Guards of Traitor's Toll and Busy Streets Expansion Review

Listen, constable, it all might look straightforward here, but everyone's got an angle. That street vendor has an angle, that shifty looking fellow over there almost certainly has an angle, our patron has an angle, the assessors have an angle, I've got an angle and I'm sure you have an angle for being here too, but that doesn't mean we don't do our duty, and the better you do your duty, the better I'm rewarded and as a result, the better you're rewarded too. Now keep your eye open, that shifty fellow has disappeared into the crowd, we've got work to do. Welcome to Traitor's Toll.

When I first saw Guards of Traitor's Toll, I thought it looked like a beautiful cross between Mordheim and the Guards Guards novels from the Discworld setting by Terry Pratchett, and after Grey for Now Games' previous work, I knew it was almost certainly going to be an incredible game. In this article, we're going to check out the Guards of Traitor's Toll Starter Set and the first expansion, Busy Streets. We'll take a look at how it plays and what the 2 sets contain.

We're just starting our Guards of Traitor's Toll coverage here at TechRaptor, but we've been fans of Grey for Now Games and Graham Davey's work since we first tried Test of Honour under Warlord Games, and then the 2nd Edition when Graham took it under his own company.

You Have To Pay The Toll

Guards of Traitor's Toll is set in a fantasy setting in the city of Traitor's Toll, an independent city blocking a mountain pass that connects 2 Kingdoms. The city built up over time on the riches of the tolls paid by those wishing to use the pass to the point where now, an entire ecosystem supports the collection of those taxes. The Baron oversees all of it, supported by his Lord and Lady sons and daughters, who each control a different element of the city, and the guards they have to enforce it.

That's where you come in. You are a Guard Captain looking after a shift of guard constables in support of one of Baron's children. Keep the peace, ensure the taxes are collected, and maybe make a bit of extra coin for yourself while you're there.

Take To The Streets

Games of Guards of Traitor's Toll aren't your usual skirmish wargames, and there's a lot of randomness and unexpected actions from the citizens of the city, with your team of guards trying their best to keep control. Each turn, tokens are drawn from a pot to determine who acts. These tokens are a mix of guard tokens (where the player drawing the token can act with their guards, plot tokens, which have random events, suspect tokens, where criminals take actions, and time tokens, which activates a couple of random citizens and ends the turn if the last time token is drawn.

Games start with no suspects on the board, and guards and citizens can mill about until a plot card is drawn. Plot cards are a mix of random events and criminals appearing, which the guards have to deal with, or risk rising discontent. Completing plot cards earns gold, and the player with the most gold at the end wins. It's never going to be as simple as that, though, and any remaining discontent is taken away from your gold. Discontent comes in 2 forms, general, which affects all players and stays on plot cards until they're completed, and personal, which your own guard unit acquires by being too rough with the local populace, like knocking civilians over, or killing non-deadly suspects.

Guards of Traitor's Toll is a semi-cooperative game, and while you can't attack the guards of the other players, you don't have to help them, and it's the guard who completes the plot card who gains the rewards, so be carful of other player's guards lurking nearby as you escort suspects. When a time counter is drawn, 2 citizens move randomly depending on the direction indicated by the dice, and you can use this movement to benefit you, or get in the way of other guards.

This random direction also affects your guards, and when the custom dice are rolled, you get a choice of moving in the direction of any swords shown on the dice, and you move 4 inches plus 1 for each foot result rolled. Guards have 2 other movement options, and can move cautiously, which is still in a random direction, but less distance, and they remain alert in case they are attacked, or can take a close action, where they select a specific suspect within targettting range (unless they're sneaking, when you have to spot them first) and move in their direction and interact with them, attacking or subduing afterwards.

