Gezelschapsspellen Cthulhu Wars Owner Manual

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For Eric—I am devastated that you did not see this reach publication in your Earth life.

I love you, my brother.

Table of Contents

CTHULHU WARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

PRINTED COMPONENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

PLASTIC COMPONENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

SETUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

GAME BASICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Object of Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Phases of Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Units and Faction Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Special Abilities and Spellbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Elder Sign Trophies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Faction Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

ACTION PHASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The Four Types of Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

The Seven Common Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Unlimited Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Ongoing Special Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

GATHER POWER PHASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

DETERMINE FIRST PLAYER PHASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

DOOM PHASE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

BATTLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Pre-Battle Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Combat Dice Calculation and Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Post-Battle Abilities and Assigning Battle Results . . . . . 38

Applying Battle Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Battle Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

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VICTORY: ENDING AND WINNING THE GAME . . . . . 50

RULE OMEGA : THE FINAL QUESTION . . . . . . . . . . . 51

PLAYER TIPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

General Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Great Cthulhu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Crawling Chaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Black Goat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Yellow Sign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

TWO PLAYER RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

TWO PLAYER SET-UP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

CHANGES FOR TWO PLAYER GAMES . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

BALANCE ADJUSTMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

TIPS AND TRICKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

EXPANSION PRODUCTS

ADDITIONAL FACTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

OPENER OF THE WAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

SLEEPER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

TCHO TCHO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

WINDWALKER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

NEUTRAL MONSTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

DREAMLANDS SURFACE MONSTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

DREAMLANDS UNDERWORLD MONSTERS . . . . . . . 83

TERRORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

COSMIC TERRORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

INDEPENDENT GREAT OLD ONES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

GREAT OLD ONE PACK 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

GREAT OLD ONE PACK 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

GREAT OLD ONE PACK 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

GREAT OLD ONE PACK 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

FACTION GREAT OLD ONES AS INDEPENDENTS . . . 90

MIXED AND MISCELLANEOUS EXPANSIONS . . . . . . . . 98

AZATHOTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

RAMSEY CAMPBELL HORRORS 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

RAMSEY CAMPBELL HORRORS 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

HIGH PRIESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

UNIQUE HIGH PRIESTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

COLOUR OUT OF SPACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

THE SHINING TRAPEZOHEDRON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

LOVECRAFT BUST FIRST PLAYER MARKER . . . . . . . 117

BATTLE DICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

CUSTOM DICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

ADDITIONAL MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

DREAMLANDS MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

LIBRARY AT CELAENO MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

PRIMEVAL MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

YUGGOTH MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

6-8 PLAYER MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

CORE RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

ADDITIONAL FACTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

NEUTRAL SPELLBOOKS (AZATHOTH) . . . . . . . . . . . 160

NEUTRAL MONSTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

TERRORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

INDEPENDENT GREAT OLD ONES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

ADDITIONAL MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

DESIGNER

’

S NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

CREDITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

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The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old

Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the Earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.

—H. P. Lovecraft

CTHULHU WARS

P rophets, philosophers and madmen all saw the end of the world coming; for years they’d tried to warn us with their indecipherable scrawling and conspiratorial whispers. The signs were obvious enough, and in retrospect it would have been easy to know.

In those dark days, mankind seemed to have a death wish. Long had we been poisoning the air we breathed, the water we drank, and the Earth from where our food came. Wars, famine, plague stretched cancerously across the globe—and death followed inexorably behind.

Certainly a few cared. Foolish kind-hearted souls tried to stem the tide, tried to reverse the damage we’d done to the planet, but it was all for naught… for the Old Ones had other plans. They’d come from the stars in the infancy of the world, when the Earth was nothing but chaos, magma, and churning elemental nonsense. Their inexplicable agenda was never made clear, but eon by eon, epoch by epoch, they guided this doomed outpost more to their liking. And by the end of the world, they’d finally completed their conflicting, yet eerily compatible agendas. The poisons, waste, and irradiation had served to make the Earth more hospitable to them, more to their pleasure. As the stars aligned to herald the return of the Old Ones, their influence grew, hastening the sickness of this primitive planet.

Finally, the Wars. The alien horrors of the Old

Ones barely had to lift a claw or tentacle. It simply took a psychic nudge here, a rumbling emanation there. Mankind did the rest. Wars erupted, flowing forth from the third world, and engulfing the streets of the first. Massacres on Main Street were the norm. Strange new weapons were developed to attempt to stem the tide, but nothing prevailed.

Men, women, and children ran through the streets, shouting, killing, burning and destroying. Blood flowed in ways unparalleled in human history.

The world burned with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom, as the Old Ones rose from their eonslong slumber. For moments, all was silent, as if all of existence held its breath.

Thus began the real battle…

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Printed Components

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Plastic Components

GREAT CTHULHU

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YELLOW SIGN

CRAWLING CHAOS

BLACK GOAT

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Setup

PLACE THE MAP

The Map is in two pieces (Eastern and Western Hemisphere), and is printed on both sides. The two sides have identical continental shapes, but the 5 -Player side of the Map is divided into far more Land Areas than the 3 -Player side.

2-Player Game : Go to

page 60

for modifications on how to set up Cthulhu Wars for two players.

3-Player Game : Place the game board so the 3 -Player sides of each hemisphere are face-up. The map will display 13 total Areas.

4-Player Game : Place the game board so that a 3 -Player hemisphere is face up, and a 5 -Player hemisphere is face up. For your first games, we recommend that you use a setup in which the Eastern

Hemisphere is 5 -Player, and the Western Hemisphere is 3 -Player. In either case, the map will display 17 total Areas.

5-Player Game : Do NOT place both 5 -Player sides face-up unless you are playing a five player game

(only possible if you have one of the Faction expansions). The 5 -Player game displays 21 total Areas.

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Recommended Setup for your first 4-Player Game

Alternate Setup for 4-Player Game

SET UP TRACKS, TOKENS, AND DICE

‘ Place the Ritual of Annihilation Track for the appropriate number of players on one end of the table (the remaining Ritual of Annihilation Tracks can go back in the box; they are not needed).

‘ Place the Ritual of Annihilation Marker pointed at the lowest number ( 5 ) on the track.

‘ Place the Doom Track next to the Ritual of Annihilation Track.

‘ Place the Gates and Dice in easy reach of all players.

‘ Place the 36 Elder Sign Trophy Tokens in the Cloth Bag and shake them up. Alternately, you may simply turn all the Elder Sign Tokens face down on the table (with the Elder Sign on top), and mix them up.

‘ Hand each player a Hint Card.

