial (and this was not a term of disapproval at the time) parkland dotted with romantic ruins and follies. In the process, men like Lancelot "Capability" Brown remade hills, flooded valleys, moved rivers, destroyed entire villages and displaced people without mercy. Many of these amazing houses and gardens still exist today as tourist attractions.
General Information[]
Assuming standard tax rate, they for themselves in 35-53 turns including build time, generating 120-220 gold per turn. As the last building available in the farm chain, great estates provide the greatest benefits but are the most expensive to build, with the worst value to cost ratio. However, compared to other final-tier buildings they pay for themselves relatively quickly, and the replenishment rate boost they grant is quite significant. One negative effect they have is a slight reduction to happiness. This makes them less desirable in already-unhappy regions: not only do they increase the likelihood of rebellion, the increased town watch costs due to the increase unhappiness might offset the economic benefits of building these farms.
Unlike in Empire: Total War, farms and their variants do not increase population growth, which in itself is not as major of a mechanic in Napoleon: Total War.
The Peninsular Campaign[]
In The Peninsular Campaign, great estates require 1,350 gold and 8 turns to build.