Manor Lords had a big update recently (with more coming soon), which has encouraged a lot more people to start playing it again. I even started a Let's Play, with commentary on my secondary YouTube channel, "MegaBearsFan_Plays". I've been playing the game off and on since it's initial launch into Early Access, and so I thought I might also take this opportunity to share some tips and advice that I have for any players who are new to the game, or who might be struggling.
I started a Let's Play with commentary about strategy and my overall thoughts about the game.
Remember that it's Early Access
The first "tip" is actually more of a disclaimer. If you play Manor Lords, please remember that it is an Early Access game. Though it is playable (and quite good), it is not fully-featured. It contains bugs, isn't finely-tuned or balanced yet, and has entire features and modes that don't actually work yet. For example, take a look at the Policies menu, and you'll notice that there are only a couple working policies, and the rest are place-holders that cannot be activated.
More importantly for the purposes of this guide, the game will change considerably over the coming months (or years), and leading up to its eventual retail release. These tips apply specifically to the Early Access build (in early 2025), and may not be relevant in the final release version of the game. I may write an additional tips guide for the full retail release, if I think the game has changed enough to warrant additional tips.
TIP #1: Focus on lumber and survival necessities at the start
The first year or 2 of the game will be dominated by a struggle simply to survive! Keeping your townsfolk alive and healthy is your number 1 priority at the beginning of the game. With only a handful of families living in your town, each and every person who dies of starvation or from warfare is a significant loss of labor.
As such, your early focus should be on the buildings and resources that are necessary to keep your population alive. Everything else is a luxury. Buildings like churches and taverns will be necessary later on, but it's a waste of time and material to build them right away. When winter comes, no amount of booze or prayer will save your villagers from freezing or starving.
Most buildings require lumber, and the only way to get lumber is from a Logging Camp. At this time, lumber cannot be bought from traders, nor moved between your settlements. Furthermore, the Lumber Camp, itself, requires a Lumber to build. This means that you have to use your starting lumber to build a Lumber Camp, or else you will never be able to produce new lumber. Build a Lumber Camp in every new settlement immediately!.
The Lumber Camp costs lumber to build! Make sure you build it before you run out of Lumber.
Next should come a supply of food, such as Hunter's Camp and/or Forager Hut. The recent update also added fishing ponds, and the Fisherman's Hut is an excellent source of food. Farming is very labor-intensive, and so I do not recommend farming at the beginning of the game, even if you start out next to (or inside) a fertile field. Furthermore, you should finish the food infrastructure and start working it before the summer. Most food sources are not available during the winter, and so you need to collect food throughout the summer in order to have enough surplus to last through the first winter.
Next up should be a Woodcutter's Camp to secure a supply of surplus firewood for your first winter. This should be slightly lower priority than food, since firewood can be collected during winter, while food is extremely limited in the winter.
You should also build a Granary and Warehouse, and staff them with workers, as soon as possible. Food and materials that are left out in piles on the ground will suffer damage from exposure to the weather. These initial resources (especially the food) are essential to getting your village through its first winter. Do not let them get destroyed by rain or snow!
Once those necessities are completed, then you can move onto other core infrastructure, such as a Sawmill, your first 5 Burgage homes, and upgrading your Hitching Post(s) to a Stable. Then you can finally start looking at building your economy and other luxuries, such as a Church, Tavern, Mines, Tannery, and so forth.
TIP #2: "Wealth" and "Treasury" are different things
The concepts of Region Wealth and the Lord's Treasury are explained by the game, but it's still easy for new players to get tripped up regarding which currency is used for what in game. So I want to quickly review where each currency comes from, how they are used, and what you should spend your early bank of coin to buy.
First of all, what is the difference between "Wealth" and "Treasury"? Wealth is the money that is available to your village's population, and is generally spent on upgrades for the village itself. The Treasury is you Lord's money, and is generally spent on hiring mercenaries and conducting certain diplomatic actions.
Region wealth buys upgrades and supplies.
