Necropolis: Can a Horde of Sucky Troops Do It?

[Bandobras Took]

All right, I took the Necropolis for a short-lived romp recently, if you'll pardon the pun.

It seems to me that their early game is going to be hard. I couldn't seem to muster enough damage to take out anything, and taking out stacks of troops seems vital to raising skeletons. I particular remember a group Blade Jugglers wiping out twice their number of Walking Dead and Skeletons. All the low-level Necropolis units do pathetic damage; it's no good for the Walking Dead to be a meat shield when there's nothing significant to protect.

The incorporeal ability of the Manes is wonderful when it kicks in, which isn't nearly often enough.

What's been everybody else's experience with the Necropolis? Can they come out running? Should I focus on upgrades for the low-level troops? What's the general strategy?

[sariana]

I'm too tired to get -really- in depth on this tonight, BUT... I have found the necropolis to be insanely powerful at low level. Here's how I do it.

Day 1:
In town, Hire new hero. Take his troops with your main. Build skeletons.

Run around close by and pick up unguarded resources/gold/etc. Make it back to town, or almost back to town before you're out of movement.

Day 2:
Build the skeleton archer upgrade building. Upgrade your skellys.

Rest of day 2+: go out and start wiping out melee troops with your archers. Stop in town every other day or so to upgrade your necromancy skeletons to even more archers.

It does not take long to build up an absolutely silly-powerful stack of ranged skellys.

Note: I tend to avoid fighting other ranged troops as long as possible, sometimes even till the second week so I can have enough stuff to wipe em out fast.

[Gaidal Cain]

Sariana's right. Upgrading the skeletons early is a must.

Those Blade Jugglers you mentioned are very tough opponents if you don't have any ranged power to take them out with. Going straight into melee with them is to be avoided unless you're attacking and can take most of them out in a single blow.

Manes are good on attack, but their defense is lacking, since you can't rely on the incorporeal ability. Build other things instead if you can, or build them but let them accumulate a while before using them.

[RK]

I'd recommend picking the First Aid hero (The Empiric) and grabbing some chests for exp early on. Grab 'Last Aid' skill for added firepower. The First aid tent can now deal dmg, in my case it's around 40. Pretty solid addition early game.

I'd rush for mage guild and skel archers early on. After that I'll go Manes and sacrifice them for disposable tanks. Splitting stacks of 1 in an army does wonders...especially when their physical resistance kicks in against 30 cerberis.

Have your Skel Archers cower in a corner and keep them firing. The walking dead must always stay next to them.

Another skill to rush for is No Rest for the Wicked. This will enable you to recover a few lost manes. This way you can keep repeating it with the weekly growth of manes. I haven't gone beyond the 2nd week, but this is my general strategy before I get royally creamed by a neutral druid stack. STAY away from these crazy caster stacks, they hurt like hell.

[Derek]

I went straight for liches and found this to be an acceptable strategy. Those things pack a serious wallop, and their cloud is quite large. That strategy with the skel archers, plus liches, is starting to make this town look like a ranged castle. Who woulda' thunk it?!

[Bandobras Took]

Having reloaded and gotten a little farther into the game, the Skeleton Archers are a force to be reckoned with. I just need to work on my early game, I guess.

[Infiltrator]

They are a force now, that necromancy is bugged, but once it's put into it's place the Necro will need some help in order to cope with the other towns.

[Orfinn]

Havent played Necropolis yet, but I wonder how are the vampires and the undead dragons, are they any useful and balanced?

[Bandobras Took]

Well, the undead dragons do have a horde dwelling, so it's kind of hard to determine balance. Will an extra one a week make up for their lower stats?

But Vampire Lords are up to their old shenanigans -- you definitely don't want to be facing a large stack of these.

[sariana]

Seems like there's a bug with the necromancy right now, too.

I played a game against my husband who took necromancy. He was wiping up the 4-person map with just his stack of archers and a stack of 20 zombies. Now, the zombies never had to do -anything-. They were there "just in case".

At some point, we noticed that he was recieving a 100% return on his necromancy. He had Advanced necromancy, the ability that converts them directly into archers, and a necromancy amplifier built in his town.

We tried to total up all his % and could only come up with 40%. Yet every time, he was recieving 100% of the dead creatures. Not to mention he also had the No Rest... ability so even if something managed to hack at his skeletons, he got them all back.

After wiping out all the NPCs around his town, he took out the garrison with his 700+ skeleton archers, 20 zombies, and 15 ghosts.

He headed back to town, grabbed 8 liches, 17 ghosts, 30-some zombies, and another like 65 skeleton archers, and wiped out the middle city with them. Granted, he lost almost everything, except 6 zombies and around 500 skeletons. However, with the 100% conversion, he came out with a total of 1200+ skeletons. O.O

[Orfinn]

Well, the undead dragons do have a horde dwelling, so it's kind of hard to determine balance. Will an extra one a week make up for their lower stats?

But Vampire Lords are up to their old shenanigans -- you definitely don't want to be facing a large stack of these.

Horde dwellings for the dragons? Well I suppose that is unique and not at least very cool but can it be balanced, the big question is.

