Like most strategy games and city builders, Manor Lords has a lot going on under the hood that can make it confusing for even players experienced with the genre. So, to make sure your village gets the best start it can, here’s how to get started in Manor Lords and Beginner Tips to help you grow your camp.
What to Build First in Manor Lords
The first building you’ll want to get started on immediately in nearly every playthrough of Manor Lords is the Logging Camp, as it will provide the timber needed to build all your other structures.
Here is what you should build first when starting a village in Manor Lords:
- Logging Camp
- Produce Timber (assign three families to it).
- Two Hitching Posts
- To carry Timber (purchase second Ox as soon as possible).
- Granary
- Assign workers (for food).
- Storehouse
- Assign workers (for item storage).
Make sure you don’t accidentally build the Woodcutter’s Lodge, as that particular building will only produce firewood. When the camp finishes, go ahead and fully staff it with three families. You can reassign them when you have a good supply of timber saved up.
You’ll notice that construction sites in Manor Lords require an Ox to drag the timber over before building can begin in earnest. Oxes and hitching posts are easily overlooked but are incredibly important to logistics in the game.
This is why we recommend building a 2nd Hitching Post as soon as the timber is delivered to the camp, then when the post is built use it to purchase a 2nd Ox. It takes about a month for the new animal to arrive, which is why it’s important to order early. Once it arrives, your second bovine friend should keep your constructions from getting too bottlenecked.
Next you’ll want to build a Granary and a Storehouse. Once these two are built, assign workers to them so your starting supplies and food can be stored in there, safe from the ravages of the elements. You can reassign those families once there are no more piles of supplies lying around in a field.
Now, it’s time to build some houses, or Burgage Plots, for your villagers. Expanding your population in Manor Lords requires two things: happiness and spare housing, and since homelessness causes unhappiness, this will help with both of them. Hopefully, your Logging Camp has built up a bit of timber, and you can set down 5 or 6 Burgage Plots at once or just build them one at a time if not.
These use Manor Lords‘ flexible plotting system, so you can make several tiny, single family houses or make them large enough for living space and workshop expansions later. Either way, get at least 6 houses up quickly so the inevitable unhappiness penalty from homelessness ticks down faster, and you can start getting more hands to help around your village.
Finally, it’s time to set up some food, water, and firewood. A well can be set up anywhere there is underground water, and a single one will supply the entire region. Similarly, the Woodcutters Lodge we mentioned earlier only needs trees to work. Place one of each down and then open up the map to see where your region’s berry and animal deposits are. Place down either a Hunting Camp or a Forager Hut by the closest deposit, making sure to connect it to your village’s roads, but know that you’ll want both before too long.
How to Expand Your Camp in Manor Lords
With the basic amenities sorted, it’s time to look to the future. Check the map again and this time, pay attention to the deposits of iron, stone, and clay as well as anything that has a little crown above them. These crowns signify rich deposits which contain more resources and a later upgrade allows you to gather from them indefinitely, so they can have a major influence on the direction you take your village in.
It’s also worth checking the fertility of the surrounding land, as farms can take over a year to get going and they can prove similarly useful as your town grows larger. Once you’ve decided the direction you want to take your town in, we can look at the development screen. Clicking the box with your region’s name at the top of the screen will open up something of a talent tree you can invest in every time you reach a new settlement level. Some of these, like the aforementioned “Deep Mining”, let you capitalize on your region’s abundances, while others can shore up deficiencies.
If you have really poor farming and gathering prospects, the commerce part of the tree has an option called “Foreign Suppliers”, which lets you trade regional influence for firewood or bread. This means you could focus hard on gathering and refining resources to trade, and then simply buying the necessities with the proceeds. However, if you don’t plan on focusing on trade, we recommend skipping them.
Now that you know how to get started in Manor Lords, you can specialize your village however you see fit. Build a sprawling farming estate to feed your people, specialize in mining and manufacturing so you can equip a conquering army, or simply sell everything you can get your hands on. The choice is yours.
Manor Lords will be released in Early Access for PC via Steam, GOG, and the Microsoft Store as well as on Xbox Game Pass for PC. An Xbox console version is also planned.