SET UP FACTIONS

Each player must select a Faction to be. If you want to choose randomly, you may place the Faction

Glyph tokens in a cup and draw them, but it does not violate the spirit of the game to simply select a favorite Faction. In the latter case, disputes can be settled by permitting the younger players first choice.

Each player takes their Faction Card, their six Spellbooks, and all plastic pieces of their color. If the Yellow Sign Faction is in play, that player also takes the 12 Desecration Markers; otherwise, the

Desecration Markers can go back in the box for this game.

Place each player’s Doom Marker on the zero space on the Doom Track. Each player then places their

Power Marker at the 8 space on their Power Track on their Faction Card.

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SET UP START AREAS ON THE MAP

Each player must check their Faction Card to find their Start Area. All players start with a Controlled

Gate and 6 Acolyte Cultists in the Area marked with their Faction’s Glyph. Place one of the 6 Acolytes on top of the Gate, the other 5 simply in the same Area.

THE FIRST PLAYER

When Great Cthulhu is in play, his Faction’s player is always the First Player. He takes the

First Player Token and sets it in front of him.

If Great Cthulhu is not in this game, choose the First Player by any means you wish. (We recommend going alphabetically by Faction name—i.e., Black Goat is before Yellow Sign).

Note : The Windwalker Faction may never be the First Player at the beginning of the game!

The First Player then places the First

Player Token with either the clockwise or counterclockwise side face up—this determines the direction of play. Throughout the game the

First Player token will change hands, and can change direction as well.

Black Goat’s starting position

Game Basics

OBJECT OF GAME

The player who has the highest Doom on the Doom Track and has placed all 6 Spellbooks onto their

Faction Card, wins the game. See Victory: Ending and Winning the Game on

page 50 for more details.

PHASES OF PLAY

The Game is played out in four distinct Phases:

1 . Action Phase

2 . Gather Power Phase

3 . Determine First Player Phase

4 . The Doom Phase

After setup, play begins with the Action Phase and proceeds through each Phase, returning to Phase 1 after Phase 4 . This cycle continues until the game end is triggered (see Victory: Ending and Winning

the Game on page 50 for more details). A typical game of

Cthulhu Wars will last between four and six cycles through these four Phases.

Each Phase has its own section detailing how to play through it.

THE MAP

The Map is divided into Areas. Each Area represents a coherent part of the world and is defined as either ocean or land. Each

Area has its name printed on it. On the Earth Map, ocean Areas consist of the North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic,

South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Arctic Ocean. All other

Areas (including Antarctica) are land.

For most game purposes, there is no difference between ocean and land. Any Units can freely Move into the ocean, perform Actions there, and so forth. Occasionally abilities may distinguish between ocean and land, (notably Y’ha Nthlei and Submerge). In other Maps found in expansion products, occasionally the term ‘sea’ is used instead of ‘ocean.’ In game terms, a sea and an ocean are identical—any ability or text referencing oceans is read to include seas as well.

Note that the Areas on the far right of the Map directly connect to those on the far left (because the Earth is round). You can Move a Unit from the Indian Ocean directly to the South

Pacific.

Note that the North Atlantic is directly adjacent to the

Pacific!

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UNITS AND FACTION POOL

Each player has a Pool, in which he keeps not-yet-in-play Spellbooks and plastic figures (Units) within easy reach. Set it up near your Faction Card. Feel free to read your Spellbooks. Yellow Sign’s

Desecration Markers are also part of its Pool.

Each Faction has 3 categories of Units: Cultists, Monsters, and Great Old Ones. In the Core Game, the only type of Cultist is an Acolyte Cultist, and every Faction has exactly 6 of them. Each Faction has more than one type of Monster, each with different characteristics. No Factions share the same type of

Monster with any other. Great Old Ones are individual beings, and thus every single Great Old One has a name, and no two are the same.

You are limited by the number of figures in your Pool for each Unit. For instance, you can never have more than 6 Acolyte Cultists, nor can you have more than 4 Deep Ones if you are playing as Great

Cthulhu. During play, if you have placed all Units of a particular type onto the Map, you cannot place anymore until one is placed back in your Pool.

A Unit that is in your Pool is not considered to be in play, and vice versa. A Unit can be removed from play and returned to your Pool by being Killed during a Battle, or by being Eliminated. Eliminations can result from Actions, special abilities or as part of a Battle as well.

GATES

Each player starts the game with a Controlled Gate.

This means that a single Acolyte Cultist is on top of the

Gate. A Gate can never have more than a single Cultist on top of it, Controlling it. Thus, a particular Gate is only ever Controlled by a single Faction. A Gate can also be Abandoned, which simply means that no Cultist is on top of it. Monsters and Great Old Ones cannot

Control Gates, and are never on top of them (with the exception of Black Goat’s Dark Young, when they have

The Red Sign Spellbook in play).

Throughout the game, more Gates will be Created. No

Area can ever have more than a single Gate in it. Gates are highly valuable—they provide both Power and Doom points, which enable you to win the game.

Controlled Gate

SPECIAL ABILITIES AND

SPELLBOOKS

Sources of Special Abilities

Each Faction in Cthulhu Wars is strikingly different, and one of the main ways this is so is due to unique special abilities. These are derived from three sources:

1 . Faction unique ability, found near the top of the

Faction Card, and available from the start

2 . Spellbooks, which become available as they are placed on your Faction Card during play

3 . Each Great Old One has its own unique ability, available while that Great Old One is in play

(found on the bottom left section of the Faction

Card)

Types of Special Abilities

Abandoned Gate

Every Special Ability belongs to a category, shown in parentheses next to its name, which governs when that ability takes effect. There are five basic types of

Special Abilities:

1 . Actions

: These are abilities you can use during the Action Phase (detailed on page 23

).

2 . Battle : These take effect only during a Battle (detailed on

page 37 ).

3 . Gather Power Phase : These abilities take effect each Gather Power Phase (detailed on

page

32 ).

4 . Doom Phase : These abilities take effect each Doom Phase (detailed on

page 35 ).

5 . Ongoing : This means the ability is always in effect and benefiting your Faction.

Spellbooks, Great Old One Special Abilities, and unique Faction abilities are optional to use. This means that at the moment you would use the ability, or when the ability’s effect would do something

(including an Ongoing ability), you may choose for the effect to not take place. Because Special Abilities are intended to help your Faction win, it is usually better to use them every chance you get. Occasionally, however, circumstances arise (usually for a Battle ability) when you may not want that ability to take effect.

Some abilities are not optional and they must take effect at the appropriate time, in which case it would say on the text of the ability.

