1 Jul

Guild 2: Renaissance Game Diary (Part 7)

Filed under: PC Games No Responses

In late spring 1448 the Kant family builds a farm, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I don’t expect to make much money selling goods from it directly but it will allow us to avoid buying wheat from the market and hopefully it can supply enough beef to our inn so that we can serve roast beef all the time. I know revenge is cool and important but everything runs on money here. This brings us to four businesses within our family empire. It doesn’t look like any other family in town has more than two businesses.

While wandering around in town, Harold discovers that the noticeboard isn’t just background decoration. The game still surprises me with bits of game mechanics I know nothing about. King Sergiu Kiss has been posting pamphlets on it to attack our reputation! No wonder just about every other family in town has a feud with us. Harold angrily puts up a pamphlet of his own and tears down the one telling vicious lies about the Kant family.

As summer 1452 rolls around, we send our best thug, who’s basically an elite ninja by now despite the wrinkles on her face, to firebomb the Kiss family orchard. The game obligingly tells us that buildings on fire burn longer in the summer. Our thug waltzes in and out unopposed and unnoticed. It must have something to do with her almost maxed-out stealth skill. The bomb doesn’t destroy the orchard but it does leave it heavily damaged. Unfortunately it also gets a “Recently Sabotaged” buff that makes it temporarily immune to further bombs.

But while my best fighter is dispensing justice on the other side of the map, another kidnapping attempt is made on Harold Kant while he’s trying to nurture some cows at the new farm. This time there are four of them, all armed with daggers. Harold bravely fights them with his fists but it’s no contest. He’s down before the nearest support can even get near. Then the thugs bundle him up in a sack and cart him off. Frustratingly my thugs aren’t even allowed to attack the kidnappers once they’ve captured Harold. They just stand there watching while they make off with him.

Once again, I don’t think this is the work of any enemy family, just random ruffians. I guess the Kant family is a tasty target since the family is now worth over 100k but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to defend against four attackers at once. I do notice that the Selmeczi couple, who used to annoy me for a while but now leave me alone, travel around the town together with all four of their house guards in escort mode nearby. I guess that there’s a reason for that.

As expected the ransom demand arrives and it’s a whopping 15,000! Screw that. Sorry Harold but you’re on your own. I decide to reorganize the family. First I retire Georg Kant from active control, who nonetheless keeps bumbling about the inn he used to run, transfer Harold’s eldest daughter to active control and immediately set her on courting a husband. I keep Julia Kant as the matriarch of the family.

I also send my thug to finish their work at the King’s orchard. I’m guessing that the temporary immunity is supposed to give the owner a chance to repair the damage but the King never gets around to it. One more bomb later and the Kant family orchard ends up being the only one on the map. That’s how you get rid of the competition!

Maria Kant courts and marries some schmuck called Baldwyn in record time. I belatedly realize that owning an inn lets me use all sorts of special actions to accelerate the courting process. Taking a bath together speeds the getting-to-know-you process along considerably. Unfortunately Baldwyn is a bit of a doofus with crap for skills, a sure sign that he’s never been to school. But having an idiot to help around the farm is better than paying a fortune to get Harold back, so Harold is kicked out of the control group and in comes Baldwyn.

And in autumn 1456 just as I’ve settled everything back to a regular routine again, Georg Kant dies of old age. He quietly walks back to the family home and dies peacefully on his bed. I note that ever since we destroyed the King’s orchard, no thugs have come around to bother us. No muggings, no sabotage attempts, not even a nasty pamphlet in the town square. Looks like we showed the other families in town what happens when they mess with the Kants!

Next: social advancement and more bombs. Bombs are fun, right?

Written on July 1 2012 and is filed under PC Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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