Manor Lords: How to claim and settle more regions

Your fief must grow

Slavic Magic / Hooded Horse

The drive to expand and add more regions to your domain is ever present in Manor Lords, even though the game is mostly a peaceful city-builder. Competition among feudal lords has always been fierce and gaining possession of additional lands paves the way to attaining more riches, glory, and power.

In Manor Lords, claiming and taking additional areas on the map is one way towards victory and allows you to build more settlements as well as trade resources between them. In this way, you can slowly specialize your towns and have them complement each others’ strengths as well as make up for any weaknesses. Plus, the population in each town adds to your military’s potency.

There are lots of reasons to grow your domain in Manor Lords and this guide will show you how to claim other regions and settle them.

How to claim regions in Manor Lords

The process of claiming land in itself is quite simple: Go to the overview map of the entire region and then select the area you want to take possession of. There, you’ll find a “Claim” button – just press it and wait out the timer. In this timeframe, rival claimants may want to interfere and hinder you from establishing your domain over this land, challenging you to battle. If that’s the case, you must prevail against the forces fielded by your rival, so make sure you’ve got a strong army at your disposal. If there’s no interference, you simply need to wait until the timer ends.

In Early Access, you'll need Influence to claim new regions. / Slavic Magic / Hooded Horse

However, there are some prerequisites to claiming and settling a land. You’ll notice that claiming an empty area will cost you 1,000 Influence and an area already claimed by a rival will cost you 2,000 Influence. This is a resource you can obtain by building Churches or collecting food from your town as a tax in the name of the Church. For that, you’ll first need to get your Manor up and running. Another way of gaining Influence is razing Bandit Camps.

How to settle regions in Manor Lords

Once you’ve successfully claimed a new area of the map, you’ll see that it's being displayed in your color. However, you still won’t be able to build anything in this region. This is because you need to lay the foundation for a brand-new settlement inside your latest possession first.

Enter the building menu and navigate to the Administration tab, where you’ll find a Settlers Camp. Place this down in an empty region in your possession as the nucleus of your new settlement. You may then decide how much Treasure you want to invest into this endeavor: For a higher cost, your new village will start with a few more resources, speeding its development up.

After placing a Settlers Camp in a claimed region, you can build a new settlement there. / Slavic Magic / Hooded Horse

You’ll need a different resource called Treasure to pay for these expenses. Treasure is gained by looting Bandit Camps and taking the spoils for yourself or by collecting taxes from your people. In your Manor, you can adjust the tax rate to suit your current needs. 

Be aware, though, that having high taxes will lower your approval rating and sap away Regional Wealth, which will slow population growth, weaken your army’s morale, and limit the amount of capital you have to build backyard extensions, acquire livestock, and import goods.