Manor Lords – Beginner Tips & Tricks

Here are a couple of beginner tips & tricks for the upcoming RTS game Manor Lords.

Manor Lord is an upcoming real-time strategy/city-building simulator game with tough-as-nails mechanics. Survival and growing your city is everything in the game. For those familiar with games like Frostpunk or Banished, things might be a bit easier to manage when they first get into it.

However, if you’re a complete newcomer to the genre, expect to spend hours just learning the core mechanics of the game. Despite the steep learning curve, Manor Lords offers a pretty enjoyable experience once you learn the ropes. And as a bonus, the graphics in the game are insane!

If you haven’t played games like this before, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered.

In this article, we’ll give you a couple of beginner tips & tricks for Manor Lords to make your early hours in the game easier. Let’s hop in.

Tips and Tricks for Beginners in Manor Lords

Credit: RAWG

Manor Lords is a tough game, there’s no doubt about it. But with the following tips, you’ll have an easier time learning the basics.

1. Understand the Difficulty Settings

When you start the game, you will get three scenarios to choose from. These scenarios serve as the difficulty setting for Manor Lords. The victory condition and the premise for each of the three scenarios are different. Here’s a quick rundown of each of them:

Restoring the Peace Premise: Two territories in the North are claimed by the illegitimate Baron whose castle is located off the map. Bandit camps reside in the other unclaimed regions. Build and expand at your own pace. When ready, challenge the Baron for the northern territories.

Rise to Prosperity: Your main goal here is to make sure your citizens are happy and their requirements are fulfilled. There’s no combat in this scenario. Once you reach the Large Town settlement level, you can choose to continue playing in endless mode.

Restoring the Peace: Your main goal in the Restoring the Peace scenario is to conquer every region. You start with two regions, and two regions on the North are claimed by the Baron. Grow your city at your own pace, and once you’re ready, you can challenge the Baron.

On the Edge: This is the hardest scenario where you’ll constantly be under attack from raiders and bandits. Undefended settlements will get destroyed. Your goal is to grow your city quickly and build a strong army. The win condition here is to get to Large Town settlement level while surviving the attacks.

For beginners, we recommend going with the Rise to Prosperity scenario. You can focus on the city and resource management side of the game without worrying about attacks.

2. The Seasons are Important

Credit: PCGamersN

The seasonal cycle in Manor Lords plays a massive role in its gameplay. So, make sure you understand how each season affects your city and its citizens. For example, Spring and Summer are the perfect times to harvest your crops. Since Berry Deposits grow in Spring, it’s an excellent time to stock up on them.

Survival becomes more important during winter. Since Berry Deposits vanish and sheep shearing is forbidden, you need to gather all the resources you need to get through the season beforehand. Firewood is essential for surviving the cold, so make sure you have plenty of it in hand.

3. Be Efficient with Resource Gathering

Efficiency is the key to beating Manor Lords. You need to be efficient with how you gather resources, place buildings, and spend your resources if you want to learn how to beat the scenarios.

We recommend focusing on timber first, as you’ll need it the most in the early game. Also, keep an eye out for Livestock and Supplies. You also need to make sure you have enough Food to keep all your citizens fed.

A quick tip: when you start the game, pause quickly while you plan out your city. If you leave the game running, your resources will keep depleting.

4. Go for the Essential Buildings First

Credit: PC Gamer

Manor Lords is all about weighing your options and making key decisions at every moment of the game. And that means you need to understand which buildings to prioritize and build first. Here’s a list of all the buildings that you want to go for early on along with their construction costs.

Burgage Plots: 2 Timber
Logging Camp: 2 Timber
Woodcutter’s Lodge: 1 Timber
Forester’s Hut: 2 Timber
Forager Hut: 1 Timber
Storehouse: 2 Timber
Granary: 2 Timber
Hitching Post: 1 Timber

Once you’ve built them, make sure to connect them using Roads. Roads are free to make in Manor Lords, so plan them out strategically to improve the logistics for your citizens.

5. Don’t Rush Military

Credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Apart from the On the Edge scenario, there’s no point in rushing your military strength to Manor Lords. It’s a lot better to focus on collecting resources and growing your city when you start the game. Sure, you can set up a Militia unit for some basic defense against raiders and bandits, but spending too much of your resources on your army isn’t a good idea.

Your goal should be to create a sizable city with a decent number of families working in important industries. Growing your economy first will give you a solid foundation to invest in your military later on.

And if you’re wondering how to win combat encounters in Manor Lords, check out our guide here.

6. Learn How to Trade

Trading is an important part of Manor Lords. When you control a few regions, you can build trade buildings to import and export your resources. The more you trade, the more Regional Wealth you get. And with a high Regional Wealth, your settlements become richer.

Building a basic Trading Post costs 4 Timbers, and a Livestock Trading Post costs 2 Timbers. Once your city has all the essential buildings covered, invest in Trading Posts.

7. Control the Assignments

Credit: Siliconera

In Manor Lords, you want to be as efficient as possible with your units and resources. And to make that happen, you need to make sure all your Families have their own assignments in the settlement.

Whether constructing new buildings or harvesting crops, you want to ensure everyone is pitching in to help your city grow.

With time, Approval will increase, which will attract more people to your settlement. Make sure you keep an eye on Public Order, as a higher number of people in your city can also lead to more crimes.

Build the Perfect City

Manor Lords puts your micromanagement skills to the test by giving you complete control over your town. Everything is your responsibility, from ensuring people’s happiness to their survival against the harsh winter.

Sure, the early few hours of the game can be pretty unforgiving for new players, but once you take the time to learn the basics, things start going much smoother. Don’t be afraid to tone down the difficulty by going with an easier scenario if you’re having a hard time with it.

For more tips and tricks on Manor Lords, be sure to check out ESTNN!