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I’m trying to prove it’s possible to complete Manor Lords by harvesting only one resource: wood.
That means no farms, no chicken coops, or vegetable gardens.
Nor any iron mines, clay pits, or stone quarries.
I’m not even collecting firewood.
The immediate challenge is keeping my people fed and warm.
But because Im not allowing myself to harvest those resources, I must find a new source.
Food and firewood are both for sale at the trading post, but they have an extortionate import tax.
With five hungry villagers, I need to sell thirty planks every month just to keep them fed.
As any member of the upper classes will tell you, there are ways around taxes.
In Manor Lords, the value of goods fluctuates based on what’s being traded.
The people of Village One died hungry and with a storehouse piled high with unsellable wood.
So long as I have money, my people will pick up the necessities at cut-rate prices.
Its not enough to thrive, but it will stop them from starving.
If there’s one thing I’ve got, it’s wood.
And dead villagers, but also wood.
The administrative building is home to your lord and lets you tax your people.
It also comes with a retinue of five heavily armed soldiers.
Alongside a militia of villagers armed with spears, this force can fend off the bandits.
By the time the bandits arrived, the soldiers had starved to death in the manor.
The bandits carved straight through the emaciated spearmen I could muster and burned my village to the ground.
Until then, I need to recruit another militia unit.
For that, I need more weapons, which are currently too pricey to import at the market.
Village Three has a path to victory, but it is difficult.
I need to diversify my economy before the market for planks collapses, and also raise a larger army.
The solution to both my problems, I hope, lies in artisans.
Or, for my purposes, a fletcher who can turn planks into warbows.
Standing between me and this bow-filled future are my peoples wants.
Or, rather, they need tothinkthey have those things.
I put in the order for meat and cloth.
To my horror, I realize I’ve not yet built a church.
I unassigned all my workers from their jobs and set them to building the church.
The building’s skeleton begins to emerge from the ground as traders on mules approach my town.
I swear it’s equally intense.
The final planks are nailed into the church just as the market stalls start stocking the meat and linen.
I hammer the pause button and find the houses I can upgrade.
My people should have never doubted me.
Except for the people of the first two villages; they were right to be concerned.
