Food, fuel and ale calculator

Starving or freezing in your first winter is the classic way to lose a Manor Lords village. This calculator turns your family count into the food, fuel and drink you need, for one month, for the whole winter, for a year, or for any stockpile window you pick. Enter the families at each burgage plot level; the plot count is estimated for you, or you can type the real number from your town.

How the numbers are worked out

Food. Every family eats 1 food per month, whatever level its home is. The game counts consumption per family, not per person. Any food type counts toward that 1 unit; what changes with level is how many different food categories the market has to offer before the plot can upgrade.

Fuel. Fuel is charged per burgage plot, not per family. The official beginner's guide gives the example of a duplex: two families in one plot eat 2 food but burn only 1 fuel. Homes burn 1 fuel a month from March to November and 2 a month in winter (December, January and February). That is why the calculator wants a plot count as well as a family count. Some workplaces, such as the malthouse and the bloomery, also burn 1 fuel a month each; add them in the workplaces box.

Charcoal. A charcoal kiln turns 1 firewood into 2 charcoal, so every unit of charcoal you burn costs half a firewood. Move the charcoal slider up and the "firewood to cut" row drops. That is the whole case for a kiln once your woodcutters are the bottleneck.

Ale, cider and mead. Families at level 2 and above drink 1 beverage every 3 months. Level 1 families stopped drinking in Update 7. The ale chain is 1 barley to 1 malt at the malthouse and 1 malt to 1 ale at a brewery. Cider takes 4 apples per cider and mead 1 honey per mead, both brewed at the same brewery extension since Update 8.

Plot estimate. Levels 1 and 2 hold one family per plot, level 3 holds two and level 4 holds three. The Expansion upgrade adds one more living space to any plot. The estimate assumes every plot is full, so if you have empty space, type your real plot count.

Reading the result

The stockpile table is the one to check before winter. Set "Stockpile from" to September and the window to 6 months, and it counts December to February at double fuel. The granary note compares the food total with a granary (500 pantry) and a large granary (2,500). Food also sits in burgage plot pantries and at the market, so treat that as a rough check rather than a hard limit.

The link button copies a URL with all your inputs in it, so you can bookmark a plan or send it to a friend.

Worked example: a village going into its second winter

Say you have 12 level 1 families and 6 level 2 families in 18 plots, one malthouse running, and no charcoal yet. Food is simple: 18 families eat 18 food a month, so 54 over the three winter months. Fuel is per plot: 18 plots burn 18 a month from March to November and 36 a month in winter, and the malthouse adds 1 a month, so the winter needs 3 x 37 = 111 fuel. Over a whole year that is 9 x 19 + 3 x 37 = 282 fuel. Only the 6 level 2 families drink, 1 every 3 months, so 2 ale a month or 24 a year, which is 24 barley through the malthouse.

Now build a charcoal kiln and switch half your fuel to charcoal. The 111 winter fuel becomes 55.5 firewood burned as it is plus 55.5 charcoal, and that charcoal costs only 27.75 firewood at 1 firewood to 2 charcoal. The woodcutters need to bring in about 83 firewood instead of 111. That 25% saving is the whole case for a kiln once your woodcutters are the bottleneck. Type these numbers into the calculator above to see the same totals.