The Member's Club is a type of cultural building in Napoleon: Total War.
Description[]
Places of secrecy, member's clubs help generate spies and improve the happiness of all social classes.
A member's club is a sanctuary, a place to escape everyday life and spend some time with like-minded fellows. They are also quiet, private places, where secrets can be shared and deals done out of sight of others. They are, in fact, breeding grounds for intrigue, gossip, and double-dealing, making them the perfect breeding ground for unsavoury spies.
Historically, member's clubs first appeared in London towards the end of the 18th century. They were highly exclusive in their early years and provided the upper classes with somewhere to gamble, technically an illegal pastime. However, gambling was the least of many evils practised in these clubs. Perhaps the most infamous of these societies was the Hellfire Club, originally established in London in 1719 by the Duke of Wharton, simply for the purposes of debauchery. In 1735, the Irish Hellfire Club was established, and went on to outdo its predecessor in as many foul ways as possible. These included paying defrocked priests to perform mock Catholic masses, sacrificing cats to Satan and, allegedly, on one occasion offering up a dwarf in a diabolic sacrifice. To this day, no one is entirely sure why a dwarf was considered appropriate.
General Information[]
Member's clubs provide happiness to the regions that they are built in. An extra point of happiness is a relatively minor bonus, but it can help to reduce the town watch costs of unhappier regions. Building one for the purpose of halting a rebellion is pointless, however: rebellions take three turns to erupt, and member's clubs take three turns to build, meaning that their effects would be applied too late.
Member's clubs also spawn spies, agents who can perform indispensable services such as scouting, assassinating enemy agents or sabotaging enemy armies. Each member's club only allows for the spawning of one spy. As spies are often put in danger, having member's clubs built ensures that any killed spies are replaced over time.
The entertainment line of buildings are built in the same locations as the education line of buildings, so players have to choose between their benefits. Colleges and other educational buildings provide a powerful economic and military advantage thanks to the research they conduct and the gentlemen they spawn; however, there is little reason to keep educational buildings once research of all desired technologies have been completed, and in the late game the member's club line of buildings is the superior choice. The more member's clubs a faction has, the more spies it has access to.
The Peninsular Campaign[]
In The Peninsular Campaign, member's clubs remain unchanged save for their lower cost and time to build. Member's clubs remain the cheapest and fastest way to raise happiness in a region. This is particularly important for France, which begins the campaign with many unhappy regions on the verge of revolt; building member's clubs allow garrison troops to be freed up for combat.
Member's Clubs compete with the church school and college line of buildings. While all factions have access to member's clubs, Spain and Portugal don't have access to colleges while France and Great Britain don't have access to church schools. For Spain and Portugal, church schools usually represent a bigger increase in happiness in the long run as they increase anti-French sentiment over time as well as providing research points. For the French, colleges simultaneously provide research while increasing pro-French sentiment, and so are the superior choice until a region has been sufficiently converted and research completed. However, member's clubs are significantly cheaper and so represent a more easily obtained short-term option.