Guards

In order to have and manage guards, a town must have a guard barracks building. Guard configuration is available for the monarch/head and the defense councilor, if there is one. The guard menu can be accessed from anywhere as long as you are the right type of leader. Their main purpose is to automatically enforce town laws.

Law Enforcement

Characters that are set as guards will auto-enforce laws when they are broken in their presence if the player of the guard is offline (for at least 15 minutes). When a guard is online, they are expected to manually enforce a law break when it is broken in their presence. Once guards begin to attack, they will continue attacking until their target is subdued, until the appropriate leader orders them to stop, or if the criminal/law-breaker in question surrenders which will call off the guards from attacking. Children under 14 will not be seen as breaking the law by guards and will not be automatically attacked. The only exception to this is the theft law, which will be enforced no matter the law-breaker's age. It is important to note that all automatic guard attacks fall under the same restrictions that normal attacks do, such as the one hour time limit between attempts. For more information on combat restrictions see Combat. Guards which are hibernating will not contribute to an automated attack. Leaders are exempt from auto-enforcement of any kind.

• Violence: Enforcement occurs if the attacker's weapon level is 2 or greater (meaning fists and junk weapons will not trigger enforcement) enabling the ability to spar without concern.
• Eavesdropping: Enforcement occurs when an attempted eavesdrop fails.
• Forced Entry: Enforcement occurs when attempting to break into a place or vehicle with a crowbar, lockpick or battering ram, though laws can be set to what specific types are allowed.
• Theft: Enforcement occurs when taking items from an incapable person, when an attempt at pilfering pockets fails (not when initially peeking), or when taking items out of public containers (meaning those on the ground), but laws can be set individually for each type.
• Dragging: Enforcement occurs when dragging any person, where the dragger is not the parent of the victim - parents will not trigger law breaks when moving their kids.
• Vandalism: Enforcement occurs when attempting to destroy a building or an object on the ground.

All guard functionality only applies to the tile the town is located on, and if a guard leaves the tile their guard status is removed. This means that in order to follow a criminal, a group must be made, or only wakeful characters will be able to participate in pursuit. This is to prevent the ability to use group-like functionality while maintaining the ability to work on projects.

Commands

Cease Attack: If there are any ongoing attacks toward people in the immediate area, they can be ordered to stop.
Order Attack: Guards can be ordered by a leader to begin an ongoing attack on anyone in the immediate area, this only functions if any guards in an inactive state. Attacks will continue every hour that the order exists, if all the normal combat conditions are met and the target is not subdued or incapable. Once a target is subdued, attack orders will automatically be dismissed.
Laws: The automatic behavior of guards is based off of laws, so their behavior can be adjusted by changing them.

Enlistment

Any citizen over the age of 14 can be enlisted as a guard by a leader. The character being enlisted will get a prompt asking for their consent, and they will only be added to the guard roster if they agree. A character cannot be a guard and be part of a group at the same time. A single town can have up to 5 characters set as guards at once.

Roster

The roster shows a list of currently enlisted guards and their activity status. You can have up to a third of your citizens set as guards. Citizens who are guards can relinquish the status themselves through the town menu and leaders can remove them through the roster, rendering them normal citizens.