Necropolis

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

Necropolis is an evil alignment town with necromancer and death knight hero classes. Necropolis represents Deyja.

"Necropolis towns are overrun and ruled by undead creatures. They are the natural bases for the Necromancer and Death Knight hero types. Necropolis armies have many units with abilities to weaken their opponents. This quickly gives them an edge over equal or even more powerful enemy armies." ^{RoE manual}

Necropolis' native terrain is dirt.

Necropolis building tree

Fully upgraded Necropolis

Building Category	Cost
Common	45     40         37000
Mage Guild	25   28   25   28   28   28   6000
Dwellings	60   32  31    70  65    22  15    17   17   48400
Unique	20             6000
Total Building Cost:	150   60  59    135  130    50  43    45   45   97400
Troop Cost / Week:	26920 , 2

Common Buildings and Mage Guild

Halls		Fortifications		Miscellaneous		Mage Guilds		Banned spells
	Village Hall (existing)		Fort 20 20 5000		Tavern   5             500		Mage Guild level 1   5     5         2000
	Town Hall 2500		Citadel 5 2500		Marketplace   5             500		Mage Guild level 2   5   4   5   4   4   4   1000
	City Hall 5000		Castle 10 10 5000		Resource Silo (1 , 1 )       5         5000		Mage Guild level 3   5   6   5   6   6   6   1000
	Capitol 10000				Blacksmith 5 1000		Mage Guild level 4   5   8   5   8   8   8   1000
							Mage Guild level 5   5   10   5   10   10   10   1000
Total Common Buildings:					45     40         37000	Total Mage Guild:	25   28   25   28   28   28   6000

Creature Dwellings

Structure		Base Cost	Upgrade Cost	Creature	Max Grw	Upg Cr Cost	Cost/ Week
	Cursed Temple	5     5         400	5     5         1000	Skeleton  Skeleton Warrior	30	70	2100
	Graveyard	5         1000	5     5         1000	Walking Dead  Zombie	16	125	2000
	Tomb of Souls	5     5         1500	4 5            1500	Wight  Wraith	14	230	3220
	Estate	5     5         2000	10         10   10   2000	Vampire  Vampire Lord	8	500	4000
	Mausoleum	5 10    4 10        2000	5   4 5        2000	Lich  Power Lich	6	600	3600
	Hall of Darkness	10     10         6000	5   2   5   2   2   2   3000	Black Knight  Dread Knight	4	1500	6000
	Dragon Vault	5   5   5   5   5   5   10000	5   20   5         15000	Bone Dragon  Ghost Dragon	2	3000 1	6000 2
				[[File: Creature portrait small.gif	link=]] [[|]] [[File: Creature portrait small.gif	link=]] [[|]]
Total Dwelling Cost:		60   31 32    65 70    15 22    17   17   48400		Weekly Troop Cost:			26920 2

Unique Buildings

Structure		Effect	Cost
	Necromancy Amplifier	Increases the Necromancy skill of all your heroes by 10%.	1000
	Cover of Darkness	At the beginning of the player's turn, creates an unexplored area of 20 radius around the town for opposing players.	1000
	Skeleton Transformer	Allows converting of creatures to  Skeletons and  Bone Dragons	1000
	Unearthed Graves	Horde Building. Growth +6/week for  Skeleton /  Skeleton Warrior	1000
	Shipyard	Allows building boats if the town has access to water.	20             2000
	Soul Prison	Grail Structure. +5000 /day, +50% creature growth Increases the Necromancy skill of all your heroes by 20%.	n/a
Total Cost:			20             6000

