Manor Lords

Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game in which you grow a village into a city, manage its resources and production, and expand your lands through trade and conquest. Inspired by late 14th-century Franconian art and architecture, it uses historical details to shape both its visuals and gameplay.

Shape your settlement

Build without a grid, placing and rotating buildings freely. Your settlement spreads from a central marketplace, with residential, commercial and industrial districts shaped by the landscape and trade routes. Choose farm sites according to soil fertility, place hunting grounds where animal populations support them, and provide access to forests and resource deposits.

Mark out housing areas and residents build homes according to the burgage plot system. Roads and the space allotted determine how each plot is subdivided and how its homes scale. Larger homes can have extensions where residents grow vegetables, raise chickens and goats, and produce supplies for themselves and other townsfolk.

The seasons bring different demands: spring rains provide a bounty, while winter snows require preparation. The land also responds to settlement growth. Deer herds move away from expanding civilization, poor crop rotation reduces soil fertility, and excessive logging causes deforestation.

Manage goods and trade

The game features goods ranging from boots and barley to hides and honey. Materials must be transported and processed through production chains. Balance your people’s basic needs with luxury goods, trade goods for export, and the production of arms and armor for your conquests.

Resources across the map encourage you to establish specialized settlements. Mining colonies can extract ores, while agricultural, herding and hunting villages supply grain and meat. You decide which regions to claim, weighing resources such as iron for smiths against fertile land for growing food.

Set up trade routes and sell surplus goods to traveling merchants. Export wealth can fund home upgrades and imports of goods you cannot produce, while taxes on that wealth fill your coffers.

Expand your domain

Your land is a small parcel in a vast territory, where rival lords build towns and compete for holdings. Build castles to protect your domain and look for opportunities to challenge neighboring lords. Conflict may also arise as you suppress banditry or defend and conquer territory.

Lead your forces

Raise town militia levies and train a retinue of skilled warriors to fight alongside them. Mercenaries can bolster your ranks at a cost. Calling up the militia takes peasants away from their work and brings the economy to a standstill, while hiring sellswords draws on your personal wealth.

Battles take place in real time, with fatigue, weather and equipment affecting your decisions. Position and command your troops carefully: a smaller force can defeat a larger one when well led. Each soldier who falls is a person lost from your city, making every death a cost even in victory.