Special Note on Abilities

If a special ability targets an enemy Unit in an Area, the victim typically selects which of his Units is targeted by the ability. There are some rare exceptions, which are stated in the text of the ability. If it does not specify who chooses which Unit to be affected, then the owner of the Unit decides.

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Earning Spellbooks

Earning Spellbooks works a lot like a video game achievement. When you fulfill one of the requirements written on your Faction Card, you must place a Spellbook from your Pool over that requirement slot. No particular Spellbook is ever tied to any particular requirement slot. You may freely choose any Spellbook to go over any slot. You never lose a Spellbook, even if the requirement is no longer true—once earned, they remain on your Faction Card and are available to use throughout the game.

Example : Black Goat has a requirement which states “Have Units in 4 Areas.” As soon as her Faction has Units in at least 4 Areas, she gains a Spellbook and places it on her Faction Card over that slot. Even if on the very next turn someone drives her out of them so that her Units are only in three or fewer Areas, she retains the Spellbook on her Faction Card for the rest of the game.

You can earn more than one Spellbook at the same time, if you meet all requirements at that time.

However, there are a few that can only be earned simultaneously if performed in a specified way, in which case it will be explained on the Faction Card (for example, for two of Great Cthulhu’s and two of

Crawling Chaos’ requirements).

Each individual Spellbook enhances your Faction significantly, and therefore a major part of your game strategy is tied to when and in which order you obtain your

Spellbooks.

Important Note : If you gain a Spellbook as part of or during a Battle

(for example, Great Cthulhu’s requirements that require a Devour and/or

Kill in Battle), then you do not receive the Spellbook until the entirety of the Battle is resolved. Hence you cannot use a Spellbook earned as a result of a Battle during that same Battle.

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ELDER SIGN TROPHIES

Elder Sign Trophy tokens symbolize the shattering of the bonds that once held the Great Old Ones in check. They actually represent the destruction of Elder Signs, but for simplicity, we simply call them

“Elder Signs” instead of “Elder Sign Trophies” in most of the text.

Whenever you earn an Elder Sign, take an Elder Sign token from the Cloth Bag and (without revealing it to other players), place it face down on or by your Faction Card. You may examine your own Elder

Sign tokens freely. All Elder Signs have either a number 1 , 2 , or 3 written on them. This indicates how many Doom Points that Elder Sign is worth. There are 18 Elder Signs worth 1 point, 12 that are worth 2 points, and 6 that are worth 3 points.

Although the number on each Elder Sign represents how much Doom it is worth, you do not immediately gain that Doom along the Doom track when you receive an Elder Sign. Rather, you decide when to gain the Doom for each Elder Sign. To do so, you must reveal the Elder Sign(s) and then advance your Doom marker along the Doom track the appropriate number of spaces. You may do this at any time—during any of the four Phases of play, or even wait until the very end of the game to reveal and gain

Doom. It is typical for most Elder Signs to remain unrevealed until the end of the game, thus concealing the true Doom totals of each player.

When you reveal an Elder Sign to gain Doom, do not place that Elder Sign back in the Cloth Bag. It is gone for the rest of the game, and can never be re-drawn. Place it back in the box.

In the unlikely event that all Elder Signs have been earned by the players, when a new Elder Sign is earned, simply give the player a Doom point instead—this would not be secret.

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FACTION CARDS

Your Faction Card contains a great deal of information.

A . Faction Name

B . Faction Portrait : A handy spot to place your Captured Cultists.

C . Power Track : Use your Power Marker to Track your current Power throughout the game.

D . Unique Ability : Every Faction has its own special ability, and is available throughout the game.

E . Setup Information and Faction Glyph

F . Cultist and Monster Information : Shows a silhouette and gives Cost and Combat for your

Cultists and Monsters, plus any notes. Next to the name is a number which is how many of that Unit are available in your Pool.

G . Great Old One Information : Shows your Great Old One’s silhouette and Cost and Combat, plus notes. All Great Old Ones have extensive notes, which describe how to Awaken that Great Old One step-by-step, give the Combat formula for that Great Old One (if any), and describe the Great Old

One’s special ability.

H . Spellbook Requirements : Each of these six spaces has the requirement which must be met before you may place a Spellbook in that slot.

Action Phase

The Action Phase is when most of the game takes place. During the Action Phase, each player in turn can move Units, cast spells, engage in Battle, and otherwise interact. This is where the Great Old Ones destroy the world as they war with each other for dominance.

During setup the First Player should have been selected (always Great Cthulhu, if in the game). At the start of the Action Phase, the First Player always goes first, and they will take a single Action. When they finish, the next player in turn takes an

Action. This continues around until every player has performed an Action.

Then, the First Player takes a second Action, following around again.

Each Action performed will cost a certain amount of Power which must be spent before the Action occurs. To take an Action, simply lower your

Power Marker on your Power Track the appropriate amount and then

Think of the Action Phase as multi-sided chess: you have a lot of options, but can only make a single Action each time. Then, each other player gets a chance to respond to it (if able)!

perform the Action. If you do not have enough Power to perform that

Action, you cannot perform it, and must select a different Action.

You cannot take more than a single Action on your turn, and you cannot decline to take an Action if you still have Power. You must choose an available Action to perform and spend the appropriate amount of

Power (usually 1 – 3 Power). If you still have Power and do not want to take an Action during the Action

Phase, you may voluntarily drop all your Power to 0 .

If you have no Power left when it is your turn to take an Action, you are skipped. You cannot even perform an Action which costs 0 Power.

However, if you are at 0 Power, and an ability or Spellbook provides you with Power, you can participate in that Action Phase during your turn, taking an Action as normal.

The Action Phase continues with each remaining player who still has

Power until all players are finally out of Power and no one can take any more Actions. At this point the Action Phase ends. Play passes to the

Gather Power Phase.

Being the only player left with

Power in an Action Phase is one of the best things that can happen to you! You are the only player who can take turns, so you perform

Actions until out of Power, while all the other players sit there helplessly as you mess with their stuff!

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THE FOUR TYPES OF ACTIONS

There are four categories of Actions in Cthulhu Wars: Common, Unique, Spellbook Requirement, and

Unlimited Actions.

Never leave an Acolyte Cultist alone on a Gate in a critical area once Cthulhu has the Dreams

Spellbook (a Unique Action)! Place a second Cultist in the Area if possible. While this won’t prevent

Dreams, since you pick which

Cultist is affected, Cthulhu has to pay a total of 6 Power in order to steal the Gate. Or, guard your

Cultist with a Monster. If Cthulhu

Dreams him away, you can Capture his replacement.

