OVERVIEW
Welcome to the Guild Master, designed by Chris Antony and published by Good Games Publishing. As the Master of the new Adventurers Guild, you will be competing with other rival guilds to earn the most Fame. There are over 9 rounds in this game so you already know, you better have enough time to work through everything you need and trust there is PLENTY to do! Throughout these 9 rounds, you will be secretly and simultaneously ordering teams of adventurers to complete a limited number of objectives on the main board. You will be able to use adventurer’s skills and abilities to complete harder and more difficult contracts, while gainomg you gold and fame. You can also recruit adventurers who have more advanced abilities on your team to help with making bigger and better moves throughout the game. But this game is like no other! Resources are limited, some guilds want and need the same resources you do, and you will need to resolve a conflict or negotiate and cooperate with other guild masters to share rewards within the different tasks. You may miss out on some objectives entirely so plan your orders carefully, weigh the risks/rewards, and work with/against the other fellow Guild Masters to become the most famous guild in the land!
GAMEPLAY
Before the Round even begins... Some parts of the setup process...
Starting the game comes with many parts and segments. You will need a few things to set up.
The Main Board - This is the easiest part of them all. Unfold and place in the middle of the table.
Your Board - This one is a little more detailed. Each player chooses a different color Guild and its matching contents, these include.
Order Board, Upgrades Board, Screen, Ribbon, Order Cards, Contest token, & 7 gold.
Each Guild has a Fame Marker and places it at the 0 space of the Fame track. (There is so much more to do but we will get into the overall game play.)
In order to determine starting team, you have to arrange the 6 starting skill upgrade tokens as seen in the rule book. After determining teams, you will then have each guild start with 2 private contracts. Deal 3 common contract cards to each player. Each player chooses and then places 1 of their contracts face down on the next open spot available on the board. Each player takes the other 2 contracts and places them under their upgrade board as their private contracts. Once all of the contracts are set, flip the ones on the board face up and reveal all adventurers on the board by flipping the top card of each adventurer face up. There are different setups for 2, 3, and 4 player games. But let's get into the gameplay because the setup definitely has more to it.
Round Overview
In each round, each guild will first check for and resolve any special start of round effects. The Plot Phase begins next. Some Adventurers have special abilities they may be activated during this phase. The Order Phase is next. In this phase you will secretly plan and assign a number of different orders to teams of their adventurers they want to send to objectives on the board. Next all guilds resolve their orders collectively, in an order resolution sequence, sometimes getting what they planned for, contesting with other guilds to see who will get the spoils, everything, or nothing at all. You can also attempt your private contracts or wandering instead. LASTLY, each guilds' adventurers return back to their guild, guild gain their income for the round, and the board is reset. This happens for all of the 9 rounds during the full game. Each round was dictated by a moon phase (Full Moon, Crescent Moon, & a Red Moon).
Guild Masters uses the turn priority system. Each order that each guild has (if different) happen in an order of priority that each is located in the order placed on the board. During the Action Phase, all guilds reveal their order boards and each guild resolves their first order, starting with hiring builders, then recruiting adventurers, attempt contracts, and lastly private contracts and wandering orders. Guilds do the same for their second order and will go on until all Guilds have completed. Once all orders are completed and resolved, the game moves into the reset phase. At the last phase of the game, the guild with the most fame, wins the game.
When 2 Guilds order the same objective within the same phase they get into contesting objectives. Each type of contested order is resolved differently.
Contesting Resolution when hiring Adventurers are set up to carry out a contested skill check each using any of the one skills available from their assigned team. The guild that wins the skill check may hire builders and build upgrades first. The guild with the next highest skill check result may hire builders and build upgrades next, and so on. Guilds may choose are not to hire builders, return with their gold to their treasury and attempt a private contract or wander instead.
Contesting the Recruit Adventurer means that one Guild has more gold than another Guild. If this happens, the Guild with the most gold recruits the Adventurer. The other Guilds return their gold to their treasury and may attempt a Private Contract or wander instead. If there was a tie in the gold bid, tied guilds carry out a contested skill check together, each only using skill from their assigned team. The guild with the highest skill check result recruits the adventurer. The other guilds each them return their gold to their treasury and may attempt a private contract or wander instead.
Contesting a Contract consists of negotiate reward split, choosing a Contest Stance Token (cooperate/conflict), then completing the Attempt Contract Contest.
At the last phase of the game, the guild with the most fame, wins the game.
EXPERIENCE
Overall this game is very intimidating when you first look at it, but once you get the rhythm of the game, you can see how fun it can be when playing with other modern board gamers. The overall order and rounds were very confusing at first but after a few playthroughs understanding the game wasn't so bad. Once you get this game the real fun begins! The order priority, and the negotiations makes this game a whole lot of fun! Everything about this game is amazing when you have a great team of friends to play with. This has a mix of RPG (with the negotiations & conflicts resolutions) and a cool Rune Stones type of game. I'm really loving this game!
OVERALL SCORE [9 OUT OF 10]!!!
This game is AMAZING! I love it and can't wait to play it again. I like the theme, I like the mechanics, I love the interaction of the game with the players! This game is a MUST HAVE for Modern Board Gamers! I just wish they had a main lead or a main lead group with a solid name that added to the concept. Outside of that, this game is a MUST!
NEW GAMER RECOMMENDED??!?!?!
Unfortunately this is a very heavy game and I think it would turn a lot of people away from it with the complexity of the game and its mechanics. There is a lot to learn and a lot to remember in order to play the game. Because of the negotiations and the order priority turns, games can get very very long for the people who don't know how to play. But this is a DEFINITE BUY FOR A MODERN GAMER!!
This is Judge signing out! I'll see you in the next review!