The Guild series

Time for a thread about this series of medieval strategy/simulation games, especially since the third game is in development.

So...anyone here play? Have a favorite class? Favorite business approach? Like cheese toast?

Toast goes on cheese, not the other way around. You just gotta stand on your head to see it.

I have and have played the first game. Enjoyable; I usually start as a thief because kidnapping nobles is an extremely good way to get your starting bank account built up, and because it's a good way to drain my rivals to nothing. My second job is Preacher, because it provides a fair amount of passive income, and more importantly AP from the confessional. And because I can take over or destroy the central church after reducing its owner to no money (or kidnapping them and keeping them in jail forever if they have no kids).

And then I go banker. I mean, a thief, a priest, and a banker. How much more evil can I get?

I admit I have only played a little of the first game. The second game though...I really like it. Keep in mind that it plays very different from the first game, so what I'm about to say may not make sense. (From what I've read, the third game will have more in common with the first, so I'll have to relearn stuff.)

In the second game, I prefer picking the rogue class and setting up a pub at the beginning, as it generates good money and allows your first generation to power level (as it has the highest XP gain of any building in the game). Then, I typically court a scholar to get access to running a church (which are really important if you want to go into politics) and an infirmary (because the A.I. dynasties suck hard at running them, so the only way to deal with advanced diseases is to set one up yourself). Along the way I also set up a gypsy camp (which, if properly managed, has the best money making in the game), and then any other businesses I establish are just icing on the cake. The key is not to try to run more than six to eight, or otherwise managing them all overwhelms you.

Some more preview info about the third game.

I play the second one every once in a while. I play long games (that is, each "turn" is only a year or two), so stuff like failing to groom a child into a certain class is very painful since the investment takes so much longer.

Imagine my surprise when I spend all sorts of money to set up a hospital, only to find that I literally cannot acquire the materials necessary to make advanced cures. Hence having to groom a child into a certain class (simply to get the materials I need), and the pain when it fails...

All in all, the Guild series is fun. I'm still not quite used to how much micromanaging you need to do to get anything real done, though.

I'd tell you to try setting the AI to run your businesses, but my experience with that isn't all that good.

The main problem is that the AI refuses to sell anything locally (at the shop itself), and only ships stuff to markets. Which can be bad for a couple of reasons. One is that sooner or later it will be most profitable to sell stuff in your shops, but they will never do it. And the big one being that the AI doesn't "know" where the bandit camps are, and doesn't take them into account when deciding where to ship things, so your stuff will get stolen. And there's no way to change this without turning the AI managing production off, as far as I can tell.

Hence why I said above, six to eight businesses is the absolute upper limit. Lately, I've mainly stuck to four or five, which makes it easier to aim for side objectives like political positions and building reputation with other dynasties.

edited 22nd Aug '15 2:10:44 PM by TotemicHero

Necrotic thread bump because footage from The Guild 3 will be shown at E3 next week.