Editing Necropolis

{{Towns}}
'''Necropolis''' is an evil [[alignment]] [[town type]], that is overrun and ruled by [[undead]] creatures. They are the natural bases for the [[Necromancer]] and [[Death Knight]] [[hero type]]s. Necropolis armies have many units with abilities to weaken their opponents. This may give them an advantage over an equal or even a stronger opponent.

[[Native terrain]] for Necropolis's troops is [[dirt]].

== Overview ==
=== Structures ===
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 style="text-align: center; float:right; margin; 0 1em 0 0; background-color:#{{Grey 3}}"
!Resource!!Basic!!Upgrades!!All
|-
|{{Gold}}||33400||25500||96400
|-
|{{Wood}}||45||25||135
|-
|{{Ore}}||65||25||135
|-
|{{Crystal}}||5||12||45
|-
|{{Gem}}||5||12||45
|-
|{{Mercury}}||5||27||60
|-
|{{Sulfur}}||15||7||40
|-
!colspan=2| Troop cost/week: !!colspan=2| 26920 {{Gold}} 2 {{Mercury}}
|}
[[Image:Necropolis-in.png|thumb|500px|Incomplete Necropolis town seen from inside]]

{{StandardBuildings|5|[[Wood]] and 1 [[Ore]]}}

'''Necropolis Specific Buildings'''

*[[Cover of Darkness]] ('''unique''' [[Necropolis]] town building, like [[cover of darkness]], creates 20 tiles of shroud around the city)
*[[Necromancy Amplifier]] ('''unique''' [[Necropolis]] building, works like [[Vampire's Cowl]], stacks with each city)
*[[Skeleton Transformer]] ('''unique''' [[Necropolis]] building, enhance values of [[Peasant]]s to [[Skeleton]]s (+4 [[attack]], +3 [[defense]], +5 hp, +0-2 damage +1 speed) or life span of other non undead creatures to those of [[Skeleton]]s, or, in case of [[Dragon]]s and [[Hydra]]s [[Bone Dragon]]s)
*[[Shipyard]] (like [[Shipyard]] on the adventure map, a boat can be bought for 1000 gold, 10 wood, works like [[Summon Boat]] but more reliable when not on expert [[Water Magic]], expert [[Water magic]] would with [[Summon Boat]] get a free ship but still cost [[adventure map]] movement points when boarding/deboarding boats instead of using [[Water Walk]] or [[Fly]] if those spells are available)
*[[Soul Prison]] ([[Grail]] building, +20 [[Necromancy]] for allied heroes, the usual 5000 gold each day and +50% creature growth in the [[Grail]] town)
*[[Unearthed Graves]] (+6 [[Skeleton]]s per week [[horde building]])

'''Creature Dwellings'''

*[[Cursed Temple]] (12x [[Skeleton]], [[Skeleton Warrior]])
*[[Graveyard]] (8x [[Walking Dead]],  [[Zombie]])
*[[Tomb of Souls]] (7x [[Wight]], [[Wraith]])
*[[Estate (structure)|Estate]] (4x [[Vampire]], [[Vampire Lord]])
*[[Mausoleum]] (3x [[Lich]], [[Power Lich]])
*[[Hall of Darkness]] (2x [[Black Knight]], [[Dread Knight]])
*[[Dragon Vault]] (1x [[Bone Dragon]], [[Ghost Dragon]])

=== Heroes ===
{{Necropolis heroes}}
{{Herotable}}
{{Herotablerow Necropolis}}
|}
[[List of heroes|List of all heroes]]

=== Creatures ===
{{Necropolis creatures|margin = 0 0 0 1em}}

All Necropolis' creatres are [[undead]], which means that they are unaffected by [[morale]]. They are also immune to all [[mind spell]]s as well as [[Curse]], [[Bless]], [[Resurrection]] and [[Death Ripple]].

