Keep (Age of Empires II)

Keep
Building information
Introduced in	The Age of Kings
Type	Tower
Civilization	See table
Age	Imperial Age
Use	Attacks enemies at sight
Construction
Wood	50
Stone	125
Build time	80 seconds
Statistics
Size	1×1 tiles
Hit points	2,250
Garrison	5
Attack	8 pierce
Attack bonuses	+10 vs Ship +10 vs Fishing Ship +2 vs Spearman +1 vs Camel
Rate of Fire	2.0
Range	8
Minimum range	1
Accuracy	100%
Projectile speed	7
Melee armor	3
Pierce armor	9
Armor classes	Building Standard building Stone defense
Line of Sight	10
Building evolution
Upgrades from	Guard Tower

“	Stronger than Guard Tower. Fires farther and is better armored.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Keep is a tower in Age of Empires II that becomes available once the Imperial Age is reached. Keeps are useful against infantry and archers, but are not effective against siege weapons and most cavalry.

Building availability

Available	Unavailable
Britons*^ Burmese Bulgarians Byzantines^ Celts^ Chinese*^ Ethiopians Incas Italians* Japanese^ Khmer Koreans*^ Lithuanians Malay Malians Mayans Portuguese Saracens Spanish Teutons^ Turks* Vietnamese	Aztecs Berbers Cumans Franks Goths Huns Indians Magyars Mongols Persians Slavs Tatars Vikings

The * indicates that the civilization can fully upgrade their Keeps, i.e. gets Bracer, Arrowslits, Architecture, and Heated Shot. Faith and Heresy are not taken into account because they only contribute to their combat strength in a very situational manner.

The ^ indicates that the civilization has at least one civilization or team bonus or a unique technology that benefits the combat strength of the Keep.

Tactics and placement

Towers are an essential part of any kind of fortification. Keeps are very useful and valuable for defending the player's settlement against enemy raiding parties. Turtling strategies usually require the use of several Keeps among the use of walls and Castles in order to create a strong fortification. Keeps should be placed in choke points to make them more effective or behind cliffs or forests. Keeps also work better if placed within the range of each other or within the range of a friendly Castle since both buildings will provide cover fire for each other. Using walls and Gates will protect them to some extent from rams. In maps like Archipelago or Islands it is a wise idea to have several Keeps near the shoreline in order to take down potentially dangerous enemy fleets and give some support to the player's own fleet near the coast.

Offensively, Keeps can also be used for front line support as in a retreat they can hold troops that can be healed once garrisoned and they also provide cover fire for offensively placed military buildings if they are placed near an enemy location. In this regard they are better than a Castle since they are cheaper and are built quicker.

Keeps are highly vulnerable to long range siege units and rams, so to protect them the player should have melee cavalry near to their fortifications, or some Fire Ships that can deal with the Cannon Galleons in case of Keeps placed near the shore.

Korean Keeps have 13 range, making them harder to deal with because Bombard Cannons (bar Turkish ones) and non-Elite Cannon Galleons cannot outrange them.

Garrisoned foot archers and Villagers increase the number of arrows Keeps fire, thus increasing the damage. Up to five (10 for the Teutons) foot-soldiers (infantry and archers, although infantry do not increase the firepower) may be garrisoned in a Keep. Garrisoned units slowly regenerate lost hit points.

If running for a Relic or Wonder victory, Keeps become a helpful tool to defend the Wonder or the Monasteries holding Relics, but the player will also require the support of several Castles, walls, and other military structures. Also, the player must have sufficient numbers of troops (especially cavalry) for countering enemy siege units.

