Tower

Fully built Tower as seen on the adventure map in Shadow of Death  Fully built Tower as seen on the adventure map in Horn of the Abyss	Towns
	Castle
	Rampart
	Tower
	Inferno
	Necropolis
	Dungeon
	Stronghold
	Fortress
	Conflux
	Cove
	Factory

Tower is a good alignment town with alchemist and wizard hero classes. Tower represents Bracada.

"Wizards and Alchemists study their arcane craft in Towers. Tower populations are comprised of creatures bound into service by powerful magic, made on the spot, or allied with the town through ancient pacts. Tower armies have uniformly good morale and some of the best range attack units available." ^{RoE manual}

Tower's native terrain is snow.

Tower creature dwellings

• Workshop
• Parapet
• Golem Factory
• Mage Tower
• Altar of Wishes
• Golden Pavilion
• Cloud Temple

Tower specific buildings

• Artifact Merchants - (allows heroes to buy or sell artifacts)
• Library - (unique building, provides an additional spell per level in Mage Guild)
• Lookout Tower - (unique building, the contrary to the Cover of Darkness of Necropolis towns, breaks their cover too, 20 squares lookout radius)
• Sculptor's Wings - (Gargoyle horde building, +4/week)
• Wall of Knowledge - (+1 Knowledge to visiting hero)
• Skyship - (Grail building, reveals all undiscovered map parts, +15 knowledge to defending hero, 5k extra gold and +50% creature growth)

Tower building tree (Shadow of Death)

Fully upgraded Tower in Shadow of Death[Switch to Horn of the Abyss][Switch to Shadow of Death]

Fully upgraded Tower in Horn of the Abyss[Switch to Horn of the Abyss][Switch to Shadow of Death]

Resource	Basic	Upgrades	All
	28300	37500	111300
	50	25	135
	65	20	135
	13	8	49
	23	38	89
	7	13	48
	7	8	43
Troop cost/week:		30800 + 4

In Horn of the Abyss building tree was changed:

• Altar of Wishes, Golden Pavilion, Upg. Golden Pavilion, Cloud Temple and Upg. Cloud Temple no longer require Mage Guild and Mage Tower.
• Golden Pavilion and Upg. Golden Pavilion now require Altar of Wishes.
• Upg. Altar of Wishes no longer requires Mage Tower (Mage Guild is still required).

Common buildings

Halls		Fortifications		Miscellaneous		Mage Guilds		Banned spells
Village Hall	Village Hall (existing)	Fort	Fort 20 20 5000	Tavern	Tavern   5             500	Mage Guild level 1	Mage Guild level 1   5     5         2000
File:Town Hall large.gif	Town Hall 2500	Citadel	Citadel 5 2500	Marketplace	Marketplace   5             500	Mage Guild level 2	Mage Guild level 2   5   4   5   4   4   4   1000
City Hall	City Hall 5000	Castle	Castle 10 10 5000	Resource Silo	Resource Silo ()       5         5000	Mage Guild level 3	Mage Guild level 3   5   6   5   6   6   6   1000
Capitol	Capitol 10000			Blacksmith	Blacksmith 5 1000 link={{{smith}}} link={{{smith}}}	Mage Guild level 4	Mage Guild level 4   5   8   5   8   8   8   1000
						Mage Guild level 5	Mage Guild level 5   5   10   5   10   10   10   1000
Total Common Buildings:					45     40         37000	Total Mage Guild:	15   10   15   10   10   10   4000   20   18   20   18   18   18   5000   25   28   25   28   28   28   6000

Heroes

[Switch to Horn of the Abyss][Switch to Shadow of Death]

Tower heroes (Shadow of Death)
Name	Class			Specialty		Skill 1		Skill 2		Spell
Piquedram	Alchemist			Gargoyles		Basic Mysticism		Basic Scouting		Shield
Thane	Alchemist			Genies		Advanced Scholar				Magic Arrow
Josephine	Alchemist			Golems		Basic Mysticism		Basic Sorcery		Haste
Neela	Alchemist			Armorer		Basic Scholar		Basic Armorer		Shield
Torosar	Alchemist			Ballista		Basic Mysticism		Basic Tactics		Magic Arrow
Fafner	Alchemist			Nagas		Basic Scholar		Basic Resistance		Haste
Fafner	Alchemist			Nagas		Basic Scholar		Basic Interference		Haste
Rissa	Alchemist			Mercury		Basic Mysticism		Basic Offense		Magic Arrow
Iona	Alchemist			Genies		Basic Scholar		Basic Intelligence		Magic Arrow
Astral	Wizard			Hypnotize		Advanced Wisdom				Hypnotize
Halon	Wizard			Mysticism		Basic Wisdom		Basic Mysticism		Stone Skin
Serena	Wizard			Eagle Eye		Basic Wisdom		Basic Eagle Eye		Dispel
Daremyth	Wizard			Fortune		Basic Wisdom		Basic Intelligence		Fortune
Theodorus	Wizard			Magi		Basic Wisdom		Basic Ballistics		Shield
Solmyr	Wizard			Chain Lightning		Basic Wisdom		Basic Sorcery		Chain Lightning
Aine	Wizard			Gold		Basic Wisdom		Basic Scholar		Curse
Cyra	Wizard			Haste		Basic Wisdom		Basic Diplomacy		Haste

