Monarchy

Major Bonus: +1 Housing per level of Walls

Minor Bonus: +50% Influence Points

Monarchy Rundown:

This Government's main strength is when it comes compared to the other T2 Government types. You're going to have access to more policy cards about 8-10 turns earlier than either Merchant Republic or Theocracy: even if you've rushed for Mercenaries first...Earlier still if you did not. You will have access to particularly powerful Civics cards which will unlock powerful aspects of the game such as the ability to efficiently produce those units after you've already reached the point where you've upgraded them for whatever reason. Also by rushing Theocracy you've rushed the ability to get Alliances so if you correspond this with another player to work towards that goal it can be an extremely powerful point for both of your empires.

Strengths:

• Early access: You're going to access this Government type before any other T2 Government.
• Extra Military Slots: You're going to be able to produce and maintain an even larger and more diverse military than before, opening up policy card slots for any other type, be it Diplomatic, Economic, or Wildcard Specific.
• Ability to produce: One of the main problems with rushing for an early technology, say Knights is that you will have a spike in power but you will not be able to maintain that power over an extended period due to your inability to aptly produce that unit efficiently. If you find yourself in that situation you're going to want to rush Monarchy to help get those extra units out after you've upgraded them.
• Position: One of the things you're going to want to be rushing for in the early game-before the Medieval era ends- is Guilds. Rushing down Monarchy puts you in a perfect position to maximize the benefits of the Free Inquiry Dedication so that you can get a ton of Science throughout that era, putting you on some extremely strong ground coming into the next era
• Leads to a more powerful T2 Government: even if this is not the most powerful T2 Government, it's a requirement to get to one that is one of the more powerful ones

Weaknesses:

• Weak: Easily the weakest of the three T2 Governments the Major and Minor bonuses as well as the Legacy bonuses are dismissable and unlikely to be useful for you in most situations.
• Timing: If you've truly rushed for this civic you're going to be missing out on an extremely powerful timing push that will come with the Mercenaries Civic
• Economic/Wildcard Slots: Monarchy is lacking in this department. While you do have the extra Military Card Slots you're not going to be able to run multiple Economic Policy Cards or Wildcards without giving something else up, something the other T2 governments will not be lacking in.
• Heavy Cavalry overflow strategies: If you've researched Divine Right (The required Civic for Monarchy) then you've lost access to the Maneuver policy card and you no longer have the ability to use overflow strategies with it in the mid/late game

Militaristic Policy Card Slot: 3

• You're obviously going to want to focus on maintaining your military power, as such Conscription is a no-brainer.
• Depending on where you are in the game and your goals you have some options here: If you're being attacked but do not necessarily have to produce units to maintain a defense you can put on Limes or Bastions. Alternatively you can also run with a Production Base Civic Card so that you can more efficiently bolster your military force as the game proceeds
• Here's a little bit that many people will pass up on. Because you've tech'd through Civil Service you have access to the Policy Card Retainers. You have the capacity to run this card and produce a single unit for every city which has no cost--A Scout for example. You can use this to negate the impairments of an extended war on the yield values on your empire-- you can only really do this because you've got that extra militaristic policy card slot, though you can also place it in a wildcard if you feel that will benefit you enough

Economic Policy Card Slot: 1

It's very likely you're going to be using this slot to get Science so you're going to be running Town Charters or Natural Philosophy but you could be running things like Serfdom or a myriad of other Economic Civic Cards.

Diplomatic Policy Card Slot: 1

Still few options here, You're soon going to unlocking powerful Diplomatic Cards like Machiavellianism and Wisselbanken and Merchant Confederation but you're still very likely to be spending a good portion of the time you're running Monarchy using the older Diplomatic Civic cards to control City-States

Wildcard Policy Card Slot: 1

It's very likely that this civic card will be going towards an economic policy card though you can also use it for a legacy card or a diplomatic card if you feel that will have a larger impact than an economic one

End