Manor Lords Guides
Short, focused guides on layout and placement. Each example opens back in the planner so you can adapt the principles to your own settlement and terrain.
Best Burgage Plot Setup (Yard Size, Extensions, Levels) →
6 min readHow burgage plot yard sizes interact with backyard extensions, and which combos pay off at each plot level. Plus the trade-off between fitting more plots vs. growing each family wealthier.
Optimal Marketplace Placement →
5 min readThe marketplace is where your granary and storehouse workers hand out food, fuel and clothing. Where to put your first market, how its stalls get stocked, and why short hauls matter more than the building itself.
Early Game Layout — Year 1 Settlement →
7 min readA compact starter layout that hits Level-2 burgage plots without wasting a single building. The order of buildings to place in months 1–3, and what to leave for year 2.
Guides FAQ
Which Manor Lords difficulty are these guides for?+
The layout principles apply identically across difficulty modes — what changes is the time pressure. On Hard, you have less margin for error so the early-game layout matters more. On Easy / Free Build, you can experiment with non-optimal placements without paying for them.
Do the guides reflect the latest update?+
Yes. They were last checked against the official patch notes through Major Update #8 (August 2026). Manor Lords is still in Early Access, so patches keep adjusting burgage plots, markets and production. If you spot something that doesn't match your current build, let us know.
Why does marketplace placement get its own guide?+
Because it's one of the biggest spatial decisions in Manor Lords. Your granary and storehouse workers run the market's stalls and haul goods out to them, and homes, storage and the square all share the same roads. Put the square in the middle of that and every haul stays short; put it at the edge and the whole settlement runs slow.
Can I sketch the guide examples in the planner?+
Yes — the principles in each guide are designed to be reproducible in the planner. Open the planner, draw the burgage plots and supporting buildings as described, and toggle the walking-distance heatmap to see why the layout works.