Manor Lords is an upcoming early-access medieval city builder and real-time strategy game that has generated a tremendous amount of anticipation and wishlists on Steam (over 2 million). Developed by a small indie studio in Poland called Slavic Magic, Manor Lords aims to blend the compelling gameplay of classic RTS titles with deep city building and management mechanics.
Set in a procedurally generated medieval world, players take on the role of a lord in charge of establishing and developing their fiefdom. Gameplay involves building up villages, towns, and probably later, castles, managing loyal subjects, gathering resources, and defending lands from rival lords and bandits.
Unlike many medieval games that take place in a fantasy setting, Manor Lords aims for a more grounded and historically authentic depiction of medieval Europe. The game is set in the early middle ages, allowing players to build towns, manage villagers, gather resources, and raise armies during a pivotal era for medieval society.
Manor Lords promises to offer a fresh take on the medieval city builder genre by combining elements of economic simulation, resource management, and large-scale real-time battles, set in a procedurally generated open world with changing seasons and simulated weather.
One of the most anticipated features of Manor Lords is the focus on realistic medieval combat. Instead of the usual rock-paper-scissors unit matchups seen in many RTS games, units in Manor Lords have directional attack ranges, formations, morale, and fatigue systems that aim to capture the chaos and strategy of medieval warfare.
With its innovative fusion of RTS, city builder, and society simulation genres, Manor Lords has quickly captured the imagination of strategy gamers. It shot to the top of the Steam wishlist charts, demonstrating the huge anticipation surrounding Slavic Magic’s ambitious vision. Its unique gameplay and meticulous medieval world aims to transport players into being a lord in medieval times.
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Gameplay
Before you start, you need to choose between 3 gameplay scenarios: “Rise to prosperity” where your goal is to focus on city-building. “Restoring the peace”, the medium difficulty, provides a more balanced level between city-building and combat. And “On the edge”, which seams to be a more difficult scenario, more like a hard survival mode.
At the beginning, players start from a humble settlement with just 5 families, an ox and a few supplies in hand like food, wood, stone, fuel and the urge to expand their cities. Different buildings like farms, lumber mills, and quarries will need to be constructed to increase the amount of these resources. Citizens will need to be assigned as workers to operate these buildings and generate the materials needed for growth. And you will be able to watch, in real-time and with extreme detail, your workers perform the tasks in hand.
Resource management requires making tough choices. Do you allocate more wood for constructing new houses or making weapons? There are never enough resources to do everything at once. You’ll need to prioritize spending based on current needs and long-term goals.
Base building involves strategic district and road planning. You can customize the size and orientation of houses, production buildings, and military structures by using an intuitive four point system. Where you place them impacts efficiency and defense. You’ll also need to provide services like markets, schools, and churches to keep citizens happy and productive.
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A key aspect is balancing economic development and military power (if you choose to have both on you pre-game settings). Like expected, you’ll need to set up farms, mines, and logging camps to acquire raw materials. These resources fuel growth and allow training of soldiers and research of technologies.
There also seems to be complex economic systems, requiring players to manage production chains and transport goods between different buildings. Resources will need to be balanced and distributed properly to maintain a functioning medieval city.
With features like dynastic legacy, evolving diplomatic relations between noble families, and events that shape your kingdom’s history, Manor Lords aims to create an immersive world that feels alive. The focus on strategy over fast clicks sets it apart from typical RTS gameplay. Fans eager for a fresh take on the medieval city builder genre have a lot to be excited about.
Resource Management
One of the key pillars of Manor Lords is its deep resource management mechanics centered around farming, mining, logging and hunting. Players will need to carefully manage their kingdom’s resources in order to thrive.
Farming is a core part of the gameplay, requiring players to cultivate crops, manage livestock, rotate fields and deal with changing seasons and weather conditions that affect yields. A robust farming system with realism and strategy will be critical.
Mining involves tracking down mineral deposits like iron, coal and gold, then constructing mines to extract these valuable resources. Mines can be expanded and upgraded over time. Transporting mined resources efficiently will be an important logistical challenge.