Heroes

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

Necropolis heroes (Shadow of Death)
Name	Class			Specialty		Skill 1		Skill 2		Spell
Straker	Death Knight			Walking Dead		Basic Necromancy		Basic Resistance		Haste
Straker	Death Knight			Walking Dead		Basic Necromancy		Basic Interference		Haste
Vokial	Death Knight			Vampires		Basic Necromancy		Basic Artillery		Stone Skin
Moandor	Death Knight			Liches		Basic Necromancy		Basic Learning		Slow
Charna	Death Knight			Wights		Basic Necromancy		Basic Tactics		Magic Arrow
Tamika	Death Knight			Black Knights		Basic Necromancy		Basic Offense		Magic Arrow
Isra	Death Knight			Necromancy		Advanced Necromancy				Magic Arrow
Clavius	Death Knight			Gold		Basic Necromancy		Basic Offense		Magic Arrow
Galthran	Death Knight			Skeletons		Basic Necromancy		Basic Armorer		Shield
Ranloo	Death Knight			Ballista		Basic Necromancy		Basic Artillery		Haste
Haart LichLord Haart	Death Knight			Black Knights		Advanced Necromancy				Slow
Septienna	Necromancer			Death Ripple		Basic Necromancy		Basic Scholar		Death Ripple
Aislinn	Necromancer			Meteor Shower		Basic Necromancy		Basic Wisdom		Meteor Shower
Sandro	Necromancer			Sorcery		Basic Necromancy		Basic Sorcery		Slow
Nimbus	Necromancer			Eagle Eye		Basic Necromancy		Basic Eagle Eye		Shield
Thant	Necromancer			Animate Dead		Basic Necromancy		Basic Mysticism		Animate Dead
Xsi	Necromancer			Stone Skin		Basic Necromancy		Basic Learning		Stone Skin
Vidomina	Necromancer			Necromancy		Advanced Necromancy				Curse
Nagash	Necromancer			Gold		Basic Necromancy		Basic Intelligence		Protection from Air

Necropolis heroes (Horn of the Abyss)
Name	Class			Specialty		Skill 1		Skill 2		Spell
Charna	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Wights		Basic Necromancy		Basic Tactics		Magic Arrow
Clavius	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Gold		Basic Necromancy		Basic Offense		Magic Arrow
Galthran	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Skeletons		Basic Necromancy		Basic Armorer		Shield
Isra	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Necromancy		Advanced Necromancy				Magic Arrow
Moandor	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Liches		Basic Necromancy		Basic Learning		Slow
Straker	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Walking Dead		Basic Necromancy		Basic Interference		Haste
Tamika	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Black Knights		Basic Necromancy		Basic Offense		Magic Arrow
Vokial	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Vampires		Basic Necromancy		Basic Artillery		Stone Skin
Haart Lich	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Black Knights		Advanced Necromancy				Slow
Aislinn	Necromancer	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Meteor Shower		Basic Necromancy		Basic Wisdom		Meteor Shower
Nagash	Necromancer	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Gold		Basic Necromancy		Basic Intelligence		Protection from Air
Nimbus	Necromancer	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Eagle Eye		Basic Necromancy		Basic Eagle Eye		Shield
Sandro	Necromancer	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Sorcery		Basic Necromancy		Basic Sorcery		Slow
Septienna	Necromancer	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Death Ripple		Basic Necromancy		Basic Scholar		Death Ripple
Thant	Necromancer	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Animate Dead		Basic Necromancy		Basic Mysticism		Animate Dead
Vidomina	Necromancer	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Necromancy		Advanced Necromancy				Curse
Xsi	Necromancer	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Stone Skin		Basic Necromancy		Basic Learning		Stone Skin
Ranloo	Death Knight	{{{{{exp}}} map icon}}		Ballista		Basic Necromancy		Basic Artillery		Haste

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.

Leadership, First Aid and Estates are not available for death knights.

Leadership, First Aid and Interference  are not available for necromancers.

Creatures

+ colspan = 14 style="background-color:#Template:Blue 0; font-size: 120%; color:white; height:28px;" | Necropolis creatures
Name	Town	Lvl	Att	Def	Dmg-	Dmg+	HP	Spd	Grw	AI Val	Cost		Special
Skeleton  Skeleton		1	5	4	1	3	6	4	12	60	60		Undead
Skeleton Warrior  Skeleton Warrior		1+	6	6	1	3	6	5	12	85	70		Undead
Walking Dead  Walking Dead		2	5	5	2	3	15	3	8	98	100		Undead
Zombie  Zombie		2+	5	5	2	3	20	4	8	128	125		Undead, Disease
Wight  Wight		3	7	7	3	5	18	5	7	252	200		Undead, Flying, Regeneration
Wraith  Wraith		3+	7	7	3	5	18	7	7	315	230		Undead, Flying, Regeneration, Mana drain
Vampire  Vampire		4	10	9	5	8	30	6	4	555	360		Undead, Flying, No enemy retaliation
Vampire Lord  Vampire Lord		4+	10	10	5	8	40	9	4	783	500		Undead, Flying, No enemy retaliation, Life drain
Lich  Lich		5	13	10	11	13	30	6	3	848	550		Ranged (12 shots), Undead, Death cloud
Power Lich  Power Lich		5+	13	10	11	15	40	7	3	1079	600		Ranged (24 shots), Undead, Death cloud
Black Knight  Black Knight		6	16	16	15	30	120	7	2	2087	1200		Undead, Curse
Dread Knight  Dread Knight		6+	18	18	15	30	120	9	2	2382	1500		Undead, Curse, Death blow
Bone Dragon  Bone Dragon		7	17	15	25	50	150	9	1	3388	1800		Dragon, Undead, Flying, Morale -1
Ghost Dragon  Ghost Dragon		7+	19	17	25	50	200	14	1	4696	3000	1	Dragon, Undead, Flying, Morale -1, Aging

