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Europa 1400: The guild

amorax

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Jan 23, 2008
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442
So I got this game and its expansion about a week ago, but I've only recently got around to playing it. Must say I'm astounded at the depth and options you have available to you. In fact, it's positively overwhelming, and the tutorials don't do a very good job at explaining the finer details of the game (I don't have the manual for this game). Just wondering what the codex's opinion on this game was and whether anyone who's played the game can share a few hints/strategies for a newbie such as me. Also, how do you apply for civic rights? I managed to do it in the tutorial, but for some reason I can't get the option in the real game. Help would be much appreciated.
 

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
I love this game. I think you get civic rights for certain ranks of citizenry which you get by owning houses and certain amounts of money. What rights you get depends on the legislature. You can change those rights if you ever become a person that has authority over some rights, such as Inquisitor - or you can influence people to change them by threats/duels/flattery.

Prepare! The game is very, very buggy. A great way to make money for beginners is to marry and kill your (rich) wife/husband off with the various health-damaging items as soon as possible. You will inherit all the money and houses she or he owned. Repeat until you have enough.

Make sure to educate one of your sons or daughters well so they can take over when you inevitably die. Drinking that bogus life-lengthening medicine EVERY TURN is a really good idea.
 

amorax

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Jasede said:
I love this game. I think you get civic rights for certain ranks of citizenry which you get by owning houses and certain amounts of money. What rights you get depends on the legislature. You can change those rights if you ever become a person that has authority over some rights, such as Inquisitor - or you can influence people to change them by threats/duels/flattery.

Prepare! The game is very, very buggy. A great way to make money for beginners is to marry and kill your (rich) wife/husband off with the various health-damaging items as soon as possible. You will inherit all the money and houses she or he owned. Repeat until you have enough.

Make sure to educate one of your sons or daughters well so they can take over when you inevitably die. Drinking that bogus life-lengthening medicine EVERY TURN is a really good idea.

Thanks for the info! Unfortunately, I don't know how to court someone or flirt with them or do anything with anyone. Do I need extra rooms to be able to do this or do I need to enter a certain building? Oh, and in case you couldn't tell, I know practically nothing about this game other than what I've read in reviews and wikipedia.
 

Raapys

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I love this game too. The Guild 2 isn't bad either, although for some unexplainable reason I liked the first one better. The amount of stuff you can do is just staggering( which explains the countless bugs ).
 

Captain Obvious

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One of my favourites, spent quite a lot of time on it.

You get the possibility to apply for civic rights, if you have enough wealth at the beginning of a turn. Total money, not cash, which is displayed if you right click on your character name on the top of the screen. Or perhaps in the office overview -> family view, I forgot. It's 5000 I think. I usually take out credit during the first turn in order to apply for civic rights in the second and hopefully have an office in the third.

There's quite a bit of badly documented stuff. So here are a few hints:

Interface:

* A lot of actions (including courting a spouse) are found when you click on the bar on the top of the screen. Not quite obvious. This includes special actions for when you hold offices (i.e. embezzle money) or when other specific things happen (visiting a physician - this is quite important, do it every round when you're sick until you're healed.)

* If you hold down the Control Key (I think), all the options available on a screen appear. This is not the same as every option in that room, because you may have to scroll to see some.


Gameplay:

* Easiest profession is thief, but it plays differently than all the others. Sending thieves out at the end of the day = free money. Kidnapping is the best paid enterprise.

* Second easiest is landlord, which is a good place to start if you want a regular, handicraft profession.

* Early success in politics is critical on higher levels, simply because the office income is a lot of money during the early game. Use silver rings, poems and bone braclets. Get standing improvements for your house early and build a small statue. Bribing is very expensive and should only be done from church/ city authority upwards.

* if you can elect others, only elect those of your faith. Also elect young people (large life candle) so they won't die.

* Accumulate and use APs. Use a walking stick, build improvements to your residence. Train talents unless you're a thief, in which case you use APs for kidnapping.

* For longevity, build a villa as soon as you can (Baron I think) and upgrade to palace later. Note that magnificient palace and the country house are no residences.

* Plan ahead. Your children must reach the age of 12 in order for your dynasty to continue. The candle next to your character represents your health. If you get sick, click on the upper bar to visit a physician each turn until you're healed.

* Easiest way to wealth is marrying rhich widows/ widowers. Killing of a younger spouse is more difficult.

* Never employ master craftsment. Or only very late when you're really bored of micromanaging. The AI manages your buildings very terribly.


The Jowood forums have loads of stuff, perhaps check them out.


EDIT: Very Important: If you right click on the standing bar of a citizien in any office overview view, you see the relation to all others in that screen. This is critical in order to mess up relationships between appointers and other candidates when trying to get an office.
 

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
I think you need to wait until you are approaching about paying someone to find you a wife- then you court the richest of the options.

I don't remember how to directly court, or if it was even possible, sorry!
 

Captain Obvious

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Nono, you click on the top bar, click "court a spouse", click on the wife you want and then you have to pay a lot of money for gifts for four rounds or so, and then, if you're lucky, you get laid.

