It's been a very long time since we've had a game of Guilders. Life been kind of full with much other stuff. So recently we got a game in. Despite having written the rules, you actually forget certain things. So we started with a simple and cozy Another Day's Work (the simple first Heist in the game).
My guild had lost their guild roster since their last game - so I couldn't recall their item stash, influence or guilder coins. A perfect excuse to just pension them after the game and paint up a new guild, as I have so many miniatures. But the Rogue Circus will still look good in the cabinet.
My opponent went through the entire XP, influence, job motion. It'll be interesting to see in our next game, how a fully new guild performs against an experienced one.
A Regular Day's Work
Super simple scenario just some loot and civillians on the board. Get as muh loot as possible and get off the board. That's it, that's the plan and the heist. We just threw on all the city terrain and (as so often) picked the side we were already on as our starting edges.
My guild master is a fast acrobat. So my plan for one part of the guild was to rush forward, climb and get the high placed loot II and loot III. The over half of my guild was with the hard hitters, planning to rush the centre of the board, grapping the loot there and not minding a bunch of violence against the opponnent.
As would become clear through the game, the loot in that empty cart would make os fight. And the building next to it had a guard on top and some good loot.
For a regular game there's four crowds and six individual civillians on the board, all carrying loot. And there's four guards patrolling the streets. There was a lot of narrow streets in this setup, so we really had to work around or through the crowds to get to the high tier loot. Civillians only carry the worst kind.
Before each game you roll a complication (if you rember to do so). For this heist there was heated competion between rivalling brewers guilds and all people was a bit tipsy from cheap beer. So the Overall Alertness could start higher, but we rolled on +2. Guards become hostile at 10+, so the game potentially start with hostile guards.
Our guilds were relatively new, so there's not too many crazy tricks in the bag yet. My guild had a single child Bedridden from a severe beating in the last game. My opponent however had their enforcer and another member in Jail. So they had to field some free scum (a cheap and bad character) for free. Luckily they had some weapons in store for them.
A regular game start with two ranged guardsmen patrolling the roof tops. There's complications (like gull infestations) that will have even more ranged guards. This are deadly and best avoided. Shooting in Guilders is not too dangerous, if staying in cover or hiding in crowds. But if out in the open, guards will always prioritize an easy hit.
Some of the tipsy civillian crowds minding their business in the streets. They have to be pickpocketed or beaten to take their stuff. But the market stall has better loot, this can be stolen by anyone with skills.
At the start of the game the guards just move around randomly. If there's no alarm on the board, generally love overall alertness or violent guilders, they guards are not a problem. But they will react to guilders who's been seen doing a crime. And if the guilder has Infamy (from previous games) the guards might react to them, because they are wanted.
A guard patrolling a house roof. This guy can pretty mich cover the entire centre of the board, so it's important to avoid being in this guys line of sight.
A little dwarf butcher selling some sausages near the gallow. Meat for the masses while watching a show, though there's no one getting hanged today.
A thief from my opponnents guild, having stolen a bit of loot from the church. This character has the lockpick skill (all houses starting with loot and is locked).
My guild master and my charlatan have run the the tavern. The plan is for my guild master to climbing /hw's an acrobat) and steal some high value look next to the ranged guard. My charlatan has magic to both control crowds and pull loot to him. So he's to make crowd stand in the way of guards and try to steal some loot from a distance.
As has so often been the case for me, it's pretty hard for me to steal anything and the damn crowds are in the way. But my enforcer does manage to steal a Loot II and is ready for some combat, with the opponents coming down the same alley to also grab that loot.
Loot II and Loot III is much better and valueable than Loot I (which there's plenty off). A Loot I will cover the upkeep of a guilder, the other types will make you a profit or good items.
The hard hitters from the opoonent gang (here's the witch hunter guild master) is making their way to a Loot II in a cart. The story behind this guild, is they're badly funded. But they have feel a right to take something from the masses, to fund their fight against evil. It's just unvoluntary contributions to their effort.
Street Urchin are very cheap characters, they can't carry much loot, but they are generally ignored by the guards. They are also bad thiefs and will have less than a 50:50 chance to steal from civilians when the game begins. And in this game our street urchin (in both guilds) failed constantly, getting thrown out of crowds and generating alarm - which in turn raised the overall alertness.
One of the thiefs of my opponent, rushing to get first to some high value loot, trying to avoid my enforcer who's also closing in.
As we've not really had a lot of alarm around the board, the guards have done a lot of random movement. It's not known to the players when the guards take their turn. But as the game turn progresses the change of the guards taking their is raised. And suddently I found a guard amongst my ranks (with guilders carrying loot) and overall alertness nearing 10. Which we don't want - as killing guards will put a bounty on your head.
We've learned from bad experience, that making too much alarm is a bad thing. And as soon as overall alertness reached 10, and the guards become hostile - we started making our way off the board. A guilder who makes it off the board gains extra XP and takes off loot. There's coming more and more guards each round - so take the win.
So we only had a small amount of guild on guild fight this game. My enforcer was shot down by the opposing guild, but not before smashing down a thief with her halbard. The most of the alarm came from us failing smashing doors and getting noticed by civilians while stealing.
I of cause didn't roll any end game stuff for my guild, having already decided to retire them. But my opponent went through the end game sequence. A single guilder had been hurt and got a niggling injury. The two one time scum where simple let go and not hired - they didn't really gain enough XP for that.
I won the game by 1 victory point. I got 4 Loot I and 3 Loot II (10 victory points). My opponent got 6 Loot I and one Loot III (9 victory points).
All non-hurt guilders can do various jobs. A guilder went to the fence and sold some contraband, getting a good price for it. Another guilder went to the market and sold some fine gear (items with a higher value). A couple of guilder went to make some protection money.
Another guilder went to the bailiff and paid bail on the two guilders in jail, so that they would come out and could join the guild for their next heist.
There was one guilder left to Roam the City, rolling on the 100 entries of random encounters. It was a new guy, a scum no less, who ended up gambling and losing money - jerk.
In the end it was a good dy for the opponnents guild. They made some XP, put aside a few coins and don't have anyone in jail.
If you're interested in Guilders, join the Facebook group og the Discord community. The games free beta can be found online and will at some point be availble for purchase as a physical book.
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