Logging allows players to harvest wood from surrounding forests. Different types of trees can be identified and selectively cut down. Regrowing forests and avoiding deforestation will require forethought. The logs are then later used to make planks.
Hunting wildlife provides food and resources like leather. Overhunting could lead to depletion, so sustainable practices will need to be balanced with demand. Players might be able to improve hunting technology and gear over time. Hunting will lead to building Tanneries and the production of clothing to sell at the market.
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Overall, the depth of the resource management opens up many strategic options and consequences. It provides an immersive economic layer that integrates directly with the rest of the gameplay.
Combat
Manor Lords promises large-scale medieval battles with hundreds of units fighting at once. Players will be able to take direct control of hero characters on the battlefield while also commanding their army’s troop formations and tactics.
The battle system looks quite tactical, requiring good positioning and use of terrain. During battles, players will need to manage troop formations, positioning, and abilities. Troop training will involve leveling up their skills through drills and gaining experience in battles.
The combat aims to blend real-time battles with pause-able gameplay for issuing orders. Things can get hectic managing all your units in real-time, so the ability to pause and give commands is welcome. Overall, combat looks to deliver the excitement of massive medieval clashes while still allowing room for tactical thinking.
Graphics
Manor Lords impresses with its visual fidelity, especially considering it comes from a small indie studio. The environments and architecture showcase an incredible attention to detail, bringing the medieval setting to life.
Zooming in reveals fine textures on buildings, natural landscapes, and people. The lighting also stands out, creating a realistic passage of day to night. Shadows move realistically as the sun crosses the sky.
Overall, the graphics seem on par with AAA games, while retaining Manor Lords’ unique visual style. It’s a technical achievement that immerses you in the medieval world.
Innovations
Manor Lords brings some exciting innovations to the city builder and real-time strategy genres. One of the most interesting aspects is how it merges these two genres together. Players will need to build up their medieval city, managing resources and citizens in a very detailed manner. But they’ll also take direct control of military units in tactical battles. Balancing both city building and combat provides a fresh take compared to most games in either genre.
Another key innovation is the advanced AI. The developers have emphasized creating challenging AI opponents and citizens with complex needs and behaviors. Citizens will behave realistically, requiring various resources and reacting to conditions in the city. The AI enemies will provide a real strategic challenge during battles, using coordinated tactics. This intelligent AI aims to create immersive gameplay with organic challenges.
Rather than just combining familiar elements from city builders and RTS games, Manor Lords aims to push the genres forward with its merge and advanced AI features. This could provide a uniquely deep and engaging experience for players.
Early Impressions before early access
Manor Lords has been in development for years, but after entering beta testing and allowing preview access to select gamers and journalists, showed us how overwhelmingly positive its looking so far.
Preview articles emphasize how polished and complete Manor Lords already feels, even in its pre-early access state. The graphics are lauded as some of the best seen in the genre, bringing the medieval world to life. There’s a sense that the developers have taken great care to create a living, breathing society within the game.
Overall, beta testers and previewers agree Manor Lords shows enormous potential. The fusion of city builder and RTS appears well-executed and innovative. If the final product lives up to this early promise, Manor Lords could become a staple in gaming libraries for years to come. Fans eagerly await its full launch to experience everything this ambitious title has to offer.
Verdict
Manor Lords is an extremely promising game that seems poised to shake up the city builder and real-time strategy genres. The concept of combining historically authentic medieval society simulation with large-scale RTS warfare is innovative and intriguing.
If the developers can pull off this ambitious vision, Manor Lords has the potential to stand out as a genre-defining title upon release. The focus on immersive worldbuilding and realistic medieval life within a strategy game framework is a refreshing change of pace.
Overall, Manor Lords is one of the most unique and promising upcoming games in recent years. The concept reimagines what a medieval strategy game can be. If the final product delivers on this vision, Manor Lords could become a standout hit that ushers in a new generation of ultra-immersive historical strategy games. The world and gameplay promise to transport players to a living, breathing medieval society. For strategy fans, Manor Lords is definitely one to eagerly anticipate as its early access release approaches on the 26th of April.
