How do you increase your Manor Lords population? The prospect of building a functional, pleasant, and busy town can be quite daunting with each new round of Manor Lords. You’re initially awarded few families with which to work and must figure out the best way to utilize them – increasing your population will also increase your workforce, but how do you do it?
The village-builder, Manor Lords, is out now, and players are knee-deep in mud trying to figure out the best way of increasing their Manor Lords approval rating, and how to attract more families in the building game. We’ve built big and built small, and have figured out a few tips for increasing your population in Manor Lords.
How to increase your population in Manor Lords
To increase your Manor Lords population, you must have an approval rating above 50% and have an empty Manor Lords burgage plot for a family to move in. Each month, depending on your approval rating, at least one family will move to your settlement, assuming you have room to house them.
Increasing your population in Manor Lords is vital for expansion, as well as for running the various buildings around your settlement. Each building requires a family assigned to it, to run, and if there isn’t anyone available, it simply won’t perform its task; this can spell disaster, especially early on in your game, with food and fuel being precious resources as winter approaches.
Tips for how to increase Manor Lords population
Expand slowly
This may seem slightly counter-intuitive as a tip on how to increase your population, but trying to expand too quickly can cause a collapse; winter is harsh, with fuel costs being doubled during the coldest months, and if you don’t have a solid infrastructure in place to take care of your families, then introducing more can spell disaster. Ensure you have a solid income of food and fuel before attracting others to your settlement. It’s better to have a careful and considered increase in population than a boom and an eventual collapse.
Prepare carefully
Once your population’s needs have been met, it’s time to think about who you’ll welcome to your little hamlet. With new residents turning up every month, you don’t need to build 50 houses all at once to accommodate them all – it’s a waste of resources. Those new houses will sit empty for months while you wait for new residents. One or two new plots a month is okay if you can handle the extra drain on your resources. Once your settlement gets big enough, consider placing your new housing areas in a separate hub, each with a small marketplace, a well, and if you’re advanced enough, a tavern.
Find a balance
In the beginning, you’ll have to be on the ball when it comes to assigning jobs; you won’t have enough families to cover everything all at once, so having more people set on farming in the summer, then transferring them to cutting down trees in the winter makes sense. Surviving that first winter is a juggling act, but as you grow, this will become less of a problem. It’s important not to have too many people sitting idle, so ensure you have enough jobs for everyone, lest your townsfolk get bored and start causing trouble.
There you have it, how to increase your Manor Lords population. You’ll need a strong workforce to take over the region, and plenty of bodies for when the fighting inevitably starts. For more games like Manor Lords, check out our best city building games list or our best strategy games for some cozy planning.