Summary: So I've been away for 5 months, but I remember that keep battles have been added. I started a new campaign this week and so far I haven't encountered a single keep battle, neither in large town battles or castle battles. Today I had to do the outer siege twice at some khuzait castle = I fought the first time and won, then I had to do the same siege battle again but this time there were only a few (10-20) defenders left. I wonder if this is a bug related to the keep battles not working?
Thank you in advance!
By default there is always a keep battle unless a member belonging to the same faction as the castle does this:
After a castle gets besieged, an allied party comes and instead of breaking into the castle to defend the walls, they directly attack the besieging party. This starts a non-keep battle with the besieging party on one side, and the garrison with the allied party on the other.
The reason why keep battles are rare, is because if a party was not inside the castle before the siege started, they would have to break past the besieging army to get into the castle to defend the walls. However, doing that will automatically cost them a decent amount of troops, so the AI always chooses a regular non-keep battle when a party comes to defend a castle that is already under siege.
At least I think that is the AI's reasoning. I've played for over 250 hours and can't recall a single time that the AI chose to break into a castle to defend the walls.
The best way to be able to fight in a keep battle, is to wait for one of your faction's castles to get besieged, gather your own army, and then break into the castle to help.
Breaking in after the siege starts, is the only way I am ever able to both fight, and win a keep battle. Because if you see an army coming to besiege a castle and you decide to gather your own army and wait in the castle to defend it, they will see all of the troops in the castle and won't bother besieging it, and if you wait with too little troops, they will besiege the castle, and crush you.
By the way, these rules apply to both parties and armies, castles and towns.
