Posts from The perfect Necropolis.

I am a big fan of Necropolis. I have been playing as them since Heroes II. I decided to write down what I think would be the ideal Necropolis.
Troop Composition:
I will write in the style of Heroes 6 (basic, elite, ultimate)
Basic
Ranged - Skeletons
Creatures raised through necromancy, with all the skin and everything "inside" removed. Armed with whatever weapon is available, as long as it is a ranged weapon. But preferably with spears, like in Heroes 6. They wear light, terribly damaged imperial armor (the kind worn by human soldiers), a helmet, and shoes.
Upgrade - Skeleton Warriors
Proven and sturdy skeletons. Armed with improved weapons compared to regular skeletons. They wear light, slightly damaged Necropolis armor and chainmail. A helmet covering the entire skull. Boots covering the legs with armor.
Melee - Ghouls
We forget about zombies altogether. When necromancers raise an army, people turn into ghouls. Armed with "Wolverine"-style claws. Only the genitals are covered with clothing. Skin serves as armor.
Upgrade - Wraiths
Battle-hardened ghouls that have begun to decay are called wraiths. Armed with larger and sharper claws. Now they wear the same armor as the upgraded skeletons. Where there is no armor, it is clearly visible that some pieces of flesh are missing. Necropolis should be intimidating.
Support - Spirits
Those whose bodies serve the necromancers in the form of wraiths fight as spirits. They look like immaterial human soldiers, but in terribly tattered armor.
Upgrade - Specters
Old spirits, whose souls have almost evaporated, become specters. Unlike spirits, they are less visible and wear heavier human armor, but also terribly tattered.
Elite
Ranged - Liches
Those people who were mages before being raised by necromancy become liches. They look like ghouls, but in light necromantic armor and with staves. To preserve the body, they are embalmed and wrapped in bandages :).
Upgrade - Archliches
Liches that have served for a long time and have also begun to decay become Archliches. Most of the bandages have fallen off. Where there is no armor and bandages, obvious damage to the body is visible, and some pieces of the body are also missing, with cuts everywhere (just like with wraiths). They wear medium necromantic armor and wield staves.
Melee - Vampires
These creatures were not raised by necromancy. Before becoming a vampire, people were alive. They were only bitten by other vampires. People with pale and perfectly intact bodies decided to fight side by side with the necromancers. Armed with Necropolis swords and medium armor.
Upgrade - Dark Knights
Elite vampires who have risen to the rank of Dark Knights receive new armor and weapons. Now they are armed with better swords and wear heavy Necropolis armor. The helmet completely covers the face.
Support - Lamassu
The very unsuccessful experiment of mages to crossbreed manticores and humans. Necromancers raise dead lamassu using necromancy and infect them with terrible diseases.
Upgrade - Rotting Lamassu
Just like ghouls, just like liches, lamassu also rot. The same decay, the same damage. Also, some pieces of flesh are missing. They are dressed in light chainmail, and their wings are sewn together with thread. After shedding all their skin, they do not become skeletons, like wraiths. Their skeletons are simply thrown away.
Ultimate
Melee and Support - Dead Dragons
Dragons raised by necromancy are the strongest warriors of the Necropolis. Their bodies decay quickly. This type of dead dragon looks like the rotting lamassu. Sagging skin, in many places it is missing, and the skeleton is clearly visible. The wings are sewn together like some kind of Frankenstein's skin, which prevents them, like the lamassu, from flying far.
Upgrade - Dragon Spirits
They are very difficult to obtain because you first need to kill a living dragon. Simply visiting their graveyard will not work.
City and Culture
The culture of the Necropolis is a hybrid of their cultures from Heroes 5 and 6. The city looks like this: A huge black pyramid in the center serves as the magistrate's office. Around the pyramid are Gothic crypts, but there is an "Egyptian district" on the side. In that district are buildings in the Egyptian style, similar to tombs. There is also the place where liches and lamassu are hired. The remaining hiring buildings look Gothic European.
In conclusion
Before creating this topic, I played Necropolis for a long time, and I liked what they presented to us in Heroes 6. But I was upset by the removal of dead dragons. Yes, you can say that this is almost what is currently in Heroes 6, but I will say that appearance matters, and that is why I described in detail what the creatures are wearing. Necropolis armor looks like the vampire armor from the sixth game. Light armor, the kind worn by the upgraded skeletons in the sixth game. Medium armor is worn by vampires. Heavy armor is worn by the heroes of the Necropolis. Judge strictly. If this is :smile18:, then say exactly :smile18:, and not that the author is a noob.

In an ideal Necropolis, there should be one unit for each (or at least many) unit of other factions, so as not to turn griffons into vampires and do similar things. And, of course, ideally, human skeletons should differ from, say, elf skeletons in greater resilience, but less so compared to dwarves, although this is already a very ideal scenario, and it is possible that these would be unnecessary complications, too complex for practical implementation.

Not only are they complex, but they are also unnecessary. No mythology mentions zombie griffons or other such absurdities. It's all superfluous.

