Manor Lords: This Historical Village Has UGLY Fields!

Today, we're continuing a multi-video journey on which we will be building historically accurate and authentic city designs in Manor lords, a highly anticipated city-building game! I will explain how the game works as I play and explain some historical details as we go!
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Manor Lords is a strategy game that allows you to experience the life of a medieval lord. Grow your starting village into a bustling city, manage resources and production chains, and expand your lands through conquest.
Inspired by the art and architecture of late 14th century Franconia, Manor Lords prioritizes historical accuracy wherever possible, using it to inform gameplay mechanics and visuals alike. Common medieval tropes are avoided in favor of historical accuracy, in order to make the world feel more authentic, colorful, and believable.
#manorlords

[@OneProudBavarian]

I find this village really fascinating. Where other village types of ~3 fields that are then separated into individual family plots, this village type has family fields directly attached to the burgage plot. Historically, these fields could be loooooooooooong, so be glad I didn't make them that long, lol!

[@robertsnook7443]

My Lord Geralt, please make me a man-at-arms. (The manor lord seems to be some kind of shapeshifter lol)

[@Denek_23]

what I have done (not my idea, another creator) that 4 fields that have an area of 0,3 morgen work best with 1 farmhouse with 1 ox, during harvest increase the number of workers after harvest remove all (they my start sawing in the autumn, automatic field management is a bit broken), sowing and plowing is not an issue, but harvest you have only 1 month to do it, and if you build a huge field when they harvest they bring stuff to the middle of it first, and later to the farmhouse, small field shortens that trip a lot... your videos are waesome

[@Solmyr77]

Peasant: *sets up farming to feed his family* Lord: Your field is too ugly! Get rid of it!

[@aerodroo]

Wind's howling.

[@romulus_rex]

A place of power...

[@fletaun]

Geralt return to his polish root

[@bardsolas]

How do you feel about the way the game handels animal husbandry? Gotta say i was a bit dissapointed its not closer to Ostriv or banished with purchase of specific animals and more difficult management. Feels like it ends up downplaying their absolute central position in village life and in how important each animal was. One of my favourite stories to that end was from a British traveler in rural norway in the 1800 who paid to borrow a horse from a poor farmer to ride from one town to a big city. Thinking someone would be waiting for him in the city to bring the horse back, instead he found himself to his suprise riding the whole way accompanied by said poor farmer who couldn't speak a word of English with him and only walked mute alongside for the whole multiple day long ride - sleeping rough on the ground, only to make sure the horse made it safely, as it was his only work animal.

[@OneProudBavarian]

I think it is severely lacking, yeah! Also especially - and I wanna bring this up in a longer format in a future video - because there was a really fascinating relationship between animal husbandry and the forest economy of a village. Both elements are currently essentially absent!

[@Nickunparalleled]

"You're no cutie yourself, Mr. Snide Bavarian." - Fields (Grumbling)

[@JustHereForCatVideos]

Its not really the hill that looks weird to me, its the part that the other fields are double in size. I actually really like the ones behind each individual house, but I think it looks too unnecessarily different to have them double on the other side of the road.

[@antorseax9492]

I think the field to one house looks nicer than a field to two houses.

[@Alpha_Digamma]

I agree.

[@AvonturirVoyage]

I think that's not how the fields work

[@antorseax9492]

​@@AvonturirVoyage I know the houses don't tend to the field, it's the farmhouse and its eight assigned families that does. Aesthetically, the fields look nicer when there's one field behind one house, not when it's one field behind two houses.

[@AvonturirVoyage]

@@antorseax9492 i know that you know, but the more rectangle the better, that's what i mean

[@justpeachykeen_13]

Loved the pre-EA series and am absolutely loving this one as well. Two quick tips: For your level 2 clothing requirement I would recommend that you make shoes instead of going for clothes or cloaks. You already have a lot of hides being turned into leather. Going for the other level two clothing options will be a lot more work to set up. Second, when in combat the enemy will always (at least in my experience) target your retinue if they see them. You can either hide your retinue nearby and surprise attack or just have them stand behind your spearmen until the enemy engages then have them circle around and hit them from behind. Either way, have your spearmen in a long single line set to “hold your ground” mode while you get your retinue set up. Have your retinue set to run and “push forward” mode. Once the retinue engages, switch your spearmen to also “push forward”. This method very quickly breaks enemies and causes minimal casualties. (Obviously the combat tip isn’t super necessary as you were able to defeat them anyways. Just sharing how I like to tackle early game combat)

[@justpeachykeen_13]

(Can’t edit on mobile) One last thing, I’m still figuring out farming myself so I could be wrong but I don’t think one farmhouse (even fully staffed and with the heavy plow) will be able to manage all those fields. I could be very wrong but, in my experience, I’ve needed about 2 families per morgen even with the plow. I’ve heard that doing manual crop rotation and forcing early harvest is better than relying on the automated system but, like I said, I haven’t gotten too far into the farming testing.

