Guilds (and what they do)

[Morrie]

I was offered the minor Templar guildhouse playing as the Poland. They wanted to set up in Krakowa, after the city had reached its, uh, 2nd stonewall stage. The game is going well in other regards, having taken Jerusalem with a crusade (received templar and hospitalier retinues for my general, probably because I was accompanyed by unit of Templar knights) after which the eggies sued for peace. So I gave them one, at the cost of Acre castle. It was still a generous offer for some reason. Odd.

For what it is worth, I had built many priests from Krakowa, done as the pope had wanted, only attacked rebel settlements, yada yada.

[ArT II]

I was offered St. John Hospitalier Guild in Acre after a succesful crusade and right after building a cathedral in my capital (London). London already had theologians guild. not quite sure if it was linked but it seems logical as well maybe your curent standing with the pope.

[Widget Maker]

The headquaters of the Assassins guild is extremely valuable, it means all my assassins start with 4 eyes normally(I think my king has a retinue member that boosts assassins. Gets rid of the crappy early training and 2-3 kills later they have max stats. As the Venician family have found out to their cost(and a couple of popes, screw elections, they vote the wrong one in then kill him (44% chance for a newly elected pope and a perfect assassin).

[Kobal2fr]

Just making sure, because the question's been nagging me for a while : if you accept, say, a basic merchant guild in your city, will it be eventually upgraded to master's guild / HQ as the population grows and offers come ? Or will you be stuck with a level 1 guild forever because you jumped on the occasion ?

[Quillan]

Just making sure, because the question's been nagging me for a while : if you accept, say, a basic merchant guild in your city, will it be eventually upgraded to master's guild / HQ as the population grows and offers come ? Or will you be stuck with a level 1 guild forever because you jumped on the occasion ?

The offer to upgrade doesn't seem to be based so much on city growth as it does on your continued performing whatever the guild is involved with. While there is a size prerequisite (must be large city to get a Master building and huge to get a HQ), if you stop making/using assassins, you'll never get the upgrades. If you do it a lot, you'll certainly get the Master building (everyone can have one, and even more than one if you capture them), and the HQ if no one else gets it first.

[Spino]

Some people hit the nail on the head. Guilds gravitate to your cities based on your construction and recruit history. Early in my English campaign I was churning out quite a number of spies and lo and behold, I got requests to build Thieves Guilds in the cities where I recruited most of my spies. I churned out tons of Peasant Archers and Longbowmen in Nottingham and boomf! I got a Woodsmen Guild and can now produce those infamous men-in-tights from Sherwood with their uncanny marksmanship ability. I kept making trade boosting buildings and Merchants in Rennes and bam! Merchants Guild.

A strange thing I noticed: The city where you have the "Master" level guild house doesn't get the basic level guild house bonus anymore.

Example: I had Master Thieves Guild in Venice, and Thieves Guild in Genoa => As a result, all my cities get the Master bonus, but in Genoa, my spies get BOTH the global Master bonus and the Basic city-specific bonus (So they are minimum +2 skill at the start).

Correction to this would be that Master guildhouses and HQs should give the global bonus AND in addition the basic guildhouse bonus to agents trained in that city. Otherwise the cities with basic guildhouses will build the more skilled agents, which doesn't make sense.

Sounds like a bug that deserves patching. Please post your findings in the Bug thread stickied at the top of this forum.

[Arifel]

I wonder how well these guilds stack: Swordsmith guild (Global +Knight Exp) + Horse Breeder Guilde (GLobal +Cavalry Exp) + Tourney Field (Local +Knight Exp) + Crusading Order (Local +Crusader Knight Exp). Gold Chevron Crusader Knights right out of the recruitment queue anyone?

[Lawyer]

Some people hit the nail on the head. Guilds gravitate to your cities based on your construction and recruit history.

I have a very limited sample to draw from but from only only experience in getting an offer for a guild I recieved the thieves guild offer.

in that game I only had 2 spies (and I am fairly certain I only had 1 active when I got the offer but am not 100% sure) but I had been using my 1 spy to spy out cities every single turn. playing as Russia, spying on poland constantly.

use this info however you will in determing a cause/effect of guilds

[geala]

My little experiences till now:

- Guilds seem to prefer cities where assosiated units are produced. I built assassins in Frankfurt, priest in Nürnberg and was offered the guilds some time after.

- Of course for a knight guild the above rule cannot be valid. It may be coincidence for this kind of guilds? I was offered to build teuton knight guild in different towns and a castle, being at very bad relations with the pope and without taking part in a crusade or builing churches.