Exactly like on russianbrides.com.
 

amorax

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Jan 23, 2008
Messages
442
Captain Obvious said:
One of my favourites, spent quite a lot of time on it.

You get the possibility to apply for civic rights, if you have enough wealth at the beginning of a turn. Total money, not cash, which is displayed if you right click on your character name on the top of the screen. Or perhaps in the office overview -> family view, I forgot. It's 5000 I think. I usually take out credit during the first turn in order to apply for civic rights in the second and hopefully have an office in the third.

There's quite a bit of badly documented stuff. So here are a few hints:

Interface:

* A lot of actions (including courting a spouse) are found when you click on the bar on the top of the screen. Not quite obvious. This includes special actions for when you hold offices (i.e. embezzle money) or when other specific things happen (visiting a physician - this is quite important, do it every round when you're sick until you're healed.)

* If you hold down the Control Key (I think), all the options available on a screen appear. This is not the same as every option in that room, because you may have to scroll to see some.


Gameplay:

* Easiest profession is thief, but it plays differently than all the others. Sending thieves out at the end of the day = free money. Kidnapping is the best paid enterprise.

* Second easiest is landlord, which is a good place to start if you want a regular, handicraft profession.

* Early success in politics is critical on higher levels, simply because the office income is a lot of money during the early game. Use silver rings, poems and bone braclets. Get standing improvements for your house early and build a small statue. Bribing is very expensive and should only be done from church/ city authority upwards.

* if you can elect others, only elect those of your faith. Also elect young people (large life candle) so they won't die.

* Accumulate and use APs. Use a walking stick, build improvements to your residence. Train talents unless you're a thief, in which case you use APs for kidnapping.

* For longevity, build a villa as soon as you can (Baron I think) and upgrade to palace later. Note that magnificient palace and the country house are no residences.

* Plan ahead. Your children must reach the age of 12 in order for your dynasty to continue. The candle next to your character represents your health. If you get sick, click on the upper bar to visit a physician each turn until you're healed.

* Easiest way to wealth is marrying rhich widows/ widowers. Killing of a younger spouse is more difficult.

* Never employ master craftsment. Or only very late when you're really bored of micromanaging. The AI manages your buildings very terribly.


The Jowood forums have loads of stuff, perhaps check them out.


EDIT: Very Important: If you right click on the standing bar of a citizien in any office overview view, you see the relation to all others in that screen. This is critical in order to mess up relationships between appointers and other candidates when trying to get an office.

Hmmm, I've checked my fortune and apparently I've got 9000 pounds or whatever, which according to you is more than enough to gain civil rights. However, I still can't click on the parchment that gives me the option to gain civil rights. Is this a bug or something? Am I not supposed to be able to even click on the parchment until I've gained enough money?

EDIT: Whoops, I just checked the jowood forums and apparently I need 10000 in order to be able to gain citizenship. Oh well, thanks for the help anyways.
 

amorax

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442
Making a reply as an edit will probably be overlooked.

OK, so I have a fortune of 10000, but for some reason I still can't apply for civic rights. Again, am I supposed to not be able to click on the parchment that got me civic rights in the tutorial until I meet a certain requirement or something?
 

Captain Obvious

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Did you have the 10.000 at the beginning of the turn? If you had it at the end, there's still taxation.

You should be getting a message at the beginning of the turn saying something like "you can apply for civic rights." The "narrator" informs you, too.

I do think the parchment is only clickable when you can apply for rights, yes, although I'm not 100% sure.

Perhaps try a new game on very easy, go to a money lender and take out all available credits and do nothing for the entire turn for a quick test.
 

amorax

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Jan 23, 2008
Messages
442
Captain Obvious said:
Did you have the 10.000 at the beginning of the turn? If you had it at the end, there's still taxation.

You should be getting a message at the beginning of the turn saying something like "you can apply for civic rights." The "narrator" informs you, too.

I do think the parchment is only clickable when you can apply for rights, yes, although I'm not 100% sure.

Perhaps try a new game on very easy, go to a money lender and take out all available credits and do nothing for the entire turn for a quick test.

Ah, there we go! Thanks!
 

Hobo Elf

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I just impulse bought the game from GOG and so far it's pretty entertaining. Is there any way to assassinate people? Or am I stuck with writing raunchy poems/notes about them in the hopes that they'll start crying?
Oh, and I looked up the new masteries that came with the expansion. Necromancers? Gypsy entertainment caravans tat can curse people? What the fuck? Not that I'm complaining, I just thought that they felt a little out of place given the theme of the game.
 

Multi-headed Cow

Guest
If I remember right, there are poisoned daggers/poison gas bombs you can use to shorten the life of people. You can't outright kill them, even in duels, but you shorten their life.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
this sounds like the sims swimming pool accident which made the whole 'getting a job' routine pointless.
 

Captain Obvious

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Multi-headed Cow said:
If I remember right, there are poisoned daggers/poison gas bombs you can use to shorten the life of people. You can't outright kill them, even in duels, but you shorten their life.