Region Wealth is the population's money
Wealth is generated automatically by Burgage plots over time, but only Burgage plots of level 2 or higher generate wealth. The higher the plot's level, the more wealth it generates. As such, getting your Burgage plots up to at least level 2 should be an important priority early in the game. One of the primary usages of Wealth is to buy backyard upgrades for Burgage plots, such as vegetable gardens, livestock pens, or artisan workshops such as bakeries and blacksmiths. Some other buildings can also use Wealth to buy upgrades, such as the Forager Hut having a medicinal Herb Garden that requires planks and Wealth to build. Wealth can also be spent to buy additional beasts of burden such as oxen and horses.
Lastly, Wealth is also generated by or used for resource trading at the Trade Post building. Selling (exporting) excess goods at the trade post will yield Wealth, and buying (importing) goods will cost Wealth. Having a surplus of Wealth can be critical for purchasing resources that you lack in your controlled regions.
Another important thing to note is that each region will have its own independent bank of Wealth. Each region only generates wealth from the Burgage plots that are occupied within that region, and the region can only spend its own Wealth to buy upgrades or trade resources.
Treasury is for military.
Treasury is for your military
The Lord's Treasury, on the other hand, is independent of the region. The money in the Treasury primarily comes from collecting taxes from your regions' populations. You can set the tax rate at your Manor building in each region. Note that each Manor only collects taxes from its own region. If you settle other regions, you'll need to build a Manor in those regions, and set a tax rate, in order to collect taxes from those regions.
A secondary source of Treasury cash is to use your military to destroy Bandit Camps. Each time you destroy a Bandit Camp, you'll have the option to give the spoils to your population in the form of a boos to Region Wealth, or take the money for yourself and add it to your Treasury. Which you choose will depend on your specific circumstances.
Which brings me to the next point: Treasury is used primarily to hire and pay mercenaries. There is an upfront cost to hire mercenaries, and you also have to pay them each month that they are active. Thus, it's important to disband mercenaries as soon as they are no longer needed.
Treasury money can also be used for certain trade deals with other factions, but these features are not fully implemented yet.
TIP #3: Buy a 2nd ox with your starting wealth
The biggest material bottleneck that you're likely to run into in the early hours of the game will be lumber and planks. You might think that the problem is with your Logging Camp and/or Sawmill, and that the solution is to simply assign more workers to it. But this won't solve the problem. The reason, is that the problem is actually a logistical problem. Lumber cannot be carried by villagers; it can only be transported by oxen. Thus, the actual bottleneck isn't the Logging Camp or Sawmill itself; the actual bottleneck is that your ox is busy transporting lumber to other places, instead of to the Logging Camp or Sawmill.
This can easily happen if you plop multiple construction projects (or building upgrades) down at the same time, since the ox will prioritize sending lumber to construction projects. There are 2 ways to fix this. One is to explicitly pause the construction of all the buildings and upgrades so that your ox will be free to drag newly cut logs to the Logging Camp, or to transport logs from the camp to the Sawmill.
The better solution, however, is to buy another ox!
Use your starting wealth to buy an additional ox.
I highly recommend that you build a second Hitching Post (and/or upgrade your initial Hitching Post into a stable) and buy a 2nd ox with your starting wealth. Then assign the 2nd ox to the Logging Camp or Sawmill in the "Advanced" tab of the respective building's pop-up menu. This will ensure that that particular ox will only move lumber to the Logging Camp or to the Sawmill, while your other ox will be free to send lumber to construction projects.
You should also assign a family to the Hitching Post or Stable in order to speed up the oxens' collection and transport of lumber. This actually makes a surprisingly huge difference!
If you want to maximize your efficiency, then your starting builds should go something like this:
- Start construction of your Logging Camp, chosen food harvester, and Granary (as described earlier).
- Once these essential infrastructures are completed, click on the Hitching Post and order a new ox.
- Then, either build a second Hitching Post, or upgrade the starting Hitching Post to a Stable.