Town names

Unless specified by the mapmaker, towns will generate with a random name. Necropolis towns will use one of these following names:

Agony	Blackquarter	Blight	Cessacioun
Coldreign	Coldsoul	Death's Gate	Dark Cloud
Dark Eternal	Ghostwind	Grave Raven	Haunt's Wind
Sanctum	Shadow Keep	Terminus	Worm Warren

If there are more Necropolis towns on the map than possible names, they will use names taken from other towns.

User Commentary

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• 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.

• All Necropolis' creatures are undead, which means that they are unaffected by morale. They are also immune to all mind spells as well as Curse, Bless, Resurrection and Death Ripple.

• Necropolis is one of the most powerful towns. It has very strong 4th and 6th level creatures, as well as mighty shooters. Vampire Lords and Dread Knights are among the strongest in their respective levels, and while having Power Liches 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. Skeletons are around average rank of 1st level creatures, but due to Necromancy secondary skill, their numbers can be signifcantly greater than other 1st level creatures. The downside is, that Walking Deads, Wights, and Bone Dragons are all among the weakest creatures of their respective levels. In fact, Bone Dragon is perhaps the weakest 7th level creature.

• Bone Dragons and Ghost Dragons are underrated. Their -1 to enemy morale means that neutral mobs except for Minotaurs will never get an extra turn in battle, which gives the Necromancer greater control of the battlefield, reducing losses over time, and eventually resulting in a larger, stronger army. When upgraded to Ghost Dragons, they become faster than all units below level 7, allowing the Necromancer to cast the first spell unless the opponent has a Firebird/Phoenix or an upgraded Black Dragon, Gold Dragon, Arch Angel, or Arch Devil. The Ghost Dragon's aging attack is useless in small battles, but is terrifying in huge battles when split into 3 stacks and used to age the opponent's best stacks.

• Necropolis has 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 spells, which greatest advantage is that they cannot be blinded or "berserked". In addition, undead do not suffer from negative morale (nor do they benefit from positive). This makes the Spirit of Oppression a useful tool for Necropolis armies.

• Perhaps the most outstanding feature closely related to Necropolis is Necromancy secondary skill. It enables heroes with the skill to "harvest" Skeletons (or Skeleton Warriors) from enemy armies as well as allied creatures. It is possible for a hero with Necromancy skill to come out from a battle with more troops than he went to it.

• An advantageous tactics with Necropolis is "harvesting" skeletons with the Necromancy secondary skill. At expert level Necromancy allows 30% (15% in Horn of the Abyss) 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% (5% in Horn of the Abyss).

• There are also artifacts that can increase the skill: Amulet of the Undertaker increases the percentage points by +5% (2.5% in Horn of the Abyss), Vampire's Cowl by +10% (5% in Horn of the Abyss) and Dead Man's Boots by +15% (7.5% in Horn of the Abyss). The artifacts combine to the Cloak of the Undead King which gives another +30% (15% in Horn of the Abyss) to the Necromancy skill. With these artifacts and one amplifier, the Necromancy secondary skill can be increased to 100% (50% in Horn of the Abyss). Additionally, two heroes specialize in Necromancy, Isra and Vidomina. Combining either of them with one amplifier and all three artifacts, it is possible in Horn of the Abyss to reach 100% skill level in necromancy at level 67, 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. This is especially valid for low-level creatures that come in large numbers, like hobgoblins. Random units blocking pathways on the map thus become a motivational boost because those wandering creatures mean additional Skeletons.

