Manor Lords Guide for Beginners: From Start to First Battle

After spending dozens of hours in Manor Lords, I’m ready to guide you through the proper development of your settlement. In this guide, I’ll walk you through all the key mechanics and lead your settlement to prosperity within the first year. After that, we’ll build a strong army, expand production, and engage in battles!

Manor Lords Guides

If you have any questions while reading the guide, you can refer to this section and read detailed guides on individual game mechanics. I am posting links to them here for your convenience.

• How to increase Living Space
• How to increase Population
• How to create an Army
• How to earn Regional Wealth
• How to earn and spend Development Points

If you have additional questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.

Step #1: Set Up the Game Mode

When starting a new game, choose the Scenario Template “Restoring the Peace,” then switch the End Goal to “None.” These are excellent settings for beginners. The game will last indefinitely or until an enemy lord captures your region.

All the standard threats to your settlement will remain with these settings. Bandits and enemy lords will periodically attack you. But don’t worry — following this guide, you’ll be prepared.

Step #2: Lay Down Roads

As soon as the game starts, pause it using the corresponding interface button. The first thing you should do is lay down roads, connecting your small settlement to the global road network. Building and removing roads are completely free and instantaneous.

Roads in Manor Lords improve logistics, allowing residents to move around the city more efficiently. Additionally, having roads will make your settlement look more aesthetically pleasing. Take a look at the screenshot of my Large Town from the late game.

If you want your cities to look as neat as mine, start by building roads, and then any other structures along them. Connect any buildings to the road using Road Connection Points.

If you wish, you can divide your city into small square blocks.

Step #3: Upgrade Homeless People’s Tents to A Worker Camp

Initially, you have 5 families available, but they are all considered homeless at the beginning of the game. Homeless citizens reduce the Approval rating, which is critically important to keep above 50%. Otherwise, new families won’t join your settlement.

So, the first thing to do is upgrade the Homeless People’s Tents to A Worker Camp to provide housing for your initial 5 families.

Step #4: Build a Logging Camp

Almost every construction requires Timber or Planks, which are produced from Timbers. That’s why your first building will be a Logging Camp. Build it closer to the forest and don’t forget to connect it to the road network.

Assign a family to work in the Logging Camp, as shown in the screenshot. Now, this family will chop wood and produce Timbers for you. The Logging Camp itself serves as a storage for Timbers.

Keep in mind that Oxen are needed to transport Timbers. Initially, you have 1 Ox, but you’ll need more in the future.

Step #5: Build a Storehouse and Granary

As you may have noticed, initially your starting resources, including food supplies, are simply lying on the ground exposed to the weather. Weather in Manor Lords can and will destroy your supplies if they are not stored in warehouses.

To safely store your resources, build a Storehouse and Granary. The Granary will store only edible items, while the Storehouse will store everything else (except Timbers).

Then, assign 1 family to work in the Storehouse and 1 family to work in the Granary. This is necessary for workers to transfer your food and resources to the warehouses.

Step #6: Start Building 5 Burgage Plots

If you hover over the Population indicator, you’ll see that your settlement has No Population Growth because there’s insufficient Living Space for new families.

From the Population growth guide, you already know that with an Approval of 50% or higher, 1 family will join you per in-game month, and with an Approval of 75% or higher, 2 families will join you monthly.

To develop the city, you need people, so start building residential areas immediately. In a separate guide on building Burgage Plots, I’ve explained in detail how to do this. The main thing is to make sure you build your Burgage Plots in a way that allows for Extensions (you should see the house icon with a hammer inside when marking the construction area, as shown in the screenshot).

For this, you’ll need 10 Timbers, so it will be helpful to temporarily assign 1-2 additional families to work in the Logging Camp to speed up the process. In the future, you’ll often need to reassign families as there’s almost always a shortage of people.

Once the 1st Burgage Plot is built, the number of Living Spaces will increase by 1, and the population growth status will change to Low Population Growth. This means that 1 family will join you per month.

