I would really like to see more guards in the wilderness, because I always saw so few. I would also like to see battle mages, because the only place I saw them in Oblivion was the Arcane University.

each city had its own type of guard and there at any time could be three different types of guards in the wild: imperial forester, imperial legion, and leyawin guards escourting that one duchess to chorrol. would like to see more battle mages i guess, as long as I don't acidentally get caught by crossfire of a spell.

Idk about more... definitely more types but we don't really need more.

Yeah there were some guards that patrolled the wild. As for the amount of them, wasn't there enough in Oblivion? I mean, there were more guards than citizens in the Imperial City! Don't see why you want more.

Rather than more standard guards, I would like to see more different classes of "guards". Faction guards, mercenaries, village heroes... etc. People who can be considered guards by A.I. classification but are varied in their backgrounds and personalities.

Maybe more guards in the wilderness but not in the cities. But more of a variety of guards would be great. Heavy guards and Battle Mage guards sounds cool

heavy guards, this guard, that guard....meh
Only thing I would really like to see are dedicated archer guards in the cities. Maybe on the city walls or something.\
One thing I did in Oblivion was steal a full guard set from each city.
The basic guard uniforms (chainmaille with the tabard) were actually my favorite. Basic, and more "real"

I'd like to see a heavier guard presence since it was kind of easy to avoid the guards during thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood quests (the heaviest guard presence was the ultimate heist IMO).

What I said yes to:

Scouts- While this could be concidered the standard issue guard you see around town, but there is an idea I'll expand on below.

Heavy Guards- This would be fun, having to avoid and dodge the big bad guy, but I want the brute to be over-powered. This guy's presence should be earned, and kicking his ass should be a real nasty fight. I'm not saying he's unkillable, but he is should be close to it. Also, killing the guy provides you with a lootable unique set of powerful and valuable armor as well as a weapon to match. My suggestion: this should be the guard captain (or if the guard captains tie into the story line, a guard lieutenant), either that or a Knight of the Nine (don't forget about these guys, 200 years of doing nothing since Umarill got wtfpwned, they had to take up some noble cause, and since the Knights of the Nine were supposedly based off the Templar Knights, that would make them a standing army without a provence or nation to call thier own. My guess is, if they appear, they are some do-gooder force.)

Battle Mages are iffy- if their Combat AI is as frusterating as Oblivion (cast spell, run like a girl, summon crature, run like a girl again, cast another spell, run like a girl to the door and run into the next cell where he keeps popping in and out of the cell you're in until he dies) then HELL NO. I DO NOT want to see this in Skyrim at all. If they fight like they have some sence and will smack you silly with the weapon of thier choice while blasting in as many spells as they can muster, then I'd love to see some guards like that. They would be a chalange and rather fun to take down.

Healer Mages- No. I like fighting opponents where they have to be prepared for combat on thier own, not one plays tank and a random restoration mage keeps spamming the convelesence spell. If it feels like I'm a WoW boss taking on the raid, I'll be a sad panda, because after all the bosses I helped bring down (Rule #1 about WoW raiding: Play DPS and blame ALL wipes on the Tank losing aggro or the Healers not doing thier job right (works best if you can actually provide proof)), I don't wanna face the raid.

Lastly the Scout thing:

I'd like to see Rogues working for the town guard. When you have a high bounty (probably before the brutes show up), a Rogue will randomly spawn behind you, and attempt to assassinate you. You have to press an action button to get out of the hold and press a second one to counter his assassination attempt. If you fail the first one, you die. If you fail the second one, you have to take 'em down old school. If you get both, you turn his assassination into a counterattack and he winds up with his own blade in his body. This would keep you awake.

wow....quick time events? really? Some giant super guards? Really?
Someone needs to put down the Xbox.
It was confirmed that each big city has its own "culture" and is abit different from all the others. I assume that means the guards will have different uniforms (I better be able to steal them!) I dont want this to turn into Assassins creed where they have soem giant monster guard, and all these different "types" of guards.

I'm all for some guards with the restoration skill. Someone's got to heal or boost.