{{Creaturetable}}
{{Creaturetablerow Necropolis}}
|}

== Discussion ==
=== Introduction ===
Necropolis is one of the most powerful towns in {{homm}}. It has very strong 4th, 5th and 6th level creatures. [[Vampire Lord]]s and [[Dread Knight]]s are among the strongest in their respective levels, and while having [[Power Lich]]es in an army consisting of living creatures may have problematic because of the [[death cloud]] attack, in the army of undead it is an advantage. As if this was not enough, Necropolis' heroes have [[Necromancy]] secondary skill, which enables them to harvest [[Skeleton]]s (or [[Skeleton Warrior]]s) from enemy armies as well as allied creatures. It is possible for a hero with Necromancy to pull through from a battle with more troops than he went into it.

Necropolis has also excellent magic capabilities. It can build level 5th [[Mage Guild]] and has few special spells like [[Animate Dead]] and [[Death Ripple]] to support the armies. Also, undead hordes are immune to [[mind spell]]s, which greatest advantage is that they cannot be [[blind]]ed or "[[berserk]]ed". In addition, undead do not suffer from negative [[morale]] (nor do they benefit from positive).

Perhaps the only true weakness in Necropolis' creatures is [[Bone Dragon and Ghost Dragon|Bone and Ghost Dragons]], which are among the weakest 7th level creature.

=== Strategy ===
An advantageous tactics with Necropolis is "harvesting" skeletons with the [[Necromancy]] [[secondary skill]]. At expert level Necromancy allows 30% of the creatures killed in combat to be brought back from the dead as skeletons. The percentage points can be increased with two structures: [[Necromancy Amplifier]](s) and [[Soul Prison]]. Amplifiers can typicallly be constructed in necropolis towns, while Soul Prison is the [[grail building]] of Necropolis. Each amplifier increases the percentage points by +10%. 

There are also artifacts that can increase the skill: [[Amulet of the Undertaker]] increases the percentage points by +5%, [[Vampire's Cowl]] by +10% and [[Dead Man's Boots]] by +15%. With these increase, Necromancy secondary skill may rise up to 70%. Additionally, two heroes specialize in Necromancy, [[Isra]] and [[Vidomina]]. Combining either of them with the amplifier and artifacts, it is possible to reach 100% skill level in necromancy, which means that possibly all the creatures killed in combat will be brought back as skeletons.

Harvesting leads to a situation, where it is profitable for heroes with Necromancy (mainly Death Knights and Necromancers) to carry through combats with wandering creatures instead of letting them flee if they are substantially less creatures and want to quit the battlefield. So, special months (see [[growth]]) where some creature types population doubles is actually a boon for Necropolis skeleton harvesters. Random units blocking pathways on the map thus become a motivational boost because those wandering creatures mean additional [[Skeleton]]s.

<!-- THIS SECTION NEEDS TO BE RE-WRITTEN, BUT GOOD THOUGHTS
If you can upgrade your Estate early, you should do so. The Vampire Lords are one of the best 4th-level creatures in the game. Since they draw life from their enemy, and resurrect themselves, they can be used to solely take out large numbers of low-level creatures. Combine with "counterstrike" to get even better effect. 

"The month of the Hobgoblin" and the like are [[Necromancers]]' wet dream. Just take your strongest hero and stockpile Skeletons. [[Necromancy]] adds a little bit of motivation on clearing maps - who needs experience and levelups, when there's [[Skeletons]] aplenty?

The Necropolis has only a few units they can rely on, the others can wait with being bought and, in time, even be ignored. The reliable units are: [[Skeleton Warrior]]s, [[Vampire Lord]]s, [[Power Lich]]es and [[Dread Knight]]s.

You get [[Skeleton Warrior]]s only if your ranks are full at the *end* of combat and if you have a stack of [[Skeleton Warrior]]s and no stack of [[Skeleton]]s. The downpart is that you get less than if you'd get normal [[Skeleton]]s (2/3rds as many). Therefore, if it is logistically managable, it would be better to try and get a horde of normal [[Skeleton]]s first, and then upgrade them at a Necropolis or Hill Fort for the last battle.

