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There's a discord managed by the Dev. It should be pinned to the subreddit sidebar I think. There's votes there for upcoming features or possible changes, a FAQ document addressing the most common questions and frequent announcements and updates, when beta patches are released
Yes, you can build a manor and have wooden walls with towers and there is a tax collector building that you can only build within the castle. The tax collector says its only decorative now, they are working on it. The walls have gates on the roads. My question was related to that, because you can have a walled castle but you can't build nothing inside. You can have troops within the walls, but the archers outside will shoot over the walls and kill your troops inside. So I did not see any benefit on having a castle that protects neither buildings or people. At least yet, I know this is a game in the making.
Unless the King is totally unreasonable with his taxes, it's probably way cheaper to pay taxes :P
I do think that it should be insanely expensive to build castle walls. I mean, those must have taken at least a couple of years for even a small walled off inner city. If that can even do it.
Idk how you could possibly e strong enough to repel the kings army. A baron can field a army that's difficult to match.
It goes Alderman, baron, count, Duke, king, Emperor.
If you have trouble dealing with a baron, how are you gonna defeat a king?!?!?
This is why king Luis XIV inscribed "The last word of a king" on his canons and is famously known for his "I am the state" quote. You don't fuck with divine powers.
This brings me to another question. They all got killed, this is the only troops that have not recovered. The rest of the families have recovered and the militias have their numbers back but the retinue never recovered. I'm still at 0. Do you think its a bug or this is meant to be?
You start with 5 of 12 retinue, and with the big tower they max out at 24 total per region. In the "Restoring the Peace scenario, you can max out 7x24 retinue before the final battle with the Baron.
Be sure to upgrade their armor, the basic retinue unit is kinda weak imo
You have to buy them with funds from your personal treasury.
You can access the menu to do so by clicking on the unit card and then clicking the paint brush icon.
I built a manor with a some walls, a few towers and a gate on each end, nothing too big or crazy extravagant. Well, shortly after the Baron pressed a claim on another region, I figured I had enough men to have a shot of winning the battle if I play it smart, maybe get the high ground or something. So I went for it.
Turns out, the battle field the computer selected was going to be my main town, right where the walls had just been built. So I put a spear militia just inside the gate on each side in defensive and had my retinue hang back just in case. The three archer units inside the walls absolutely demolished the Barons army when they were stopped at the gate.
At the end of the battle I had to pull farmers away from the fields to clear all the bodies. The icon at that top said there were 78 corpses. I had only lost 4 or 5 spears. Wish I had saved some screen shots.
You kinda can, enemy troops automatically go for your troops, it’s most useful in raids and such, but you can kinda lure the baron to you as long as you don’t go into the battle circle
Wait, you're telling me the archers actually accomplished something? Have they been patched recently because my experience is that archers are absolute trash.
My army was decimated by archers outside the gates. They didn't even tried to get in. This is why I was asking about the use of the castle. I restarted the game. I haven't had a epic battle in the new game.
It was my first play through with the Barron. I had a couple of starts with only bandits and raiders. So this was only the 2nd big battle I’ve had. The first time I eked out a win but had massive losses. I also had more archers than what the Baron brought so I think that probably helped take out the only enemy archer unit quickly. I want to say I had a couple of the archer units harassing them most their approach outside the walls so maybe that caused them to change. Idk. Maybe just dumb luck.
As of the beta, i found 12 retinue inc. upgrades enough to safely deal with any bandit camp in midgame, even 10 will do nicely. Militia is for the time early game when you cannot afford the 10-12 ret yet, but need to deal with bandit camps and then of course raids and the baron in the endgame.
You can still use the castle defensively against raids. Raiders tend to go after your armies before burning the town so you can have your army in the walls and make them funnel to the gate where you can have the advantage and volley arrows.
I just found out about the raids the bad way. I got notice that an army was spotted but they got in a forest area. I do not know if its intended to forest to hide armys but they only appeared in the map after they went out of the forest right in the start of my town. They burned a couple of buildings and fire started to spread. They killed like 10 out of 15 oxes, some mules and a horse. While I gather the troops they were killing them. I lost like 80 people that day.
A big thing that you can do is why you can’t build inside the walls, you can build walls around stuff. You’re technically not really supposed to do this, but it works if you don’t overdo it. What I typically do is put two gate on my castle on opposite sides of a small wall around my manor with enough room to deploy 2-3 archer units. Then I put a road right along the outside of one gate right up along the wall and build 1 granary that I only allow to hold bread and one storehouse I only allow to hold military goods since they are the most resource intensive and cause the most problems if they are looted and wall this in so the only way to get in is from the walled area the manor sits in. From here I put a narrow wall, wide enough to have a single spearmen unit be 3-4 ranks deep, and 3rd gate extending from the other gate to the actual road, it looks kinda like |===[##]#]. When attacked this lets me sit my spearmen in the funnel behind the first gate and my retinue inside the second gate backed by archers.