- It will take some time for your second ox to arrive in the settlement and start working, which will give your Hitching Post or Stable time to finish building. But if you built a second Hitching Post (instead of upgrading to a Stable), then make sure that the second Hitching Post is finished being constructed shortly after the ox arrives and starts working. Otherwise, the ox may run away when it gets tired and doesn't have a Hitching Post to rest at.
Assign an ox to your Lumber Camp or Saw Pit.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think that the Stable will still be able to house the 2 oxen while it is being constructed. I've never had oxen run away while a Stable was under construction, but that might have just been luck. So I think that if you order a 2nd Ox, and then upgrade to a Stable, the new ox will not run away if the Stable takes a long time to finish. But you might want to set it to "very high" or "highest" priority, just in case.
Once you have the 2 oxen, you can permanently assign 1 to your Logging Camp, and switch it to the Sawmill whenever you need new planks. Meanwhile, the second ox will be dedicated to sending logs to new construction projects.
TIP #4: Build back yards for your Burgage plots
One of the coolest features of Manor Lords is the ability to draw housing plots in irregular shapes and sizes. This not only looks cool and is historically accurate, but it also opens up lots of new strategy and decisions on how big to make your plots and how tightly to pack your houses. Wider plots can allow a second family to move into a house, which can save space overall. Deeper plots allow the house to be given a backyard, which can serve a variety of purposes.
Early in the game, vegetable gardens and chicken coops can be built in back yards (by spending village wealth). This can help keep that particular house more self-sufficient by giving it access to free food that doesn't come from your general supply. Excess vegetables and eggs can also eventually find their way into your food markets, which can provide a boost to approval, in the form of having increased food variety.
Large burgage plots with vegetable gardens will provide a buffer of food.
Later in the game, these backyards can be converted into artisan workshops for smithies, tailors, bakers, brewers, and more. In fact, backyard workshops are the only way to produce certain goods.
So even if you cannot afford to put a vegetable garden, chicken coop, or goat pen in every house that you build early in the game, setting this space aside can be beneficial later. It will allow these houses to be converted into artisanal workshops later in the game. All of your early Burgage plots should have space allocated for a back yard!
Vegetable gardens and orchards generate more food based on the size of the backyard, while all other backyard upgrades generate the same amount of resources (regardless of their size). So you can create makeshift, early-game farms by creating oversized plots, and putting a vegetable garden in them. These can potentially provide enough vegetables to feed the entire village and boost approval.
TIP #5: Market variety keeps your approval above 50%
New families will not move into your village if your approval is below 50%. As such, it is essential to raise your approval rating to 50% as soon as possible, and to work to keep it at or above 50% at all times.
One of the ways to increase approval is to have fully stocked market stalls. Having a food stall with multiple types of food can satisfy the "market food variety" need, which will add a positive modifier to the approval rating. Thus, having both a Hunting Cabin and a Forester's Hut, and keeping both staffed will keep your food stall supplies with at least 2 types of food (meat and berries). Having a farm can also provide grain, which will further increase your food variety.
Granary and Warehouse workers will also pick up
starting supplies so they don't get damaged by weather.
One of the changes in the recent update is that building employees do not set up their own market stalls anymore. Instead, you need to specifically assign families to work in the Warehouse and Granary, and they will be the ones who create and operate market stalls. Once you have your settlement up and running, you should assign 1 family to the Granary and 1 family to the Warehouse. If you have no active construction projects, then you can likely re-assign any family(ies) that were running the Hitching Post/Stable, Logging Camp, and Sawmill to work the Granary and Warehouse, while still keeping your food harvesters and Woodcutter Camp (for firewood) running.
A church will also an effective way to improve your village's approval early.
Another easy way to increase your approval rating early is to build a Tannery and start producing leather. This will give you the "clothing market supply" approval modifier. You can staff the Tannery by temporarily moving a family from your food harvester(s) or Woodcutter if you have a surplus of food or firewood. Of course, you need animal hides to create leather, which means you also need to have either a Hunter's Lodge, or to buy goat pens in one or more of your Burgage plots.
With 2 sources of food, and some leather in your market stalls, you should get a large bonus to approval, and the new populations should start rolling in!
