Now Playing: Manor Lords

After finishing up Horizon: Forbidden West, I needed something new to play. I’d heard about Manor Lords and watched a few videos but I wasn’t sure if it was the game for me. A friend picked it up, however, and kept pestering me to play it. I’m glad they did, because Manor Lords was a very pleasant surprise.

It’s an Early Access strategy / city builder. Well, not exactly a city – more a large medieval town. Although the game as it exists today is somewhat limited, there’s still plenty of replay value to be had and I can see so many ways Manor Lords can expand and improve in the future.

And that’s before we even consider potential new game modes or my ultimate wish – a co-op or competitive multiplayer. That might be an ask too far, but damn would it be great to compete with other players on the same map, forming alliances, trading and fighting for territory.

The main game mode in this release build drops you on a map with several regions. The goal is to build your town and claim every region on the map before your opponent – the ‘Baron’. They may attempt to claim regions, but they don’t actually build on the map so there’s no rival town to invade or destroy.

It might seem a little strange but remember – this isn’t an RTS. It’s a city building sim first and foremost with RTS elements. Beating the Baron is all about growing your influence to claim regions and then sending your army to secure them against the Baron’s forces. If you want, you can even build new settlements in these claimed regions and then create trade links between them.

The Baron can and does attempt to claim regions before you but you’re not really under that much pressure so you can take your time and expand as you please. I don’t actually know if it’s possible to lose – does the Baron invade your home region if it’s the only one remaining? That would be cool, but it’s hard to see how badly you’d have to f**k up for that to happen.

There are a couple of other modes to play – a non-combat focused mode in which the goal is simply to grow your settlement to its highest level. It’s a great way to learn the game and I’d recommend starting with it. And then there’s a more combat focused mode where you’re faced with regular attacks although I’ve not really got stuck into that one yet.

The game has default difficulty settings but you can also tweak pretty much everything and jump into a custom sandbox of your own making. There’s only one map right now, and more maps would be an easy way to offer more replay value and variety in terms of terrain. There are a lot of limited or incomplete aspects of this initial release – a technology tree that’s only half finished and the framework of a diplomacy system that doesn’t really do anything right now.

There’s also a lack of decent tutorial stuff so you may need to rely on helpful beginner videos online or just trial and error as you play to figure out how everything works. There are also bugs and plenty of balancing issues but overall, this is still a pretty polished, playable and fun first release.

And it’s very addictive to play. I love building up my village and getting the layout perfect and trying to maximise the efficiency of my little village people. I love that you don’t have to babysit them – once you assign a task they just get on with it.

There are a lot of little improvements to be made though – like setting crafting limits on items rather than having to manually keep track of your inventory. Or setting people to work in particular buildings only during certain seasons.

I think the game also needs more overlays or a single overlay you can customise to show particular information – because as your town expands (or you expand into other regions and start other towns) it can get tricky to keep track of where everything is.

As a city building sim, Manor Lords is very impressive. It automates the tedious stuff and let’s you focus on the bigger picture. I also like that roads are free to place and appear instantly. It’s a small thing, but it really encourages you to experiment and tweak your town layout as often as you want.

Combat in Manor Lords is best described as ‘Total War-lite’. You have small units of up to 36 men. There’s only a few unit types currently in the game (no cavalry, unfortunately) and you can recruit and equip them via your village – either by producing the weapons and armour yourself, or by trading for them. You also have a customisable retinue that comes with each regional manor you establish.

You can only have a maximum of around 7 units – I think, I’m not totally sure on this. In my last game I had 2 retinues and five militia units and it wouldn’t let me recruit more, but I don’t know if that was related to population. There are also mercenaries you can hire to bolster your forces, although these disappeared from my last game entirely and I’m not sure if that’s a bug or intentional.

Combat sees units clashing with some simple animations and winning each battle is a matter of numbers, quality of gear and smart positioning – in other words, try to hit them from behind. It’s pretty basic and small scale right now, but it works.

Overall, I’ve had a great time playing Manor Lords, even during this early release. What really excites me is how much can be expanded or improved upon in the future. What’s here right now is good, but it has the potential to be great. It may take time to get there, but I’m happy to go along for the ride.

7/10