If there are any Level 1 dwellings nearby, recruit them and take them to the Necropolis. If you have a [[Skeleton Transformer]], you're practically getting free [[skeleton]]s, and even free [[Skeleton warrior]]s if there is a [[Hill Fort]] close by too. !-->

===Pros===
*A variety of good heroes to choose from
*A variety of strategies available
*Unaffected by negative [[Morale]]
*Unaffected by [[Mind spells]]
*[[Necromancy]] is a powerful secondary skill that only Necropolis heroes can utilize effectively
*[[Vampire Lord]]s are by far the most cost-efficient level 4 unit (and arguably the most cost-efficient unit in the game), as they can beat armies of much greater size as long as they are not (like Undeads or Constructs) immune to the Vampire Lords' [[Life drain]] ability and as long as the Vampire Lords are used properly (with [[Blind]] on extra enemy stacks for example or [[Counterstrike]] amidst low number/low hp enemy stacks on the [[Vampire Lord]]s, also using [[Animate Dead]] to help out if the [[Life Drain]] to damage inbound ratio is proving destructive to the [[Vampire Lord]] stack - perhaps also using [[Haste]] and the [[Flying]] feature of the [[Vampire Lord]]s to switch opponent melee stacks or to seek a safe point for replenishing via [[Animate Dead]], [[Cure]] or [[First Aid]] should [[Life Drain]] prove to be effectively ineffective due to outrageous enemy aggression without rhyme and reason).
* The level 3 spell [[Animate Dead]] (which the necromancer hero [[Thant]] has built in) can resurrect units in combat, and they '''stay''' resurrected after combat (the 4th level Earth Spell [[Resurrection]] can resurrect units, but so treated units are removed after combat quite like [[Summon Air Elemental]] created creature stacks).<br />So given a good balance of [[Thant]]s undead and repairable units compared to the opponent, enough mana for the resurrects and having [[Shackles of War]] for unlimited turns (a smaller version would be using [[Blind]] on all remaining enemy units and killing one [[blind]]ed stack each turn, keeping the enemy locked until  the hero is lost to the opponent and the artefacts if any are transferred) he would not lose any units in combat but also often get additional [[Necromancy]] created skeletons (which would hamper movement on the adventure map a little, as [[Skeleton]]s are slow creatures (and even with [[Town Portal]] and [[Dimension Door]] there's an [[adventure map]] movement penalty to consider)).
*There are number of artifacts that are only useful to Necropolis (artifacts enhancing the created creature number of the unique secondary skill [[Necromancy]] like [[Cloak of the Undead King]], but also [[Pendant of Death]] which counters the mini, undead-only version of [[Armageddon]], damaging all undead on the battlefield, even those recruited in no Necropolis but on the adventure map).
*Both Necropolis hero types begin with a spell book

===Cons===
*[[Walking Dead]] and [[Zombie]]s slow armies down
*Only one ranged attacker [[Lich]]/[[Power Lich]]
*Unaffected by positive [[Morale]] (creatures of other towns in a party with [[undead]] will still get a malus for not being the only creature type too - if it makes sense financially (low level units) one could use the [[Skeleton Transformer]] which mostly creates skeletons and not Necropolis type creatures of the same level (except for perhaps transmuting hydras and dragons to bone dragons)) - on the positive side [[Spirit of Oppression]] is a very nice thing to have for any Necropolis hero with no non Necropolis units in the party as it does not do any harm to [[Necropolis]] units. [[Dread Knight]]s have the [[Death blow]] feature which adds 100% base damage to a single attack when triggered at a probability of 20% - so it works largely (no [[Luck]] bonus for the second strike) like an attack only, no movement [[Morale]] bonus would if it happens.
*Difficulties in the early game, where your slow level 1 and level 2 creatures are not the best to conquer mines and explore the map (and in the endgame a host of in-combat ressurectable skeletons might hamper adventure map transfers (to reflag buildings for instance))
*Bone and [[Ghost Dragon]]s are near the bottom of the Level 7's in strength and usefulness

'''WARNING!''' This town is often considered too strong and thus is ''banned'' in many multiplayer games/tournaments.


[[Category: Towns]]