Manor Lords — Achievement Walkthrough

Unlocks the moment you start your first game. Pick any map and game mode from the New Game menu and load in. Nothing else is required.

You need your settlement to make it through its first full year — the key threat is winter. Before the cold arrives, secure food (a Forager Hut for berries plus a Hunting Camp is the fastest early food) and firewood (a Woodcutter's Lodge producing firewood, stored in a stockpile close to homes). Keep families housed and fed so approval does not collapse; if settlers go hungry or cold in winter they will leave. Once you pass into the next spring the achievement pops.

Build a church (it also boosts approval), then open the church's panel and change the bell sound to a different option. Swapping the bell sound is all this asks for.

Play a sandbox / non-battle game mode where brigand (bandit) parties roam and raid trade routes and outlying camps. Raise a militia unit from your armed townsfolk (you need weapons in your stores to arm them), then send that militia to intercept and destroy a brigand squad. The kill must come from a militia squad rather than mercenaries. Brigand camps on the region map are the reliable place to find a squad to fight.

Your lord's retinue is your personal standing bodyguard, paid from your treasury (Regional Wealth / influence) rather than raised from townsfolk. Grow your economy so you can afford the upkeep, then expand the retinue up to 24 retainers. Trade income and a healthy treasury are the gate here — build up wealth first, then max the retinue size.

Play the Restoring the Peace scenario, whose antagonist is the rival Baron. Develop your settlement and army, claim regions, and win the confrontation against the Baron's forces to defeat him. This overlaps with finishing the scenario (see Restore the Peace) — beating the Baron is how that scenario is won.

Approval rises when you meet and exceed your citizens' needs: a food variety (multiple food types, not just one), fuel for winter, church access, marketplace goods including clothing, and low or zero tax. Grow to the Large Town level, then stack every approval source — diverse food, fuel, church, ale from a Tavern, market variety, and keep tax low — until approval hits 100%. It is the sustained-quality-of-life achievement, so plan a mature, well-supplied town.

Complete the Restoring the Peace scenario to its win condition, which centres on defeating the rival Baron and stabilising the region. Build a working economy, raise an army (militia and/or mercenaries), claim territory, and win the decisive battles. Completing it also unlocks Defeat Hildebolt.

This is a self-imposed restriction run: grow a settlement up to the Small Town settlement level without building a Hunting Camp or a Forager Hut (berries). Feed your people through other food sources instead — farming (crops and vegetable plots), an Apple Orchard, and livestock, supplemented by buying food via trade at a Trading Post. Lean on farms and imports for food and you can climb settlement levels without touching hunting or foraging.

Win the Restoring the Peace scenario relying solely on hired mercenary companies for your fighting — do not win battles with your own raised militia. Mercenaries are hired for a payment from your treasury, so build strong trade income to keep affording them, then let the mercenary bands carry every fight through to the scenario victory.

Set the difficulty to the Challenging preset when starting the Restoring the Peace scenario, then complete it. The tougher preset squeezes your economy and makes the Baron more dangerous, so a disciplined food-and-fuel economy plus a solid army is needed. Winning the scenario on this preset unlocks the achievement.