My Necropolis Guide

[kingcomrade]

I've been playing a lot lately, too. I've also been playing HOMM 3. One thing I have noticed about these games is there you don't do a whole lot. There aren't many major battles and the game takes such a long time to play. The major battles, between heroes that are within 5 or so levels of each other, are entirely decided by numbers of troops (a number which is severely limited by game design) and who has the spell Raise Dead (the only spell worth casting if you have it, in my opinion, except perhaps casting one mass dark magic spell at the beginning or benediction). I mean, there's a point where you can play for an hour, realize the game could go on for another hour but that there's no way you can catch up with your opponent and just have to quit.

I'm getting quite good with Necropolis, which is, in my opinion, the most powerful of the factions with the possible exception of a Dungeon player who hoardes his units (Dungeon units are so hard to kill, as they all have insane defense values, that if you have large stacks, unless you outnumber him by a power of two or so there's no way you can take them out before they wipe the floor with you). I've discovered that there's pretty much One Best Character Build, especially for Necromancer. The build I'm going to talk about required around level 30, but I'l talk about priorities.

I usually play with the hero who has the bonus to Raise Dead per level. Kaspar is another choice because his bonus to the first aid tent is like a bonus Raise Dead cast, so even though it takes up a valuable skill slot you can sacrifice Enlightenment or possibly Defense for it.

Summoning Magic-
Important Spells:
Raise Dead (for a Necromancer, this spell acts like Ressurection, which is such a huge boon)
Firewall (Tired of people attacking your archers? Also, if fighting 2x2 enemies, it is so easy to make it impossible for them to get to you without hitting 2 or 3 fire walls. This spell attacks every turn, so it will just blow away pretty much any unit in the game before they get a second turn)
Summon Pheonix (A unit with 900 or so HPs? Uh, yeah)
Arcane Armor (Also good to put on high-value units like Vampires or Wraiths or Liches if you're fighting casters)

Perk: Master of Life (bonus to Raise Dead and some other spelll)

Necromancy (You want to get this maxxed very soon, priority 1)
Perk: Skeleton Archers (Skeleton Archers are your primary attackers late game. With other bonuses they get insane bonuses, and I can end games with 1200+ skelly archers in multiple stacks.)
Perk: Eternal Servitude (this will make fighting neutral stacks very easy since you can lose a few vampires or a wraith or a lich or two)

Attack (priority 2)
Perk: Battle Frenzy (With a stack of 500 archers, this means 500 bonus damage (I don't know if it is applied before or after range penalty).
Perk: Archery (20% more damage from those archers? Uh, hell yes)

Tactics, for Necromancer, is not worth it because your primary damage dealers are your archers, and wights and vampires (the only units which will not stay in your deployment zone) have very large movement ranges in the first place. You want the enemy to come to you so your archers don't have range penalties.

Logistics (Seriously, being speedy is almost a necessity) (priority 3)
Perk: Pathfinding (Most terrain is not paved, so this is useful)

Enlightenment (Makes your whole army better and gives you bonus XP) (not high priority unless you get it early, the bonus XP helps you level up sooner)
Intelligence (Necros don't have much mana, so the boost is very welcome. It'll keep you casting Raise Dead and Fire Wall in long fights)

Now, here's the final slot. I pick Defense over Luck simply because a Necromancer won't need double damage to win, as his skelly hordes will do plenty. Defense gives you better value for the skill slot.
Defense
Perk: Protection (very important, as the primary threat to your archers will be spells)
Perk: Vitality (Goes without saying)
Perk: Evasion (Shadow Witches suck, and sometimes large stacks of Hunters will get initiative over you)

If you are playing a fairly small game and won't get all of those perks, you might want to just go Luck -> Magic Resistance and leave it at that, maybe resourcefulness if you REALLY need it.

Skills that sound cool but are useless:
Chilling Bone (If you follow my advice about Defense perks, you won't be offered this anyways)
Cold Steel (Weak! It's just too weak. It gives you one bonus damage per eleven troops. It's only useful if you didn't take tactics and you are very, very, very late in the game and have nothing else to take)
Soldier's Luck (Want to make your ghosts dodge more often? Too bad! Ghosts are still to expensive and wasting a slot just on them is just not worth it)
Sorcery (You aren't going to need your hero that often, just to cast raise dead maybe once a round. More is obviously better but you lose a valuable slot. On small maps you MIGHT replace logistics, but only if you want enemy heroes to run circles around you.)
Dark Magic - (Why are you casting Dark Magic when you should be casting Raise Dead? It's just not worth a skill slot)

More tips:
Don't buy ghosts. They're absolutely a waste of money.

Don't buy more than 100 upgraded zombies, more than that is a waste of money.

Don't buy Skeleton Dragons. They suck. Wraiths are better, spend your money there. Don't even buy the infrastructure, it costs way too much for what you are getting.