Remember, increasing the population is very important. People are your workforce, and specifically, the male population is also your army.

Step #7: Build a Well, Hunting Camp, and Forager Hut

It’s obvious that your residents need food and water. Without them, Approval will decrease, and people will start dying from hunger and thirst. Initial supplies will last for 1-2 months, so it’s important to establish food production as soon as possible. Each Burgage Plot consumes 1 unit of Food per month.

To do this, build a Hunting Camp near Wild Animals and a Forager Hut near a Berry Deposit. When constructing, you can switch the building priority to Highest to ensure it’s built first. Don’t forget to assign families to work in these buildings.

Keep in mind that you should leave at least some animals at the Wild Animals point every year for breeding. Otherwise, you’ll lose this food source. This is managed through the Hunting Limit option in the Hunting Camp building interface.

As for the Well, it can only be built where there is Unground Water under standard settings. You can enable its display in the construction menu.

Step #8: Spend Your First Development Point

We specifically built 5 Burgage Plots for a reason. Your settlement in Manor Lords has 6 development levels from Settler’s Camp to Large Town. For each development level, you receive 1 Development Point, which can be spent on useful technologies. To increase the settlement level, you need to build and upgrade Burgage Plots.

Therefore, when you build 5 Burgage Plots, your settlement reaches the Small Village level, and you receive your first Development Point. I recommend spending it on researching the Trade Logistics technology, and the next one on Better Deals, as efficient trading is crucial in this game. With Regional Wealth (Silver), you can easily solve any shortage of goods or resources.

Step #9: Build a Marketplace

This won’t cost you anything. The Marketplace is where your townspeople will autonomously build trading stalls, supplying Burgage Plots with everything they need: Food, Fuel, Clothes.

It’s important to build the Marketplace as close to your residential sector as possible because the Burgage Plots closest to the Marketplace receive supplies first.

Step #10: Build a Woodcutter’s Lodge

In Manor Lords, your citizens feel not only hunger and thirst but also cold, so they need Firewood to heat their homes. Each Burgage Plot consumes 1 unit of Fuel per month. Firewood is produced in the Woodcutter’s Lodge from Timber. It’s best to build this building as close to the Logging Camp as possible to minimize Timber transportation time.

Don’t forget to assign a family to produce Firewood. If there aren’t enough people, wait for new families to arrive or temporarily reassign workers from the Granary or Storehouse. Micromanagement of your settlement is very important in this game.

Step #11: Start Producing Planks

Planks are produced from Timber in the Sawpit building, which should also be built as close to the Logging Camp as possible to ensure fast Timber delivery. Planks are needed for construction, upgrades, and the production of various goods.

If you’ve done everything right, the construction of this building will be completed around early May. Spring isn’t over yet, and we’ve already built a whole village! Now it’s time to tackle more complex tasks.

Step #12: Upgrade the Hitching Post and Order Another Ox

As you already know, Oxen are needed for transporting Timber (and later for plowing fields). While your village is small, 1 Ox is enough, but as production expands, you’ll inevitably encounter logistics problems.

That’s why you should order another Ox for 20 Silver (you initially have 50) and upgrade the starting Hitching Post to a Small Stable (2 animal slots). Now Timber transportation will be faster.

Step #13: Build a Tannery

You may have noticed that your Hunting Camp not only gathers Meat but also Hides. The Tannery is needed to process Hides into Leather. This resource will be useful not only for production but also for the direct development of your settlement (more on that later).

It’s best to build this building near the Storehouse to minimize the time it takes to deliver raw materials from the warehouse and the finished product back to the warehouse. Logistics is speed, and that’s important, don’t forget!

Step #14: Build a Stonecutter Camp

Every region has a Stone Deposit, and you’ll need quite a lot of Stone for construction. Stone is mined using a Stonecutter Camp building, which should be built as close to the Stone Deposit as possible.

Don’t forget to assign a family to work in this building. Also, keep in mind that the amount of Stone in the Stone Deposit is limited. When there’s nothing left to mine, you can Pause or Demolish the building.

