Highlights
- Resources must be stored properly to prevent spoilage, such as food left in the rain deteriorating quickly.
- Careful planning is necessary when building a village to avoid overpopulation without enough resources.
- Workers must be assigned efficiently and rotated seasonally to maintain production and prevent shortages.
Manor Lords is a medieval city builder and settlement management game with a heavy focus on immersion and authenticity. Villagers will carry out every task with detailed animations, constructing buildings beam by beam and collecting food by hand. Players will have a lot to manage with changing seasons, rival lords, enemy raiders, and a fluctuating goods market. Despite still being in early access, it has gained vast popularity and was the most wishlisted game on Steam prior to its release.
Best Survival Strategy Games, Ranked
The survival-strategy hybrid genre is a complex one, and there are several unique games that fall into this category.
However, Manor Lords is a game that does not hold a player's hands. Though the game does contain an extensive and clear tutorial, there are so many elements to stay on top of that it can be difficult to remember everything at once. Here are several mistakes players can avoid to prevent making the game harder for themselves than it needs to be.
7 Letting Resources Perish
Resources Will Not Last Indefinitely, Particularly When Exposed To The Elements
One of the first issues Manor Lords players will have to deal with is the weather. Any good left on its own and not properly stored will deteriorate when exposed to rainfall, which will come fairly regularly throughout the spring and autumn seasons. Creating a Storehouse and assigning workers to it will enable them to collect any loose goods, as well as traffic them between production buildings and market stalls.
For food, players will need to construct a Granary, and the same process applies. These are two of the first buildings players should construct in order to get the basic infrastructure of a village going. When a building is deconstructed, the supplies used to build it will be reimbursed, but they will first have to be collected by Storehouse or Granary workers.
6 Building Too Quickly
Overbuilding Can Be Tempting At First But May Lead To Destructive Consequences Later
Given that buildings can often be constructed so cheaply, it is tempting to simply go ahead with the building of a large town without proper thought for how it might function. This will be a costly mistake, as overpopulating the village without supplying adequate Food and Fuel will cause approval ratings to plummet and the settlement to fail.
Manor Lords: 6 Ways To Maintain A High Approval Rating
Maintaining a high approval rating in Manor Lords can be challenging, especially for beginners. Here are some ways to stop it from decreasing.
While settlers will only get around to constructing buildings when they are able, careful consideration should be paid to which buildings will be placed where in order to best facilitate production chains and ease of market access to the populace.
5 Building In The Wrong Order
The Production Of Resources Depends Upon Building Chains Being Properly Constructed
On the subject of production chains, it is important to ensure that buildings are constructed in the right order, otherwise they will be completely ineffective and unable to perform their function. For example, constructing a Windmill or a Communal Oven without a functioning farm will be a complete waste of resources and workers.
First, players should ensure that they have the right buildings to collect the raw materials, whether it be wood, logs, hides, etc. Then, industry buildings can be added in order to turn the raw materials into consumer goods. Some items may require several buildings in order to refine them into valuable products, but this should always be done incrementally and not in a great hurry. Trade can also be used to offload excess goods or materials.
4 Assigning Too Many Or Not Enough Workers
Buildings Will Be Useless Without Workers Assigned To Them, But Inactive Buildings May Not Need Workers
Assigning families to different job roles is a key part of settlement management in Manor Lords. No building will function without first having families assigned to it for work. Increasing the number of workers can speed up production but will also become inefficient unless the supply of required resources remains consistent.
7 Beginner Tips For Manor Lords
Here's how to get started in Manor Lords, Slavic Magic's medieval management sim that is currently in Early Access on Steam.
Similarly, having workers assigned to buildings when they do not stock the requisite resources can also be inefficient. It is better to have 2-3 fully functioning and profitable industries than it is to have 7 semi-functioning industries with shortages of resources. With that said, some rotation is inevitable due to the changing seasons.
3 Failing To Prepare For The Seasons
Each Season Has Its Own Set Of Challenges And Advantages For Players To Adapt To
As seasons change, so does the surrounding environment. Animals may begin to migrate, causing a steady supply of food to become harder to obtain. Another noticeable change is the disappearance of berries in the winter. While these can be collected by a Forager's Hut during other seasons, it is best to assign these workers elsewhere during the winter to prevent a drain on refueling.
Farms will also need to take the seasons into account and have their workers rotated seasonally. There should be maximum farmhands during the autumn months as this is when the bulk of the work takes place. As crops are steadily growing, the workers will be very unproductive for most of the year unless they are assigned to other roles during those seasons.
2 Careless Resource Management
Over Or Under-Supplying Resources Can Be Detrimental To The Success Of A Settlement
When it comes to resource management in Manor Lords, there are really two key areas of focus: production and trade. While it is better to have a town that can sustain as many of its own requirements as possible, there will inevitably come times when certain goods are in shortage or over-supply.
Manor Lords: How Taxation Works
Levying taxes from citizens is central to growing personal income in Manor Lords. This guide teaches how to use this mechanic in your favor.
In these circumstances, it is essential to start trading in order to bring in the requisite resources or pay for them through the export of abundant goods and materials. Trade can be very expensive, particularly in the early game, though there are Developments that can help ease the cost.
1 Neglecting Army Preparation
Raids Will Inevitably Come, And Poorly Prepared Militias Will Offer Little Resistance To Them
With so many things to focus on and maintain, it can be easy to neglect the preparation of a defensive force. Militia units are recruited from the general population, but they will need to be armed with the right weapons in order to rally troops for any given unit.
For players in games with AI opponents, either in the form of rival lords or raiders, some form of attack will be inevitable. Blacksmiths (from the Level 2 Burgage Plot Upgrade) can produce weapons, while Joiners can produce shields out of wood. Fletchers can also be used to craft bows and create potential archery units. It is good to have a mix of both melee and ranged units when dealing with either enemy type.
Manor Lords
- Platform(s)
- PC , Xbox One , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Released
- April 26, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Slavic Magic
- Genre(s)
- Strategy , City Builder