Zombie griffins are better than vampire griffins. And in general, I saw dead cyclops on some map in the fifth game. There's also a mod for the fifth part that adds rotting ents; all these creatures look quite appropriate in the game. Of course, if we're talking about the sixth part, there's no necromancy there; the undead only raise their own in order to maintain balance, so all of this is irrelevant to it, but that's boring.

Hmm. Yes. But the undead don't have children. They appear through killing. Therefore, there is no necromancy. The only thing that could justify the absence of these zombie-griffons in the army is their uselessness. Necromancers simply don't need griffons, cyclops, or any other heresy. (in their dead form, of course). The rest, which are quite useful, can be made neutral units.
P.S.: Just in case, I'll say that the ghouls I wrote about should behave like zombies, and not like what was in Heroes 6.

In my opinion, it's impossible to create a perfect Necropolis; no matter how hard you try, you'll always fail to please someone.
As for your idea, I'll say that it's a tautology.

In my opinion, it's impossible to create a perfect Necropolis; no matter how hard you try, you'll always fail to please someone.
As for your idea, I'll say that it's a tautology.

This is just my IMHO. Whether it's repeated or not, I don't care.

Since you mentioned purple, I'll add that you can put Dark Knights on undead dragons, and instead of elite units, you can add something else, like banshees. And by the way, where is the 3rd upgrade for creatures?

And by the way, where is the 3rd creature upgrade?

No, no. Never do that.

By the way, in some of the Heroes games, was the legendary aversion of vampires and other undead to light taken into account through corresponding penalties? Conceptually, how can a dragon skeleton, as a higher being, be considered weaker than, say, a lich? How can a pile of bones, even a very large one, be stronger than a mage raised from the dead, who might have been one of the heroes of the Silver Cities yesterday? A dead dragon (if a dragon is absolutely necessary) as the most powerful creature of the Necropolis should probably be some kind of dragon-vampire or dragon-lich, similar to the Forgotten Realms.

Only the "Holy Word" spell was used.

Perhaps, in an ideal Necropolis, we could create something like bone golems (to resolve the discrepancies between skeletons of different creatures) and patchwork bodies of several warriors – a kind of "stitched" zombie (for the same reason). Spirits are fine, but dead mages could be represented as patchwork bodies of a pale color, enveloped in a greenish haze and glowing with small lights.

Since we're talking about purple, I'll add that you could put Dark Knights on Dead Dragons, and instead of elite units, you could add something else, like Banshees.

I tried to describe it as adequately as possible. Do you want Necropolis to consist only of new creatures?

By the way, in some of the games, was the legendary vampires' and other undead's dislike of light taken into account through appropriate penalties? How can a skeleton dragon, as a higher-level creature, conceptually be considered better than, say, a Lich? How can a pile of bones, even a very large one, be better than a mage raised from the dead, who might have been one of the heroes of the Silver Cities yesterday? A dead dragon (if we absolutely need a dragon) as the most powerful creature of Necropolis should probably be some kind of dragon-vampire or dragon-lich, by analogy with Forgotten Realms.

Dead mages, i.e., Liches, are stronger than ordinary dead people, i.e., Zombies, why? So why shouldn't dead dragons, with their huge potential in life, be stronger than other dead creatures. They could inherit some kind of immunity to magic from other dragons, for example, from black dragons, or they could be given new abilities, for example, give them the "Terror" spell, which affects other dragons, of course, dead ones. And the boss, named Ghost Dragon, has an interesting spell that converts all damage from one or another unit into +HP.

Maybe in an ideal Necropolis, we could create something like bone golems (to resolve the disagreements between skeletons of different creatures) and stitched-together pieces of several warriors - a kind of "stitched" zombies (for the same reason), well, spirits are fine, but dead mages - some stitched-together pieces of pale bodies, shrouded in greenish smoke and glowing lights.

I like the idea of stitching, but I limited myself to stitching wings for zombie dragons (un-upgraded) and Lamassu. I was, of course, thinking of replacing Lamassu with huge, stitched-together, fat Frankenstein-like creatures spreading plague in the name of Nurgle. And replacing ordinary skeletons with bone golems, but that would be shock troops, not ranged units, and that's a different problem.

I agree, I recently had the thought that it would be more practical to stitch all the "non-standard" corpses together into a Frankenstein-like creature, as the Necropolis faction is a practical people, right? And I also had an idea regarding an ability for one of the Necromancer heroes: since there are practically no places left on inhabited lands where wars didn't take place in the past, it could be implemented so that at the beginning of the battle, the Necromancer raises a certain additional number of fighters (fallen in ancient battles) from the ground, depending on the hero's level or necromancy skill.

I agree, I recently had the thought that it would be more practical to stitch all the "non-standard" corpses together into a Frankenstein-like creature, as the Necropolis faction is a practical people, right? And I also had an idea regarding an ability for one of the Necropolis heroes: since there are practically no places left on inhabited lands where wars didn't take place in the past, it could be implemented so that at the beginning of a battle, the Necromancer raises a certain additional number of fighters (fallen in ancient battles) from the ground, depending on the hero's level or necromancy skill.

This is the perfect explanation for why undead appear for hire every week in the city.