The game, rebuilt
Guilds & Blades has been rebuilt from scratch as a new game: thirty-day rounds, a few decisions a day, and a fight you can read before you march.
The last post here is from November 2023. The first Guilds & Blades ran from 2021 to 2023, and the posts below this one are its record. In September 2026 I started again from scratch. What came out is a new game with the same name, the same painted look, and very little of the old rules.
What it is now
A war game of cities, armies and guilds on a hex map. A round is thirty days. You're safe on the first day, cities start to fall in the first week, and the guild ahead on day thirty goes into the hall, which keeps every round's board.
It asks for a few decisions a day, not a job. Read what your scouts brought back overnight, queue a build, recruit, move an army, cast a spell, and come back tomorrow. Queues mature, armies arrive and the market moves while you're away. Most days that is five minutes; the first evening and a siege take more.
The fight has no dice. The same armies on the same ground give the same result, so before you march you can read what the attack will cost you and whether it will carry. A loss is a choice you made, not a bad roll.
Spells always land. What a mage tower buys you is certain; what it costs is mana and the time to raise it.
There is no trading between players. You trade with the merchant, who always buys and always sells, at a price that moves with what everyone has traded.
The map keeps its secrets. You see what your cities, your armies and your guild can see; beyond that, a city you once knew is dimmed, and an army you don't see isn't on your map.
And the map is painted: forests, hills, mountains and passes you can read at a glance, because they change how an army moves and where a city can stand.
You can play before you sign up. Pick a name, press Play, and you're on the map of a world already under way. Keep the account later, with an e-mail, when you have something worth keeping. There is nothing to buy that touches resources, troops, odds or timers.
How it got here
Most of the balance was worked out by agents: scripted players that play whole rounds against each other at speed, so a change to a building or a spell can be seen across a month of play before a person ever meets it. The worlds you join are seeded with some of them, so a world is never empty.
What comes next
The worlds are open: press Play on the front page and you're in one. I'm still moving numbers between rounds, and this devlog will carry what changes from one round to the next.