You can stick with normal Vampires until you decide to go on the offensive, then upgrade for the teleportation. Vampires are one of your major heavy hitters. Don't use revive on them unless they are going to get to 1/2 strength, they can usually recoup their losses attacking a low-level stack. Otherwise, use them to cut down high level units as they can't retaliate.

Wights/Wraiths - Use these guys to cut down enemy stacks of level 4 or below. Highest revive priority because they are strong and cost a shit-ton.

Skeleton Archers should be second on your revive priority right after Wights. In the end game, these guys will be doing most of your damage simply because of their obscene numbers. And when Raise Undead, especially powered-up, can revive 70-100+...
When you get 500, put them in two stacks of 250. Try to keep them equal, unless you need the room for other stuff from other towns.

Zombies- Their only use is to protect skeleton archers from 2x2 units, as the skellies should be sitting in a corner. Get the plague zombie upgrade, as when stuff heads for your archers, their plague ability is really useful. One exception: Don't put them diagonal from archers against dragons. Use another unit (I use 2x2 liches to block side and diagonal approaches, and use the zombies on the front, all spaced so that the dragon can't get at the archers ) and have a buffer around your archers. Dragons murder archers.

Liches- I usually don't get the upgrade for money reasons, I mostly use them to attack archers and nearby low-level units. If you have excess money go for the upgrade as it does increase their damage by quite a bit.

[Alamar]

Thanks for the guide post. It is reasonably well thought out but I do have a few bones to pick with you.

First I like to play with "random heroes" instead of just picking a factions 1-2 most powerful heroes. To me this makes the game a little more fun & challenging .... NOTE this mode may not be good if you take competition too seriously

Second I would target my "perfect" build around L20 or so. Anything after that means you're on a huge game or have already fought your major battles.

Third you have to be careful about what skills you take and when. For example if you're EVER offered Logistics or Offense then it's best to take them immediately because there is a decent chance you won't be offered those skills again. I would virtually never refuse Summoning either for obvious reasons.


Onto skill priorities:

1. Necromancy. Getting this to expert quickly is obviously the way to go. Getting Eternal Servitude to replace some early losses is very nice. Raise Skeletal Archer is also nice so you don't have to run back and keep upgrading raised skeletons. [4 skill points]

2. Logistics. Depending on the map, terrian etc. it may be more important to get to expert logistics + pathfinding so you can get to more neutral stacks more early in the game so when you do meet a hero you're in better shape. Also the skill may pay for itself because the more fights you can reach the more quickly you'll gain XP so you'll level up more quickly[4 skill points]

3. Basic Offense + Battle Frenzy would be nice. [2 points]

4. By now you should know the L1-L3 spells in your spell guild. If you've got Raise Dead then max out Summoning + Master of Life. Later on if you get one of the summonning spells then putting a point into Master of Conjuration would be good. If you get hosed on summoning [no phantom forces, no raise dead, etc.] then I'd say max out Dark Magic. Go for Spirit Link plus 2 perks that will give you mass versions of spells that you already know. Spirit Link should fix most mana problems ... [5-6 points]

5. Learn the OTHER associated spell school that you didn't pick up earlier. [5-6 points]

Even with a "bad" starting hero by L20 you should have Necromancy, Logistics, Summoning, and Dark Magic taken care of. You should be about as formidable a foe as you're likely to get.

Many other skills that you're offered in the late game would be fine. Expert Luck is never bad. Adv. Offense + Archery is OK. Expert Enlightenment will give a nice boost to spell power & an ok boost to defense. [You shouldn't need intelligence with Spirit Link]. I'm not as high on Defense because you shouldn't be taking much melee damage if you can help it but VITALITY is so useful that turning it down might not be the way to go.

I'm not huge on Sorcery but it's certainly better than nothing [at least better than the fluke chance you're offered Light, Destruction, War Machines, Leadership, etc.

[Alamar]

Oh as for Ghosts & Zombies. Zombies are, of course, your meatshields but I don't see much of a problem buying them out as they server their purpose well.

As for Ghosts I do think you should at LEAST buy small numbers of them. If you're playing against the AI you can EXPLOIT the ai's obsession with ghosts to minimize your real losses. Esp. against hoards of Steel Golems, Demons, etc. in the early game. With incorporeal you may not even lose your "bait" because enemys might simply miss them.

[kingcomrade]

I realized what you mean about priority, which is why I put in the stuff about what is really important (battle frenzy and necromancy). The only thing I really disagree with you on (besides taking randomized heroes. Some of them are pretty worthless and that's a game balance issue) is on taking 2 different schools of magic. If you don't take sorcery your hero doesn't go often enough to cast more than one type of spell, and in my experience that spell is going to be a summoning spell. Then, you have a free skill slot to use on defense or enlightenment which will benefit you a lot more.