This mechanic really controls the game and adds a huge element of realism. If civilians and guards could move freely, whenever a suspect was revealed, every guard would head straight towards them. With this random movement, it captures the chaos of the busy streets of the city, where guards won't always hear every shout, won't be able to spot every pick-pocket (who are doing their best not to be seen), until the guard spots something odd within their target range, and then the chase is on. It gives a living, breathing feeling to the world as you try to best position your guards amongst the populace, because you never know who's trying to avoid paying a tax.

Guards of Traitor's Toll is designed as a narrative adventure campaign; there's an ongoing narrative to the plot cards and missions in the book, and you can watch your guards develop over the campaign.

Starter Set

The Guards of Traitor's Toll Starter Set includes everything that 2 players need to play their first few games. This includes:

• Guards of Traitor's Toll rulebook
• Custom dice
• Plot and secret cards
• Recruitment, trait, and advance cards for guards for 2 players
• 12 guard miniatures
• 24 cityfolk miniatures

The sprues (by Wargames Atlantic, and can be purchased separately) give a huge variety for the guards and the cityfolk, and it's a good idea to build with as much variety as possible for the cityfolk. There are 6 types of cityfolk on the identify card (which is used when randomly determining a citizen), and each type has 5 features to help with randomising, so it's a good idea to build a spread of these. Plot cards also have a feature used to determine a suspect (barefeet, performer, etc), and Grey for Now Games has a handy file where you can see the sprues in full detail for planning your builds.

Busy Streets

The Guards of Traitor's Toll Busy Street expansion is the easiest way to expand your games to 3 or 4 players. It includes:

• 12 additional cityfolk miniatures
• 12 guard miniatures (which gives all players 6 guards when combined with the starter set)
• Recruitment cards (as with the starter set, but with 2 new guard crests for 3 or 4 player games)
• New Guard Sergeant cards with 4 different crests
• 6 new trait cards and 13 advance cards (11 new, 2 repeated)
• New secret and plot cards
• Injury cards (handily printed versions from the rules)
• New Patron cards
• An additional set of custom dice and a token sheet

Even if you're not looking to expand to 3 or 4 player games, the extra citizens and guards are handy to have for variety, and the additional card content adds a lot to games. The Patron cards especially add an interesting new element, and each of the 4 patrons has 4 cards, of which you randomly draw 3 each game. These patron cards grant additional gold at the end of the game if you complete certain objectives, playing in a way that represents your patron. This makes the guard units feel more unique and reflects the variety between the different patrons they serve.

At the moment, for a solo player the extra content feels locked behind the miniatures, and in the future, there might be a way to purchase all of the rules/cards/dice/tokens without any miniatures (as the system is fairly miniatures agnostic), but the extra variety gained with the Busy Streets expansion does make it worthwhile. It feels like you can pick up the Starter Set, decide if it's for you, and then buy into the Busy Streets expansion to expand your games further, opening up the extra variety and additional rules.

Guards of Traitor's Toll and Busy Streets Final Thoughts?

I'm a huge fan of Guards of Traitor's Toll. The token system for activation, which can be a bit random in Test of Honour (and other Warlord Games systems) when looking for a competitive battle, suits this perfectly, with the random movement capturing the feel of a bustling city perfectly. The advance and trait cards start to bring to life your constables, and the citizens themselves start to develop their own stories within your game. The Busy Streets expansion, while appearing for solo players to lock content behind a miniatures purchase, adds a lot of variety to games, and the extra citizens and guards aren't wasted. For 3 or 4-player games, Busy Streets is essential.

Guards of Traitor's Toll plays well at all player counts, and always feels natural, rather than solo rules being bolted on. Exploring the narrative through the plot and secret cards, as well as watching your guards develop and rivalries grow if playing with 2 or more players, is a true joy. It perfectly captures the feel of a skirmish and adventure game, in a living environment, where the civilians and suspects' AI control feels random and realistic.

The copy of Guards of Traitor's Toll used to produce this review was provided by Grey for Now Games, and the copy of the Busy Streets Expansion was purchased by the author.