Xbox Partner Preview: Manor Lords Combines Historical Accuracy and Dynamic Settings For the Ultimate Medieval Experience

The Xbox Partner Preview revealed that the game is a medieval strategy. Manor Lords Xbox consoles will follow shortly thereafter. This anticipated title seeks to combine intense real-time combat with immersive city-building, and we’re quite excited about it. So excited in fact, we just had to sit down with Abhishek Chaudhry, Director of Marketing at Hooded Horse, to learn more about how Manor Lords What we can expect in terms of gameplay and why Xbox One is the perfect place to start your reign. 

Manor Lords draws inspiration from city-builders that have come before, but it’s the historicity of the game that drives it. It’s important to maintain authenticity, both mechanically and visually, as it makes for some unique gameplay. Residences, for example, can be found in Manor Lords are made from burgage plots, a medieval term used to describe how Kings and Lords allocated land to their city’s subjects. 

“This system fundamentally changes how you plan housing as each individual home – if given enough land – will also produce a variety of resources, from eggs and vegetables to

bread and clothes, and more as your city grows and develops new capabilities,” Chaudhry explains. “With Manor Lords being a city-builder, you can imagine just how much of an impact this one detail has on every other aspect of your city-planning, let alone how much more involved and interesting it makes the process of simply putting down a few houses.”

It is important to consider the surrounding landscape when choosing a location for your settlement. You’ll need to consider soil fertility, groundwater levels, and the availability of food sources. There’s no tool to sculpt your perfect picturesque valleys and rivers; what the terrain gives is what you’ll get, just like in ye olde medieval times. 

“Building homes and plotting zig-zagging paths up hills has a beauty of its own, and there’s nothing quite like having your manor or a church situated in a scenic location,” Chaudhry says. “Forests, though, are a little different – deforestation is absolutely a thing, and even the densest forest can be thinned down if you tell your woodcutters to focus in certain areas. On the flipside, you can have foresters go around planting trees to develop forests of your own.”

Holiday Subjects

Seasons will have a major impact on how you run your settlements. The weather patterns will change over time, from lush summers and springs to fiery fall and cold winters. These will affect how you and your subject live. The average temperature will fluctuate, and weather such as rain or snow will impact your decision-making, so you’ll need to make sure you’re making the most of crop season so you’re stocked up on supplies during those harsher months. This adds a new dimension to the immersive game. 

Weather patterns on the battlefield have tactical implications and soldiers feel it. 

“Trudging through mud can slow them down, and fighting in the rain can significantly change the likelihood of survival,” Chaudhry explains. “A unit’s past combat experience comes in handy when campaigning in harsh weather to overcome these negative modifiers.”

Out in The Fields

Combat in Manor Lords is a high-stakes game. You’ll take control of multiple units, order them to move into positions, and it’s up to you to seek out the tactical advantage in any given situation. 

But your soldiers will not be infinite resources which can be created at any time. Units are primarily made up of actual citizens from your city, and they’ll need to down tools at their usual jobs to take up arms. If those people are contributing to resource production, you’ll feel their absence if you send them off to battle, and an even greater impact if you fail to bring them back home. 

“Should they fall in battle, your population drops alongside your citizens’ happiness, with semi-permanent damage to your economy as you wait for new people to migrate and pick up the slack,” Chaudhry explains. 

The soldiers will only be able to use the gear that is produced locally or imported. If you want to ferry hordes of swordsmen into a battle or have legions of archers perched around the boundaries of your city, you’ll need to make sure there’s enough gear to go around. Another example of city building and combat being intertwined. Manor Lords for a unique experience.

You can also contact us by clicking here. Manor LordsChaudhry, who says the game is known for its deep simulations of building and epic battles, adds that all the historically accurate animations that are played as the player plays increase the immersion.

“I can lose myself watching hunters stalking their prey and bringing the carcasses home, woodcutters felling trees, shaving off the branches, and hitching the logs onto oxen to drag them to storage; fresh-baked bread being carted over to the marketplace for citizens to buy before the foreign merchant comes by to pick up his share,” He says. “Before you know it, you’re watching the sun rise outside your own window and realizing you should have been in bed hours ago.”

Team is pleased to offer what’s often considered to be the traditional PC experience for Xbox consoles. Manor LordsThe game offers an entirely new take on city building, with combat and strategic features. Chaudhry emphasizes that they will make a concerted effort to ensure the experience is enjoyable for all players. Manor LordsFeels good to use the controller. 

“There are so many players out there that we know would absolutely love to get lost in Manor Lords, but play exclusively on console – they shouldn’t be left out, and now, they won’t be!”

Manor LordsLaunches on PC Game Pass April 26th. Be on the lookout for additional details.