As for ghosts, yeah you could do that, but it seems like a waste of money to me when you have both Raise Dead, Eternal Servitude, and, later on, the need to split your stack of archers (overkill in this game is a waste).

By the way, I forgot about Phantom Forces. If you are playing against an army that can't get to your archers, phantom forcing your horde of skellies practically guarantees you the battle, especially since you can do it as often as you like. Another benefit is that this forces the enemy to waste a turn destroying it with his hero (or some other unit), as a phantom force of hundreds of skelly archers is an unbearable threat. The only problem there is area-effect spells.

[Gus]

I'm sorry, i don't think this is a real guide, as you're very limiting. "Take Vlad or Kaspar, max out Raise Dead, ggkthx".
things well known already, but no strategy here =/
a Guide detailing how to adapt to such or such situation, to such or such hero, now that would be interesting.

[kingcomrade]

I'm sorry, i don't think this is a real guide, as you're very limiting. "Take Vlad or Kaspar, max out Raise Dead, ggkthx".

What's wrong with that? HoMMV is not a complex game.

things well known already, but no strategy here =/

Well, as soon as this is supposed to be a thesis on strategy that will matter.

a Guide detailing how to adapt to such or such situation, to such or such hero, now that would be interesting.

Great, but that wasn't my purpose.

[thecheese]

I'm sorry, i don't think this is a real guide, as you're very limiting. "Take Vlad or Kaspar, max out Raise Dead, ggkthx".

What's wrong with that? HoMMV is not a complex game.

things well known already, but no strategy here =/

Well, as soon as this is supposed to be a thesis on strategy that will matter.

a Guide detailing how to adapt to such or such situation, to such or such hero, now that would be interesting.

Great, but that wasn't my purpose.

Not a complex game? It's as complex as you make it, and if you're playing against the AI, it might be more run of the mill, but it's fun. Playing against people makes it very complex.

Go read Took's guide on the Inferno town. That's a damn good guide, and I would daresay he offers some of the best advice for that faction that I've ever seen. This was more a compilation of how you play, rather than an analytical stance towards everything about the race.

[Gus]

I'm sorry, i don't think this is a real guide, as you're very limiting. "Take Vlad or Kaspar, max out Raise Dead, ggkthx".

What's wrong with that? HoMMV is not a complex game.

i could make pages on how HoMM is complex, but instead, i'll just make it simple: there are many heroes, many spells (even if not enough) in the game, that reducing your so-called strategy to taking always the same heroes and playing them the same way, is the final step in "boring". You're obviously free to play like that, and even to post your guide here, but by doing so you know that people can and will disagree. That's what i (and others, it seems) do, with arguments.

things well known already, but no strategy here =/

Well, as soon as this is supposed to be a thesis on strategy that will matter.

What's the point of posting "your guide to necro" if it simply repeats what's written all over the place already?

a Guide detailing how to adapt to such or such situation, to such or such hero, now that would be interesting.

Great, but that wasn't my purpose.

[/quote]
Well, don't call it "strategic" then. Call it "my munchkinist guide to abuse Vladimir". You can probably still edit the title.

[Gaidal Cain]

Easy, Gus. This might not be a complete guide, but there's no reason to attack him for it.

[Gus]

i didn't attack him for it.
I did attack him for his answers, though. If the guide's not complete, then he should accept criticism, especially when this criticism is backed by arguments and contains suggestions (instead of showing contempt towards said suggestions).

[Gaidal Cain]

Whatever. You still shouldn't attack him with stuff like

Call it "my munchkinist guide to abuse Vladimir".

That's just out of line.

[Gus]

you will notice this was an answer to his answer. I didn't start this way. I said: this guide lacks depth, variety, and gives very simple tips already available. To which he responded rather aggresively. Well, if it's not a thesis, and if the "author" doesn't want to give a shot at a real, correctly made guide, with thought put in it (like Infiltrator's or Bandobras's), then he should call it what it is.
And saying "get Vlad he rocks" as a "strategy guide for Necros" is just that, munchkinism.

[Gaidal Cain]

His answer was not very agressive. There was no need to escalate it further. You could have done better in pointing out the "munchkinism" in the work without using the word in your second reply. Heck, you could have used it and still be a lot more polite. You could have used the same post to actually show how one could play in another manner than he suggested. I hope that someone's willing to do something like that in this thread, so I'm going to stop discussing this here. Further questions can be taken by PM.

[vicheron]

You need Tactics since it allows you to protect your Liches and it allows Vampires and Spectral Dragons to cross the battlefield in one turn.

Firewall is not a good spell, even with the Necromancer's high spell power, it doesn't do much damage.

Dark Magic is much better than Defense. You start combat with mass Slow and mass Confusion and the enemy is screwed unless they have mass Cleansing.

