8 Best Strategy Games Similar to Manor Lords

With the recent success of Manor Lords' early access launch, city-building and medieval strategy games have become more popular. In Manor Lords, you are the ruler of your settlement and must unlock technologies to grow. Defend your lands from bandits and rival lords.

As Manor Lords is still in early access and some people have commented on the limited content right now, we put together a list of other games that might tide you over until we get new game elements. We will look at strategy games that involve constructing your own settlement and defending it from attack.

Banished

While Banished might not rival Manor Lords when it comes to graphics, it is definitely worth a go. You will control a group of exiles and build your own medieval settlement away from your previous home. People are your most important resource as there is no money in Banished. Assign your workers to farm, mine, and gather materials for construction efforts.

You will most likely not succeed with each settlement but that is part of the fun. There is no war and the combat is against nature. Your survival will be a big enough challenge without having large-scale battles to deal with.

Banished was released in 2014 but an active modding community keeps it alive. There are near endless possibilities due to user-generated content. Well worth a look into if you enjoy the gameplay of Manor Lords.

Farthest Frontier

If you fancy a mixed bag of survival, city-building, and strategy, you should consider giving Farthest Frontier a go. You can choose to play it peacefully and focus on constructing a perfect settlement in the middle of the wilderness by turning off the combat. However, if you want to know what it was truly like to build a town in Medieval times, you will have to defend your lands against nature and rival forces.

Farthest Frontier takes key elements from the Middle Ages and turns them into challenges that you will have to overcome if you want your people to survive. Hunting, gathering, and farming are the only ways to feed your settlers but none of them are easy. Farthest Frontier is another early-access game that receives regular updates to deal with any issues. It’s another worthy city-builder for any Manor Lords fan.

Songs of Syx

Songs of Syx sports a pixelated graphic system so you will need to use your imagination to truly see what you have created. The good news is that even with thousands of buildings it will always run smoothly. Songs of Syx borrows a lot from other city-building games and is a polished product that will have you wasting hours of your time.

Grow your small group of settlers into a metropolis and empire. Not only will you be in charge of construction but you will also be able to wage war on your neighbors just like the rulers of the past. Songs of Syx is definitely a great addition to your gaming library.

Ostriv

If you enjoy watching your villagers build their houses beam by beam, another great choice for a city-building game has to be Ostriv. As the ruler of a potential 18th-century Ukrainian city, you will get to watch your dream come to life. Buy and sell your way to riches and construct a sprawling city across the countryside.

Ostriv is another early access simulation still in development but the content we have available is worth taking the time to explore. There isn’t anything urgent about Ostriv as it doesn’t have any combat systems in place but if you want to enjoy a relaxing few hours while you watch your village come together, it is worth playing.

Stronghold

If you want to experience Medieval England, then give the Stronghold series a whirl. Stronghold started back in 2001 and that might put some people off giving it a go. Despite this, the new definitive edition takes the masterpiece that lent inspiration to many city-building medieval games that came after it and gives it the boost to the graphics that enables it to still be enjoyable.

You can expand by building a profitable economy and getting the gold to fund your progression or you can organize a vast army and do it the violent way. During the Crusades both were common. Stronghold has always been a great city-building RTS strategy game and will continue to be worth a try.

Anno 1800

Next on our list, we will look at Anno 1800. As the name suggests, it is set in the 19th century and it embraces everything that time period had to offer. You can choose to expand by building bigger and better settlements but the main focus of Anno 1800 is to establish trade routes. Through commerce, you will be introduced to other forces at work on your map and decide whether you want them as partners or rivals.

Anno 1800 might not be the easiest game to learn how to play but when you get the gist of it, you can create an amazing life for your people. Combat won’t play as big a role as some might want and everything is settled with your navy but diplomacy can be your biggest weapon as you expand.

Cities: Skylines

Moving away from the medieval era, Cities: Skylines is unrivaled when it comes to city-building games set in the modern age. Starting from nothing but a plot of land, you must construct a massive city full of people trying to get on with their lives. You will have to make sure you have enough residential areas available for your population, enough commercial buildings so they can spend their money, and jobs where they can produce the needed resources to sell so they have money to waste.

Cities: Skylines focuses more on your layout as traffic will become a problem quickly. Setting up public transport helps but until you figure everything out, you will have to deal with congestion at all times. Bring in enough money to expand and unlock new buildings so you can grow. There is no warfare in Cities: Skylines, but if you want to create amazing modern cities, you should try it out.

Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlords

While Mount & Blade has no city-building elements, it is a great indie strategy game. You will start as a warrior with nothing and as you recruit new soldiers to fight in your army, you can become a ruler of a massive empire. There is some city management where you build up the income to fund your war with the numerous factions.

You can build huge armies with different troops. Tactics play more of a role than simple fighting and how you use your units will depict if you will be victorious. Having the right companions and leaders can be the difference between success and failure. You can smith your own weapons, fight in the arena, or defeat other armies and sell their gear to make money. Nothing is simple and you can very easily end up at square one if you make a fatal mistake.

While there might be other games that share certain aspects with Manor Lords, those mentioned above are some of the best available. You can also try Kingdom Come: Deliverance if you are interested in historical accuracy. It is an amazing RPG set in Medieval Bohemia. There aren't any city-building elements unless you count rebuilding a destroyed village in a DLC. However, KCD's attention to detail definitely earns it a place here as a bonus recommendation for all Manor Lords fans. 

That concludes our list of the best strategy games that are similar to Manor Lords. I hope this helps and you give them a go. Some can take some getting used to before you know exactly what you are doing but that is what makes this kind of game fun.