My Manor Lords town was horrifically destroyed, and now I know what it's like to be an AI faction in Civilization

Once upon a time, the town of Eichenhau's biggest problem was soil quality. There was no shortage of food – nearby woods teemed with berries and wildlife – but still, underwhelming wheat harvests made bread a commodity. As the seat of my second-ever campaign in city-building sim Manor Lords, I thought it would be an issue resolved through time and slow but steady expansion into more fertile lands. 

I was, to put it bluntly, naive. Now, Eichenhau is nothing but ashes. Even if a loaf of bread survived the fires, there would be nobody left to scoff it down. At the time, the town's fiery demise felt sudden and brutal. In hindsight, though, I suspect it was doomed from the start. 

Plowshares to swords

It feels like I'm the last person to jump into Manor Lords. The medieval strategy game only entered Early Access in April, but it's already sold over 2 million copies and exceeded publisher Hooded Horse's "wild hopes". I finally bought into the hype this week, and after several in-game years spent developing my urban planning and barley-farming skills, completed Manor Lords in its combat-free Rise to Prosperity mode.

Fresh off this success, I dived straight into building another town in Restoring the Peace, which introduces bandits and rival lords to contend with. I was keen for the addition of combat: I didn't have much use for things like iron – which is mostly used to create weapons and armor – in Rise to Prosperity, and wanted to get the full Manor Lords experience. To be completely honest, I also just wanted to turn my villagers into a well-armed fighting force. In Europa Universalis 4, I loved playing the English and bouncing my mega-fleet around the sea, preying on ships like crown-sanctioned pirates. I've won domination victories using most of the factions in Civilization 4, and can't remember the last time I passed a turn in Total War: Warhammer 3 without wiping out some form of sentient life. If you put me in charge of something, whether it's a globe-spanning empire or my local bakery, I will find a way to militarize it. 

In Manor Lords, though, this is tougher than it sounds. You need to equip each household with gear to draft them into your militia – archers need bows in their home, for example, while swordsmen need… well, swords. But in the name of baby steps, I prioritize keeping my villagers well-fed and happy before even thinking about revving up the war machine. 

My first red flag is a small notification, which tells me bandits have made off with some of the town's meat. No problem! I can see that their camp is miles away, and assume that this is a one-off. But then my berries are pinched. So is the village's leather. Shortly after, another notification tells me that raiders are going to attack my village in a year. That's the last straw, and any thoughts of keeping my villagers stuffed and content go out of the window. Mines go up through Eichenhau's once-idyllic forest, while a household of nearby farmers are relocated to work in the new smithy. I even open smaller blacksmithing stations in several families' gardens, dashing their dreams of growing veg or raising chickens. 

Unfortunately, getting all of this running is a logistical nightmare. I can't quite turn my metal into weapons quickly enough, and the family I've got making bows keep running out of planks. By the year's end, I can muster a few half-strength units of archers and pikemen – just in time, as they rally in front of the town church just as scores of club-wielding raiders trudge into view. Despite being peppered by arrows, the bandits reach my thin line of pikemen – most of them artisans and farmers until a few moments ago – and slaughter them in a particularly bloody battle, while another group kills the archers. At this point, the attackers have just 12 men left, but I can only rally another six pikemen and two archers. The survivors clash in thick woodland behind the village, and miraculously, we emerge victorious with a lone pikeman left standing. 

I wish I could say it ended there. Unfortunately, a much larger force of bandits attacks not too long after – this time without the polite 364-day notice our last guests gave. Still struggling from logistic issues, made worse because Eichenhau's population has been decimated, the mustered defense is pathetic. They crumble under waves of brigands who sweep through the streets like a wildfire, pillaging what they can while putting everything to the torch. After pouring hours of work into the town, all I can do is watch as it burns.

It feels like a group of older boys have kicked my sandcastle down, and it's made me realize that Manor Lords is the only game where I prefer to give peace a chance. Here, I get more satisfaction out of building my settlements – watching the population increase, putting them to work and slowly expanding their borders – than I do from combat. As such, I've returned to Rise to Prosperity, where my benevolence means citizens get to spend their days toiling in fields and mines rather than dying in some middling militia. 

It's the first time I've ever chosen to disable combat in a game, and it's entirely possible that the peacefulness of it all will eventually turn to mundanity. Give it enough time and perhaps I'll return to Restoring the Peace with my usual bag of tricks, prioritizing weapons over wheat until the world is mine. But I can also see myself sticking with Rise to Prosperity, where the thrills of urban planning and ideal crop rotations await. Whatever awaits, at least I've had a taste of my own medicine. I finally know what it's like to be one of the AI factions I conquer in other games – and when the steel-plated shoe is on the other foot, I don't really care for it. Farewell, poor Eichenhau. We hardly knew ye.

Hit city builder Manor Lords is getting a new feature players have been begging for: "One quality of life feature a day keeps the negative review away"