[Alamar]

The only thing I really disagree with you on (besides taking randomized heroes. Some of them are pretty worthless and that's a game balance issue) is on taking 2 different schools of magic. If you don't take sorcery your hero doesn't go often enough to cast more than one type of spell, and in my experience that spell is going to be a summoning spell. Then, you have a free skill slot to use on defense or enlightenment which will benefit you a lot more.

In sieges I think that it is useful to have access to Dark Magic. Mass Slow, Mass Curse, Mass Weakness, Mass Confusion, etc. are all crippling. Also things like a Blind or Puppet Master is useful. Heck if the enemy is spamming Phantom Forces faster than you can easily kill them a Curse of the Underworld is even useful.

Plus having Spirit Link you shouldn't have to worry too much about mana.

As for ghosts, yeah you could do that, but it seems like a waste of money to me when you have both Raise Dead, Eternal Servitude, and, later on, the need to split your stack of archers (overkill in this game is a waste).

I like taking Ghosts early before you have all of those skills. When you don't have tons of skeletons but still want to take out that hoard of steel golems it is VERY nice to have the golems waste time chasing a ghost or three around the board while the skeletons chip away at their stacks. You may disagree with this brand of agressiveness but I think it's useful to gain more levels earlier and getting to resources earlier.

Note the above is an EXPLOIT [the AI shouldn't do this] so many people do not think that it is a valid strategy. The way AI heros "cheat" on heroic mode though I don't feel nearly as bad about this as I would in H1-H3.

[RK]

aha fellow codexer.


Yep necro is pretty much a snowball faction. I rate it highest, since you can deal with casualty easily. You don't even rely on raise dead too much, just pick Eternal Servitude and even my little brother can steamroll most mines...Just avoid heavy shooter stacks like Hunters etc.

Dark magic is pretty useful anyway, let's just say a Lvl 1 stack has 1-2 dmg range...casting mass weakness..you already cut down half of their damage. Their hero would be stuck trying to decide how to react : Cleanse or Ignore? Curses should never be underestimated since the bigger the stacks, the more bang you get out of your mana.

My 2nd strongest faction IMO is Dungeon, Sinitar and 2 stacks of Lv 1+2 can clear most threats in week 1 with no worry. Low Knowledge? Artifact merchant will fix it up so easily...I'd love to see how a Dungeon try to overcome a Necro thru pure dmg.

[Bandobras Took]

I would observe that if you're a fan of ghosts and have a large map ahead of you, Haunt Mine becomes surprisingly effective. I reached a point on a large map where I was getting twenty/mine.

[kingcomrade]

Not a complex game?

I should've said, when it comes to heroes, there is, like I said in my first post, One Best Build. There just isn't really a lot of wiggle room. Like someone else said, there's lots of units and lots of spells, but there are very obvious top spells.

What's the point of posting "your guide to necro" if it simply repeats what's written all over the place already?

I haven't seen any Necro guides around lately. Am I supposed to be psychic?

don't call it strategic then

I don't believe I did. If you do a search for the word strategy or strategic, you come to your posts. As for being a guide to "abuse Vladimir," do you really consider taking advantage of his very complementary hero skill as game abuse? If you do, then your beef is with Nival, not me.

i didn't attack him for it.

Yeah, you didn't come in with your first post being snobby and insulting. Totally.

In sieges I think that it is useful to have access to Dark Magic. Mass Slow, Mass Curse, Mass Weakness, Mass Confusion, etc. are all crippling.

Maybe. It just seemed counter-intuitive to spend several skill points on something that you are going to use once per battle (twice if its long).

aha fellow codexer.

Yeah, who's this?

Dark magic is pretty useful anyway, let's just say a Lvl 1 stack has 1-2 dmg range...casting mass weakness..you already cut down half of their damage.

Yeah, but if you cast Raise Dead you cut down 100% of their damage.

[RK]

LOL KC ,
seriously Master of Curses would probably render all your resurrected stacks doing 50% dmg. You can't mass raise undead, you know.

Having a nice Mass Decay will probably mess any army up. On top of your numerical superiority...That's just a killer.

[Gaidal Cain]

I like taking Ghosts early before you have all of those skills. When you don't have tons of skeletons but still want to take out that hoard of steel golems it is VERY nice to have the golems waste time chasing a ghost or three around the board while the skeletons chip away at their stacks. You may disagree with this brand of agressiveness but I think it's useful to gain more levels earlier and getting to resources earlier.

Having a few ghosts early on is excellent. They're the first thing that you get access to that can cross the field and reach a shooter in two turns. It's not quite enough to tackle Master Hunters, but against every shooter weaker than that, they'll help to cut down losses. Trusting in the fact that you'll get Vladimir/Raise Dead and be able to cast it in every battle will most likely result in you loosing badly when you can't.