TIP #6: Keep your early farm fields small and compact
Agriculture is a very labor-intensive task. Trying to operate farms in Manor Lords will require multiple families in order to operate the farms themselves, and also the supporting infrastructure, such as the Windmill, Communal Oven, Weaver, Malthouse, and so forth. As such, you want to wait to farm until you have a large enough population to support all of this infrastructure.
However, you can start small-scale agriculture earlier, and micro-manage the workforces to operate all the necessary infrastructure. If you choose to do this, go ahead and build your Farmhouse. But do not build a single, large farm field (of 1 Morgen or larger). Large fields of 1 Morgen or larger will require multiple families to plow, sow, and harvest, unless you have a Plow Station and spare ox.
I recommend building smaller fields for your first farm, which can be more easily worked by a single family.
Instead of building large fields, I recommend starting by creating several small fields. I recommend starting with fields of about a half Morgen each. Fields of this size can be easily worked by a single family in time to get a full crop yield. If you create a cluster of small fields, you can also grow multiple crops, and assign an extra family for each field.
Lastly, with multiple fields, you can assign priority to each crop, in order to ensure that your most important crop will be worked first.
Also, do not let the name "Farmhouse" fool you! Farm workers do not actually live in the Farmhouse buildings. Farm workers will live in regular Burgage plots (or Worker's Camps) just like all other workers, and will have to walk between their homes and the Farmhouse. Because of this, you should try to build your farms close to your actual village, so that the Farmhouses remain close to all the Burgage houses where the Farmers live. If you are forced to build your farms further away from the population center (due to fertility, for instance), then you should consider building some Burgage plots near the farms for the farm workers to live in. This will cut down on travel time and help them get the fields plowed and harvested in a more timely manner.
You can also create large Burgage plots with Vegetable Gardens to supplement your actual farms. This will allow your farmers to work the Vegetable Gardens during the off seasons when they aren't actively plowing, sowing, or harvesting the fields.
TIP #7: Send your retinue to clear Bandit Camps
The primary source of Regional Wealth in Manor Lords is from upgraded Burgage Plots and from trade. However, you won't be able to upgrade your Burgage Plots within the first year or 2, and won't be able to trade right away either. As such, the best way to earn early-game money is to steal reclaim it from Bandit Camps.
I recommend creating your Manor as soon as you're able, as this will grant a free handful of trained Retinue soldiers to supplement your militia. Once you have that Retinue, you can go into the Military tab of the HUD, and create a Spearman militia unit. If you have between 15 and 20 troops in your militia, you should be able to take on a single Brigand unit, especially with the Retinue at their side.
Whenever you see the "Bandit Camp sighted" notification, mobilize your militia and Retinue and send them to the region where the Bandit Camp is located. Pick a nice, clear spot near the border of that region and deploy your troops there. Avoid running your troops unless you are trying to beat a rival army from reaching the Bandits first. Let the Bandits come to you so that you will be on favorable terrain and in a tight, defensible formation.
Use your militia and Retinue to battle Bandits and claim treasure from their camps.
Defeating the Brigand unit will grant you Influence, which can be used later on to claim new territory. Once the Brigands are defeated, you can move one or both of your units to their camp. Reaching the camp will disband it and give you the option to claim Regional Wealth or Treasury silver. This is your choice, but I generally recommend taking Regional Wealth from your first camp or 2, since this will allow you to order more oxen, and create more backyards. After that, you can maybe pick Treasury silver, so that you have a reserve of cash in case you ever need to hire mercenaries.
Just be careful about how you use your militia. Militia is drawn from your population, and any militia troops lost in battle come out of your population. Losing a family member will also cause a household to go into mourning for a period of time, during which they will not be productive. Don't put your militia in unnecessary risk.
If you build the Garrison Tower building in your manor, you will be granted additional Retinue troops, and will also be able to spend Treasury silver to hire more Retinue soldiers. With a large Retinue, you may be able to defeat Bandits without needing to put your militia in danger.