Manor Lords Review (Ordos)
Before you play:
— Set FPS to a multiple of 30 (30, 60, 120, etc).
— Turn off Anti-aliasing on older cards.
— Set V sync to on.
— The game sets graphics to ultra by default, lower them to medium or high to prevent sudden stuttering.
=====Getting Your Feet Wet=====
— Comments are enabled on this review, if you have a question that isn't answered here,
leave a comment and I'll check back and try to answer it for you, then update the guide for future players.
— Play the first free build campaign first.
much of this guide won't make a lot of sense until you get your foot into a campaign and just 'start playing'
follow the in-game tool-tips as best as you can and when you inevitably get stuck, come back to the guide and find the section you need.
— Some resources are seasonal so assign your labor / unassign your labour accordingly, don't have families doing nothing.
— Make sure you move your starting resources into a granary/storehouse before they're damaged by weather.
— Construct your farms + Plots in November - Jan - so they're ready to plant by spring (march)
— Don't be afraid to force-harvest fields (especially larger ones) so the crops aren't ruined by rain.
— when setting up a trading post - you can trade Firewood + Stone without opening a trade route.
— Taxing your citizens doesn't increase your regional wealth (spending cash) it increases your treasury, setting a tax early in the game isn't usually beneficial focus on establishing trade.
— How to make clothes cheaply:
Burgher plot with goats /hunting camp - > Produces hides - > Tanner - >Level 2 Burgher plot Cobbler/tailor (shoes count as clothes)
— How to make Ale for taverns:
Barley field - > Malt house - > Lv2 Burgher plot with Brewery - > Tavern.
— How to farm efficiently:
—Assigning 8 people to one farming home makes little sense, you're better off assigning 2 families to a few farming houses each and giving them each an ox.
— several smaller farming fields are significantly more efficient than one large field.
— Always plant no earlier than march.
— Always Harvest by September (if you haven't got a huge amount of families at the farm, don't be afraid to
force an early harvest so the stock isn't ruined by weather)
— Rotate the crops yourself, don't set up a rotation or they'll plant during the wrong months.
— Building a church is an easy increase in approval.
— Building a market is an easy increase in approval.
(you will need more than one market plot as your houses increase out of range.)
— Building multiple storehouses/granaries is necessary as you expand
— Building a well close to farming plots/houses optimises walking time.
— Assign multiple workers to granaries/Storehouses to have industry stocks/food picked up quicker.
— Try to make your burgher plots into districts and work your industry buildings around them E.G Brewers
near a granary, granary near a tavern, Vege farmers near a granary, Blacksmiths near a storehouse etc.
— click on your storehouses and granaries to see what the people are doing via the people tab, if they're all
sitting in stalls it might be time to make a new storehouse and granary to keep goods coming in.
— Place industry buildings close to a storehouse for efficiency.
— Place food sources close to a granary for efficiency.
— When trying to optimize what your storehouse and granary collect/store based on the closest goods, go to
the advanced tab, and deselect the goods you don't want those storage facilities to collect so they always
stay collecting optimal, close-distanced goods.
— Utilise roads - they're free and make Oxen and Handcarts travel quicker.
— Upgrade your hitching post and order an extra ox when you start making Wealth from trading.
— Goods that are in 'generic storage' at their production building or burgher plot are not safe from weather
until they are placed in a granary or storehouse.
— Each member of a family can only move 1 item at a time unless they specifically work at storehouse or
granary, it is ALWAYS more efficient to have enough granary/store workers to keep up with what your
buildings are producing than it is to have your families stop their tasks and have to transport goods
because their generic storage is full.
— Build extra hitching posts near logging camps/farms when you have the funds.
— Every 30 days you can order a new ox (provided you have space)
— Many buildings share the ox, so getting several of them should be a priority when you start getting some wealth.
— It is more efficient to have larger homes producing vegetables than farming.
— L-shaped or Triangle Burgher plots for farming have significantly higher yields than square-shaped blocks a lot of the time.
— You can use a Road to provide shape to L or Triangle-shaped plots.
— You can use a field to clear an area of trees if they're in the way/blocking your vision.
— Don't be afraid to delete/destroy empty market stalls so the family members running them return to doing something useful.
— it's perfectly okay to stop production and re-assign workers from other tasks if you aren't using the resources from them 'right now'
— Bandit camps are different from bandit units, you can use your troops to 'claim' bandit camps and you'll get the option of choosing either treasury wealth or regional wealth - treasury wealth increases the funds you can spend on hiring mercenaries, sending the camp goods to your region will give you immediately usable regional wealth.