• Even without necromancy, you can turn any creature into Skeletons. This means that free level 1 map dwelling (like for Gremlins and Imps) will give you free skeletons indirectly, thanks to the Skeleton Transformer. That means you don't even need wandering enemies or the Necromancy secondary skill to raise huge hordes of skeletons as the Necropolis, and outnumber other towns.

• Strategy Guide for Necropolis from Jolly Joker on Celestial Heavens

Pros:

• A variety of good heroes to choose from.
• A variety of strategies available.
• Units are unaffected by negative Morale thus unaffected also by Sorrow or Spirit of Oppression, mixing with other Town type units still has a penalty on units of other towns.
• Unaffected by Mind spells like Elementals, even Blind does not function on Undead units.
• Necromancy is a powerful secondary skill that only Necropolis town heroes can utilize effectively and that every Necropolis hero typically has. Given affordable Necromancy amplifier buildings (10% point building bonus to Necromancy, unique town secondary skill boost building feature for all own heroes on the map, safe the Navigation centric building Lighthouse the only secondary skill bonus enhancer building available in the game) in Necropolis towns and a range of artifacts that further enhance the skill percentage like Vampire's Cowl it is rather easy to recruit a small but steady number of Undead from most other creatures after fights. Every successful fight will increase the number of level 1 units one has even to astronomical amounts of stack sizes for steady motivation boosts after each encounter. Undead generally are Animate Dead resurrectable during combat additionally and the Skeleton Transformer in a Necropolis town can change foreign units to Skeletons so mixing foreign units with Necropolis town units does not make them suffer morale penalty when converting them to Skeletons first, one can recruit units off fights with the opponent and they are rather hard to kill and easily replenished given enough mana or Necromancy skill bonus points which are readily available via buildings or artifacts or even hero specials.
• Vampire Lords 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 Undead, Constructs or Elementals) 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 on the Vampire Lords amidst low number/low hp enemy stacks, alternated with 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 Lords to switch opponent melee stacks to feasible ones or to seek a safe point to replenish via Animate Dead, Cure or First Aid).
• 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. So given a good balance of Thants 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 blinded stack each turn, keeping the enemy locked until the enemy hero is lost to the opponent and the artifacts 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 Skeletons 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:

• Necropolis produces the least amount of units per week. (Not counting Necromancy).
• Walking Dead and Zombies slow armies down.
• Only one ranged attacker Lich/Power Lich which also has a Melee penalty, no Double attack and cannot attack Siege Walls.
• Unaffected by Bless.
• Unaffected by positive Morale. Mixing creatures of other town types without converting them to Skeletons via Skeleton Transformer first will get them negative Morale of course, on the other hand Spirit of Oppression is a very nice thing to have for any Necropolis hero with only Necropolis units in the party as it does not do any harm to Necropolis units. The Dread Knights' Death blow feature works largely (no Luck bonus for the second strike) like an attack only, no movement Morale bonus would, but at a higher probability of 20% (high Morale has 12.5% of activating a second action each creature) and it is a natural feature.
• 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 resurrectable skeletons might hamper adventure map transfers (to re-flag buildings for instance) safe for Town Portal which is a nice (and often banned) spell to jump the adventure map)).
• Bone and Ghost Dragons are near the bottom of the Level 7's in strength and usefulness.
• Necropolis heroes cannot learn first aid, even though their blacksmith produces first aid tents.
• Armageddon spell is in the Mage Guild, but is useless for Necropolis units since the undead don't have fire magic immunity. Moreover, a Rampart, Inferno, Dungeon, or Conflux hero may capture a Necropolis and learn Armageddon, which will be used in a proper way via dragogeddon.
• Dirt which is Necropolis's native terrain doesn't give any movement penalty to the enemy.
• This town is often considered too strong and thus is banned in many multiplayer games/tournaments. In Horn of the Abyss all percentages for Necromancy got halved in an attempt to balance this and also Galthran got replaced by Ranloo.

Some 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 single-handedly 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 Warriors, Vampire Lords, Power Liches and Dread Knights.

You get Skeleton Warriors only if your ranks are full at the *end* of combat and if you have a stack of Skeleton Warriors and no stack of Skeletons. The downpart is that you get less than if you'd get normal Skeletons (2/3rds as many). Therefore, if it is logistically managable, it would be better to try and get a horde of normal Skeletons 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 skeletons, and even free Skeleton warriors if there is a Hill Fort close by too.

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See also

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