Tower heroes (Horn of the Abyss)
Name	Class			Specialty		Skill 1		Skill 2		Spell

Banned secondary skills

Some skills are not available for certain hero classes, which means they can only acquire them from Scholars, Witch Huts (except for Necromancy and Leadership, if not allowed by a map-maker), Seer's Huts, Events or Pandora's Boxes.

Necromancy is not available for alchemists.

Necromancy, Resistance and Interference  are not available for wizards.

Creatures

+ colspan = 14 style="background-color:#Template:Blue 0; font-size: 120%; color:white; height:28px;" | Tower creatures
Name	Town	Lvl	Att	Def	Dmg-	Dmg+	HP	Spd	Grw	AI Val	Cost		Special
Gremlin  Gremlin		1	3	3	1	2	4	4	16	44	30
Master Gremlin  Master Gremlin		1+	4	4	1	2	4	5	16	66	40		Ranged (8 shots)
Stone Gargoyle  Stone Gargoyle		2	6	6	2	3	16	6	9	165	130		Unliving, Flying
Obsidian Gargoyle  Obsidian Gargoyle		2+	7	7	2	3	16	9	9	201	160		Unliving, Flying
Stone Golem  Stone Golem		3	7	10	4	5	30	3	6	250	150		Unliving, Spell Damage Resistance +50%
Iron Golem  Iron Golem		3+	9	10	4	5	35	5	6	412	200		Unliving, Spell Damage Resistance +75%
Mage  Mage		4	11	8	7	9	25	5	4	570	350		Ranged (24 shots), No melee penalty, No obstacle penalty, Spells cost -2 sp
Arch Mage  Arch Mage		4+	12	9	7	9	30	7	4	680	450		Ranged (24 shots), No melee penalty, No obstacle penalty, Spells cost -2 sp
Genie  Genie		5	12	12	13	16	40	7	3	884	550		Flying, Hates Efreet and Efreet Sultans
Master Genie  Master Genie		5+	12	12	13	16	40	11	3	942	600		Flying, Spellcaster, Hates Efreet and Efreet Sultans
Naga  Naga		6	16	13	20	20	110	5	2	2016	1100		No enemy retaliation
Naga Queen  Naga Queen		6+	16	13	30	30	110	7	2	2840	1600		No enemy retaliation
Giant  Giant		7	19	16	40	60	150	7	1	3718	2000	1	Immunity to Mind spells
Titan  Titan		7+	24	24	40	60	300	11	1	7500	5000	2	Ranged (24 shots), No melee penalty, Immunity to Mind spells, Hates Black Dragons

User Commentary

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• Tower armies have some of the best ranged-attack units available.

• A good strategy for Tower is to upgrade Workshop as soon as possible in order to upgrade Gremlins into shooting Master Gremlins. With relatively fast Stone Gargoyles it is possible to form protective wall of gargoyles around a stack of Master Gremlins. This works especially good against wandering creatures. The downside is, that Master Gremlins only have 8 shots, which can sometimes run out. Additionally, casting Haste on Master Gremlins makes them typically act first.

• Another useful strategy is to form few strong troops and to fill the rest of the slots with one (or few) Master Genie each. During the combat Master Genies' can use their special ability to cast spells on the strong troops to furthermore boost their abilities. This way it is possible to cast 4–6 spells per turn. This is especially useful when playing on Difficult/Impossible difficulty. Buy the Tower hero from the Tavern in the first weeks. Collect all Gremlins into one stack and upgrade them to Master Gremlins. The moment you can recruit Master Genies, fill the 6 other slots with one each, or make two stacks of Gremlins and use 5 Master Genies. With about 200-300 Master Gremlins you can defeat most wandering creatures without losses and your army is very cheap which lets you save Gold for the upgraded Cloud Temple. In the first round of every fight you cast spells onto your Gremlins until they got Haste and/or Prayer to be faster than the enemy creatures. Then they will get ~ 2 full arrow shots out. Because they often get Precision, Bless, or Frenzy as well, their attack becomes ridiculously strong. Mirth often boosts their morale to let them maybe shoot an additional time.