Step #15: Build a Wooden Church and Corpse Pit

All your settlers in Manor Lords are deeply religious people, so your city must have at least 1 Church. This will not only increase Approval but also Influence. Additionally, having a Church is necessary for improving Burgage Plots.

You can build the Church almost anywhere. It also makes sense to immediately build a Corpse Pit nearby, as Church activities are closely linked to funeral processions, and very soon you’ll have someone to bury…

Do NOT assign families to work in the Church and Corpse Pit at this stage of the game. There’s no need for it now. We need as many hands for production as possible.

Step #16: Reach Medium Village

To advance the settlement level again, you need to upgrade 2 Burgage Plots to level 2. If you open the Burgage Plot interface, you’ll see that to upgrade, you need to meet several requirements.

The magic is that by following this guide, you’ve ALREADY met them:

• Water Access (Well) – DONE,
• Church Level (having a Church in the city) – DONE,
• Fuel Stall Supply (stall with Firewood) – DONE,
• Food Stall Supply (stalls with 2 types of food) – DONE (Meat and Berries),
• Clothing Stall Supply (stall with 1 type of Clothes or 1 type of resource for its production) – DONE (Leather).

Furthermore, if you open the Marketplace interface, you’ll see that Fuel, Clothing, and Food are at 100%. This means there’s enough for all your residents. Therefore, you can upgrade all 5 Burgage Plots you’ve previously built to level 2. At this stage, you’ll realize the importance of logistics because you’ll need quite a lot of Timber.

Each family living in a level 2 Burgage Plot will bring you 1 Regional Wealth (Silver) monthly. Thus, by mid-summer, you’ll have your first passive income.

As mentioned earlier, it’s worth spending the Development Point you’ve earned on unlocking the Better Deals talent, which makes purchasing all goods through the Trading Post much cheaper.

Step #17: Reach Large Village

After that, it’s important to build another 5 level 1 Burgage Plots. The thing is, level 2 Burgage Plots can still only accommodate 1 family, and by this point, Living Space in your settlement will likely start running out.

Moreover, by building another 5 level 1 Burgage Plots, you’ll immediately reach the Large Village level and receive another Development Point.

Despite my region (Zweiau) not being the most suitable for farming activities, I still decided to go for agricultural development. Therefore, I unlocked the Heavy Plow technology, which speeds up field cultivation.

Step #18: Upgrade Storehouse and Granary

When space in your Storehouse starts to run out, you can upgrade it to a Large Storehouse, increasing its capacity by 10 times (from 250 to 2500 units).

The Granary won’t fill up with food anytime soon, but you can also upgrade it. If you’ve done everything correctly, you shouldn’t have a shortage of building materials.

Step #19: Start Producing Warbows, Shields, and Shoes

I believe you’ve already received messages that your resources were stolen by bandits, and somewhere nearby a Bandit Camp appeared. So, the game subtly hints to us that these “nice” guys will pay us a visit very soon. To give them a warm welcome with due honors, we need an army.

An army in Manor Lords consists of armed men. By following this guide, you’re actively increasing the population of your city, so there are more people. But you also need weapons; otherwise, they’ll be useless. Please refer to the detailed army guide, which has answers to all your questions.

Initially, you’ll have 20 Spears and 20 Shields, so you’ll be able to create 20 Spear Militia, but that’s not enough. These units have no armor or helmets, so they’ll easily be defeated by several squads of bandits.

The best thing you can do at this stage of the game is to start producing Warbows from Planks. To do this, you need to build a Fletcher’s Workshop extension in a level 2 Burgage Plot or higher. Note that excess Warbows can be profitably traded through the Trading Post, and production itself can always be paused.

In other Burgage Plots, build 1 Joiner’s Workshop for producing Shields and 1 Cobbler’s Workshop for producing Shoes. You can trade all these goods. Additionally, shields are needed to arm your soldiers.

Keep in mind that each production Extension requires 1 family to work. You won’t be able to assign such families to work in other buildings, even if you pause production.