Pretty much, it's one of the things that don't work too well. There's a poison you can apply to a house, but you rarely find the right one. Duels work somewhat, but you usually lose some health yourself in the process. I also suspect that there's one of the thousands of bugs.

If you have the add-on, the magnificant palace and perhaps the country seat give you an actual assassin, but you get these buildings when you're past caring.

If you want to get rid of a dynasty or person early, you can kidnap them and let them rot in your thieves' guild.

Hobo Elf said:
Oh, and I looked up the new masteries that came with the expansion. Necromancers? Gypsy entertainment caravans tat can curse people? What the fuck? Not that I'm complaining, I just thought that they felt a little out of place given the theme of the game.

Necromancers are fail. They have added extra annoying micro managment. Giving you the opportunity to lay waste to the city with a cannon tower, however, was an awesome idea.

RK47 said:
this sounds like the sims swimming pool accident which made the whole 'getting a job' routine pointless.

I have no idea what you said there, but Europa 1400 isn't actually an RPG, if you were wondering.
 

RK47

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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
Similar to the concept of the Guild, the Sims lets you play either a family or a lone guy etc.

I never played 1400 b4, but the concept sounds similar. I tried doing it the normal way, gaining skill and working jobs. But I realized that killing rich spouses is the fastest way to earn $$$ and that pretty much made jobs pointless since you just get your spouse in a swimming pool and sell away the ladder, letting her drown there and you get to keep all her cash. Heck you can make her fix a broken TV to shock her to death too. It was not a 'legit' way to earn cash since there's no 'Murder/Combat' option in game.
 

Hobo Elf

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I don't really see killing your spouse for inheritance money as exploiting since people do it in real life too.
Besides, you went to work to get money to buy useless crap in the sims. You need money to run your business better in The Guild. It's not like having lots of money will negate your job(s).
 

Hobo Elf

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Since an edit will be less likely to be noticed, I'm gonna double post. Anyways, I've managed to "earn" myself a spot as a Town Servant. What do I do now? As in, how do I keep climbing up the social ladder? And how do I perform my duties as a Town Servant? The game isn't very clear about these things since the tutorial is very bare and baisc, and long manuals in PDF format intimidate me (I'd rather read a manual in book form).
 

lordfrikk

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Feb 24, 2009
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There needs to be an opening one row higher than you are (which tree doesn't matter). As you may imagine, there are many ways how this can actually happen... people from those positions can go higher, die (from natural causes or ...), SOMEONE can kidnap them etc. Then all that matters is enough positive votes for you over your competition (you can also win by default if you kidnap your competitor(s)).
 

Hobo Elf

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I can easily make more room for myself by sending the competition on involuntary vacations in my fantastic cell, so that's no problem at all. But do I have to do anything else? Don't I have to manage things or anything? Do I just get rid of my competition and then bribe everyone else so that they will vote for me? Are jobs the only things you micro in this game?
 

Captain Obvious

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Hobo Elf said:
I can easily make more room for myself by sending the competition on involuntary vacations in my fantastic cell, so that's no problem at all.

Unfortunately, they keep their offices in your cells. The only ways to make room are waiting for them to get elected into higher offices, calling for dismissal and death, dismissal being the standard way. Always look what other offices are open when planning a dismissal, so you do not suddenly find yourself a vote short or having bribed somebody who left the chamber.

The higher you are in the political system, the more difficult it gets to maintain relations, especially on higher levels and if you happen to have the wrong faith. You may find bribing not affordable later on.

But do I have to do anything else? Don't I have to manage things or anything? Do I just get rid of my competition and then bribe everyone else so that they will vote for me? Are jobs the only things you micro in this game?

Mostly. There's little things like legislation (taxes, town faith, ...) and embezzeling money as treasurer, which you can access on the top menu. Notable exceptions for "real" duties are if you are the judge or dungeon master. If you hold one of these offices and there are trials, you can influence them somewhat, but that's rather rare. Holding an office also shortens the real time you have per round.


The game is very broad but not terribly deep or balanced.

RK47 said:
Similar to the concept of the Guild, the Sims lets you play either a family or a lone guy etc.

I never played 1400 b4, but the concept sounds similar. I tried doing it the normal way, gaining skill and working jobs. But I realized that killing rich spouses is the fastest way to earn $$$ and that pretty much made jobs pointless

Well, scoring a rhich spouse is difficult when you're poor, because difference in status increases the time necessary for courtship and decreases likelihood of them accepting/ not getting married to somebody else in the meantime. Gold digging with your first character can very well leave you without an heir, ending the game, so there's some C&C I guess. But in the second or third generation, you can usually marry rich.
 

Hobo Elf

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Bah. It get's boringly tedious to do the same routine with your job, and I was looking forward to getting some new refreshing micro to do. Guess not.

Edit: lol April fools
 

someone else

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Whoa the Travelling Entertainer workplace plays Ultima Underworld 2 theme. Mystery!
 

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