Further statistics

Building strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Ships, archers, weak melee units
Weak vs.	Siege weapons, Tarkans, Huskarls, War Elephants, Cannon Galleons
Upgrades
Hit points	Masonry (+10%) Architecture (+10%) Great Wall (+30%, Chinese only)
Attack	Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Chemistry (+1) Arrowslits (+3) Heated Shot (+125% attack against ships) Yeomen (+2, Britons only) Yasama (adds two extra arrows, Japanese only)
Range	Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Murder Holes (eliminates minimum range)
Firing rate	Stronghold (+25%, Celts only)
Accuracy	Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Armor	Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor) Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
Line of Sight	Town Watch (+4) Town Patrol (+4)
Conversion defense	Faith Heresy
Construction speed	Treadmill Crane (+20%)
Other	Herbal Medicine (garrisoned units heal faster) Crenellations (enables garrisoned infantry to shoot arrows, Teutons only)

Civilization bonuses

• Burmese: Researching Faith and Herbal Medicine is 50% cheaper.
• Byzantines: Keeps have +40% HP. Town Watch is free.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Keeps are 20% cheaper.
• Incas: Keeps cost 15% less stone.
• Koreans: Keeps have +2 range.
• Malians: Keeps cost 15% less wood.
• Spanish: Keeps are built 30% faster.
• Teutons: Keeps can garrison up to 10 units. Murder Holes are free.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Bulgarians: Blacksmith upgrades that benefit Keeps are researched 50% faster.
• A team containing Ethiopians: Keeps have +3 Line of Sight.
• A team containing Lithuanians: Faith and Heresy are researched 20% faster.
• A team containing Malians: University technologies that benefit Keeps are researched 80% faster.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

• Keeps cost 25W/125S.
• Keeps have 7 attack.
• Keeps have an attack bonus of +10 against camels because they share an armor class with ships.

The Conquerors

• Keeps gain an attack bonus of +2 against Spearmen.
• Herbal Medicine introduced.
• Heresy introduced.
• Britons: Yeomen introduced.
• Teutons: Crenellations introduced.

The Forgotten

• Keeps now have 8 attack.
• Celts: Stronghold introduced.
• Incas: Cannot build Keeps.
• Japanese: Yasama introduced. It gives Keeps three additional arrows.
• Koreans: Keeps are now built 33% faster.

The African Kingdoms

• Camels are moved out of the ship armor class, and Keeps lose their attack bonus against them. They now have +1 attack against them.
• Arrowslits introduced. Initially, it gives Keeps +6 attack. With patch 4.8, Arrowslits now gives +3 attack.
• Incas: Keep added to the technology tree.
• Japanese: With patch 4.8, Yasama now gives Keeps two additional arrows.

Rise of the Rajas

• Keeps now cost 50W/125S.
• Koreans: With patch 5.8, Keeps are now built 5% faster.

Definitive Edition

• Koreans: Keeps are no longer built faster.

Trivia

• The Keep model of the Native American civilizations is inspired by the Palace Observation Tower in Palenque.
• The description of the Keep states it fires farther than its predecessors. However, that is wrong, all towers of the Watch Tower line have the same range.
• All Keeps have a square base except the Western European version, which is octogonal, and the Central Asian version, which is round.
• Because neither the Cumans nor the Tatars have access to the Keep, the Central Asian Keep can only be seen in Full Tech Tree games and campaign mode.

History

“

The central and strongest building inside a castle was called the keep. This was the last bastion of defense inside if the walls and outside towers were taken. The remaining defenders withdrew into the keep for the final defense. The keep was a mini-castle often constructed in place of a castle to cut expenses. Although much smaller than castles, keeps could perform the same function on a smaller scale. They were very difficult to capture except by a large and well-equipped army.

”

Gallery

Scenario-specific Slavic tower icon.

Scenario-specific Southeast Asia tower icon.

Scenario-specific Oriental tower icon.

Scenario-specific Mesoamerican tower icon.

Scenario-specific Mediterranean tower icon.

Scenario-specific Indian tower icon.

Scenario-specific Eastern tower icon.

Scenario-specific Central Asia tower icon.

Scenario-specific Asia tower icon.

Scenario-specific African tower icon.

All Keeps in The Age of Kings and The Conquerors

All Keeps introduced in the HD expansions

A wooden keep in France. Source: Wikipedia

Template:Buildings AoE2