Step #19: Start Trading and Build a Profitable Business

First and foremost, build a Trading Post and assign 1 family to work in it. Now you can start trading. I recommend you to check out a separate detailed trading guide, which has answers to all your questions.

Since your current goal is to equip a strong army to defend the city, you need to purchase weapons and armor, selling excess produced goods and resources to earn Silver.

Since there are relatively few people at this stage of the game (I only had 22 men in the settlement by this point), it’s best to start with purchasing Helmets and Gambesons. It’s not worth buying Plate Armor yet, as only Retinue can wear them. Mail Armor can only be worn by citizens living in level 3 Burgage Plots, so it’s too early to buy it as well.

Your current goal is to equip at least 1 full squad of close combat fighters with Helmets and Gambesons. This will significantly increase their survivability. You’ll also need Spears or Sidearms. To earn Silver, sell Warbows, Shields, Shoes. There’s no point in having 100 Warbows in stock if you don’t have 100 men to shoot them. Leather and Planks can also be sold.

Regularly check the Global Market Supply of the goods you trade. If the import purchase becomes much more expensive and the export becomes much cheaper, stop trading this item for a while and let the prices recover.

Silver from air

You can also use a simple trading scheme to earn Silver: purchase raw materials, process them into more expensive resources or materials, and then sell them. For example, let’s build a Clay Furnace, which processes 1 Clay into 1 Clay Tile.

The trick here is that we can buy Clay for 1 Silver, and sell the produced Clay Tiles for 8 Silver, which is quite profitable.

Using the same scheme, you can process purchased Grain into Bread, Hides into Shoes, Iron Ore into Tools, and so on.

Step #20: Build a Manor

The Manor is your future castle. It’s needed not only to maintain Public Order but also to collect taxes to fill the Treasury, and earn Influence. Silver from the Treasury will allow you to hire mercenary companies, which will temporarily fight on your side. You’ll receive 5 ready Retainers and be able to create new ones.

By the end of the first year, you’ll receive a message that bandits have been spotted nearby. Be sure to click “Track Their Movement” to know when exactly they’ll attack. In my case, this will happen exactly one year from now. Knowing the deadlines, you should prepare to repel the bandit attack.

As soon as you build the Manor, set the Land Tax to 10% to gradually fill the Treasury. Keep in mind that this will lower Approval. However, if you’ve done everything correctly, Approval will still remain above 50%, and new families won’t stop joining you.

Step #21: Sow Wheat Fields

Once the second year’s spring arrives, you should start growing Wheat. To do this, build several small fields in the most fertile areas. You can switch to the overlay showing soil fertility in the menu on the right. As you can see, my region isn’t suitable for growing crops, but people still need to be fed.

Make sure to connect the road to the Fields and build a Farming House nearby. Families assigned to work in this building will cultivate your fields.

In the Farming House, assign at least 2 families and build the “A Plowing Station” upgrade.

Step #22: Build 5 More Burgage Plots

As soon as you run out of Living Space again, build another 5 Burgage Plots, but this time with the possibility of expansion. To do this, select any plot of land and reduce the number of divisions (the “” button) so that each sector has a house icon with a “+” sign. In these upgraded Burgage Plots, 2 families can live at once, which saves space.

Step #23: Purchase Extensions for Producing Eggs, Hides, and Vegetables

If you’ve followed this guide, by this point, you should have a good Regional Wealth income from trading. Use the accumulated Silver to buy 5-10 Extensions in your level 1 Burgage Plots.

First and foremost, you need Vegetable Garden and Chicken Coop, as they produce food. You can also buy 1-2 Goat Sheds to increase Hide production in the town. This will improve the food situation in the town, as the population grows.

Step #24: Reach Small Town

You’ll need to upgrade 2 more Burgage Plots to level 2 and 3 Burgage Plots to level 3. Upgrading to level 3 requires additional conditions.

First, build a Tavern (make sure to assign a family to work there) and upgrade your Church to A Small Stone Church.

