Hard to get - best tip

[Captain Pugwash]

has anyone achieved getting a masons guild??

Answers please cos I am struggling.

I also struggle with the assassins one as well and normally aquire someones elses.

Could be useful for anything else readers can think of from a reference point of view.

[darth_napo]

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=75649

the complete help.

[Whacker]

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=75649

the complete help.

Doesn't apply/is inaccurate, or is at quite possibly broken. I just completed a campaign as Milan, using the Extended BigMap mod no less that adds 70 provinces. Just completed the last building in my empire. I own *everything* except Rome and the Americas, which aren't open yet. Have about 20+ cities and the rest are citadels. Everything possible that can be built is built. I've never had an offer for the Mason's guild, and I have plenty of cities left without guilds in them. Most everything I've captured/bribed was at very low to at best somewhat medium tech level, so the amount that I've built is immense.

[FactionHeir]

I have even in unmodded M2TW, just had to keep rejecting offers for my only minor city until it offered out of nowhere.

Best if you mod it though.

[Kobal2fr]

Doesn't apply/is inaccurate, or is at quite possibly broken. I just completed a campaign as Milan, using the Extended BigMap mod no less that adds 70 provinces. Just completed the last building in my empire. I own *everything* except Rome and the Americas, which aren't open yet. Have about 20+ cities and the rest are citadels. Everything possible that can be built is built. I've never had an offer for the Mason's guild, and I have plenty of cities left without guilds in them. Most everything I've captured/bribed was at very low to at best somewhat medium tech level, so the amount that I've built is immense.

Hmmm, I think there was a theory/rumor floating around stating that there's a maximum to the number of guilds in your empire. Dunno if it's a number thing (ie X guild buildings, tops) or a guild thing (X different guilds, as many buildings as you can fit). Or if it's not, you know, bovine manure.

[Daveybaby]

Assassins guild is pretty damn easy, especially since patch 1.2.

(1) Build 5 assassins.
(2) Find a rebel stack somewhere convenient
(3) Assassinate the captain of the rebel stack 5 times (i.e. with each assassin)
(4) DONT DESTROY THE REBEL STACK - LEAVE IT THERE
(5) Repeat step 3 every turn

You will start getting assassins guild offers all over the place. After a surprisingly short time you should have an assassins guild HQ.

Yes, its a bit cheesy. Meh. If you dont like the cheesiness of this then just build lots of assassins from the same place, and perform lots of assassinations on 'proper' targets. A bit more diffcult and time consuming, but it should work just as well.



As for the masons guild:

(1) Pick the city you want your guild in (not a castle)
(2) Build a town watch (or a leather tanner will work just as well) there.
(3) Once built, destroy the town watch.
(4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 ad infinitum.

This is even more cheesy, but its pretty much the only realistic way of getting a masons guild. Note that i havent actually tried this out, but according to the game textfiles, it should work (should take about 10-13 build/destroy cycles to get offered the low level guild).

[darth_napo]

^ what surprises me is why CA didn't fix the broken guilds (I mean about attracting them), and also that even most major mods that out now didn't fix them either (AFAIK NONE of them did it).

[FactionHeir]

^ what surprises me is why CA didn't fix the broken guilds (I mean about attracting them), and also that even most major mods that out now didn't fix them either (AFAIK NONE of them did it).

Can't really call it fixing. Its a matter of choice, taste, and balancing. I would think most modders who did change the file did it for themselves to their own tastes. I for one have, but I don't thnk that this would be everyone else's taste, so there is no good reason to publish it.

[Daveybaby]

Can't really call it fixing. Its a matter of choice, taste, and balancing.

Ever seen the AI build a mason's guild? Or half the other guilds for that matter - its all thieves guilds and the occasional explorers guild or swordsmiths guild once in a while. If this is how the game is supposed to be then the AI doesnt know how to play it properly.

So either the AI needs fixing or the guild triggers do. Since i very much doubt there's an AI module dealing with choosing guilds I'll go with the triggers.

Coincidentally (or not) this thread has just been resurrected.

[CMcMahon]

Ever seen the AI build a mason's guild?

The Milanese built on in Milan in my Scottish campaign.

[seari]

I don't know but isn't it better to build/destroy mustering halls.
They only need 1 turn to build and when you have built/destroyed 60 or something convert your castle/fortress/citadel to city and upgrade to huge city.
Personally I think the Mason guild HQ is fairly good. It saves you 30% on construction cost. So eventually it'll save you a lot of money (especially when building those huge cathedrals to keep the Pope happy)

[alpaca]

A different but important question is: Is it even worth the hassle? The guild is very hard to get and almost all it does is to give you a bonus on stone. That means you build walls, castles, towers and guilds cheaper as nothing else uses stone. Great stuff, eh :P

[khaos83_2000]

To me, it doesn't really matter. But it adds another trophy to the display

[ReiseReise]

I thought masons guild reduced building costs for all buildings.

The problem with AI Thieves guild is not in the guild itself, its that the AI loves to spam spies all over the place so it gets points in every city and seems to build the first guild offered.