A Republic is a Government type in Empire: Total War, Napoleon: Total War and Fall of the Samurai.
In Empire: Total War and Napoleon: Total War Republics are created when either Absolute Monarchies or Constitutional Monarchies have the lower classes successfully revolt in their home regions. For more information, see Revolution.
The head and cabinet are elected through popular vote, and serve for 4 years (8 turns in Empire: Total War, 120 turns in Napoleon: Total War) before another election. The cabinet may be re-elected for another term, for a total of 8 years. 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 public happiness in the faction's home region.
Republics have the least amount of control over their cabinets, and may only replace one cabinet member per turn (with a new, randomly generated member). However, they may still switch around existing cabinet members to new positions.
Republics are given positive relationship points with other republics, a slight negative effect for constitutional monarchies, and a large negative effect for absolute monarchies. Should a revolution in another faction occur and transition it to a republic, there will be a very large (although diminishing) relationship bonus with that faction; the reverse is true for a faction becoming a absolute monarchy.
Empire: Total War[]
Republics chiefly benefit from very low rates of clamour for reform coupled with the best research speed of all three government types. This allows republics to fill their territories with universities without worrying about public unrest as well as receiving the maximum benefits of research. Republics also have the best town wealth growth. These attributes make republics arguably the best government type in the mid-game, where factions often have multiple universities researching complex technologies. In addition, the penalties to diplomatic relations are not as important as in the early game, as alliances and enemies are largely already decided upon. On the minus side, republics have the least amount of control over their cabinets, resulting in a mediocre cabinet at worst or, at best, an excellent cabinet that can only stay for a few turns. The large diplomatic penalties republics suffer when negotiating with absolute monarchies (and to a lesser extent, constitutional monarchies) is a problem in the early game because nearly all factions are absolute monarchies.
After all desired research is completed, constitutional monarchies are superior in most meaningful respects over republics: their cabinet options are better, they have better public order due to the removal of penalties for industrialization, and they can generate more income jointly due to their better ministers and ability to build factories without fear of upsetting the lower orders.
Republics have access to Republican Guard and Conscripts, but do not have access to regular Guards (and their equivalents) or the various guard cavalry.
Other Effects[]
- Repression: 2
- Middle Class Happiness: +1
- Lower Class Happiness: +3
- Research Rate: +5%
- Effects of Clamour For Reform: -80%
- Minister Growth In Home Theatre: +10
- Town Wealth Growth: +12
List of Initial Republics[]
Napoleon: Total War[]
Republics function in a very similar way in Napoleon: Total War as they do in Empire: Total War, with a few differences.
First, clamour for reform has a much lower presence than in Empire: Total War. In most circumstances, for most factions, it doesn't rise to the point that it may cause revolutions. In any case, republics have a higher clamour for reform than other government types.
Secondly, as each turn is half a month long (compared to Empire: Total War, where each turn is half a year), cabinets can potentially stay in power for well over one hundred turns--more than enough to conclude most campaigns.
Certain factions, such as Prussia and Russia, gain access to some units when they are republics, but also lose units that are exclusive to monarchies.
Other Effects[]
- Clamour for reform: +60%
- Lower class happiness: +3
- Upper class happiness: +1
- Repression: +2
List of Initial Republics[]
Fall of the Samurai[]
Once Realm Divide activates, the player is prompted to side with the Shogunate factions, the Imperial factions, or to declare independence as a Republic. While siding with the shogunate or the emperor comes with the benefits of various factions permanently siding with the player, choosing to become a republic causes all other factions except France, Great Britain, and the United States to declare war on the player, though shogunate and imperial forces still battle each other. Declaring independence is essentially an extra challenge for ambitious players.
Upon declaring their independence, all player-controlled Shinsengumi or Ishin Shishi agents disband. As both agent types can grant both local as well as global happiness/repression benefits, independent factions have to deal with higher unrest, and therefore benefit from technologies that increase public order, such as Censorship and Surveillance. Shinsengumi and Ishin Shishi also bribe enemy armies and assassinate agents as well as generals, so independent factions lose access to these benefits, as well.
Declaring independence causes all trained shogunate or imperial troops, such as Imperial Guard Cavalry, Shogunate Infantry and Shogunate Guard Infantry, to disband. Such troops are usually among the best units players can field, so their loss is a severe one for at least the short term, until replacements can be trained. Some factions, such as the Aizu, Tosa and Choshu, have unique infantry that can effectively substitute for the lost units, making such factions particularly good choices for attempting an independent campaign with. Republics gain access to Republican versions of Shogunate and Imperial troops. While Republican Guard Infantry and Republican Infantry are statistically near-identical to their Shogunate and imperial counterparts, Republican Guard Cavalry are strictly inferior.
Propaganda buildings that have been upgraded to tier 3 or higher have to be rebuilt from the ground up in order to convert the population to independent allegiance. If planning to declare independence in advance, it is a very good idea to not upgrade propaganda buildings to tier 3 before doing so, in order to save time and money and also to convert the population faster.