Manor Lords looks like Medieval Dynasty, but it’s actually more Banished. Now developer Slavic Magic shows new gameplay from the “liberal” strategy game.
That’s going on: A current gameplay video for Manor Lords presents the state of play with the game mechanics. The medieval strategy game is actually supposed to start in Early Access this year. Nevertheless, the pictures shown are impressive.
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This is why settlement construction is special: At the beginning, the video revolves around the main feature of Manor Lords, the settlement or fiefdom building. The aim is to build a country estate of limited size based on the model of real medieval settlements. Manor Lords is not set in any specific era. According to Slavic Magic, the construction techniques and buildings correspond to those of the 11th and 15th centuries.
In contrast to Banished and most other building strategy games, Manor Lords does not use a grid technique. This means that all structures can be placed completely freely in the construction area. They can also be rotated seamlessly.
In a purely playful way, you do the usual in this part of Manor Lords: You keep cattle like sheep or cows and let residents collect resources, which they then process into various goods. These in turn attract traveling traders who buy the goods produced. Another realistic component of the game is the influence of the location on the development and formation of your settlement.
The battles are like in Total War: The world map of Manor Lords consists of 50 regions, which – under the king – are ruled by lords and ladies. For you, this part is about influence and access to resource-rich areas. You have a diplomacy system for this purpose, for example.
But nice speech and well-intentioned offers will not always be of use to you. Because as soon as another lord or another lady loses influence too much, it is possible that he/she will go to war against you.
The gameplay video deals most of the time with the always large-scale, strategic battles. And sometimes lets you take a look behind the scenes. Above all, troop attack maneuvers and physical aspects of battles are explained. However, the early access build will also contain cavalry and military equipment – such as siege engines. In addition, troop morale should play a role in the battles.
When does Manor Lords appear? When exactly the game will be available in Early Access on Steam, the developer is currently silent. But it should start this year. It is also unclear whether Manor Lords will have multiplayer modes. So far it is designed as a single-player game.