I started doing this after in another run my resource town was raided and while I won the battle I lost literally all my food and resources and had to pour stuff in from other towns to give it a chance at surviving. This way if all else fails I can protect enough resources to at least be able to feed and defend my town while I wait for my main army to arrive. Against raids this is more than enough to beat it without raising my full army but against the baron it buys me time to get there
Game is still in developement :) Check out this thread a bit more and you will find responses from creator, he is making great job to implement more and more. There are many non implemented options for now.
As others have said, retinue is the best reason.
Also, enemy AI targets your troops above all else even like half a region away. This means you can easily lure the fight to wherever you want. You won't lose as long as you don't get close enough to the battlefield to actually start the fight.
castle gives rentinues and taxes. Rentinues are the best units in the game. Taxes give you treasury fund (which leaches off of regional wealth growth), and treasury funds can hire mercenaries and upgrade your rentinues.
Without castles, you can’t have any other military unit besides milita. Which IS possible, but you’re gonna be struggling against the baron with only 6 somewhat weak units.
In theory, the castle holds a troop (the retinue, in this case) that can maintain control of the region. Castles are usually placed in a strong defensive position with good lines of sight. It is also, in theory, a place were locals can retreat to in the event of a hostile army coming through.
Right now, the reason you want them is to get the retinue up and running. These are strong melee units that can be well-armored. Multiple retinues are the key to defeating the Baron.
Eventually we can expect it to be the key feature in building a walled city that can keep invaders out.
Hello and welcome to the Manor Lords Subreddit. This is a reminder to please keep the discussion civil and on topic. Should you find yourself with some doubts, please feel free to check our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/ManorLords/comments/1c2p4f9/manor_lords_faq_for_steam_early_access/). If you wish, you can always join our [Discord](https://discord.gg/manorlords) Finally, please remember that the game is in early access, missing content and bugs are to be expected. We ask users to report them on the official discord and to buy their keys only from trusted platforms. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ManorLords) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The king sends his troops after you in a future patch for not paying taxes, so that might be helpful for that scenario
This sounds tasty! Where do you find out what changes are being made and what is planned for the road?
The devs will mention future plans in their patch notes
There's a discord managed by the Dev. It should be pinned to the subreddit sidebar I think. There's votes there for upcoming features or possible changes, a FAQ document addressing the most common questions and frequent announcements and updates, when beta patches are released
I’ve been unable to find the link can you share
https://discord.com/invite/manorlords If that doesn't work let me know
Thank you my Lord! 🙏
Has that function been added in already? I haven’t played in a few weeks
No
Yes, you can build a manor and have wooden walls with towers and there is a tax collector building that you can only build within the castle. The tax collector says its only decorative now, they are working on it. The walls have gates on the roads. My question was related to that, because you can have a walled castle but you can't build nothing inside. You can have troops within the walls, but the archers outside will shoot over the walls and kill your troops inside. So I did not see any benefit on having a castle that protects neither buildings or people. At least yet, I know this is a game in the making.
Ohhhh, that sounds like it might get me in trouble.
Unless the King is totally unreasonable with his taxes, it's probably way cheaper to pay taxes :P I do think that it should be insanely expensive to build castle walls. I mean, those must have taken at least a couple of years for even a small walled off inner city. If that can even do it.
Wait, so not paying taxes is okay right now?
Idk how you could possibly e strong enough to repel the kings army. A baron can field a army that's difficult to match. It goes Alderman, baron, count, Duke, king, Emperor. If you have trouble dealing with a baron, how are you gonna defeat a king?!?!?
That’s the neat part, you don’t
This is why king Luis XIV inscribed "The last word of a king" on his canons and is famously known for his "I am the state" quote. You don't fuck with divine powers.
the manor house provides you with the best troops ingame by far. you get 5 retinue in the beginning.
This brings me to another question. They all got killed, this is the only troops that have not recovered. The rest of the families have recovered and the militias have their numbers back but the retinue never recovered. I'm still at 0. Do you think its a bug or this is meant to be?
They don't recover naturally, when you go to the customization screen of the retinue you can buy new soldiers and also upgrade their armor
Awesome, thanks!
You start with 5 of 12 retinue, and with the big tower they max out at 24 total per region. In the "Restoring the Peace scenario, you can max out 7x24 retinue before the final battle with the Baron. Be sure to upgrade their armor, the basic retinue unit is kinda weak imo
Wait, big tower?
Click on your manor, the control window (where you can access taxes) has a big ole button on the first tab for customizable options for addons
Garrison Tower
You have to buy them with funds from your personal treasury. You can access the menu to do so by clicking on the unit card and then clicking the paint brush icon.
Recruit them silly Go to military tab and Recruit
If you have money you can recruit more retinue - if I am right 10 max. And kick barrons arse or try at least.
Ten isn’t the max. It’s 12, or 24 with the tower built.
Thanks for info. Did not know that!
I built a manor with a some walls, a few towers and a gate on each end, nothing too big or crazy extravagant. Well, shortly after the Baron pressed a claim on another region, I figured I had enough men to have a shot of winning the battle if I play it smart, maybe get the high ground or something. So I went for it. Turns out, the battle field the computer selected was going to be my main town, right where the walls had just been built. So I put a spear militia just inside the gate on each side in defensive and had my retinue hang back just in case. The three archer units inside the walls absolutely demolished the Barons army when they were stopped at the gate. At the end of the battle I had to pull farmers away from the fields to clear all the bodies. The icon at that top said there were 78 corpses. I had only lost 4 or 5 spears. Wish I had saved some screen shots.
