Town Watch Guild

In game

Town Watch Guild — Vital statistics
	Used to train and upgrade infantry.
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed
[2];	3.3s (50t)	80	6	12	2.33s (35t)
Cost		Building class	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp
: 20 : 10;	: 1	Military	0	Melee	Can garrison up to 10 units. Can be built outside of city radius.

Overall strategy

The Town Watch Guild normally trains skirmisher levy units, which are peasant levy units with a ranged attack. While just as weak as Peasant Levy, they are disciplined and should be fairly cheap enough to form a last-ditch line of defenders who might yet slow down the enemy enough until reinforcements can be called in.

Town Watch units usually tend to be fairly more professional than Peasant Commune units, and in many cases are capable of operating as part of an armed host crossing into enemy territory.

Units trained

Javelineer infantry Name Class Skirmisher Levy Light javelin infantry Akritae Medium javelin infantry Rizico Medium javelin infantry 41px|link=Rizicos		Spear infantry Name Class Urban Militia Light spearmen Quadrilheiros Light pikemen		Polearms infantry Name Class Clann Levy Light polearms infantry
Archers Name Class Longbow Levy Light archers		Crossbows Name Class Levy Crossbowmen Light crossbow		Miscellaneous Name Class War Dogs Attack dog Armoured Mastiffs Attack dog

Special abilities

Upon researching Imperial Mandate at the Nobles' Court, the Town Watch Guild will upgrade to a Magistracy for a handful of factions (usually Asian ones but also Eastern Christian ones such as Russia). This is a building with better stats, better LOS and a limited offensive capability. Additionally, it will not be captured along with its host city, and an enemy must bribe or destroy the building once and for all to eliminate it. Like the Chapterhouse, this means that it can be used to harass an enemy who has taken one of your cities by virtue of its being capable of raising lots and lots of cheap and inexpensive units. They may not survive fighting regular units, but with a little bit of luck, they can be the prelude to a successful counterattack.

The Portuguese Town Watch Guild has a design that is distinct compared to other factions, and has better stats: it has higher armour, the ability to garrison units, and is built faster. If it is captured by any faction other than another Portuguese player. it will not create units for the interlopers, thus ensuring that cities that Portugal recently lost will be easier to capture back.

History

For most of the world's population, life continued to be harsh and challenging throughout the Middle Ages. Necessity bred the need for cooperation and interdependence, forming bonds between individuals, especially amongst the working classes of mediaeval society everywhere.

Law enforcement and crime prevention throughout most nations of the Middle Ages still remained fairly rudimentary, and although some mediaeval communities such as China and the Byzantine and Muslim lands had some form of professional law enforcement bodies (ie, the baojia in China or the shurta of Muslim Syria), their coverage was often haphazard, heavy-handed, and often open to corruption or subversion (especially with regards to the lands of Islam) as responsibility for law enforcement and investigation were often left to the lower levels of government. Laws were fairly harsh, with theft and stealing often invoking capital punishment in the West. Evidence extraction through torture was also widespread, meaning that all too often innocent people who were implicated in a crime could be punished instead of the wrongdoer.

Nevertheless, the end of the Middle Ages and the rise of the modern centralised nation-state also resulted in the formation of state organisations which were sanctioned and overseen by governments, especially in Western Europe. The kings of Spain, France and England began taking an interest in making provisions for law enforcement institutions, such as the Quadrilheiros of Portugal or the Hermandades of Spain - possibly as a response to increases in urbanisation and town development which feudal means of recruitment and enforcement simply couldn't cope with. Even so, it would not be another hundred years before these institutions morphed into the professional law enforcement and policing government bodies that we know so well today.