[@eduardtoader5424]

Very common sight those long narrow fields in old german settlements or even indigenous ones in the mountains and hills here in Transilvania. They usually go all the way up from the back of the house to the forest or top of a hill exactly as you ve said and illustrated. I ve seen 50 m long ones or even more. Great series btw!

[@eduardtoader5424]

i ve also seen some intercalated ones at the end of the main ones so i see no historical faux pas here!

[@Hobbyrepubliken]

🎵 Toss a coin to your Manor Lord 🎶

[@stefanvanvuuren3931]

I think the narrower fields matching each property boundary looks much nicer than the broader ones. It somehow seems more realistic/ reasonable in real life.

[@spamfilter32]

@1:41 There is a pathfinding bug for military units. Sometimes 1 member of the unit gets lost, stuck or just falls behind. The rest of the unit continues to it's destination. But as soon as you give it a new destination, the rest of the unit, instead of going to where you clicked, goes back to find the missing member of the unit. Usually if you click where you want them to go a second time, they turn back and go where you want.

[@goldfishPACIFIER]

that actually happens in total war ai as well, its stupid but I too hope that there is a better fix

[@TheMrPyatka]

Loving these series. History and Manor lords - perfect combo. I personally found KCD map and use it as an example of how historical villages would look. Its fascinating how different the approach can be considering that KCD doesnt have villages like OPB showed us here.

[@lykurgofsparta2216]

I’m really enjoying these historical villages! 😍 look soo good! P.S.: still pushing for the IRON FOREST 🌳🌳 Iserlohn for the next iron production town name!!’ 😁

[@mania_nanor]

7:40 it looks like snap to roads is auto-enabled, but that's something you can turn off if you really want that road back there, or in future

[@purpledevilr7463]

I love this historic focus. I want to base my game on Anglo-Saxon settlements, but there's either not as many details or verity of layouts like the German settlements, or i'm just bad at research. Probably the second one.

[@patrickkelly6691]

Do a search on /wiki/Open-field_system (usual preface url for wikipedia org), lot of data on them and a good map showing a medieval village with that field system being used. They were used from early Anglo-Saxon times till the enclosures really.

[@ericlk47]

I love the idea of doing it historically, but I think you should use three field crop rotation: two years of crops and the third fallows. Fallow fields increase fertility in real life and in the game. Doing it this way also guarantees you cultivate 2/3 of the land every year. In game, you don't need the farmhouse staffed if no fields are being plowed, sowed or harvested (so you need no farmers for most of the year). Another thing that's deviating from history on every playthrough is the manor. You shouldn't build a wall first, especially if there is no space for it. A tower makes more sense first. Many castles were just towers.

[@HansWurst1569]

Beautifull character you have there! I also had geralt for my own game and out of habit from playing a lot of witcher 3 I sometimes press the map button for that game when walking around in manor lords lol

[@prinzessinvonapfel12]

We're spoiled! I personally like the fields directly behind the houses over the two house fields.

[@baronvonschnellenstein2811]

@OPB, nice episode again. You'll probably want to prioritise barley fields - I've found the villagers are quite fond of their ale, thus high monthly barley -> ale consumption. Barley yield per field seems to be lower than emmer and flax, so you can get away with slightly less wheat fields compared to the former. BTW - Echoing many other comments, the one field per house plot looks a lot better to me.

[@Denek_23]

What I have done in my hard playthrough and works great, when baron comes for you, have some money saved for mercs, and hire all available (the worst case scenario is 45+60+90=195 silver) that should be enough to beat him yes, but when he sees how powerful you are he sends a message that he wants you to abandon your claims (even tough he is attacking) and offers 350-450 silver for it, so you are doubling money you spend on mercs if you accept, the downside is you don't gain influence, so run is a bit longer, but you can make it up with chuch tax fairly quick, Just something iI noticed... Also one can argue what better 1 retinue dude cost 50 silver, for 45 you can have 2 full stacks of mercs for a month, and you know with mercs, you dont really care if they die, just send them as meat grinder and finish the rest of with your guys.

[@paolomaurini8534]

You should build one huge burgage plot on that hill, and make it an orchard. Replace trees with trees

[@jasonbaird3873]

Could use the hilly side of the village for sheep!

[@d.b.4671]

Had the same thought. Combine those steeper fields into one big sheep pasture.

[@michaelferriss4594]

Really enjoy how you are doing a themed build style. Got me googling different medieval village styles. Learning is good.

[@Aries-ne9uq]

I think the farms look really good stretched to the horizon especially if it’s more historically accurate

[@connorney545]

Just finished yesterday’s video to this fresh upload, mint.

