So I just got started playing Guild 2: Renaissance and have already run into some snags. It’s buggy for one and since it’s publisher JoWood Entertainment has gone into bankruptcy, support for it seems uncertain. Also, there is no in-game tutorial (I guess since it’s a standalone expansion, the developers simply assumed customers would already know how to play it from previous versions). Since this is a bit of niche game made by continental Europeans, there isn’t much information on it online in English too. In short: it’s the perfect game to write a game diary for. Watch me try, and probably fail, at living the life of a commoner in the Renaissance!
Since I have no idea what I’m doing, I’ll be going with a nice, small map and only one rival dynasty. The objective is to nurture a family through several generations, growing in wealth and influence and starting a dynasty. You lose when the last member of your family dies, either due to old age or more sinister causes. I’ll be going with the Transylvania map for this one, not that I’d expect to see actual vampires in a game like this. Note: as is usual for all my game diaries, all images are clickable to get to full 1920 x 1080 glory.
Like an RPG, you create a character to start the game with. There are four classes available: Patron, Craftsman, Scholar and Rogue. I think this affects what types of buildings you’re allowed to own. Going with rogue would make for a more exciting game, I want the genuine medieval peasant farmer experience, so Patron it is. This allows us to fish, run a farm or open a tavern. I ambitiously name the founder of my dynasty Georg Kant. Yes, he may be an uneducated peasant but one day his offspring will achieve great things!
To start with, the game gives me some money and a hut. All buildings have names in this game. My hut is named ‘Roof Included’. I see that other huts bear names like “Better Than Nothing”, ‘Waste of Paint’ and ‘At Least It’s Paid For’. Surprisingly, you can visit the interiors of most buildings though the camera movement inside is restricted to basically just panning left and right. It’s actually quite cozy inside despite the denigrating names. Being inside building seems to give you special actions. In my own hut, I see that I’m allowed the “Train” option which presumably increases my experience points. But we want to set up a business first so let’s get to that.
With 4,000 cash to start, I find that I don’t have enough money to actually start a farm. The lower tier farm building alone costs 4,000 to build and I see that I would need to pay extra for fields to plant in and corrals to rear animals in. This map doesn’t have any water, so fishing is out too. So I build an orchard for 2,000 and add on a couple of meadows. I sow fruit trees in one and erect some beehives in the other. A couple of laborers turn up to do the actual construction and when it’s done I see that my orchard comes with a free employee.
Surprisingly you don’t actually have to wait for your trees to grow or for your bees to make honey. You can harvest them immediately once construction is complete. I spend some money to add an extra workspace in my orchard, hire another employee and soon all of three of us are busy harvesting fruit, because it seems to sell for more than honey at the local market. I notice that Georg works much faster than either of the two employees. The orchard building also comes with a cart and someone to pull it around, though he or she doesn’t count as an employee for reason. You can load up the cart and order it to transport your stuff around the town. Before long we have our first haul of fruits on its way to the market.
After a couple of cartloads, I see that all that fruit is piling up at the market and causing the price to drop. You can also sell products directly from your building but no one seems to come along to buy any. So I switch over to honey production for a while. I have a vague idea that I should try to see what actions are available at the public buildings owned by the town so I leave the two employees and send Georg over to the town hall. It’s quite nifty to look around the interior but I see that the only thing I can do is spend money to buy a title and I don’t quite have enough yet. They’re not shy about the corruption at all, are they?
Unfortunately all that running around causes Georg to sprain his leg. Now I know what constitution in this game is for! I get a special to see the medicus at a price of 120. I suspect that this is the kind of game that will punish you if you allow conditions like this persist by cutting short your life (life in medieval times is hard, you know) so I hurry to get it treated. It takes some time and you can peek into the pesthouse and see Georg interact with the nurse and everything. After that I go back to the orchard to put in some hours. I’ve really driven down the price of both honey and fruits at this point and I’m worried about future income. But I finally make enough to buy a better title, so back to the town hall I go.
I discover that there are two ways to interact with buildings. You can click on the building and choose an action there or have your family member go there and manually do it. Doing the former is faster but costs more. Doing the latter gives you a conversation scene and everything, taking more time, but costs less. I pay 500 for a Yeoman title. The clerk says that this only puts my name in for consideration but it’s all nudge, nudge, wink, wink. We all know that it’s the money doing the talking.
Moments after I walk out of the town hall I get a message confirming that I may now style myself Yeoman Georg Kant. It also tells me I’m expected to live in better lodgings but the next tier of residence costs more than 3,000 so I’ll make do for now. More importantly it tells me that I may now own two businesses. With fruit and honey prices down in the dumps, I sorely need to branch out to something else. But before I can do anything about the day ends and so does the season and the year! Time jumps from Spring 1400 to Summer 1404! It looks like Georg has a shorter life than I’d expected and I’d better get a move on starting a new business and finding a wife!
By the way, it seems that the game considers a full day as a turn and updates charts based on your performance. I see that my sole rival dynasty is doing better than me on all counts. Actually I’ve been so busy running Georg’s life I don’t even know who my supposed rivals are. Where do they live and what businesses do they run? I guess I’d better pay more attention to this sort of thing in the future.
Next: opening a pub and finding a lady love!
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