Beginner's Guide

If population exceeds the housing capacity of Burgage Plots homeless people will lose Approval, risk Freezing during winter and cannot be part of militia units.

Unassigned Families work on construction automatically.

Approval is increased having market resources variety and church level.

While human Families need to be assigned manually, livestock workforce is shared between all buildings by default. Livestock can be manually assigned to a single workplace in the Advanced tab. Remember that at least one unassigned oxen is necessary for any construction that needs Timber.

Supplies

In Manor Lords, families need Food and Fuel resources. Every Burgage Plot consumes 1 Food and 1 Fuel resource per month. Fuel consumption in the Winter is doubled. Additionally, some workplaces consume 1 Fuel per month as well.

Supplies in the region panel above shows how many months are left until supplies run out.

Seasons

• Spring (Mar-May): Frequent raining, seasonal deposits regrow.
• Summer (Jun-Aug): Crops grow. Possible droughts.
• Autumn (Sep-Nov): Harvesting, plowing and sowing crops.
• Winter (Dec-Feb): Seasonal resources are gone. Fuel consumption is doubled and lack of Fuel resources might cause freezing. Sheep shearing forbidden.

Regions

The map is made up of 8 regions: Eichenhau, Goldhof, Hofstetten, Immenreuth, Nusslohe, Selbitz, Zweiau, and Waldbrand in the middle. Every region will have one of each resource deposits and areas with high soil fertility. However the amount of resources in each deposit varies from region to region.

In order to build in a region you don't own you need to claim in. Regions can be claimed with either 1000 Influence or King's Favor. After paying the cost you must wait a month before gaining control of the region. Newly controlled regions do not have any resources and population. To add some, you must place a Settlers Camp. Once placed, you will have to pay from Treasury to gain the starting supplies needed to build in the region. All options will begin with 5 Families.

• Modest starting supplies cost 250 Treasury and starts with 20 Bread, 20 Firewood, 20 Stone and 10 Tools.
• Modest starting supplies cost 500 Treasury and starts with 40 Bread, 40 Firewood, 40 Stone and 20 Tools.
• Plentiful starting supplies cost 750 Treasury and starts with 60 Bread, 60 Firewood, 60 Stone and 30 Tools.

Policies

To enact Policies, you need to raise your Administration Level by building administrative buildings, like the Manor. At the moment only two policies are available, both at Administration Level 1:

• Hunting Grounds: Wild Animals on Rich Deposits breed twice as fast, as the cost of 50% reduced yields from Crops.
• Strict Fasting: Citizens skip every 5th meal. Reduces Food consumption, decreases Approval.

Army

There are 3 types of units in Manor Lords: militia, mercenaries and the retinue.

Militia are units recruited from among the male villagers. They require weapons depending on the militia type. Each militia is made up of 36 men but can have less if there aren't sufficient weapons. Each soldier's maximum quality of body armor and helmet depends on the level of its Burgage Plot. There are 4 militia types:

• Militia Footmen require Sidearms and Small Shields
• Spear Militia require Spears and Large Shields
• Polearm Militia require Polearms
• Archer Militia require Warbows

Mercenaries are paid each month with Treasury. They are rallied as soon as they are hired and if disbanded they will leave. 3 mercenary companies are available each month.

Retinue is created when constructing the first Manor building.

Unit controls

Each unit has 3 stats:

• Morale is the willingness to fight. If it reaches critical points some stances become unavailable and if it is depleted the unit will flee from battle. Militia has increased Morale in their home region.
• Fatigue is how rested the unit is. Each point of Fatigue lost reduces Effectiveness by an equal amount. When depleted the unit can no longer run. Fatigue is slowly restored as long as the unit is not doing anything.
• Effectiveness is the attack and defense multiplier. It is reduced if the unit is moving and fighting uphill and increased if the unit is moving or fighting downhill. Archers also struggle while shooting in the rain.

Each unit may have one of five stances:

• Give Ground slowly pushes the formation line backward, luring the enemy to follow.
• Missile Alert doubles the chance to avoid or block arrows but halves melee defense.
• Balanced is the default stance with no bonuses or penalties.
• Stand Your Ground doubles defense but halves attack speed.
• Push Forward tries to push forward with full force.

A few units may have additional commands:

• Archers can be ordered whether to fire if there is a chance to hit friendly units or attack only where friendly units aren't at risk.
• Mercenaries and Retinue can be othered to spread out, which makes them harder to hit with arrows and makes them run slightly faster but also reduces their effectiveness in melee.