Eichenau

In my ‘Pardon my Manors’ post I introduced the game Manor Lords to you. At the time I’d played it through until the end of the first year which was my target for that demo. Now I’ve started playing a fresh save with the intent of progressing and growing my settlement over time. I’ve redesigned my coat of arms in the new game screen…

…and the game has assigned me the Eichenau area on the map…

The key resources available to me were Carp in a lake, Berries in a wood and Stone deposits. There are lots of trees, so building supplies to get started are plentiful. There are also small deposits of Clay and Iron though these are probably not worth utilising.

The first year followed a similar pattern of building to the original village with one key exception – I made each new Burgage produce some form of food. Some were given Chickens, Goats or Pigs while others got Carrots, Beet or Cabbage to grow. In this shot of part of the village you can see Cabbages in the foreground, with Pigs and Goats visible beyond…

…This really helps with the availability of food through the winter and also provides a much better variety to the diet of the villagers – which in turn helps prevent disease.

That first winter saw the villagers building me a nice manor house. I’ve chosen not to tax the land but instead I’ve sought to gain influence in the wider world by taking Tithes for the Church. The Villagers also opened up a quarry for the production of Stone. Combined with a Stonemason’s hut to produce dressed stone and a Lime Kiln for Mortar, this has produced key exports through the trading post for Eichenau…

…which helps to cover the cost of imported items unavailable to us at present.

We built our first Farm too. The land is not ideal but Rye will do best so that’s what we sowed…

…The farm has 3 fields but to get the best out of the soil crop rotation has to be practised – One field with a growing crop and the other two lying fallow. It’s not very efficient but it’s what was practical at the time. In the meantime we’ll have to import our Rye and Wheat flour to bake bread in the Communal Oven which was another addition this year…

…Seen while under construction. It took a while to get the flour imports organised and it wasn’t until the 3rd Summer that the Baker started reliably producing loaves for the Village. In that second spring a large Burgage along the northern edge of the village became occupied and we built an Apple Orchard. This was a great success…

…further enhancing the diet choices for the villagers. So we’ve added a further Burgage next door in which there will be a Pear Orchard.

So far no one has fallen sick and the village has grown to house 21 families. We have suffered one fatality – an accident at the quarry…

…but the cycle of life goes on. We’ve added Charcoal Kilns to improve the fuel – it’s also a good export!..

…and built a windmill to grind our Rye into flour.

The life can be hard but sometimes seems idyllic when fishing for Carp…

…or collecting berries and herbs in the woods. Then at Harvest time it’s all hands to the field so the grain can be safely gathered in…

…Then the crop cycle begins in a new field with the plough…

…We’ve got two farms now so we should be self-sufficient in Rye!

Sometimes there maybe time for a pint in the Tavern…

With our 3rd Winter about to set in it’s interesting to see what’s on offer from the market stall…

…And the Granary has a good stock of everything so we should be fine through to the spring 😎👍 Even when the lake is frozen over and the Carp aren’t biting…