Start purchasing Ale in the Trading Post. To start, having 10 units will be enough.

After that, you can immediately start upgrading your Burgage Plots to level 3, as if you’ve followed the guide, all other conditions are met. If something is lacking (for example, food), you can easily purchase it through the Trading Post because you have enough Silver for that.

The earned 1 Development Point should be spent on unlocking the Bakeries technology, which will allow you to produce 2 Bread from 1 Flour with the corresponding Extension in the Burgage Plot. This way, you can easily feed the town’s population and earn Silver by selling surplus Bread. Remember that Flour can be both produced and purchased through the Trading Post.

Step #25: Start Producing Yarn

This is another passive source of Regional Wealth for you. First, build a Livestock Trading Post to purchase Sheep. Then, build a Pasture and Sheep Farm.

Assign 1 family to work in each building and start purchasing Sheep. Your initial goal is to have at least 10 sheep.

Also, build a Weaver’s Workshop to produce Yarn from Wool. Now, the Sheep Farm will produce Wool for you, which will be processed into Yarn. Both Yarn and Wool can be profitably sold through the Trading Post.

Step #26: Fine-tune Bread Production

Build a Bakery Extension in one of the Burgage Plots.

Also, build a Windmill.

After that, start purchasing Wheat, Rye, and Grain through the Trading Post.

Wheat and Rye will be processed into Grain. The Windmill will produce 1 Flour from 1 Grain, after which the Bakery Extension will produce 2 Bread from 1 Flour.

Thus, by purchasing raw materials for 2 Silver, you’ll produce goods worth 8 Silver per unit. This is another trading scheme that will easily provide the town with food and earn you even more Regional Wealth.

Step #27: Prepare for Battle!

Several bands of bandits will attack your camp very soon (in my case, in 1 in-game month). Read a separate detailed guide on forming armies in Manor Lords to get all the answers to your questions.

If you’ve followed the guide, you should have at least 1 full squad of Spear Militia (36 units) equipped with Gambesons/Mail Armor and Helmets. You should also have a small starting Retinue squad of 5 units. You can turn all other men in the settlement into archers.

Hire Mercenaries. By this point, your Treasury should have enough Silver for this (I had over 300). Mercenaries arrive in a specific region, as indicated in their description. Therefore, it’s important to hire them in advance so they can reach your settlement before the bandits do.

I hired a company of 3 squads of swordsmen. In the screenshot, you can see the army I ended up with. Now you’re ready for your first battle.

Step #28: Defeat the Bandits

Don’t forget to save the game before the battle so you can replay if something goes wrong. However, this is unlikely because your army can easily handle the bandits.

The main advice is to use mercenaries as cannon fodder and protect your own soldiers.

After the battle, disband the mercenary squads and send your townspeople back home. The threat has temporarily passed.

Also, don’t forget to assign one of the families to work in the Corpse Pit to bury the bodies of fallen warriors. Otherwise, they will lie on the ground, decreasing Approval.

What’s Next: Your Goals

In this guide, I’ve shown you a quick way to develop your settlement agrarian-economically, based on trade. You’ve learned how to earn Regional Wealth, fill the Treasury, produce food and goods for your town, equip an army, and even fend off uninvited guests.

Your future goals will be as follows:

• Increase the city’s population to have a workforce and a powerful army;
• Upgrade as many Burgage Plots as possible to level 3 so their residents can wear Mail Armor;
• Increase the settlement level to unlock new technologies;
• Create an elite squad of 24 Retainers and equip them with Plate Armor;
• Prepare for attacks from enemy lords on your region (mercenaries won’t help much here);
• Actively fill the Treasury and earn Regional Wealth through trade;
• Capture neighboring regions when your army becomes strong enough to do so and start building a second city;
• Be sure to check out the Manor Lords guides already published on the website.

There’s still a lot of interesting things ahead. Future updates to the game will introduce many new mechanics, units, trading schemes, production, and much more. If this guide was helpful to you, you can do a good deed and leave a comment under this publication. Good luck! 😉