Common Actions

Common Actions are available to all Factions. Any player may choose to perform one of seven Common Actions on their turn, detailed in

page

25 .

Unique Actions

A Unique Action is one that is only available to your particular Faction. It can be from your Unique Faction Ability, a Spellbook you have earned, or your Great Old One’s Special Ability. Sometimes a particular Unique

Action has an additional requirement in order to perform it, even if it is available. For example, Great Cthulhu’s Faction cannot perform the

Submerge Action (one of his Spellbooks), unless Great Cthulhu himself is in play.

Likewise, you cannot perform a Unique Action unless you are able to do all parts of it. For example,

Yellow Sign cannot perform Zingaya to Eliminate an enemy Acolyte if there are no Undead in its Pool.

Spellbook Requirement Actions

These can be found on the Spellbook Requirement slots on your Faction Card. Most Spellbook

Requirements are not Actions, but they will begin with the words, “As an Action” or “As your Action” when they are. Spellbook Requirement Actions only cost Power if it says it does, otherwise, it costs 0

Power. A Spellbook Requirement Action is always a discrete Action, and you cannot double it up with a

Common or Unique Action. For example, Crawling Chaos has the Spellbook requirement of “As your

Action, pay 4 Power.” If you spend 4 Power on a Common or Unique Action, this does not mean that you have fulfilled that requirement. In order to fulfill it, you would have to spend 4 Power as your Action on your turn, gain a Spellbook, and nothing else happens. Because you never lose a Spellbook you have earned, you may only do a particular Spellbook Requirement Action once in the whole game.

If you are not sure what to do on your turn, look at your Spellbook requirements. You cannot go far wrong so long as you strive to gain new Spellbooks, or try to set yourself up for more Power on the next Action Phase.

When it is your turn to take your single Action, you must choose to take a Common Action or an available Unique Action or a Spellbook

Requirement Action. You cannot take one of each—only a single Action on your turn!

Unlimited Actions

The fourth category, Unlimited Actions, allows you to break that rule.

Unlimited Actions are special in that you can perform them in addition to performing your single Common, Unique, or Spellbook Requirement

Action. Like Common Actions, Unlimited Actions are not particular to any Faction, and are available to all players. But like Unique Actions, they can sometimes have special requirements you must meet in order to be able to perform them.

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THE SEVEN COMMON ACTIONS

Recruit Cultist Cost: 1 Power (Requires any of your Units)

The Recruit Cultist Action allows you to place a Cultist from your Pool onto the Map. You must have one of your Units in the Area where you

Recruit the Cultist. This Unit can be any Unit type (another Cultist, a

Monster, or even a Great Old One). If you currently have no Units on the

Map, you do not need a Unit in an Area where the Cultist is Recruited. In this way, you can return to play even if wiped off the Map.

You may only Recruit 1 Cultist per Recruit Cultist Action.

Summon Monster Cost: varies (Requires a Controlled Gate)

The Summon Monster Action allows you to place a Monster from your

Pool onto the Map. You must Control a Gate in the Area where you

Summon the Monster. Pay the Monster’s Cost (found on your Faction

Card), and place it in the Area.

You may only Summon 1 Monster per Summon Monster Action.

Sometimes an ability will allow you to place a Monster on the Map (such as Yellow Sign’s Desecrate Action, or Cthulhu’s Devolve Spellbook).

These are not the Summon Monster Action, and so do not necessarily require a Gate in the Area, and could allow you to place more than 1 at a time, depending on the ability.

Awaken Great Old One Cost: varies (specific requirements apply)

Awaken Great Old One allows you to bring your Great Old One into play. Just as each Great Old One itself is unique, the way you place each one on the Map from your Pool is also unique. Your Faction Card has a series of steps (always at least two), that you must do in order to

Awaken it. All of the steps combined make up the Awaken Great Old One

Action.

As with Cultists and Monsters, you can only Awaken a single Great Old

One per Awaken Action. Of course, most Factions only have a single

Great Old One anyway.

Since a Great Old One can be

“Killed” (after which they must be re-Awakened), do not bring it out before you can protect it with other Units. Two exceptions are the King in Yellow and Cthulhu, since they are (comparatively) inexpensive to replace.

Once your Great Old One is in play, its Special Ability is now available to use. If your Great Old One leaves play (by being Killed in Battle), then that ability is no longer available until you Awaken it again. Each time you

Awaken your Great Old One, you must follow the steps again.

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Create Gate Cost: 3 Power (Requires Cultist)

To Create a Gate in an Area, you must have a Cultist there, and there cannot be another Gate there—only one Gate can ever exist in any Area. Pay 3 Power, and place the Gate. You may immediately place the

Cultist atop the Gate to indicate you now Control it. (Technically, this is a use of the Unlimited Control

Gate Action, detailed on

page 29 ).

You may only Create 1 Gate per Create Gate Action.

Move Cost: 1 Power per Unit Moved

To Move Units from Area to Area, spend as much Power as you wish. For each Power spent, you may move one Unit from its current Area into an adjacent Area. It does not matter where each Unit came from or where it goes to: you can Move Units from different Areas into the same Area, or into different

Areas, or from the same Area into different Areas, or any combination you please.

Unlike Actions which place Units onto the Map from your Pool, you may Move as many Units as you want per Move Action. However, each Unit may only Move once per Move Action.

Move Action

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Before Move Great Cthulhu Moves 3 Units at once, in a single Move Action, costing him 3 Power.

Avoiding Capture by Monsters

Battle Cost: 1 Power (Requires Unit with at least 1 Combat)

To Battle another Faction, choose any Area in which both you and an enemy Faction have at least one Unit. If more than one enemy Faction has Units present, you must choose only one Faction to fight. All other

Factions in the Area are merely idle bystanders.

In the Battle, each side will roll dice equal to their Combat total and inflict results on each other. Combat total is determined by totaling the Combat of each of your Units (found on your Faction Card) in the Battle. You must have at least 1 Combat on your side in order to declare a Battle. You may still declare a Battle on an enemy who has 0

Combat.

You may only Battle once, in one Area, per Battle Action.

Battle has several other rules and characteristics, all of which will be detailed on

page 37 .

Capture Cultist Cost: 1 Power

The Capture Cultist Action is a means of removing enemy Cultists from the Map, and then Sacrificing them to your Great Old One later to gain Power. A Captured Cultist has been Eliminated, and is therefore no longer in play. However, unlike a normal Elimination, it does not immediately return to its Faction’s Pool until the next Gather

Power Phase (providing the Faction who Captured it with 1 Power).