Good to hear the vampires is back nice and sound and stronger as ever

[RK]

Seems like there's a bug with the necromancy right now, too.

I played a game against my husband who took necromancy. He was wiping up the 4-person map with just his stack of archers and a stack of 20 zombies. Now, the zombies never had to do -anything-. They were there "just in case".

At some point, we noticed that he was recieving a 100% return on his necromancy. He had Advanced necromancy, the ability that converts them directly into archers, and a necromancy amplifier built in his town.

We tried to total up all his % and could only come up with 40%. Yet every time, he was recieving 100% of the dead creatures. Not to mention he also had the No Rest... ability so even if something managed to hack at his skeletons, he got them all back.

After wiping out all the NPCs around his town, he took out the garrison with his 700+ skeleton archers, 20 zombies, and 15 ghosts.

He headed back to town, grabbed 8 liches, 17 ghosts, 30-some zombies, and another like 65 skeleton archers, and wiped out the middle city with them. Granted, he lost almost everything, except 6 zombies and around 500 skeletons. However, with the 100% conversion, he came out with a total of 1200+ skeletons. O.O

*Clap clap clap* another reason not to let them undeads win a fight against you ^^ Hope it gets fixed.

[Orfinn]

Seems like there's a bug with the necromancy right now, too.

I played a game against my husband who took necromancy. He was wiping up the 4-person map with just his stack of archers and a stack of 20 zombies. Now, the zombies never had to do -anything-. They were there "just in case".

At some point, we noticed that he was recieving a 100% return on his necromancy. He had Advanced necromancy, the ability that converts them directly into archers, and a necromancy amplifier built in his town.

We tried to total up all his % and could only come up with 40%. Yet every time, he was recieving 100% of the dead creatures. Not to mention he also had the No Rest... ability so even if something managed to hack at his skeletons, he got them all back.

After wiping out all the NPCs around his town, he took out the garrison with his 700+ skeleton archers, 20 zombies, and 15 ghosts.

He headed back to town, grabbed 8 liches, 17 ghosts, 30-some zombies, and another like 65 skeleton archers, and wiped out the middle city with them. Granted, he lost almost everything, except 6 zombies and around 500 skeletons. However, with the 100% conversion, he came out with a total of 1200+ skeletons. O.O

*Clap clap clap* another reason not to let them undeads win a fight against you ^^ Hope it gets fixed.

Agree a clear sign of imbalance, lol

[Suleman]

He headed back to town, grabbed 8 liches, 17 ghosts, 30-some zombies, and another like 65 skeleton archers, and wiped out the middle city with them. Granted, he lost almost everything, except 6 zombies and around 500 skeletons. However, with the 100% conversion, he came out with a total of 1200+ skeletons. O.O

...
That's... amazing. Does the "middle city"'s population grow over time, or is the amount of troops there fixed?

[sariana]

He headed back to town, grabbed 8 liches, 17 ghosts, 30-some zombies, and another like 65 skeleton archers, and wiped out the middle city with them. Granted, he lost almost everything, except 6 zombies and around 500 skeletons. However, with the 100% conversion, he came out with a total of 1200+ skeletons. O.O

...
That's... amazing. Does the "middle city"'s population grow over time, or is the amount of troops there fixed?

I'm pretty sure it's fixed, that was the first time we'd gotten to the middle city. We can't get through a game with other players on Ubi, whether they honestly get disconnected or just drop out I have no idea.

Anyway, it was like 400 militiamen, 200 swordsmen, 10 archangels.... and I can't remember the rest. I think maybe it was 200 archers? maybe 250. 40(?) paladins, 100-ish priests..... I think that's all of it...

EDIT: Oh yeah, 50 royal gryphons or so. Which was the first thing my husband tried to pick on before they could jump off the map on their dive. As expected, they jumped into the air, and the archangels managed to resurrect them IN THE AIR. Ahh, the joys of being the AI.

[IceCold2000]

I never liked the necropolis though, and reading that other players find them weak early in the game will probably make me dislike them even more - I placed the undead last on the town rankings in Heroes III and IV.

[sariana]

I never liked the necropolis though, and reading that other players find them weak early in the game will probably make me dislike them even more - I placed the undead last on the town rankings in Heroes III and IV.

Something tells me you didn't even read the thread....

[IceCold2000]

I never liked the necropolis though, and reading that other players find them weak early in the game will probably make me dislike them even more - I placed the undead last on the town rankings in Heroes III and IV.

Something tells me you didn't even read the thread....

No, I skim read it, and I understand that a lot of people find it overpowered, but I just can't seem to play them well.

[Alamar]

As far as I can tell pretty much all of the Necro troops [Dragons & Vamps included] really are only good to use as meat shields to protect your hoard of skeletons.

[Xanatus Sirloin]

well the multitudeds of times i played vs the necros in previous games vs friends or my bro i had to strike quick because the advantage of skeleton resurection becomes huge the longer you leave them.. so i think that the can be over balanced... if you leave them too long, but thats just your own fault.. or i spose a map that suits the lengthy non player contact sort a thing.
Go the vampire lords in 3 and 4.. havent played 5... they still good???