I think undercover guards would be pretty cool. Like, you could be trying to break in to a house, and and you'd think that no guards could see you, but then an undercover would spot you. Then there could be a perk or something to help you detect the undercover guards.

I would like to see a variety in city guards. You'd have your common troopers outfitted with chain or scalemail, longsword, shield etc. then you'd have officers, slightly better equipment across the board for them as well as a noticeable increase in martial skill. Some ways to add further variety is to add some officers preferring two handed weapons or polearms over sword and shield and maybe even one or two uconvential guards who favour dual wielding. In addition to that I could see a few officers here and there be battlemages, though that concept would've fit better in Oblivion really there's bound to be one or two in Skyrim surely.

As for out in the wilderness, I would not like to see any guards per se. I would like to see scouts in the forests/mountains and soldiers patrolling the roads and the like.

EDIT: Oh yes, undercover guards could also be pretty cool, though they would be at a disadvantage equipment wise unless they are posing as mercenaries or street thugs.

Every guard needs a name an a house and a family. These shouldn't be single imperial men living in a barracks somewhere, they should be people of the town.

I would like to expand on the idea of Imperial Foresters, it would be nice to see guards or soldiers who watches the borders and treks long parts of the wilderness utilizing camps and hunting while traveling. Perhaps let them head back to their city once a month to report their findings. IMO it would be very fun to stumble over a guard trekking in the wilderness who could perhaps give you information about the area or help you out if you meet him while for example battling a oack of wolves.

I'd like to see more scouts, as well as more of a irregular city folk militia aside from the regular army-like professional guards. Since there's a civil war sweeping the land you'd expect that the major cities would be fielding their armies to take part in the conflict, thus their would be need to levy citizens in order to keep the law. Also irregular, ill equipped and unprofessional guards, high on being the arm of justice, taking law into their own hands, (or abusing their power) with only idea of punishing criminals regardless of of their deeds is to hang them on the spot would make up for some fun scenarios

Wow.
Someone needs to get off of their snooty PC throne. <_<

He's offering suggestions (well thought out ones, I might add-- something we don't see enough of on these forums), and giving good explanations based on what he would like to see. Every fan has an equal amount of merit, friend, be he Xbox gamer, PC gamer, newcomer, or diehard.

I personally like his ideas.
One particular guard who is the toughest out of the contingent of a town is realistic (he's the most skilled "champion" and/or trainer for the rest of the guards, and probably the longest serving member). Though, I don't think he should be nearly invincible-- just really hard.
The quick time events sound awesome too. But, I don't think they should carry the instant death penalty if you fail, maybe just massive damage.

Seeming as Skyrim is such a rugged environment, scouts would not be misplaced, also considering that the cities are at war with each other, and I would like to see them. But not too many, as I'm hinking along the lines of elite rangers, like the Dudaine (is that how you spell it?) from LOTR.

War parties will therefore probably feature, and these may well include a battlemage, going to and fro. Possibly lead by your so-called "heavy gaurds".

Personally, if faction allignment or a similar feature is in, I would like to see the friendly scouts as trainers, or the ability to use their campsites.

The bodyguards of the local ruler and maybe a few of the others (like the captain of the guard) should be harder to kill than usual, other than that the guards should, in my opinion, be of "average" strength (and no glass swords please). I don't want this to be like GTA where getting a five-star wanted level makes tanks spawn out of nowhere, you should know what you are facing from the beginning,

One thing that we will hopefully get now that cities are open again are dedicated archer guards on the walls. That should make fights a bit more difficult.


Battle mages are rare, and the majority used to be in the Legion, not sure what path Skyrim will take. It would make sense lore-wise if at least a few of the guards and captains are veteran Spellswords from the army though.


Each city should also have a standing army now that we're at war, which is different from the guard unit and doesn't have any police duties.

I don't see anything wrong with barracks. Maybe their family lives in another small village, and they are boarding in a city while working. Not all in barracks of course, but some certainly would be ok.

With regards to the original post, I recall seeing plenty of guards outside of cities in my travels, not in the wilderness so much but along the roads. And there were always plenty in and around each city. Remember your usually only seeing half of them, since the other half are off watch, chatting, sleeping, or eating.