To signify that it is neither in play, nor in its Faction’s Pool, when you

Capture a Cultist, place it on your Faction Card.

To Capture an enemy Cultist, you must have a Monster or Great

Old One in the same Area. However, the enemy Cultist you wish to

Capture cannot have a protector in the same Area. Cthulhu Wars has a pecking order of protectors. Great Old Ones outrank Monsters, which in turn outrank Cultists. A Great Old One can Capture an enemy

Cultist, unless the target is protected by its own Great Old One in the Area. A Monster can capture an enemy Cultist, unless the target is protected by its own Monster (or Great Old One). Cultists cannot capture Cultists. Note that even a single Monster protects a Cultist against any number of enemy Monsters who may wish to Capture it.

You may only Capture 1 enemy Cultist per Capture Cultist Action.

If there is more than one Cultist in the Area, the player whose Cultist is being Captured chooses which one is Captured. (Thus, you need not allow a Cultist Controlling your Gate to be Captured, unless they are the last remaining Cultist in the Area).

Frank has a Cultist Controlling a Gate in South

America.

Guy Moves two Deep Ones and a Cultist into the

Area.

27 enough to protect his lone Cultist from being

Captured by Guy’s Monsters.

Avoiding Capture by a Great Old One

Rich has three Undead and a Cultist in Europe.

Angela moves Cthulhu into Europe.

On the next turn, Rich must Move his Cultist out of the Area, Move his own Great Old One into the area, or drive away or Kill Cthulhu in a Battle.

Otherwise Cthulhu could Capture a Cultist.

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Your Monster or Great Old never protects another Faction’s Cultist from Capture by a third party. Only a Cultist’s own Faction’s Monsters and Great Old Ones can protect it.

Note that even if a Cultist has a Combat rating, or a Monster has a Combat of zero, the latter can still

Capture the Cultist. Capture is not Battle, and Battle abilities do not apply.

REMEMBER: Monsters with Combat 0 are surprisingly useful. They can protect Cultists from being Captured by other

Monsters, they can Capture Cultists themselves, and they can be taken as casualties in Battle, sparing more expensive

Units.

UNLIMITED ACTIONS

Unlimited Actions are special in that they are the only type of Action you may perform beyond your 1

Action allowed on your turn. They can be performed either before or after your Action, so that a turn in the Action Phase can be expressed in three chronological steps, like this:

1 . Take any number of Unlimited Actions (including 0 ).

2 . Take a single Common, Unique, or Spellbook Requirement Action (must be exactly 1 ).

3 . Take any number of Unlimited Actions (including 0 ).

Special Note

The Yellow Sign Faction has 2 Spellbooks, named “The Screaming Dead” and “He Who is Not to be

Named,” each of which reads in part, “…Immediately after, you may take a second, different Action.”

These Spellbooks allow you to take two (non-Unlimited) Actions in a row. However, you may not perform an Unlimited Action between the two Actions from this Spellbook, as it says “Immediately.”

The use of one of these Spellbooks would make up the entirety of step 2 above.

There are two Unlimited Actions available to players: Control or Abandon Gate, and Unlimited Battle.

Control or Abandon Gate Cost: 0 Power

If you have a Cultist in an Area with an Abandoned Gate (no enemy Cultist on top of it), this Unlimited

Action moves your Cultist onto the Gate to Control it. This means that when you Create a Gate, you can immediately Control the Gate. Also, if on your turn you have a Cultist in an Area with an Abandoned

Gate, then you can Control it freely, as part of your turn, no matter what other Action you may be taking.

You can also use this Unlimited Action to take a Cultist off a Gate, Abandoning it, and placing the

Cultist in the same Area. Normally you would not Abandon a Gate. However, if your 1 Action during your turn were to Move a Cultist on a Gate to another Area, you would be Abandoning the Gate first as an Unlimited Action, then performing the Move Action as your turn. Another common use of Abandoning a Gate would be when Black Goat has the Red Sign Spellbook in effect. They might

Summon a Dark Young, Abandon the Gate in the Area with their Cultist, and then Control the Gate with the newly-Summoned Dark Young, all in the same turn (they took the Summon Action as their Action, followed up by the two Unlimited Actions of Abandon and then Control Gate).

You can perform the Control or Abandon Gate Action as many times as you like on your turn. However, it cannot be the only Action you perform. You still must perform a single Common, Unique or Spellbook

Requirement Action.

Note that Unlimited is not the same as anytime, it must occur on your turn. You cannot Control an

Abandoned Gate with a Cultist except when it is your turn to take an Action. If two players both have

Cultists in an Area with an Abandoned Gate, the first player to take an Action will be able to Control the

Gate.

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Unlimited Battle Cost: 1 Power (Requires 6 Spellbooks)

If you have 6 Spellbooks on your Faction Card, you can perform Unlimited Battle. Each Unlimited

Battle you perform still costs 1 Power, allowing you to initiate as many Battles as you wish before and/or after your single Common, Unique, or Spellbook Requirement Action.

You can still perform Battle as a Common Action if that is all you want to do on your turn. Unlimited

Battle is simply an option for you, once you have 6 Spellbooks.

Since Battle can be either Common or Unlimited when you have 6 Faction Card Spellbooks, you can first perform a Battle, and then decide whether it was Common or Unlimited. (You might do this so that after seeing the results of the Battle you can then choose to do a single Common Action or another Unlimited

Battle somewhere else, for example.)

There is an important restriction on Unlimited Battles, however: you can still only initiate one Battle per Area on your turn. You also cannot declare a Battle as a Common Action in an Area, and then do an

Unlimited Battle in the same Area: only one Battle total per Area on your turn. If, as a result of a Battle you performed, your Units are retreated to another Area, you can then do an Unlimited Battle in that new Area, and so forth. However, if they are then retreated back into the original Area, they can’t initiate a Battle there because of the 1 Battle per Area rule.

ONGOING SPECIAL ABILITIES

Ongoing special abilities are not Actions, but can take effect during the Action Phase. Because they are not Actions they do not have a Power Cost, and you can still do them (at the appropriate time) even when you are out of Power. The rule about your turn being skipped when out of Power only applies to Actions.

It does not apply to Ongoing or other types of abilities!

Between Action Effects

A few Ongoing abilities use the words “After any player’s Action...” or “At the end of any player’s

Action…” You can choose to use these abilities, just as written, after another player’s Action, but before the next Action takes place!

These can even be used in the middle of another player’s turn, if they are performing Unlimited Actions.

