I need Guild Help please....Noob Question

How do I get the special guild knight units when using England (Hospitaller and Templar Knights) and not the regular guild units like sword, horse, merchants.....etc...etc ??

I have used England to try to obtain the Templar Headquarters and St. Johns' Headquarters but they only give me sword ,horse, merchants, wood, and mason guilds.....etc.....etc.

So if I have Nottingham,then I only make horse units in that country and I still can't get the "special" knight units. The only time I can get the "special" guilds is if I take over another country that already has it.

Am I doing something wrong or do they come during the later years of the game??

In my English game, I only got a Hospitaller's guild after building a citadel and successfully completing 2 crusades. Remember that you can't get more than 1 guild per settlement, so the tough thing is to make sure you don't have a guild by the time you get there already. (Though, you can destroy them.) The key though is that some actions, like recruiting units give a settlement a bonus towards a guild, and some give an empire-wide bonus (like crusading, I guess.)

Guild mechanics are some of the least understood in the game, but there was a very good thread on here recently with more specifics. The Org is kind of flaky right now so I'm not having any luck finding it, try searching for guilds when things are running smooth again.

Crusade a few times and thou shall receive. All guild require 100 points. For the Templar and Hospitaller guilds, each successful crusade nets 25 points. St. John's also gives 10 points for declaring war on Islamic faction. There is also some bonus for sharing borders with an Islamic faction.

I didn't have a swordsmith's guild until I conquered one. It upgraded, too. Don't know if you can take over another faction's Crusader guild.

Thank you very much guys !!!!!!

Off to go play now !!!

You can, Doug. However, if it's a guild hall you can't have it won't give you any benefit. If you as England take over a Spanish castle that houses a chapter house of the Knights of Santiago, you won't be able to recruit them there. I now have a citadel with an academy in it, in my Venice campaign, but it won't let me build agents there.

If you want the swordmaker guild at a specific castle, churn out swordsmen at that castle. I tend to "make and break" 3 at a turn until I get the guild. By "make and break" I mean I make 3 on one turn and then break them on the next and make 3 new. I guess you could make them and break them on the same turn and pay no upkeep that way but I want to make sure the game records them having been made first so I hold each new batch for one turn so the database can be sure to update.

You can also "grind" up to a master guild that way.

I do the same with archers to get woodsman.

Once you have the right castle size, it shouldnt take more than 4 or 5 turns of grinding out "make and breaks" to get your guild.

With the "knightly" guilds you can only have one per nation?

On a national management level, I add the guild name I want to each city/castle with an x before it in the city/castle managment screen. Then edit out the x once the guild gets got. I'll cap the first letter of the guild name once I get the master level and will all cap the name if I get the HQ.

You do this by opening up your city/castle management window and clicking on the name of the city/castle at the top of the screen. You can then add what you like or rename as you like.

Mine will look like this:
London(xmerchant) = I want the merchant guild in London
London(merchant) = I have the merchant guild in London
London(Merchant) = I have the master merchant guild in London
London(MERCHANT) = I have the merchant guild HQ in London.

The reason I do the (xname) is to help keep things organized when guilds are being offered. Sometimes its too easy to forget what you want and where you want it when the offer screen comes up. With the (xname) it comes up like this:

Theives guild offers to London(xmerchant) yes or no? It's much easier to remember what you wanted where when its in the name of the place getting the offer.

the naming thing is a good tip =), thx grimmy

Concur, Great tip Grimmy.:idea2: