Manor Lords: How To Defend Against Bandits And Raiders

Manor Lords takes you on an adventure through late 14th-century Franconia, where you experience the life of a powerful lord as they build a settlement from the ground up. As your settlement grows and accumulates more wealth, it becomes an attractive target for troublemakers like Bandits and Raiders.

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Bandits and Raiders are hostile outlaws who only want to disrupt society and steal from others. To protect your settlement from these attackers and prevent theft, you need to take a strategic approach, which includes building a strong army and fortifying your defenses. Read on to learn how to effectively defend your settlement against Bandits and Raiders in Manor Lords.

How To Defend Against Raiders

Raiders are large, organized groups of attackers who pose a significant threat to your thriving settlement. They arrive every few years and directly target your village to steal your resources and burn down buildings. Thankfully, Manor Lords warns you of incoming raids nearly a year in advance, giving you enough time to prepare your defenses.

To defend your settlement against Raiders, you need to raise a powerful army that serves as a wall between the attackers and your village. There are three ways to do this.

Build a Militia

A well-trained and well-equipped militia can easily defend your settlement and counter-attacks from raiders. You can raise single militia units by clicking the “Army” tab at the bottom of the screen and pressing the “+” icon. There are four militia unit types to choose from: Footmen, Spear, Polearm, or Archer.

Make sure you have a sufficient number of male villagers in your settlement to form a militia. Increasing the size of the male population is the only way to increase the number of militia units you can form.

Moreover, the number of weapons determines how many troops you can have in your militia. Depending on the type of militia you choose to build, you’ll need to craft or import military equipment. All military equipment can be crafted after building Backyard Extensions in Level 2 and above Burgage plots.

It is a good idea to invest in the Spear, Polearm, and Footmen militia to act as your first line of defense against raids. Archers are pretty useless in the Early Access version of Manor Lords since they don’t cause significant damage.

Recruit a Retinue

Unlike the militia, which is made up of your villagers, a Retinue consists of elite soldiers who are solely dedicated to defending your settlement. They are stronger, better equipped, and more effective in combat, especially against tougher enemies like Raiders.

You can build a Retinue after constructing a Manor in your village. Doing so automatically recruits five soldiers to your Retinue. To add 12 more soldiers, consider expanding your Retinue by adding the Garrison Tower to your Manor through the Castle Planner.

Moreover, you can use the Treasury funds to purchase more soldiersfor your Retinue or upgrade their armor to make them even more lethal. To do so, click on the unit and navigate to the Retinue Customization” tab. The maximum limit of retinue members you can have is 24.

Hire Mercenaries

A quick way to boost your army’s ranks is to hire Mercenaries using the Treasury gold. To do so, open up the Army tab, click on the “+” sign, and select the “Hire Mercenaries” button. Here, you can find options for three different Mercenary companies. To hire a Mercenary group, you need to pay an upfront cost as well as a monthly fee.

Once you recruit a mercenary company, Mercenaries will be stationed on the border of the map, and you can command them to move to your desired location and join the fight against the incoming raiders. If a company is hired at the last minute, they may not make it to the battlefield in time. As such, it’s best to hire Mercenaries at least ten days in advance of an incoming raid.

It’s recommended to Rally your forces as soon as you spot the brigands so that you can battle them far away from your village. This prevents damage to your settlement and does not endanger civilians.

Make sure you have built enough Wells around your settlement so that villagers can collect water and put out any fires caused by the Raiders.

How To Defend Against Bandits

Unlike Raiders, Bandits do not really attack your settlement. Instead, these pesky bandits set up camps close to your settlement and will steal important resources, such as food, clothing, and building supplies from your town. This poses a huge problem since resources are already scarce in the early stages of the game.

To stop bandits from stealing your resources, you need to destroy all Bandit Camps surrounding your village. To do this, you’ll need a powerful army, like Militia or Mercenaries. New Militia units can be created by clicking on the “Army” tab at the bottom of your screen and tapping the '+' sign.

Once your Militia is assembled, it’s time to track down the Bandit Camps and clear them out for good. These camps are marked with a tent symbol on your world map. Click on the Army menu and select “Rally” to lead your Militia toward these camps. Around 50 soldiers are sufficient for one Bandit Camp.

When all the Bandits have been defeated, click on their camp one more time to conquer it for yourself. Conquering Bandit Camps is an excellent way to acquire Regional Wealth.

Consistently monitor the map for new Bandit Camps and defeat them as soon as possible to minimize resource loss.

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