Manor Lords isn’t just restricted to being a fantastic medieval city builder and management sim, if you choose to do so, you can also partake in wars and skirmishes for land and resources.
Before starting your journey to manor overlord you can pick what path you walk. There are three scenario templates with predetermined settings. Number one is Rise to Prosperity, which simply focuses on building up your town and has no off-map adversaries, and no bandits or raiders. Then there’s On the Edge, where there is a higher chance of bandit camps and raids, and finally, there’s Restoring the Peace, which includes an off-map adversary as well as bandits and raids.
While I only chose to live On the Edge, I’ve still had my fair share of raids and encounters with bandits, and they can be pretty frustrating at the best of times. But my villagers can’t hold a candle to one player’s citizens, who fought a valiant fight to protect the other settlers and all their resources from bandits.
Player Galaxy661 shared his experience on Reddit of how only five villagers managed to hold off a total of 36 bandits until the militia arrived. But that’s not all. To commemorate the battle, Galaxy661 decided to create a Wikipedia article. While the article in question was soon deleted by Wikipedia’s ever-vigilant editors, a screenshot of the battle’s timeline remains as eternal tribute.
Taking place on March 12th, 1385, The Second Battle of the Firewood Pass saw villagers face up against a bandit camp that had been pillaging supply lines for quite some time, causing starvation and unrest in the town. The five villagers managed to hold off the bandits until a backup militia arrived, but unfortunately, after the battle ended and all was won, four out of the five villagers died, leaving just one alive, severely injured.
It’s a sad end to a heroic story, but not one that will be forgotten any time soon, thanks to the quirky Wikipedia article. But as Galaxy661 also points out, it could be a cool addition to have something more concrete added to the games, a la Dwarf Fortress. “It would be fun to be able to build statues commemorating important events that happened to the town, be it a really harsh winter, an exceptionally successful harvest, or a brutal battle,” Gallaxy661 says, “I think they could be purely cosmetic or maybe add something like +1 happiness to the town.”
While I have no epic battles to commemorate, it would be neat to build a small statue in my town center to commemorate the new pub or maybe the time that my villagers beat up a couple of bandits. It would just be nice to have the option, especially if it helped boost morale.