So, you've decided to play Manor Lords. This strategy game from Slavic Magic sees your character grow a village from humble beginnings to economic and military powerhouse. Still, you might be wondering about the ideal options when starting your playthrough. Here's our guide on the best difficulty options and game setup for Manor Lords.
What are the difficulty options and best game setup in Manor Lords
After you've spent some time designing your ruler's coat of arms, you'll see the Game Setup screen. This presents you with several scenario templates and options related to AI behavior, supplies, and events.
Game setup options
Here are the most notable options from the Manor Lords game setup screen:
- End goal - This determines how you'll win the campaign:
- Growth - Reach "Large Town" settlement level.
- Conquest - Claim all regions.
- Domination - Defeat other lords by claiming their territories; can only be selected if there's an off-map adversary.
- None - Endless play with no completion goal.
- Off-map adversary and AI aggressiveness - There's an AI lord located off-map, but they control a couple of regions at the start. AI aggressiveness determines whether this lord will not press claims on your lands or will press claims at will.
- Raiders and bandits - Think of these hostiles as regular mobs you need to handle occasionally. You can set the frequency of raids, the years when there would be no raids, and the number of bandit camps that spawn on the map.
- Residential requirements and approval - Your villagers have needs that should be met. Failure to do so impacts the growth of your town.
- Starting season - Starting during spring means you can farm early, whereas a winter start date is just asking for trouble due to a lack of supplies and unpreparedness.
Starting out: Rise to Prosperity scenario
Manor Lords offers three scenario templates, each with predetermined settings. However, you can still tweak each setting manually. Template difficulties--Relaxing, Default, and Challenging--change all the settings.
The first scenario template is Rise to Prosperity, and we think it's the best game setup in Manor Lords. The primary goal is to grow your town. There's no off-map adversary, and there are no bandits/raiders either. For the most part, you can think of this as a way to learn the basics of the game, with a game flow more similar to a town management sim.
On the Edge, meanwhile, is for those who want a bit of a challenge. The key difference here compared to Rise to Prosperity is the presence of bandit camps, as well as frequent raids. This time, you have to grow and defend your town from encroaching enemies.
Facing a rival lord: Restoring the Peace scenario
Finally, there's Restoring the Peace, which now includes an off-map adversary. Your initial concerns are the bandits and raiders near your lands. Once you've fended them off and feel ready, you can challenge the baron to capture the remaining territories. Domination is the end goal here, which means you have to ensure that the baron no longer holds any region on the map.
This is everything you need to know about the difficulty options and game setup in Manor Lords. How you approach the sandbox campaign is entirely up to you. We recommend starting slow so you can learn how to manage your town and residents first. Still, if a peaceful and relaxing time isn't your jam, then a bit of medieval warfare might suffice.
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