How to Survive Your First Harsh Winter in Manor Lords

Manor Lords is a realistic city-building simulator. This means your subjects will get hungry, freeze, and be lazy. In this guide, we've compiled useful tips that will help you survive your first and all subsequent winters.

Every new game in Manor Lords will be unique, as the player starts the campaign in one of eight regions of medieval Germany. This means the resources will be different each time, so you'll need to adapt using the tools available. You can familiarize yourself with the available resources on the world map.

Setting the right priorities will help focus on promising sectors. For example, if there are many sources of iron around your village, then build furnaces and smithies, which will allow you to earn from selling finished iron parts. Don't be afraid to experiment, but remember that you need to change your strategy every time.

Regardless of your direction, it's necessary to maintain an optimal amount of wood and food production with a reserve for the winter. Because during this time, you need to heat the rooms, and the amount of edible supplies will significantly decrease.

As you develop the settlement and expand the houses, build several chicken coops. This way, you'll ensure a passive food supply, independent of free workers.

With the change of seasons, you can assign families to different production. For example, one family can gather berries in the summer and hunt game in the winter.

To collect firewood, you'll need a woodcutter's lodge and active workers there so they can gather firewood for the village. Surplus firewood will be stored in your warehouse, and you can distribute firewood to the townspeople at the market. They will use it for construction, tool production, and heating.

You can always check how much food and firewood you have in reserve by examining the barrel symbol on the top information panel — it shows how many months your citizens can survive if the production stops. Hover your mouse cursor over it to get detailed information about nutrition and fuel.

In addition to this, by the first winter, it's advisable to learn how to trade with the outside world, so you can buy any missing resources if necessary. It's most profitable to sell basic goods that you have in excess.

In the first year, it's unlikely that bandits or other rulers will attack you, so there's no need to immediately build an army. It's better to spend resources on strengthening the economy.

However, despite Manor Lords being a city-building simulator, the game won't end if you're poorly prepared for the winter. Even without the necessary buildings and food, you'll be able to keep enough population to start everything from scratch with the arrival of spring.