If more than one player wants to use such an ability after a player’s Action, and there is a dispute over who chooses to use their ability first, resolve it by turn order (i.e., the First Player goes first).

Ongoing Ability During a Player’s Turn

Before Zoran’s Turn.

Zoran has 6 Spellbooks and it is his turn. First, he performs the Move

Action and moves several of his Monsters into an Area containing 2 of

Ben’s Units, both of which are Cultists.

Ben has the Devolve Spellbook. Fearing that Zoran will declare an

Unlimited Battle after Moving into the Area, Ben uses the Devolve

Spellbook immediately after Zoran’s Move Action, to replace one of his

Cultists with a Deep One.

Zoran can still choose to Battle Ben, since it is his turn and he has the so now that Ben has a Monster of his own!

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Gather Power Phase

After the Action Phase, every player is out of Power. In the Gather Power Phase, all players earn Power anew, placing their Power Marker on the new total along their Power Track. Each player performs the

Gather Power Phase simultaneously. (If this is the first game for anyone, it is best to go through it player by player).

HOW TO EARN POWER

‘ Earn 1 Power for each Cultist you have in play.

‘ Earn 2 Power for each Gate you Control.

‘ Earn 1 Power for each Abandoned Gate on the Map (each player gains 1 Power per Abandoned

Gate).

‘ Return all Captured Cultists to their owner’s Pools, and earn 1 Power for each Cultist you return.

You may not choose to keep a Cultist—they must be returned during the Gather Power Phase.

‘ Check for special abilities and Spellbooks that provide Power during the Gather Power Phase.

Example : Rich has two Controlled Gates and three Cultists in play. He also has Captured one enemy

Cultist. He gets 3 Power from his Cultists, and 4 Power for his two Controlled Gates. A Gate on the Map is currently Abandoned, so he gets 1 Power from that source (as do all other players). He must sacrifice the Captured Cultist, which gets him an additional 1 Power. His total Power should be set to 9 .

Non-Cultist Units such as Monsters and Great Old Ones do not (with rare exceptions) produce Power.

Only Cultists can produce Power! Also note that Factions often have some special way to gain Power during the Gather Power Phase. This differs per Faction and might require a particular Spellbook.

The Power Track goes to 20 , but you may have more than 20 Power. If a player reaches 21 or more

Power, you need to keep track of it by other means. The easiest is to “wrap around,” so that if your

Power is 23 , you would place your Faction Marker on the 3 space, and just remember that it is really 23 .

Then, when it hits the 0 space, immediately place it on 20 instead (when you are at 21 Power, represented by a ‘ 1 ’ on the track, and you spend 1 power, move it to 20 , rather than 0 , or else you would be giving yourself a free extra Power!)

MINIMUM POWER RULE

At the end of the Gather Power Phase, after everyone has recorded their Power on their Power track, check for the Minimum Power rule: if your Power is less than half that of the player with the most Power, increase your Power to be half of that player’s Power total, rounding up. Thus, at the end of the Gather

Power Phase, all players will have a Power total in a range between the highest player’s and half of the highest.

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Example : After a disastrous turn, Rich finds himself with a total of 4 Power at the end of the Gather

Power Phase. Fortunately, Angela has 13 Power, which is also the highest total, so Rich sets his Power to

7 (half of 13 , rounding up).

Once everyone has recorded their new Power total and checked for the minimum Power rule, play passes to the Determine First Player Phase.

Determine First Player Phase

During this Phase the First Player is selected. The First Player Token is given to the player who has the most Power. If two or more players are tied for most Power, then the player who had the First Player

Token last round decides which of the tied players receives the First Player Token. (They can choose themselves, if they are involved in the tie.)

After the First Player is determined, they take the First Player Token and set it in front of them. They choose whether to have the clockwise side face-up, or the counterclockwise side. Whichever side they select determines the order of play, starting with them, during all Phases until the next Determine First

Player Phase. (If you have a special First Player figure from one of our Kickstarter campaigns, simply point it in the direction you want play to proceed!)

If the same player is the First Player consecutively, they still choose anew each time whether to set the

First Player Token clockwise or counterclockwise.

Once the First Player and the direction of play have both been determined, play passes to the Doom

Phase.

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Doom Phase

When the game ends, the player with the highest Doom (and all 6 Spellbooks) will win. The Doom Phase is the primary time when players’ Doom advances. Also, this is often the Phase during which the game’s end will trigger (though not always).

The Doom Phase has two steps to complete in turn:

1 . Doom Track advancement (simultaneously)

2 . Rituals of Annihilation (in player order)

DOOM TRACK ADVANCEMENT

Advance each player’s Doom Marker on the Doom Track a number of spaces equal to her Controlled

Gates. For instance, if they Controls two Gates, they advance two spaces. This can be done simultaneously. No one gets Doom for Abandoned Gates.

RITUALS OF ANNIHILATION

Starting with the First Player and proceeding in player order, each player chooses to perform a Ritual of

Annihilation or not. Each player gets the chance to do one and only one Ritual of Annihilation.

To Perform a Ritual of Annihilation

1 . Spend Power equal to the current position of the Ritual Marker on the track (this ranges from 5 to

10 ).

2 . Advance the Ritual Marker one step up the Ritual of Annihilation track (this usually increases the cost for later players).

3 . Advance your Doom Marker on the Doom Track one space per Gate you Control (doubling your

Doom increase based on Gates this Doom Phase).

4 . Gain one Elder Sign Trophy Token per Faction Great Old One you Control in play.

Example : Rich is First Player and has three Controlled Gates and Nyarlathotep on the Map. At the start of the Doom Phase, he advances his Doom Marker three spaces, for his three Gates. All other players also advance, according to their Gate total. During the Ritual of Annihilation step, Rich decides to perform a Ritual of Annihilation. The Ritual Marker is in the 5 space, so Rich pays 5 Power (and advances the

Ritual Marker to the next space, which shows a “ 6 ”). Rich now advances his Doom marker another three spaces (for his three Gates), and receives an Elder Sign for Nyarlathotep, his Great Old One. This Doom

Phase he advanced a total of 6 spaces on the Doom Track, plus he received an Elder Sign. The next player to perform a Ritual of Annihilation must pay 6 Power, since Rich advanced the Marker. If he had not performed the Ritual of Annihilation, he would have 5 more Power entering the Action Phase, but would be missing out on those three extra Doom Points and Elder Sign.

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Instant Death

If the Ritual Marker is on 10 and a Ritual of Annihilation is performed, the Ritual marker moves to the

“Instant Death” space. This means that at the end of this Doom Phase, the game will end, and victory will be determined. See the section titled

Victory: Ending and Winning the Game on page 50 for more

details.