- You can destroy a guild and receive an offer later for another guild in the same town. I destroyed my teuton knight guild in Frankfurt, received an offer to build assassin guild there and for teuton knight guild a little later in Hamburg.

- Even with the best assassin guild the use of assassins is very painful and of not much effort. My +10 assassins are hardly capable to kill pesty inquisitors. Ok, a bit exaggerated, but only a bit. And I hate assassins loosing abilities because of failures, although it's very realistic because nobody in the world is able to learn from mistakes.

[FrauGloer]

So far, as the Scots, I have a Swordsmith's guild in Nottingham and have been offered another in Hamburg, as well as Theologican, Thief, and Explorer in several cities (in London most of all --> they seem to like that one ^^) I haven't participated in any crusades yet (mainly because I've been almost permanently excommunicated for bashing the English, the back-stabbing French, and the pesky Danes), but now that there's a new Pope and my enemies subdued, I'm planning for a crusade to the Holy Land. I really hope to get the Hospitaler guild house soon, as the Scots lack decent cavalry in the later period. BTW: Why would you want Templars over Hospitalers? They are weaker and you don't get the Health bonus the Hospitaler guid gives you.

[Wizzie]

Ive gotten loads of offers for Thieves guilds, but I do build alot of spies. I also have the thieves headquarters in Arhus (playing as English), a minor Templar Chapterhouse in Inverness, the Theologians guild in York and the Woodsmans guild in Caen. The Templar Chapterhouse puzzled me as I hadnt went on crusade when I was offered it, although I did have alot of piety, cardinals and full reputation with the poe (&amp; alliance with Papal States)...<br>

[Quillan]

I got offers for Swordsmiths Guilds when two things happened: 1) the castle in question had as high as a heavy armorer, and 2) I had been building a lot of melee infantry which could take advantage of the guild weapon upgrade. In one castle, I built all the way up to an armor factory, but didn't get the swordsmith guild until I started cranking infantry out of it.

Theologians guild offers started coming in when I built a lot of churches and priests in a short period of time. Merchants guilds came from building merchants and trade improvements. I have no idea what I did to get a horse breeders guild; it can only go in a city, and no cavalry can be recruited in a city for most factions.

[Rpkmann]

So what does one need to do to get the templar guild? I've been in crusades but all I get are St. John's guild options. I want templars! lol... Is there some specific path you have to take on crusade to gain it?

[LegioScythia]

Ive completed a Crusade to Jerusalem and then i got both offers

[Rpkmann]

So what does one need to do to get the templar guild? I've been in crusades but all I get are St. John's guild options. I want templars! lol... Is there some specific path you have to take on crusade to gain it?

[Lochar]

According to the manual or something else I read that there is only 1 HQ so if another faction has it, you may never get the offer.

I still have yet to figure out the explorers guild unless my movement points was added and not given as a trait.

Merchant guild sucks for me as I still get 1 star merchants at times.

Mostly I get theoligciian and merchants guild, got the woodsmen guild tho and my robin hood troops..:)

Still hoping for a templar guild.

[Darth Nihilus]

In all of my catholic campaigns i have only been offered the Hospitallers, never the Templars.

[Kraxis]

Local usage is certainly not my experience, when it comes to offer of guilds.

As the HRE, the first three Thieves Guilds were to me in Bologna, Florence and Venice. None of them had Brothels at the time of the offers. Also, on my first crusade I was able to ship in Teutonic Knights from Frankfurt. And before that crusade was over I got an offer for another chapter in Hamburg.

Also got a Merchants Guild, however that could be slaved to Merchants, as it was offered to me in Vienna, which was indeed my main Merchant recruiting ground.

So it me it seems that you only need to do things globally and be lucky (I have trained endless waves of assassins but still no Guild), meanwhile certain cities will get offers of something sooner or later.

The manual indicates that Guilds will offer missions... I haven't gotten any, what about you guys?

[Shahed]

Can someone help me ? I think I'm having an issue getting the Merchant's Guild. It's 1155 and I've built insane amounts of bazaars and merchant ports everywhere. I've focused merchant recruitment out of Antakya (Antioch), and I have surely produced well over 20-25 merchants from this city.

I'm still not getting the option for merchant's guild in Antakya.

I am however getting an offer for Theoligian's Guild repeatedly although I never recruited a single Imam in Antakya.

[Kraxis]

That is odd... I have been spamming merchants from all over and I have been swamped in offers from the Merchants. In fact I turned down the offer for an HQ in Vienna (the tradebenefit would be too low there), so I'm wondering if I should destroy the Master Merchant in Vienna so I could get an HQ in another place.

But also remember that merchants winning and losing their fights will affect the guild. So make sure you win the duels a lot.