Busy and Strategic Times in the City with Guilds of London
Control a wide variety of business interests across all sorts of industries for the ultimate seat of power in Guilds of London.
There are always new board games being added to my collection, yet not all of those are the hot new titles of the day. The soup du jour, if you will. It was the quiet delivery of a somewhat older and lesser known game that got me excited. Welcome, Guilds of London! Maybe it wasn’t going to top my list of favorites, yet I was genuinely thrilled to play!
Game Overview
Game Name: Guilds of London
Publication Year: 2016
Designer: Tony Boydell
Artists: T. Boydell, K. Franz, C. Paull, and P. Soto
Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games
Solo Mode: Official Solo Variant
Within a 5×5 grid of tiles are various guilds of all sorts with their own types and special rewards. The goal is to become the master of these guilds with the use of action cards and liverymen. Only about half of the available guild tiles are used with each play, leading to lots of variety!
First Play
December 12, 2021
Complexity
3
Latest Play
December 13, 2021
Expansions
1
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
4
Play Time
30 Minutes
High Score
81
Game Area
26" x 24"
Low Score
37
Tracking Progress
The solo mode is played over just 10 rounds. Every other round, the guilds with a certain number of meeples resolve to pay out rewards and flip over.
Action cards provide many sorts of choices, as they can be used in multiple ways. More on that mechanic in a bit!
Overseas plantations are resolved on the 4th and 8th rounds, providing another way to earn victory points.
All the while, though, the solo opponent constantly takes control or challenges mastery in certain guilds. Second place rewards can be nice, but control is the bottom line.
Icons for Miles
Perhaps the biggest hurdle to learning the game is the rather extensive iconography. Guild tiles are fairly straightforward with a general shared set.
Where does it get tricky? The action cards. There is a giant stack filled with colors and every icon under the sun.
An included reference sheet is an absolute necessity and I found myself using it constantly during my plays.
The major downside, though, is that it only provides a partial reference. Oh, my! I had to flip around to find a similar icon in order to understand some of the cards.
Planning Each Turn
Despite a little bit of a struggle to figure out what some of the cards allowed me to do, each turn was a lot of fun!
The starting hand is 6 cards, which generally may be used for their special abilities or to deploy the liverymen. Lots of choices, especially with some placement limitations.
Yet it got more interesting! If I used any cards, I could only draw 2 at the end of my turn. Pass, though, and I picked up a total of 4 cards. There were some excellent turns!
I don’t know what clicked with me, but I fell in love with the way the cards worked. No promises about my skills…
Colorful Shields
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the play area transform! After a tile resolved, it flipped to its completed side with a unique banner for each one. So many bright colors!
Reading the history of the game, the original idea was to represent all of the real guilds in this way, but only 3 allowed their shields to be used. Most are fictional.
For my first attempt, I came within range of winning but fell short. Excellent! Winning too easily can be a problem.
There were some unresolved guilds and plenty of turns I didn’t maximize. Lots to learn as I continued on!
Proper Guild Mascots
My Calico Critters have been a little busy lately, but the appearance of this most glorious shield brought someone out of hiding! It turned into quite the little talk.
I pointed out that this was clearly a goose, while this tiny duck just stared at me attempting to look the part.
You have Mother Goose. And then Duck, Duck, Goose. Plus, that long neck in the artwork was a dead giveaway.
Still, the chat went on and on until I was pretty sure the shield came to life and honked at us. Most reminiscent of Untitled Goose Game, which I find hilarious. HONK! Ha!
Plenty of Variety
During setup, there are 4 guilds that are always used. Yet the other 20 come from a gigantic stack. Shown here are the unused guild tiles. All the possibilities!
Each isn’t entirely unique since the rewards generally fall into a few categories. It’s the layout that really matters.
Guilds are numbered, which affects the solo opponent’s priorities and the beadle’s placement. The latter being a lovely silver meeple who acts as an official of sorts.
I always enjoy having this amount of variety without doing too much on my end. Just shuffle the tiles and go!
Back to the Beginning
The process of restarting didn’t take all that long, and the only precarious part was managing not to toss the guild tiles everywhere as I mixed them up! No disaster, though.