Players who have not yet had a chance to perform a Ritual of Annihilation when the Ritual Marker is advanced to “Instant Death” may still choose to perform one when it is their turn to choose.

The cost remains at 10 for all subsequent Rituals.

Remember, in the Doom Phase, each player gets exactly one chance, in player order, to perform a

Ritual, and this is true even in the Doom Phase in which “Instant Death” is reached.

SPECIAL EVENTS AND

ABILITIES

Some Spellbooks, special abilities or even Spellbook requirements take effect during The Doom Phase.

Usually these occur when it is your turn to perform a Ritual of Annihilation (whether you do so or not).

Examples include Black Goat’s Blood Sacrifice

Spellbook, and the two Doom Phase Spellbook requirements that Great Cthulhu fulfills. Some

Map events also occur here (available in expansion products). Additional examples abound, such as acquiring Neutral Monsters and Terrors.

If you can use multiple abilities or events, you can choose which order to perform them. Example: the

Tcho-Tcho can Awaken Ubbo-Sathla in the Doom Phase by sacrificing a High Priest, and can also be forced to Sacrifice all their High Priests for Elder Signs with Tablets of the Gods if they perform a

Ritual of Annihilation. They can choose to Awaken Ubbo-Sathla first, and then perform the Ritual (and sacrifice all remaining High Priests), or perform the Ritual first, when they also sacrifice all their High

Priests, and then not be able to Awaken Ubbo-Sathla!

Once the all players have advanced the Doom track for their Controlled Gates, had a chance to perform a Ritual of Annihilation, and performed any special abilities, play passes again to the Action Phase, to repeat the cycle of Phases.

Battle

Battle is perhaps the most complex of all events in the Cthulhu Wars game. It is an Action, initiated by a player, as described in the Action Phase section (see

page 27 ). A Battle takes place in a single Area, and

involves only two Factions, no matter what other Units may be in the Area. The Faction which initiates the Battle must have at least 1 Combat among its Units in the Battle. Even though Battle can be an

Unlimited Action (when you have 6 Spellbooks on your Faction Card), a Battle may only ever occur once per Area on a given player’s turn.

All Units in the Battle Area, from both Factions who are Battling, must participate in the Battle..

After the Battle Action has been paid for by the player who initiates it, the Battle proceeds through the following steps:

1 . Pre-Battle Abilities

2 . Combat Dice Calculation and Rolls

3 . Post-Battle Abilities and Assigning Battle Results

4 . Applying Battle Results

PRE-BATTLE ABILITIES

The first step is to use (or choose not to use) any Pre-Battle Spellbooks or abilities. As with all abilities,

Pre-Battle abilities are optional unless the text says otherwise. Because they are not Actions, they do not require Power to use (unless the text says otherwise). Some require a particular Unit type to be present in the Battle to take effect, while others merely require one of your Units to be in play (but not necessarily in the Battle itself ).

The Faction who initiated the Battle (the attacker) uses all of her Pre-Battle abilities first, in any order desired. The Faction being attacked (the defender) then chooses to use any desired, in any order. This means that all of the attacker’s Pre-Battle abilities take effect before any of the defender’s are chosen and used. If the attacker refrains from using a particular ability, they cannot then use it after the defender has chosen and used any Pre-Battle abilities.

Some Pre-Battle abilities Eliminate, Kill, or otherwise remove a Unit from the Battle. If this happens, that Unit does not participate for the remainder of the Battle, including the remainder of the Pre-Battle segment. For example, if Great Cthulhu is in a Battle, and his Faction is the attacker, Great Cthulhu may use his Pre-Battle ability Devour to Eliminate an enemy Monster or Cultist. If the Eliminated Unit had an ability (whether Pre-Battle, Post-Battle, or anything that would affect the Battle), it cannot be used, because that Unit is no longer in the Battle.

However, if that Eliminated Unit had already used its ability, and the ability generates an affect throughout the rest of the Battle, the effect remains. For example, Crawling Chaos can initiate a Battle, use its Flying Polyp’s Invisibility to “exempt” Great Cthulhu’s Shoggoth, and then even if Cthulhu

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Devoured that Flying Polyp, the Shoggoth would remain Invisible and “exempted” throughout the rest of the Battle. The Flying Polyp itself would be removed, of course.

If all Units of one Faction are somehow removed during Pre-Battle, you do not need to go on to the next step! The Battle is over—and no further abilities can be used. For example, if Great Cthulhu initiates a Battle against Crawling Chaos, and Cthulhu Devours Crawling Chaos’ sole Unit, the Battle would end.

Crawling Chaos could not even use Seek and Destroy, as the Battle is immediately over. Had Crawling

Chaos initiated the Battle, he could use Seek and Destroy first, of course.

COMBAT DICE CALCULATION AND ROLLS

Because Pre-Battle abilities may modify the Combat totals, don’t add the numbers up until all Pre-

Battle abilities have taken effect!

After all Pre-Battle abilities on both sides have taken effect, it is time to calculate Combat and roll dice. Each Unit has a Combat rating (listed on the Faction or Loyalty Card), which represents how powerful that Unit is in Battle. Some have 0 Combat, and some require a simple calculation

(such as Yellow Sign’s Monsters, and many Great Old Ones). Your

Faction’s Combat in the Battle is equal to the sum of all your Units’

Combat involved in the Battle. For example, if you are playing as Crawling

Chaos and have an Acolyte and 2 Hunting Horrors in the Battle, your

Combat would be 0 + 2 + 2 for a total of 4 Combat.

After determining Combat totals, both sides roll that many dice. You can roll simultaneously, or take turns.

After rolling, count up the number of sixes you rolled. These are Kill results. Then, count up the number of fours and fives you rolled. These are Pain results. Any rolls of 1 , 2 or 3 are misses and do not count as

Battle results. In the next segments these results will be assigned to Units and then applied.

There are a few abilities that are written as simply Battle abilities (instead of Pre- or Post-Battle). These abilities would modify this segment. For example, Opener of the Way’s Channel Power Spellbook allows him to re-roll dice that did not roll a Kill or Pain result.

POST-BATTLE ABILITIES AND ASSIGNING BATTLE RESULTS

After totaling the Battle results for each side, players must assign the results the enemy rolled to their own Units.

First, assign only the rolled Kill ( 6 ) results, but not the Pain results ( 4 or 5 ). Kills are always assigned first.

If there are Kills rolled in excess of the Units, ignore them.

When assigning the Kill results, players may choose to use any Post-Battle abilities they have available.

