Manor Lords | Steam

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Manor Lords is a strategy game that lets you take on the role of a medieval lord. Develop your starting village into a bustling city, manage resources and production chains, and expand your territory through conquest.

Drawing its inspiration from the art and architecture of late 14th-century Franconia, Manor Lords favours historical accuracy wherever possible, and uses it as the basis for the game mechanics and graphics. Common clichés about the Middle Ages are avoided in favour of historical accuracy, to make the world more authentic, lively and believable.

Manor Lords offers a grid-free city-building experience, with complete freedom of placement and rotation. The building mechanics are inspired by the growth of real towns and villages in the Middle Ages, when major trade routes and the landscape influenced the way settlements were formed and developed.

• Expanding outwards from a central market place, build your residential, commercial and industrial quarters to match the natural landscape. Develop farms where the soil is fertile, create hunting grounds based on animal populations, and ensure access to resource deposits and forests to provide the raw materials needed for growth.
• Designate residential quarters, then watch the inhabitants build their houses according to the historical system of town plots. Each area will be subdivided according to your roads and the space available, and this will determine the size of the houses.
• Build extensions behind the larger houses to generate income and resources that wouldn't otherwise be available. Homeowners don't just pay taxes: they grow vegetables, keep chickens and goats, and meet their own needs and those of the other townspeople, providing what your farms, pastures and industries are unable to provide.
• Guide your settlements through each season, with its demands and opportunities, for example taking advantage of the abundance brought by spring rains and preparing for the harsh snows of winter.

Manage a wide variety of goods typical of the period: boots, barley, leather, honey, etc. Transport materials and transform them into finished products via production lines. Strike a balance between the basic needs of the inhabitants and the joy of luxury goods. Manufacture goods for export, and forge weapons and armour for conquest.

• The map is full of resources to encourage you to expand and establish several specialised colonies. Extract valuable minerals from your mining settlements, and use villages devoted to farming, herding or hunting to provide the grain and meat to feed your growing population.
• Uncontrolled expansion will have a direct effect on the environment. Herds of deer will flee civilisation, lack of crop rotation will damage soil fertility and cutting down too many trees will lead to deforestation.
• Sell surplus goods to itinerant merchants or set up your own trade routes. Manufacture and export quality goods to amass the wealth you need to improve your city, pay taxes to your sovereign, hire mercenaries and unlock technologies to design new industries and make new products and tools.

You only have a small piece of land in a vast territory, and the divergent ambitions of neighbouring lords will inevitably lead to conflict. Lead your people into battle, not as easily replaceable disposable units, but as loyal and beloved subjects. Every death must count.

• Form a troop of skilled warriors to fight battles alongside the town militia. Sometimes these soldiers will be needed to crush rebellions or suppress banditry, and sometimes you'll need to lead your men into battle to conquer or defend a territory. If need be, mercenaries can be an expensive way of bolstering your ranks.
• A rich system of diplomacy allows you to communicate with other lords, using influence or threats to direct their actions. These competing lords have their own objectives and will also seek your help. Your responses to their offers or insults can make the difference between war and peace.
• Lead tactical battles in real time, taking into account fatigue, weather conditions and equipment. Position your troops wisely. A limited army can defeat a larger one, if it's well commanded.
• Feel the cost of combat, even in victory, as each soldier killed represents a person your town will miss. A costly victory can spell the end of your economy, or lead to a winter of food and firewood rationing.