When was the Manor Lords release date? If you want to rule a medieval empire, dominate the economy, and crush all who dare to oppose you with a magnificent army, Manor Lords could be the game you’re looking for. The city-building real-time strategy game lets you do all that and more, and is currently in early access.
Manor Lords is a medieval passion project from solo developer Slavic Magic. Inspired by late 14th century Franconia, this ambitious strategic RTS game aims to provide a historically accurate experience, with natural city growth and intense real-time tactical battles. In early access, the game is already earning rave reviews, so here’s everything you need to know about the strategy game Manor Lords.
Manor Lords release date
Manor Lords was released into early access on April 26, 2024. Available on PC via Steam and Xbox Game Pass at launch, Manor Lords is due to arrive on Xbox One and Series X|S at a later date.
Manor Lords gameplay
City-building
Manor Lords uses a gridless building system, with a great deal of freedom to place the buildings as you like. The aim is to mimic the natural growth of a medieval town, taking the influence of trade routes and the environment into account.
New towns don’t just pop up; they evolve around a central marketplace. Every fledgling settlement needs proper infrastructure to grow and connect its commercial districts, industrial districts, and residential districts. You have the power to shape these districts by placing and upgrading specific buildings. Just some of the buildings you can place include:
- Farmhouse
- Granary
- Logging camp
- Forager hut
- Smithy
- Trading Post
- Church
- Woodcutter’s Lodge
- Marketplace
Naturally, Manor Lords buildings can do much more than just provide goods. A church, for example, is a costly institution, but it can return the investment by granting you influence, and you need many of them to increase your burgage plot level.
To build all these farms and workplaces, you need resources. As they’re scattered across the map, it’s important to adjust the type of new settlements accordingly, choosing between farmer villages, mining outposts, and many others. Surviving is good and building a large economy is even better, but beware; if you expand too fast, you may run out of base materials. Don’t want to face a winter without wood, do we?
RTS combat system
Manor Lords features massive, realistic medieval battles. Positioning plays an important role, but so do individual unit formations, equipment, morale, fatigue, and weather conditions. You’re able to choose between stances and commands, such as ‘push’ or ‘give ground’ orders for melee troops, and ‘volley’ or ‘quickdraw’ orders for archers. If things go wrong, there’s always the ‘retreat!’ option.
Troops are divided into various categories, including Spear militia, archer militia, and polearm militia, and which you choose to build first should depend on which weapons and resources you are able to supply.
As another video on Manor Lords’ combat system shows, you’re able to upgrade or downgrade your troops’ equipment using a stat slider. If you increase ‘head protection’, for example, the headwear will visibly improve.
As a city building game, Manor Lords’ battle system impacts other aspects of gameplay as well. For example, a hard-won battle can result in a very tough winter. Luckily for the silver-tongued politicians out there, the Manor Lords diplomacy system allows you to negotiate, possibly avoiding battling altogether. Alternatively, if peace was never an option, you can be rude to your neighbors and watch the drama unfold.
Development, policies, and production
Developing your town by using development points provides new buildings such as choosing to develop foreign supplies to unlock a Firewood cart and Food cart to provide resources at the marketplace.
You also have the option to enact policies such as Small Land Tax, to transfer wealth from the region to the lord’s treasury, or Tithe which gives back 10% of the surplus food to the church and coverts it into influence.
Manor Lords guides
Here’s every one of our helpful and exhaustive Manor Lords guides:
- How to increase your Manor Lords approval rating
- How to increase your settlement level in Manor Lords
- How to gain influence in Manor Lords
- Manor Lords trade explained
- How to claim new areas in Manor Lords
- Is Manor Lords on Game Pass?
- Best Manor Lords settings for max fps
- Is Manor Lords Steam Deck compatible?
- Manor Lords system requirements
While you’re waiting for the full Manor Lords release date or the console release, there’s still plenty to do in the medieval game. Among the first and most important things to know are how to increase your Manor Lords population and how to find and reallocate your Manor Lords workers, and we have a full Manor Lords beginner’s guide with the best tips and tricks.