Julia gives birth later that same autumn and it’s a boy! Our Kant family has an heir! Actually I think your family dynasty continues on even through daughters. The game suggest Harold as the boy’s name and in a fit of laziness, I click “Accept”. Georg, having no idea when Julia’s water will actually break, isn’t at home when it happens. I discovered that you can buy recipes from the guildhouse to make special goods. I have Georg buy a recipe for Alderman’s Brew, which uses 1 wheat, 1 honey and 1 weak beer as ingredients. It costs 150 but I’m getting bored of making the same things over and over again.
Then when I get Georg back to the pub I have a hell of a time trying to figure out how to actually produce Alderman’s Brew. I spent more than 10 minutes on Google and came up with nothing. Eventually after a lot of experimentation, I discover that the recipe is an actual physical object and it shows up as a special action on Georg’s action bar while it’s in his inventory and he’s in his pub. Naturally you also need all of the required ingredients available in the pub’s stock.
Making a barrel of the brew takes nearly two hours of Georg’s time and I find to my dismay that the guy wasn’t kidding when he said it was just for 1 barrel of brew. Performing the action consumes the recipe. The finished product can be sold at the market for 250, which is a total rip-off considering the cost of the recipe, the ingredients and Georg’s time. I’m guessing that it’s only worthwhile if there’s some special event offering a bounty for it.
While Georg is toiling away in his micro-brewery, I explore some of the new upgrades and actions associated with the renovated house. I have Julia spend her time training in there because I discovered that she can’t work at either the pub or the orchard and she can’t interact with little Harold either who seems to prance around the house all day.
I hire an employee at the house, expecting it to be a maid or a butler or something, but it turns out to be a rogue instead. So that’s how you assemble your own gang of thugs. She has a bunch of special actions associated with her, including escorting your family members presumably as a sort of bodyguard and robbing enemies. I assign her to tail one of the two members of my rival dynasty, the Muresans, in the hopes that she can dig up some dirt on them.
In winter 1412 I check back at the house. I’m still at a loss about what to do with Julia but I see that young Harold starts with some skills. He still can’t do anything except prance and mope around the house. Meanwhile Georg saves his cash to buy the next title, which is literally “Citizen without full civil rights”. This allows our family to operate up to four businesses. Since I hadn’t checked him for unspent XP in a while, this gives him enough to go up a full two levels to Level 4.
I see that occasionally some of the neutral buildings in town become available for sale. I’d love to buy the carpenter’s shop in between my orchard and my pub for Julia to operate but that one isn’t on the market. I wonder if I can use my rogue to encourage the owners to sell?
One feature I haven’t mentioned before is that your characters can gain a special ability every two levels, basically Fallout style perks. At level 2 I chose the very mundane “Educated” for Georg which gives him 5% bonus XP every time he earns some. For level 4 I give him “Model parent” which helps his children. I must say that there are some very odd abilities in the game, including the one pictured above which cuts your time spent in prison by convincing the authorities that you’ve spent more time in there than you actually did.
By the way my pet thug spends quite a lot of time observing both Muresans but couldn’t find anything dirty about them. I do notice that their only business is a woodcutter’s hut on the outskirts of town and that they’re both level 3. Eventually I call her off and just act as a bodyguard for Georg.
Being a “Citizen without full civil rights” makes Georg eligible for a number of political posts. Applying for one is as simple as opening the screen, looking for an empty post and clicking on it. Out of curiosity to see what would happen I have Georg apply for the post of Lease Master. It costs 250 and I’m informed that Georg will need to show up to make his case at the town hall.
In the meantime, Harold grows old enough to go to school. I can pick between the monastery (500 cost), the guild house (1,000) or no school at all. Sorry Harold, but daddy isn’t quite rich enough to send you to the best schools yet, so to the monastery it is.
I make sure that Georg is present at the town hall before the meeting starts. I lose control of Georg when it gets underway. His portrait gets a special icon and he automatically joins the other people present to take their designated seats. Surprisingly Georg never gets to say a thing. Out of the three electors for the Lease Master position, only one votes and it isn’t for Georg. In the end, the speaker says that due to not meeting the quorum, the position will be assigned to one of the applicants by lot. Georg doesn’t get it so that’s 250 down the drain.
But that’s not the end of my business at the town hall. Georg is informed that Timea Muresan, of the rival dynasty, intends to press charges against Wilbur Eaton. As a material witness, Georg is required to be present under pain of heavy fines. The trial will take place in Spring 1416. Considering that the original crime took place in 1404, it’s safe to say that justice moves rather slowly in the world of Guild 2.
Next: court duty and building the best inn in town!
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