Welcome to House of Kingdoms, in this guide I will be talking about Barbarian Camps and Keeps. They are a new addition to the game and some of you who might have started playing Rise of Kingdoms probably wonder what the heck is the Barbarian Camps and what they do.
The Barbarian Camps can be found anywhere on the map on all zones. They aren’t your to-go barbarians since these troops are much tougher compared to regular ones. As you can see, they have armies composed of wolves, brutes and some more advanced armor / weapons to counter your force.
Before you start fighting against barbarian camps, I suggest you get your Tier 4 troops first. Upgrade your troops and commanders if you need to get them up to compete against these barbarian brutes. In this guide, I will explain about barbarian camps and keep in detail how they work in Rise of Kingdoms.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
What are Barbarian Camps?
A barbarian camp is usually an encampment surrounded by brown mountains that guards the barbarians, bosses and keeps. There are three levels of barbarian camps that are defined by the size of encampment, with small camp being the easiest to large camp requiring army rallies and alliance coordination.
Here’s a preview of barbarian encampment sizes:
- Small Barbarian Camp
- Medium Barbarian Camp
- Large Barbarian Camp
Small Barbarian Camp

A small barbarian camp. They can be found anywhere on the map in Rise of Kingdoms and only consist of barbarian groups. They do make great farming spots for leveling up your commanders and earning some quick easy rewards.
Medium Barbarian Camp

A medium barbarian camp. They are bigger than small barbarian camps and come with even more barbarian groups. The medium barbarian camp is much harder and requires some support from alliance members as well as stronger troops to defeat these camps.
Large Barbarian Encampment

A large barbarian encampment. They are the biggest of all in Rise of Kingdoms. The large barbarian encampments come with arrow towers, and an incredibly powerful keep that fires lighting bolts. Alliance members and multiple armies are required to effectively raid a large barbarian encampment. Rewards and experience gain are great.
Barbarian Structures in the Camps
Unlike the regular barbarian forts, in the camps there is two types of structures that your alliance and you will have to work together to take them down. They are essential to plundering a barbarian encampment for resources and loot.
Barbarian Arrow Tower

In order to launch attacks at the Barbarian Keeps which are found in large barbarian camps, you need to destroy the Arrow Tower(s) first. These towers protect the keep by firing arrows at the nearby enemy targets. You will have to destroy the arrow towers quickly as they do quite a hefty amount of damage.
One of the best way to counter this is to use siege troops. If you have decent conquering commanders such as Hannibal Barca, Julius Caesar, Baibars and even Scipio Africanus (recommended for Free-to-Play players), pair them along with some siege units to quickly cripple the Arrow Towers.
Barbarian Keep

This is called Barbarian Keep. They are the heart of the barbarian camps and often come with tons of troops. If you kill barbarians and destroy Arrow Towers, it will raise the Keep’s alertness level. Upon hitting 100% Alertness, the Keep will summon the barbarian boss which you must kill.
After you kill the barbarian boss, the Keep will start to upgrade its level. During this period, the keep is protected from all of the attacks. After it completes upgrading, the barbarian troops will respawn in the camp and Arrow Towers is rebuilt at upgraded level accordingly to the Keep’s level.

Barbarian Troops in the Camps
The barbarian camps are crawling with ton of troops literally. This makes them a great spot to chain-farm if you are doing events like Lohar’s Trial and Clarion Call. Though, they are much harder compared to regular barbarians. So if you wanted to be able to do that, you would have to pull significant larger force and high-tier troops to achieve it. However, in this part we will talk about the troops that protect the barbarian camps.
Barbarian Armies

These are the barbarian armies who guard the camps. They often come with wolves, cavalry, strong weaponry and better armor that makes them quite tough and challenging to compete against. Dispatching high-tiered and large military force is recommended as they will attack on sight.
Barbarian Raid Bosses

Ironhand Baulur is a barbarian raid boss for the camps. He appears in all sizes and after you raise the Keep’s alertness to 100% to summon him. This barbarian raid boss is level 25 and packed with incredible power. You will need at least 180,000 Tier 4 troops to down him.
Although, the rewards are pretty good. You will have a shot at getting a golden key, blueprint materials which you need to craft new and better equipment for your commanders and of course action points recovery potion / starlight sculptures.
Important Game Tips
To maximize your combat effectiveness against barbarian camps, I recommend using a mix of peacekeeping commanders and powerful offensive commanders like Cao Cao and Mehmed II who can easily mow down multiple enemy armies at the same time. At least 300,000 Tier 4 or higher to make it faster and easier. Rally army if you need to.
If you are wondering about placing your alliance territory in the barbarian encampment. I don’t recommend doing that because there is nothing valuable to claim for your alliance, aside having it on farm mode. The barbarians re-spawns whenever the Keep is activated, not during the upgrade phase.
That’s all Governors! I hope you found my guide to barbarians camps and keeps helpful. If you have any questions about barbarian camps, feel free to drop a comment in the comments section below. Happy ruling, Governors!