5 Proven Methods: Bannerlord 2 How to Deal With Food Shortages in Your Settlements

Food shortages can cripple your settlements in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, leading to starvation, unrest, and ultimately, rebellion. This article provides five practical and proven methods to effectively manage your settlement’s food supply, ensuring a prosperous and loyal population. We’ll delve into efficient production, strategic resource management, smart trading, and even emergency measures to get you through the toughest times.

Before rushing to implement solutions, it’s crucial to understand why your settlement is facing a food shortage. Several factors can contribute, and identifying the primary cause is key to applying the correct remedy. The most common culprits are low production, high consumption, and disruptions to supply chains.

• Low Production: Insufficient farmland, damaged infrastructure, or poor governor skills can all limit the amount of food produced within the settlement and its surrounding villages.
• High Consumption: A large garrison, a high population, or negative prosperity modifiers can lead to food being consumed faster than it’s produced.
• Disruptions to Supply Chains: Raids on villages, war, or bandits can cut off the flow of food to your settlement, leading to shortages.

The first step in combating food shortages is to maximize your settlement’s food production. This involves investing in the right infrastructure and appointing a capable governor.

• Prioritize Infrastructure: Construct or upgrade buildings that directly increase food production. The most important are:
  • Farms: Farms increase grain production in the attached village.
  • Orchards: Produce fruits, adding variety and boosting morale.
  • Fishing Docks: Provide fish, a reliable source of food, especially in coastal settlements.
  • Irrigation: Increases the productivity of farms.
• Assign a Skilled Governor: Choose a governor with high stewardship skills. Stewardship directly impacts food production and reduces construction costs, accelerating your progress. Look for perks that specifically boost food production in settlements or villages. Governors with high stewardship are invaluable for ensuring a stable food supply.
• Develop Attached Villages: Villages are your settlement’s primary source of food. Protect them from raids and invest in their prosperity by completing village improvement projects when available.
• Consider Policies: Certain settlement policies can influence food production. While not always the best choice overall, policies like “Land Tax” can free up peasants to work the fields and increase food output in specific situations.

Increasing food production is only half the battle. You also need to manage food consumption and population growth to maintain a healthy surplus.

• Control Garrison Size: A large garrison consumes a significant amount of food. Keep your garrison size appropriate for the settlement’s security needs, avoiding unnecessary expenses. Use militia to supplement the garrison.
• Address Prosperity Issues: Low prosperity often leads to lower food production and increased unrest. Invest in projects that boost prosperity, such as fairs and festivals, or resolve issues that are causing a decline in prosperity. A happy and prosperous population is a well-fed population.
• Monitor Population Growth: Rapid population growth can quickly strain your food supply. While difficult to directly control, understanding the growth rate helps you anticipate future food needs and plan accordingly.

Trading is a vital part of managing your settlement’s food supply. A well-managed market can stabilize prices and ensure a consistent flow of food.

• Establish Trade Routes: Ensure your settlement is connected to nearby towns and villages with active trade routes. This allows merchants to bring in food supplies and export surpluses.
• Buy Low, Sell High: Actively monitor the market prices for food in your settlement and neighboring towns. Buy food when it’s cheap and sell when it’s expensive to maintain a buffer stock and profit from price fluctuations.
• Prioritize Food Imports: When facing a shortage, focus your trading efforts on importing food from other regions. Don’t be afraid to pay a premium to ensure your settlement has enough to eat. A stable food supply is worth the investment.
• Use Caravans: If you control multiple settlements, use caravans to transport food between them. This can alleviate shortages in one settlement by utilizing surpluses from another.

Beyond the standard advice, here are some less obvious strategies and emergency measures that can help you weather a food crisis.

• Consider Clan Culture: Different clan cultures have unique bonuses. For example, some cultures have bonuses to trade or food production, which can indirectly help manage food supplies. Choosing a clan culture that complements your settlement’s needs can be a long-term strategy for stability. A well-chosen clan culture is a silent partner in your settlement’s success.
• Emergency Rations: In extreme situations, reduce the food ration size for your garrison. This will decrease food consumption but can also negatively impact morale and discipline. Use this as a last resort.
• Purchase Livestock: Buying livestock (cows, sheep) can provide a temporary boost to food production through milk and meat. However, livestock also consume food, so this is a short-term solution that requires careful management.
• Accept the Debuff: Sometimes, despite your best efforts, a short-term food shortage is unavoidable. In these situations, focus on mitigating the negative consequences. Keep morale high through other means (entertainment, victories in battle) and address the underlying cause of the shortage as quickly as possible. Knowing when to accept a temporary setback is a sign of good leadership.

First-hand experience shows that early investment in village infrastructure is more effective than reactive measures. I’ve personally found that prioritizing water mills in grain-producing villages yields significant long-term benefits. Additionally, actively defending villages from raiders is crucial, as even a single successful raid can devastate food production. I also try to keep a food stockpile of at least 200-300 units as a buffer against unexpected events.

Here’s a table summarizing the methods:

While the above methods offer immediate relief, sustained stability requires long-term planning and investment.

• Education and Training: Invest in training your companions and clan members in stewardship and other relevant skills. A well-trained team can significantly improve your settlement’s overall management.
• Strategic Settlement Placement: When choosing new settlements, consider their location and resource availability. A settlement located in a fertile region with access to trade routes is more likely to thrive than one in a barren or isolated location.
• Diplomacy and Alliances: Maintain good relationships with neighboring factions to ensure stable trade routes and prevent raids on your villages. Alliances can provide mutual protection and access to resources. Good diplomacy is as important as a strong army.

By implementing these five methods, you can effectively manage food shortages in your Bannerlord 2 settlements and create a thriving, prosperous domain. Remember that consistent monitoring, proactive planning, and adaptability are key to long-term success.

The information provided in this article is based on gameplay experience and publicly available information about Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. For further details on game mechanics, refer to the official Bannerlord wiki (if available) or other reputable sources.