Manor Lords: already incredibly good

It’s the most eagerly awaited game right now. Manor Lords has been added to the Steam wishlist over three million times. No surprise there. The mix of city-building, economic and real-time battle simulation in a beautiful medieval setting sounds very promising. The fact that Greg Styczeń, a solo developer, is behind the project makes it even more impressive. This Polish-made game is launching in Early Access on 26 April, already one of my highlights of the year.

Everything is connected

I start the game with a handful of settlers. The world is divided into eight areas, but only one is available to me at the beginning. I choose the location for my new village so that it’s close to strategically useful resources. Food and lumber are the most essential, so I erect my first buildings near a forest that also contains a hunting ground. A little further away, I also have access to berries, clay, iron and stone.

To get building materials and firewood, I place a logging camp and a firewood hut on the site. I need firewood to operate all buildings. It’s the equivalent of electricity in Cities Skylines. It also prevents my people from freezing to death in winter. Manor Lords simulates the weather and seasons. In colder months more heating is required, so I do well to put enough food and firewood aside.

Next up for food is the hunting lodge. I place it as close as possible to potential game. Too close and game moves on because its habitat is threatened. I don’t control my residents directly, although I can click on each person to see what their name is and what they’re currently doing. Everyone is divided into families I can assign to different buildings. Unassigned families take care of open construction projects on their own.

This is the first fascinating aspect that strikes me. I can follow residents through their entire daily routine. If they’re building a house, they first get an ox out of the stable. They use it to drag a tree trunk from the logging camp to the construction site. As I only have one ox to start with, everyone shares the poor animal. My building projects progress slowly as a result. I could buy a second one, but I don’t have the money for it. And even then I have to wait for a dealer to bring the ox I ordered. Manor Lords simulates the smallest things, and that makes medieval village life exciting.

In addition to resource extraction, living spaces are essential. I can draw a relatively free grid for the construction of courtyards. Depending on the size and layout, it offers space for larger or smaller houses and, in some cases, gardens. Farmsteads provide shelter for my inhabitants, but can also produce things. In addition to a vegetable garden, I can keep chickens or set up a tailor’s shop. Upgrades cost money, but provide my growing village with important resources, which in turn fulfil needs to bring the farms to a higher level. This in turn ensures higher tax revenues. It’s all linked.

Organic and lively

More farmsteads attract more families, whom I set to work at the new forge, the bread oven or the tannery. I particularly like how organically my village is growing. In most comparable construction games, I almost always fall into a symmetrical grid arrangement. Eichenau, on the other hand – as the village is called – could’ve come straight out of an old history book. The rudimentary paths I build are also winding and meander along structures. Residential buildings alternate with manufacturing areas, the church is – how could it be otherwise – in the middle of the village and market stalls can be found in various corners.

The longer I play, the more complex Manor Lords becomes. But that doesn’t make it feel complicated. Once you’ve understood the principles, almost all the mechanics are obvious. Resources are physical elements that have to be moved from A to B, people go about their daily work. Sometimes they need water, sometimes sleep, and when the church bell rings, it’s time for mass. It also makes sense that farmers’ fields only yield crops when enough time has passed and the season is right. Just as the soil loses nutrients too quickly without crop rotation and I can probably stop malting for the time being. I planted wheat instead of barley.

Manor Lords looks fantastic. I can zoom out until I see the whole world map. I can also scroll up close until I’m face to face with my scurrying subjects. The level of detail isn’t particularly high, but the design somehow manages to make the game look almost AAA. Where there is a surprising amount of detail, however, is in the construction of new buildings. I can see how the foundations are laid first, followed by the walls, the roof grid and finally the roof. I’m no carpenter, but the shells look very realistic to me. In any case, I can hardly get enough of it. I can’t get enough of the soundtrack either. The medieval sounds of fiddles, flutes and lutes fit perfectly with the slow gameplay. And they’re subtle enough that they shouldn’t get on your nerves, even after many hours.

Into battle we go!

Manor Lords isn’t only a city-building simulator, but also offers mass battles in real time. However, I didn’t get to see too much of them in my almost ten hours. According to the developer, this isn’t a coincidence. Clashes between hundreds of soldiers often evoke comparisons to the Total War series, famous for its epic battles. They also exist in Manor Lords, but are much rarer, writes Styczeń. Respectively, like so many things, they pop up depending on your desire to expand. If there’s a little Napoleon (is that a pleonasm?) in you and you’re up against every other ruler, you’ll fight more battles.

I’ve only let my militia loose on bandit camps so far. My army of around 60 men made short work of the outlaws. Not many tactics were necessary. I click on my troops and send them into battle. This is certainly different for larger armies. What I find exciting is that I can’t just pull the armies out of a hat. If I don’t want to hire mercenaries, the soldiers come from my population. In a militia army, they are then absent from day-to-day business. And I have to make their equipment such as bows, spears and shields first. And when I disband the army, they first have to find their way back home before they can pick up the sledgehammer or saw again.

How early days is the Early Access version?

Where the Early Access status is most evident is in the lack of transparency in certain situations. I sometimes don’t understand why families don’t move into free houses and the game complains about homeless people instead. Later on, I only have living space for 25 families, but there are well over 40 residents and nobody complains? Also, why does the need for different food stalls remain unfulfilled in some houses, even though the market offers everything? And what are the benefits of a priest’s family? People seem to go to mass regularly. Upcoming updates will certainly make many things clearer.

Verdict: already a milestone

Manor Lords is an impressive game. It offers an enormous amount of gameplay depth without being overwhelming. The fact that all the mechanics work together makes villages and towns extremely lively. Every single person has their own job, even the ox that drags tree trunks around and is used by everyone at the same time like a rental car. And at long last, a city-building simulator manages to make my towns grow organically and not look like a medieval version of New York.

I could watch the hustle and bustle of my thriving city for hours. Carts are pulled through the mud, houses are erected beam by beam and my sturdy militia army is waiting to be deployed. Manor Lords delivers all of this in its Early Access version. Fans of historical building games with a pinch of real-time battles can access the game without hesitation. Those who can wait are still better off with version 1.0. It’ll be released in a year at the earliest. Various aspects such as the castle planner are still unfinished, and many new elements are yet to find their way into the game. Nevertheless, impatient gamers will already have a lot of fun with Manor Lords.

Manor Lords will be available in Early Access for PC from 26 April. The game was provided to me by Slavic Magic.