That last one doesn't work for me.

This does, however: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4812/ and it includes Guild 2, Pirates of the European Seas, and Renaissance.

Strange, that one doesn't work for *me*. I guess they have some localized version for some reason.

Strange ! , I have double checked , it works for me every time - must be a "regional thing"......
And the link you just posted doesn't work for me - it just forwards me to Steam stores front page..... So I would say defenitely a "regional thing"......

The "Guild II" is the "base game" out of the "Guild II" series as far as I know...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/39650/

Yeah, but isn't Renaissance supposed to be standalone Guild 2 + something extra? And Pirates also looks like it's standalone? I just don't know.

From what I remember, every new expansion was basically the base game + some additions, not sure if anything was left out, perhaps some of the base maps, but if you only want to get one, the last one, Renaissance, should suffice. It's Standalone.

May want to wait a bit till the forum gets going on Steam, usually helps to discover problems.

Yes I thnk that you were right that the "expansions" for "Guild II" were "Stand Alone".......

Game info :

The Guild 2 :
The Guild 2 is the shining successor of the ultra successful medieval life sim, Europe 1400. The Guild 2 is a unique mixture of RPG and life simulation in an immersive middle ages scenario. The player and his party become part of history and can even change it in real-time.

Go back to the dark middle ages and found a new dynasty! Take care of yourself, because your opponents never sleep! Marry a beautiful wife and make new friends... control your life! Hand down your skills and your descendants will greatly appreciate it!

Key features:■Middle Ages come to life! Experience the end of the middle ages like you have never done before in a beautifully crafted and immersive 3D world.
■Everything's realtime. Walk around the streets and accidentally watch an execution of a prisoner or a rich merchant being robbed by one of your opponents.
■Keep your power growing. Be a successful merchant or a cunning thief and watch your dynasty thrive or fail and see your party and family diminish.
■Build your own character. State-of-the-art role playing features allow you to create your own unique character and play in a party of up to 3 members with different strengths and weaknesses.


The Guild II - Pirates of the European Seas :
The first true life simulation series set in the fascinating medieval Europe!

The Addon expands and transforms the game into an even greater experience by adding a huge area including the cities of "The Hanse" located at the shores of the European seas. Sea battles and naval trading are added to the gameplay, and a new campaign mode provides more than 10 hours of additional fun.



Key features:■Naval trading, sea battles
■4 new maps, 5 different types of ships, each one can be equipped according to your needs
■Campaign mode including more than 10 hours of pure medieval fun
■New buildings (harbour, fishermans hut, pirate outpost), trading station as upgrade
■New professions: Pirate and Medicus!
■3 new offices and titles of nobility with new privileges



Guild II: Renaissance :

For centuries Europe has been dominated by the church and nobility. On the shoulders of ordinary people the servants of god and the noble families justified their power and wealth. This was the incontrovertible, divine world order. A truly dark era…

In the 14th Century the world order is beginning to transform itself. Due to trade and commerce an increasing middle class obtains more and more power and wealth. Entire towns purchase their freedom and more privileges from the nobility. Reading and writing is no longer the domain of the nobility and the clergy and the invention of printing information may eventually be spread everywhere. This is the beginning of the renaissance...

Features:■8 completely new professions: mercenary, grave digger, stonemason, juggler, innkeeper, banker, miller and the fruit grower
■New goods, buildings, ambient details and effects
■All new scenarios ("Transylvania", "The Rhineland" and "The Alps") & bigger world maps
■Improved AI, title and nobility system as well as new options (e.g. “God Measures”, levels of difficulty)

Also throwing my hat in for the question of which The Guild II to get. Is there any reason whatsoever to get the full package or will just renaissance suffice?

It is dreadfully easy to circumnavigate though. When the game installation screen starts up, go to wherever the temporary install file was saved, copy and paste it elsewhere and you have it DRM free permanently.

Yeah, the add-on situation for The Guild II is quite confusing. I bought the games months after they hit the price I was willing to pay because I just didn't know which one to buy. ;) Some general info:

The Guild II is the base game. Pirates is an add-on to that basegame, it is not stand-alone as far as I remember. In practice this doesn't matter much though since no one in his right mind would recommend to play the base game without the addon. the base game was extremely buggy, and the add-on and its patches partly fixed that (though not totally). These two products are often sold together as "The Guild II Gold"

Venice is a stand-alone re-release. Of all Guild games, it had the worst critical reception. Gameplay isn't significantly different from The Guild II + Pirates, they didn't even fix the remaining bugs. They basically just changed the graphics and made new maps to play on. This game is sometimes sold together with "The Guild II Gold" in a package called "The Guild II Platinum".

Renaissance is a fan-mod turned stand-alone expansion. It offers the most content of all the products, it includes the gameplay from The Guild II and Pirates and then adds on top of that. Unfortunately, it also introduced many new bugs, and again these were only partly fixed.

Personally, I recommend to buy either Renaissance, or "The Guild II Gold". The former has more content, but the latter can be enhanced with a huge modification that isn't compatible with the former. This mod might be hard to get now though, and I don't know if there was an English translation of the latest version. I wouldn't buy Venice unless there's a good offer for the Platinum Edition and you can get it for just a dollar more than you'd pay for the Gold edition.

tl;dr: Get Renaissance.

Pirates of the European Seas is Standalone, I have it :)

Okay, I will. Thanks a lot!

Wikipedia agrees with you as well. I must have misremembered, thanks for providing the correct information!

The massive mod that I mentioned should work with Pirates alone then. I'm not sure if Pirates includes all the maps from the base game, but getting the base game just for some more maps wouldn't be worth it either.

In that case, getting Pirates might be the better choice over the Gold edition, though Renaissance would still be my first choice.

Since it is only 4,99€ for all 3 games I personally think that it is hardly worth the great "forth and back" debate unless the buyer does not have the last 2 or 3 € .....
Just my 2 cents..... - or 4,99€ ;-)

I just paid 1.24 for Renaissance. Plenty worth it for me ^^

Where I live it says Renaissance. 2,49€ ;-)
So "The Guild II Collection" for 4,99€ - Plenty worth it for me ;-)

That's why I used a Nordic Games -50% coupon ;)