It may not be as clear, but all of the second place tokens are also randomized. These typically reward victory points, yet there are ways to get additional liverymen.
If my first play was just shy of a win, this next attempt was nowhere close! Bad decisions kept me behind by a lot.
But I learned more about the action cards and the importance of which guild tiles to move to earlier.
Honorary Membership
When I spotted a guild that specialized in ivory, I was immediately reminded of my Stealthy Elephants… They’ve been out and about, although not always in plain view!
I became the master of this guild, which helped a lot. It served as 2 different types, which was useful for some final scoring bonuses. Still not enough to win, though.
This solo mode was a challenge! I had to plan several turns ahead and keep an eye on the beadle’s projected moves.
Definitely not a boring ordeal! My play time even sped up a bit as I started to get the hang of the iconography.
Overseas Travels
Although most of the activity happened within London, the overseas considerations were important. This double-sided tile functioned just a little differently in solo.
If I had 2 or more liverymen, the first place reward was all mine! Less, and the solo opponent benefited in a way.
My limited stock of liverymen slowly turned into masters on the resolved guild tiles, but some had to travel.
Yet another consideration! This added another small piece to the overall strategy. Just enough to be important without taking away from the main puzzle of the guilds.
Fully Resolved Guilds
Persistent as I was, it paid off! Things came together and I found clever ways to use guild tile rewards to set myself up to gain extra bonuses in a cascading effect.
I also got the hang of picking up the right mayoral rewards cards. It can be hard to collect more than 2 or 3 during a play, yet there are ways to earn them through rewards.
What a lovely final play area! Every guild tile was resolved and I had masters all around London.
I did, however, give up some of the overseas bonuses. Was it the right move? Final scoring would reveal the answer!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1-4
Solo Mode: Official Solo Variant
Play Details: Standard Difficulty Level
Outcome: 49-47, 37-5, 54-60, 81-62 (1 Win and 3 Losses)
Wow! Before my special scoring, I was behind by a huge margin and then I pulled ahead with about 30-40 additional victory points. So exciting! And although it looked like a runaway, it was challenging every step of the way. Without a couple of those guild tiles, I easily could have lost. The mayoral reward cards made all the difference and a tiny bit of luck definitely helped. Victory!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
3
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
8
+ Pros (Positives)
- There is an enormous amount of variety with the guild tiles and layouts possible during the setup process.
- Each action card may be used in a number of ways, often leading to difficult decisions and nuanced strategies.
- The play area transforms into a colorful collection of guild shields so that the unique artwork can be enjoyed.
- Managing the solo opponent is fairly simple and straightforward to provide a challenge that’s hard to master.
- Planning several turns ahead requires a lot of thought, yet the play time rarely stretches beyond 30-40 minutes.
- Guild tile resolution can allow for some excellent cascading effects when everything falls into place.
– Cons (Negatives)
- There are a lot of similar icons that are difficult to easily tell apart and the reference card guide is only partial.
- Each guild tile number is very important, but it can be tricky to spot the lowest number at a glance each round.
- A turn can feel overwhelming at times when action card icons are unclear and the available options are many.
- The play area can get visually busy at times, making it hard to find information on unresolved guild tiles.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 50 points.
Score at least 80 points.
Win at least 1 game at the standard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played Guilds of London? I picked this up on a whim since the publisher will not be producing games for the forseeable future, so this might be difficult to find. What an awesome surprise! Are there any other less common board games that have worked out for you? I’m thrilled to have this in my collection and look forward to playing some more!
Guilds with Ricky Royal’s solo variant is one of my favourite games! Once the icons have been learned, the game and solo AI run very smoothly. Glad you enjoyed it.
– (BGG) Dave in Ledbury
Yes! So great to know someone else who loves the solo! I thoroughly enjoyed it and it went from a game I might try and then pass along to one that will definitely stick around. Might not make it onto my favorite list, yet it’s a lot better than I could have imagined. So awesome!
Do you have Wards of London? Picked that up, too, and I assume I can just mix the components together and keep using this solo mode. So much variety. I love it!