Guilds of London First Impressions

In Guilds of London, you’ll manage your hand while fighting for control of tiles.

Spread power by creating Guild Masters, and stop your opponents trying to do the same.

London: The biggest, most important and richest city in England in the late medieval and early modern periods.

The Guilds played a major role in the lives of London’s citizens, controlling the way in which trade, manufacturing and business was conducted in the city. The members of the guilds were rich men, who were appointed to the most influential positions in the community and wielded immense civic power.

The chief representative of the Guilds became the Lord Mayor of London, and the leading delegates of the Guilds became his Aldermen. Other members of the Guilds were the burghers of London. The Guilds ran the city and controlled its commerce; each had its own Hall and its own Coat of Arms.

Guilds of London Summary

The main mechanisms of this game are hand management and area control.

Now, spending cards from your hand to pay for the cost of other cards from your hand is not new. But I don’t own a game that does this and I can’t immediately think of any I like. Race for the Galaxy is the first one but I don’t really like that game.

I’d like to see this used more.

Controlling tiles is definitely not new. But again, I can’t immediately think of a game that does this that I like. Because of the way the board is made up of tiles and you’re moving your little dudes around, I only ever think of Five Tribes. This is nothing like Guilds of London, but I thought I’d mention it 🙂

I had played a couple of rounds of this game before and it was cut short. I enjoyed those 2 rounds so was pleased to play it again.

The hand management part makes this game great. The costs of cards are low, very low. You’re not spending most of your hand playing 1 card… Or are you? Cards are rare, you only draw a couple. The way to get more is to win tiles with a card-drawing ability on them. That’s not easy and requires cards.

The Mayoral Reward cards are really cool. They add a tonne of variety to each game. You score points for adjacent Guilds you control at the end of the game. One of my Mayoral cards gave me a bonus if none were adjacent. So this is the complete opposite which means next time, it’ll be a very different game for me.

Jesta ThaRogue