[@ianknight5120]

Don't know if you changed this off camera, but you'll want to make sure that at least some of your fields are planting wheat each year, or you'll have years with no bread :(

[@axelhopfinger533]

I have 4 one morgen fields growing only rye in my starter town because it's the only viable fertility i have and i got SO much bread surplus it's ridiculous. Even though my mill and tier 3 bakery have barely enough grain and flour to keep them busy. This game needs some proper balancing of trade and agriculture badly!

[@keepyourbilsteins]

I'm enjoying this new build and appreciate you chose a more challenging difficulty. Speaking of difficulties, how bad did the negative approval get before you buried those corpses? 😂 Negative sentiment gets worse over time for unmet needs like the tavern. Sooner rather than later at this level.

[@Zyo117]

Geralt as the player character is so appropriate

[@mexieboy1]

you can turn off snap to roads while building, this way you could get the fields behind the houses to your required size

[@dancingbear1828]

I absolutely love the different characters in every video!

[@tolveor]

i like the narrow fields best, as it fits the houses. i think some sheep would fit as well in that village, especially on the hilly side of the village.

[@jodidoest2389]

love your content! personally I like the smaller fields in comparison with the double fields! In addidion, maybe you could utilize the hill side for sheep farming?

[@Jacob-qr8pl]

I like the skinny fields more than the wide fields.

[@Redwald-pf8iq]

Name the village Woodacre since it's a farming community near the forest.

[@Redwald-pf8iq]

Or Acreholt

[@aboutwhat1930]

On the hunting-- you should be able to set the bag limit to more like 90% of the herd size. That should mean more meat, more hides, and almost twice as fast breeding.

[@spamfilter32]

I agree, that one field going down the side of the hill looks too steep. Maybe cut that one off, leave the rest. I kind of like the long narrow fields in the first zone better. You may need to add a second farmhouse to employ all the farmers you need for all those fields. Let the new village/town you are building by the creek have all the artisans for the region, and the hilltop village concentrate exclusively on farming. Keep the history lessens coming! By the way, make sure to disable the wheat storage in the granary. If you don't, the granary employees will gather the wheat from the farmhouse when it is harvested, and then the farmers will have to get it from the granary and bring it back to the farmhouse to thrash it into grain. disabling wheat from the granary will save 2 trips.

[@alecity4877]

I like the long fields, I have seen communities in real life that still do similar things, once I did a summer camp in Portuguesa (I am from Venezuela) and many plots dating back decades in their work, to before most farmers had tractors, are more elongated because plows using cows or donkeys just worked more efficiently that way. It was used from the middle ages in Europe and the Middle East, all the way to the new world before industrialization. It is still seen in some of the more poverty stricken parts of the world where farmers can't afford a tractor, if you look at Uganda in google maps, the rural areas have plenty of roads lined with houses that behind have long farming plots.

[@mrbones909]

If you untick snap to roads it might make it work better even with the road.

[@DominusRexDK]

for this village type. 1 field per 1 plot, looks better. though I think some of the plots should have had slightly shorter back areas. seems a bit silly when the plot is almoste as long as the field.

[@montanus777]

you used the crop rotation very weirdly. you'll have a ton of wheat in the first year, but you'll starve in the second and third year, since there will only be fallow and barley/flax. for a proper 'dreifelderwirtschaft' _every year_ you'll need _a third_ of the fields producing wheat, _a third_ of the fields producing barley/flax and _a third_ as fallow fields. only then you'll get _all_ crops _every_ year.

[@Mifune41]

Would terracing of any sort be used historically in this time period? They would definitely improve the aesthetics at least.

[@Jacob-qr8pl]

The skinny, 1 field to 1 house setup looks nicer. Also, I was seeing that the wide fields behind 2 houses were at most 1.5 morgen so it's not even double the size. Skinny fields better

[@saunba6007]

u set up the fields wrongly, if u not already corrected it. for a correct 'dreifelderwirtschaft' u need 3 fields which rotate the crops so u get each crop each year with one of the fields fallow. and from the first setup u already made it so the first two fields would both produce barley in the second year, which is bad. a better way would be going for something like : 1st field: 1. wheat, 2. barley, 3. fallow; 2nd field: 1. fallow, 2. wheat, 3. barley; 3rd field: 1.Barley, 2. fallow, 3. wheat for the wheat+ flax the same just change barley for flax. so a repeating pattern starting with one primary crop, i personally use wheat as the one, followed by a secondary crop, and fallow the year there after and then shifting it down by one for each following field. That way you won't have to deal with fluctuating amounts of the crops making it so one year you get to drink ale, next two years you won't or not beeing able to produce bread for a year or two, as you steadily get the supply in.

[@IndianaDel1]

A village, within eyesight of where I lived before I emigrated to Indiana, still operates the Medieval field system (I think it is the only one in the UK). The fields are large and parceled off yearly. In that case it is at variance to the village you are building here. I agree the long and thin field, strip farming, is the way to go to imitate what happened historically in England.

