Keep families fed and warm while you build a small village into a town in Manor Lords, a medieval city-building game. Each new game places you in a region of medieval Franconia with a few families and a small treasury to get started. Families are your workforce, and a building like a woodcutter's lodge won't run until a family is assigned to it. Buildings and roads aren't locked to a grid, so you can place them where you like and curve the roads.
A lot of your early time goes to keeping people fed and warm, since families leave when their needs go unmet. Food comes from hunting, foraging, and the chicken coops and gardens you add to houses, while woodcutters keep the firewood coming. Winter is the big early challenge, so your stores of food and fuel matter most before the cold arrives. Houses, called burgage plots, upgrade once the families living in them have their needs met, and taxes and trade help fill your treasury so you can afford the next building.
The bigger goal is growing the village into a large town and then a city, which means taking over new land. Land is won in real-time battles, where fatigue, weather, and equipment all shape the outcome. Bandits can steal from you and a rival lord competes for land in some scenarios, but Rise to Prosperity leaves those threats out if you just want to build.
- Developer
- Slavic Magic
- Publisher
- Hooded Horse
- Release
- Steam Early Access: 2024-04-26
- Platforms
- Windows PC (Steam)
Game data
Buildings
Buildings are the core of Manor Lords, and each one has a clear role, from gathering timber and food to making goods, housing families and running the Manor. Most need materials to build and a family to run them once they're finished. Many can be upgraded as the settlement grows, and some unlock only after you spend development points.
Goods
Goods and resources are everything your settlement gathers, grows, makes, and trades in Manor Lords, from timber, stone, and clay to bread, ale, clothing, and weapons. Raw materials are gathered or mined, processed into crafting materials, and then turned into finished goods for your villagers, your militia, or trade. Food and fuel keep your people alive through the seasons, building materials drive growth, and military goods protect your territory.
Origins
Origins are the first development choice in Manor Lords, and they open once a settlement reaches Small Village. Each Origin gives three benefits and one drawback, and most target a specific trade or resource, such as stone, iron, farming or sheep. No Origin is best everywhere, so the right pick depends on what the land around your settlement offers.
Manor Lords gameplay tips
- Stockpile firewood before the first winter. Firewood use doubles in the cold months, so a pile built up in autumn keeps families warm through the winter.
- Build a chicken coop early. It produces eggs without needing a family's labor, so you get a steady food source without pulling a family off another job.
- Add houses only when your food can feed the new families. When housing grows faster than food production, the surplus disappears and families start to leave.
- Upgrade a house to level 3 before you add a cobbler or baker. Both of those extensions only unlock once the house reaches level 3, so an early upgrade lets you add both sooner.