Templars Guild

[Mega Dux Bob]

I just ended up with three Templar Chapter houses early in the game! I think you have to be in on the first Crusade called as one of the first responders. Interestingly I got the guild in Paris. Now Templar Knights, that one ups Militia Horse.

[Fisherking]

The only times I have gotten the Templars is when I was playing as Scotland. I thought maybe I would pick them up playing as the Portuguese but I quit the campaign to load up the patch…should have played on, ya know.

I was surprised not to get an offer as the French or even as England

[katank]

The AI definitely gets tons of thieves guilds. Their spy happy spamming might have something to do with that.

Some regions are predisposed towards certain guilds. Inverness towards crusading guilds for example. In my English game where I was a very bad Catholic (never went on crusade, excommed, had crusades called against me), I got an offer of a Templar guild in Inverness, turned it down, and then got a St. John's guild there.

[Quillan]

I've rarely seen other guilds in AI hands, although I did take a castle from the Spanish a couple of days ago that had a Knights of Santiago chapterhouse in it.

[Discoman]

I only got the Knights Templar only after conquering the settlement they were in from Scotland. Perhaps getting Templars has to do with chilvary of characters.

[FrauGloer]

Looking at export_descr_guilds, it becomes clear why it's easier to get Hospitallers than it is getting Templars: the only ways to increase the chance for templars are a) have a general join a crusade (+25) and b) train templars (+10 for the settlement, +1 overall) for which you have to have the guild already. For St. John's, you also get bonuses for declaring war on muslims (+10) and having muslim neigbors (+10 for the settlement, +1 overall). As I found this a bit 'unfair' towards the Templars, I changed the file to give those bonuses to them, too. After all, they were a military order and fought against the muslims.

Added lines are in bold:

;------------------------------------------
Trigger 0170_Declare_War_Muslim_Faction
WhenToTest FactionWarDeclared

Condition TargetFactionReligion islam
and FactionReligion catholic

Guild st_johns_chapter_house a 10
Guild templars_chapter_house a 10

;------------------------------------------
Trigger 0171_Muslim_Neighbours
WhenToTest SettlementTurnStart

Condition NeighbourReligion islam > 50
and FactionReligion catholic

Guild st_johns_chapter_house s 10
Guild st_johns_chapter_house o 1
Guild templars_chapter_house s 10
Guild templars_chapter_house o 1

[katank]

Other than for flavor, I don't see any point to Templars. Their base stats are equal to Knights of St. John. However, they charge without orders and are thus less easy to control. They also get 1 fewer armour upgrades. Lastly, their guild building does not provide a health benefit like the St. John's.

[FrauGloer]

Other than for flavor, I don't see any point to Templars. Their base stats are equal to Knights of St. John. However, they charge without orders and are thus less easy to control. They also get 1 fewer armour upgrades.

Yep, the missing armour upgrade sucks. That's why I changed their entry in export_descr_unit to give them the second upgrade, too. They don't have a third model, though, so the step from basic armour to partial plate is not represented in battle. IMO, they still look good that way.

armour_ug_levels 3, 4, 5
armour_ug_models Knights_Templar, Knights_Templar, Knights_Templar_ug1

I have no problem with Templars being impetuous, I have yet to see them charge without orders in my campaigns.

Lastly, their guild building does not provide a health benefit like the St. John's.

I hear you on this. To counter this, I added a (rather low) trade bonus to templar buildings. This is historically justifiable, as the templars established one of Europe's first professional banking systems. I also added a 1% conversion bonus to all order houses to represent their religious influence.