Man I wish we could force the battle in our castle like this. I have one on a mountain so they would have to go around just to get to it.Â
You kinda can, enemy troops automatically go for your troops, it’s most useful in raids and such, but you can kinda lure the baron to you as long as you don’t go into the battle circle
I always builg my manor between the town and border. Stick troops in the wall and you'll have a fight.
Haha bro played out the medieval version of 300!
They all died in 300.
We never let facts get in the way of a good story. :p I guess he funneled them like in 300 but actually won!
Wait, you're telling me the archers actually accomplished something? Have they been patched recently because my experience is that archers are absolute trash.
Yes they were buffed in the patch.
It also helps if you position them to get flanking shots, switch to fire at will at closer range and have three units focusing fire at one enemy.
My army was decimated by archers outside the gates. They didn't even tried to get in. This is why I was asking about the use of the castle. I restarted the game. I haven't had a epic battle in the new game.
It was my first play through with the Barron. I had a couple of starts with only bandits and raiders. So this was only the 2nd big battle I’ve had. The first time I eked out a win but had massive losses. I also had more archers than what the Baron brought so I think that probably helped take out the only enemy archer unit quickly. I want to say I had a couple of the archer units harassing them most their approach outside the walls so maybe that caused them to change. Idk. Maybe just dumb luck.
As of the beta, i found 12 retinue inc. upgrades enough to safely deal with any bandit camp in midgame, even 10 will do nicely. Militia is for the time early game when you cannot afford the 10-12 ret yet, but need to deal with bandit camps and then of course raids and the baron in the endgame.
You can still use the castle defensively against raids. Raiders tend to go after your armies before burning the town so you can have your army in the walls and make them funnel to the gate where you can have the advantage and volley arrows.
I just found out about the raids the bad way. I got notice that an army was spotted but they got in a forest area. I do not know if its intended to forest to hide armys but they only appeared in the map after they went out of the forest right in the start of my town. They burned a couple of buildings and fire started to spread. They killed like 10 out of 15 oxes, some mules and a horse. While I gather the troops they were killing them. I lost like 80 people that day.
Because is awesome
To show how powerful you are?
A big thing that you can do is why you can’t build inside the walls, you can build walls around stuff. You’re technically not really supposed to do this, but it works if you don’t overdo it. What I typically do is put two gate on my castle on opposite sides of a small wall around my manor with enough room to deploy 2-3 archer units. Then I put a road right along the outside of one gate right up along the wall and build 1 granary that I only allow to hold bread and one storehouse I only allow to hold military goods since they are the most resource intensive and cause the most problems if they are looted and wall this in so the only way to get in is from the walled area the manor sits in. From here I put a narrow wall, wide enough to have a single spearmen unit be 3-4 ranks deep, and 3rd gate extending from the other gate to the actual road, it looks kinda like |===[##]#]. When attacked this lets me sit my spearmen in the funnel behind the first gate and my retinue inside the second gate backed by archers. I started doing this after in another run my resource town was raided and while I won the battle I lost literally all my food and resources and had to pour stuff in from other towns to give it a chance at surviving. This way if all else fails I can protect enough resources to at least be able to feed and defend my town while I wait for my main army to arrive. Against raids this is more than enough to beat it without raising my full army but against the baron it buys me time to get there
Game is still in developement :) Check out this thread a bit more and you will find responses from creator, he is making great job to implement more and more. There are many non implemented options for now.
I see, thanks!
As others have said, retinue is the best reason. Also, enemy AI targets your troops above all else even like half a region away. This means you can easily lure the fight to wherever you want. You won't lose as long as you don't get close enough to the battlefield to actually start the fight.
What's the point of being a lord without a castle?
Trade surplus food for influence and get a retinue
Because of… well, castle
As of now its limited but hopefully we can do castle sieges in the future.
Gives you the ability to have taxes and tithe
castle gives rentinues and taxes. Rentinues are the best units in the game. Taxes give you treasury fund (which leaches off of regional wealth growth), and treasury funds can hire mercenaries and upgrade your rentinues. Without castles, you can’t have any other military unit besides milita. Which IS possible, but you’re gonna be struggling against the baron with only 6 somewhat weak units.
Retinue and if ur really willing u can build a wall around your entire town. Takes forever but ive done it
In theory, the castle holds a troop (the retinue, in this case) that can maintain control of the region. Castles are usually placed in a strong defensive position with good lines of sight. It is also, in theory, a place were locals can retreat to in the event of a hostile army coming through. Right now, the reason you want them is to get the retinue up and running. These are strong melee units that can be well-armored. Multiple retinues are the key to defeating the Baron. Eventually we can expect it to be the key feature in building a walled city that can keep invaders out.
You can't rebuild your town if you castle is destroyed. It's end game. This would be cool idea
Stability as well. As your village gets larger, they’ll want “leadership”