• Tower's town defense is made easy by cheap, resilient, and rapidly growing golems. When defending in the early game, fill all slots of your town with equal numbers of golems. In the first round, spread them behind the walls to minimize the effect of area-of-effect spells like Fireball, Meteor Shower, Frost Ring, Inferno, etc. The golems also have a good damage reduction against spells so spells will not bring you down. Then, always defend and don't attack yourself. Your towers will take care of all enemy troops because it takes a long time to kill golems.

• Giants are not much use until they are upgraded to Titans. In fact, they only have 150 health which makes them quite vulnerable. However, upgrading them is very expensive.

• Tower towns are very powerful in the late game, and draw much of their lore from the "wizard" hero in Heroes of Might and Magic II. Their creatures and structures are fairly pricey and on maps with scarce resources, you may find it difficult advancing your dwellings and especially acquiring titans. One tip for the thrifty wizard is skip upgrading some of your low level creatures. Gargoyles benefit with a speed boost to obsidian gargoyles, and master gremlins are a must (the Workshop is very cheap to upgrade), but until master genies, most creature upgrades are not necessary.

• The lookout tower is a very helpful addition in the early game, and never underestimate the incredibly effective library structure. Despite its high resource cost, the ability to gain extra spells for all levels is invaluable, and secures the tower as one of the strongest overall towns in the game.

• However, after assembling a decent army consisting mostly of Titans, Naga Queens and several other support units like a few Master Genie stacks to buff your creatures, you can defeat almost any neutral stack at the time, especially if the hero knows Expert Slow.

Pros

• Powerful units.
• Three ranged units and two fliers.
• Blacksmith is producing Ammo Carts, which gives Master Gremlins, Magi, Arch Magi and Titans infinite shots.
• Magic themed town.
  • Library allows extra spells for each level of the Mage Guild.
  • Both hero types begin with a Spell Book and a starting spell.
  • Golems take lower spell damage than any other town units (not regarding those who are completely immune to this or that spell), thus are very good for defending towns.
  • Magi and Arch magi decrease spell cost by 2.
  • Master Genies cast spells.
• Good support heroes, with many Scholars.
• Powerful protection of the town via Land Mines.
• Tower's native terrain is snow, so without Logistics and Pathfinding, the enemy will have complications to reach you.
• If you play against Dungeon, your Titans will have 150% damage output against Black Dragons and an opportunity of shooting them; while Black Dragons cannot be resurrected in any way.
• Tower is the only town besides the evil ones where Curse is not banned.
• Giants and Titans are the only 7th level units against whom Slayer spell does not work until your enemy has Expert Fire Magic.

Cons

• Expensive units, with troops costing 30,800 gold and 4 gems to buyout every week.
• Gargoyles and Golems cannot be resurrected in any way.
• Requires lots of valuable resources.
• Relatively slow town (fastest troops move at speed 11). Nagas which are often Tower's main power are among the slowest on 5-7 level.
• Prior to their upgrade, many units have significant weaknesses, and basic Gremlins and Giants are on the bottom of their level.
• Spellcasting of Master Genies is random, and they can cast a generally useless spell like Magic Mirror, a spell which doesn't make much sense in the current situation (e.g. Cure on a stack with 108 HP out of maximum 110), or even a spell which would be bad right now (Anti-magic, Frenzy).
• The most expensive town to build up.
• Apart from Dungeon, Tower is perhaps the worst town to play on Impossible level, as Mage Tower which is necessary for 5-7 level dwellings requires Mage Guild and every type of resources (in Dungeon, 3rd level dwelling takes all types of resources). The ability of Master Gremlins to shoot is a big advantage, though.
• Playing against Inferno, beware of Efreet who can easily destroy your Genies due to 150% damage output. Efreet are one level higher than Genies (6th vs. 5th), and generally stronger and faster. Moreover, Efreet Sultans have Fire Shield ability, which reflects 20% damage dealt on them. As any type of Genies deals 150% damage on any type of Efreet, the Fire Shield will therefore deal higher damage on Genies.

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See also

• List of creatures
• List of creatures (HotA)
• List of heroes
• List of heroes (HotA)