What determines if a nearby ally will help you or not?

[Lord English]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=526462671

When I decide to engage the yellow guys the nearby ally doesn't join in, Is there any particular reason why?

[Tuidjy]

The ally may not be at war with your target.
The ally may not like you.
The ally may like the other guy too much.
The ally may be one of the benevolent guys who hardly ever engage on their own.
The ally may think the fight is hopeless.

The last one is a biстн, really, because sometimes the ally troops are all you need for a curb stomp, but the game does not agree.

You may want to 'arrange' for the yellow guy to catch your ally instead of you, and then intervene. You'll get extra relations that way, with your kingdom, your king, and the lord himself. One way to make that happen is to keep stopping your ally and asking him dumb questions. But if the yellow guy is hunting you instead of him, it will probably not happen.

-----

I just looked at the screenshot again. Your ally is not running away from the yellow guy, which seems to indicate that he is not even considering him an enemy. Your allies will not support you in an unsanctioned war, i.e. they will not help you have been raiding the civilians of a nation not at war with yours.

[Lord English]

The tihing of it is is that the Yellow guy isn't part of a nation. I'm playing Prophesyof Pendor and they are a group of unaligned soldiers. So much for useful allies! Thanks for the response though.

[X-the Unknown]

Heck, I wish my allies would stay out of my battles as they get half my loot. There's nothing ON the map I can't handle now by my self but they always want to jump in when I don't need them. But stay far away from my siege battles (rat finks).

[ZirzoR]

Originally posted by Lord English:

The tihing of it is is that the Yellow guy isn't part of a nation. I'm playing Prophesyof Pendor and they are a group of unaligned soldiers. So much for useful allies! Thanks for the response though.

Yeah most "allies" wont help you with killing bandits and outlaws, specially in prophesy of pendor, if you want people to help you fight the Jatu or mountain men, then you have to be part of that faction or be marshal at the time.

Or he might just not like you hehe.

It also looks to me like that guy might be a rare spawn or whatever those infantry only faction guys are called, mettenheim??

They wont help you there, they are most likely neutral with that faction.

[Yuriqa]

I think your renown is one thing too.. If you have enough renown then allies join gladly yourside or maybe not.. Depends so many other things too..