Setting up a Manor Lords trade route is one of the many things the game doesn't explain well, while constantly telling you you need one. Confusingly, despite talk of the 'King's Road' and other chat that makes it sound like a physical thing, it's just a case of buying one in your trading post options. Do that, and not only can you finally stop being told you need one, but you'll suddenly and dramatically up your earnings. I've currently got multiple trade routes set up in Manor Lords and a lot of money coming in as a result, so let me explain how I did that.
Manor Lords trade routes explained
If you've reached the point where you're being told you need a Manor Lords trade route, then presumably you've got a Trading Post set up via the trade menu options at the bottom of the screen.
While it sounds like you need to set up some sort of physical road or passage, a trade route in Manor Lords is simply an option in the Trading Post menu - so click on the Trading Post and then the 'Trade' option.
The sticking point here is that you need some Manor Lords regional wealth to basically 'buy' a trade route. Check that guide if you're not sure what that is or are struggling to earn enough, but the short version is to get regional wealth, upgrade a few homes to level 2 burgage plots and export anything you can.
The level 2 plots will give you artisans making goods, which will generate some regional wealth (just be aware that level 2 plots and artisan are removed from the general labor pool, so you can't use them for construction or work). The Trading Post trading options should also have a couple of starter things you can sell without setting up a route. So look through all your options to see if you have an excess of anything, or set up/increase production to stock up - the amount of what you have appears next to its name - and then set the trade option on the left to 'Export'. That way you'll only sell things, which will bring in regional wealth (I'll explain more on that below).
The tricky part here is you'll now probably have to wait a bit, with a lot of trade routes generally costing 60-70 regional wealth or more to set up, and you need a good surplus of resources to do business. When you can afford it you'll have the option to 'Establish a trade route' on the right hand hand side of your Trading Post trading options:
Spend the money and you'll set up a route for trade in that item or produce. The numbers in the middle you can adjust with the + and - to set a surplus level that you will always trade to, so you never sell all you have or stop trading when you have what you want.
The far left side has the trade options where you can set the following:
- Import - keep buying until you reach the set surplus amount
- Export - keep selling until the you reach the set surplus amount
- Full trade - trade both ways until you reach the set surplus amount
If you really want to build regional wealth fast then focus on export but be aware you'll be using up all your stocks and not bringing anything back in. Import only can also be useful if you're in crisis for a certain resource - if you're running low on food for example, you can set up trade routes for a food item and just import it to increase your reserves, burning through your cash in the process.
If you're struggling to get enough regional wealth to set up a Manor Lords Trade Route, or just want more, then you can unlock the Trade Logistics option in the development tree:
This will make all Trade Routes cost a maximum of 25 Regional Wealth. In some cases that halves the cost of certain routes or more, and will make your coin go further, faster.
Trade Routes in Manor Lords are one of those things that take time and money to set up but once done, bring in more cash to help create more and the process soon gets faster - once you've managed to get one set up, you'll be able to create more quickly and the money will start coming in fast.
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