[@Holli094]

Do we have a Leshy problem in the woods? Or are there some lonely pretty damsels in town for Geralt to show up?

[@neogenesis0038]

All I can think about is how Geralt would have been able to kill every single last man on that battlefield...and then would have guaranteed the finest shipments of wine to your lands.

[@Eighteenhundred87]

Where do you find documentation on the different town / field layouts?

[@pierrehenry8208]

Is it historical that for some of the houses, the terrain in front of them is a pasture rather than a field ? Especially for poorer soils or on steep slopes. It would be a logical solution to the field on the hillside that bother you.

[@faara663]

Witcher in Manor Lords - Polskość 100% 😆

[@shadeitplease7383]

lol I’m playing on normal and the baron is still going way faster than me and taking almost all the provinces lol

[@Thelegend27891]

One house field looks better than 2 house

[@romulus_rex]

Geralt showing up just in case

[@peterkadar768]

following 1 plot looks better and is more true to reality to my eyes at least

[@olec7125]

You could have forced snapping where you want it to be by doing a short perpendicular path..

[@Illiyeen_Jameel]

Hey man, how to you say that central common field thing. Is it aanga? Because that word sounds very close to a word in Urdu/Hindi: aangun ( آنگن nasalized long a and nasalized n; \a:ngun\) which means courtyard. I want to check if these two words are related via proto indo european. I can also report back if you want.

[@jodidoest2389]

Its the "Angel". I think it means fishing rod in german, however I'm not sure, so correct me if I'm wrong!

[@d.b.4671]

"Anger". It roughly translates to "meadow" or "clearing". Also, I looked up both "Anger" and "aangun" on Wiktionary (thank you for providing the word in Urdu script, by the way - made finding it much easier), and they do indeed come from the same PIE root word: _*h₂eng-._ Good catch!

[@Illiyeen_Jameel]

@@d.b.4671 Hey PIE shows up again!!! Yeah I have done this enough times to know u need the correct script otherwise its a headache on Wiktionary.

[@aroma13]

Name the village by the river Ochsenfurt,the german form of Oxford

[@jimmyjam86]

Thank you for no Shrek. If you do it again I'll be sad

[@spamfilter32]

The AI prioritizes archers over all other units except the retinue, which it prioritizes even over the archers.

[@s1nb4d59]

So youve had Shrek and the Witcher,how do you get these mods?

[@spamfilter32]

I gotta' be honest. I don't like the Better Deals perk. it really isn't historical to have true free trade like that. Especially where the purchase price and the sell price are identical. It should always be more expensive it import a good than you can get from exporting it. I am also not a big fan of the flat fee for trade routs perk either. I would change that so that instead of making all trade routs a flat fee, it instead halves the rate of increase for additional trade routes. Probably the same for the Better Deals perk, instead of getting rid of the tax entirely, half the tax with the perk or something.

[@justjustin5920]

You should remove the shrubs, it makes it look more civilized, by this point they should prob be gone.

[@michaelpease2103]

Geralt fits the theme of this game the most! Oh snap! What if the dev adds animals or "monsters" (mythologically accurate at least) you can fight for resources / influence. That would be incredible.

[@donut_Boi8]

Maybe the game is supposed to be realistic but it might come true with mods in the future

[@patrickkelly6691]

Wait for mod tools and mod that yourselves, most of us are keen on the historical authenticity, not warhammer iii again

[@mathiassaitokuma2453]

you have mods or idk what?

[@antorseax9492]

Modding isn't supported.

[@goldfishPACIFIER]

@@antorseax9492 you can still get mods from nexus, its just that they arent completely integrated into the game

[@spamfilter32]

yes. He is using a mods for the avatar.

[@antorseax9492]

@@spamfilter32 The link's in the description.

[@mathiassaitokuma2453]

Thx😁

[@RuneBrune]

🫵🏿👮🏿

[@hitomisalazar4073]

Oh I don't think they look weird or ugly. Those long fields? Makes perfect sense to me. Like where I grew up our fields were like that. Instead of like 50 short rows we had 2 really long rows of Tomatoes, 2 really long rows of corn, 2 really long rows of squash, etc. It's just logical. Easier to till. Easier to tend to the needs of the field. Keeps everything well organized. Makes it easy to rotate through as you just move rows over for the next year's planting. Funny enough about the one thing that this village didn't do that local villages did back in the day where I grew up? Instead of chopping down the forest they'd do controlled burns. Idea seemed to be that not only was it a rapid way to expand the cleared land, but the ash from the fires would help vitalize the soil, as well as the fire itself scaring away predators. I suppose it's just funny how two very different regions and cultures can have some similar traits. And what's different.