Post-Battle abilities typically add to, subtract from, or in some way modify the Battle results or how they are assigned. Post-Battle abilities can also add a third type of result: an Elimination. If a Post-Battle ability adds an Elimination, it must be assigned at that point (alongside the Kills). As with Kills, excess

Eliminations are ignored.

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Post-Battle abilities are unlike Pre-Battle abilities in that if they add or assign a Kill, Elimination or otherwise remove a Unit from the Battle, they do not prevent that Unit from using its own Post-Battle abilities. In other words, both sides may always use all Post-Battle abilities they have available during this segment.

There are a few Post-Battle abilities that can be used even when you are not involved in the Battle (in which case it always declares this on the text of the ability). This is the only way a Faction not directly involved in a Battle can participate. A key example is Black Goat’s Necrophagy Spellbook which reads that you can use it even when you are not involved in the Battle.

After assigning all Kills and Eliminations, it is time to assign the Pains (rolls of 4 or 5 ) to your Units. As with Kills and Eliminations, if there are excess Pains rolled, ignore them. In the next and final segment of

Battle, Kills will remove a Unit from play, and Pains will force them to retreat to adjacent Areas.

Post-Battle abilities that modify Pains may be appropriate to use when assigning Pains, rather than (or in addition to) when assigning Kills. For example, Windwalker’s Eternal ability could be used at this point, rather than when assigning Kills. Also, Crawling Chaos’ Harbinger can be activated both when a Kill and a Pain is assigned. Also, Yellow Sign’s Vengeance is used when assigning Kills, Eliminations, AND Pains.

In either case, all Kills and Eliminations must always be assigned before any Pains are.

Importantly, once a Post-Battle ability has been triggered (whether during the assigning of Kills OR the assigning of Pains), its effect takes place, no matter what happens to the Unit which has the ability— whether that Unit is also or later Killed, Eliminated, etc. In other words, Post-Battle abilities do not retroactively prevent other Post-Battle abilities from having taken place, even though they may modify

the assigning of Battle results due to already used Post-Battle abilities. (see the Battle Examples on page

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for how some Post-Battle abilities may interact in this way).

Note that many Post-Battle abilities are triggered by Kills or Pains. These are specific results, meaning that if an Elimination occurs, it would not target that ability. For example, Windwalker’s Cannibalism requires an enemy Unit to be Killed, not Eliminated (such as via Devour, Abduct, etc.). Sleeper’s Demand

Sacrifice does not protect against Eliminations, only actual Kills, etc.

APPLYING BATTLE RESULTS

After all Battle results have been assigned, they need to be applied to their respective Units. Eliminations and Kills remove the Unit from the Map to be returned to their Faction’s Pool. As with assigning results, Eliminations and Kills must be applied before Pains. Both sides can remove Eliminated and Killed Units at the same time.

If you are the attacker in a Battle, and receive several Pains, a good tactic may be to Pain those Units to all the Areas around the Battle

Area to completely surround your enemy and force an extra

Elimination!

After all Eliminations and Kills have been applied, it is time to apply Pains.

Pained Units are retreated and moved to Areas adjacent to the Battle Area.

As with assigning results, you choose where your own Pained Units are retreated to. They do not need to all go to the same Area, but can be split up among multiple Areas if desired.

The player who initiated the Battle (the attacker) applies all her Pains first, followed by the defender.

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You cannot retreat a Pained Unit to an Area containing any Units belonging to the Faction you just

Battled. If there are no such adjacent Areas, such that none of your Pained Units can be retreated, then select a single Unit among them and Eliminate it. The other Units remain in the Battle Area as if they were not Pained. This Eliminated Unit can be a Great Old One!

During the application of Battle results there are some Post-Battle abilities which may take effect.

Most Post-Battle abilities affect the assigning of results, but not all. A key example is Crawling Chaos’

Madness (which also has the feature that it can be used even when Crawling Chaos is not involved in the

Battle). Crawling Chaos’ Madness ability allows him to direct where each Unit is Pained to, rather than the Faction owner.

BATTLE EXAMPLES

Simple Battle Example

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Angela initiates a Battle against Frank in East Africa. She has two

Byakhee, three Acolyte Cultists, and the King in Yellow. Frank has two Acolyte Cultists. Angela’s Byakhee gives her 1 more die than the number of Byakhee in the Area, while her Cultists and the King have Combat ratings of zero, so she rolls 3 dice. Frank is playing Black Goat, and his Frenzy Spellbook is in play, so his

Cultists each have a Combat of 1.

Frank rolls 2 dice. Angela rolls 2 Pains and no Kills, while Frank rolls a Kill and no Pains. Angela chooses to Kill one of her

Byakhee, and Frank must retreat both Cultists out of the Area.

Complex Battle Example

1

Rich initiates a Battle against Angela in East Africa. He has Cthulhu, a

Shoggoth, two Deep Ones, and three

Cultists. She has the King in Yellow and five Undead.

In the Pre-Battle segment, Rich’s

Shoggoth Absorbs one of his own

Deep Ones, and Cthulhu Devours one of Angela’s Units. She chooses an Undead (she had no choice really, because the King cannot be picked for

Devour, as a Great Old One).

Rich then rolls 12 dice (6 for

Cthulhu, 2 + 3 for the “Absorbent”

Shoggoth, and 1 for his remaining

Deep One), and Angela rolls her 3 dice (the amount she gets for having

4 remaining Undead in the Battle after

Cthulhu Devoured one). Rich scores 1

Kill and 5 Pains, while Angela rolls 1

Kill and 2 Pains. Rich assigns the Kill to one cultist, and Angela assigns the

Kill to an Undead.

Frank, as the Black Goat, chooses to use his Necrophagy Post-Battle ability to send 2 Ghouls into the Area.

Rich must add 2 Pains to the results against him (all of Angela’s Units will already be Pained from Rich’s dice results).

Rich assigns the 4 Pains against him

(2 from Angela, and 2 from the Ghouls) to everything except the Cultists on his

Gate. Angela assigns Pains to all her

Units (ignoring all additional Pains).

Now Crawling Chaos steps in. He has the Madness ability, and so he gets to choose where all Units retreat. He decides to retreat Cthulhu

First, and sends Cthulhu to Arabia,

1 green Cultist to West Africa, the

Deep One to the Indian Ocean, and the Shoggoth to the South Atlantic.

(No Yellow Sign Units were in any of these Areas). Since East Africa is now entirely surrounded by Cthulhu’s

Units, the Yellow Sign is unable to retreat any Units, and must Eliminate one of her Pained Units. She chooses an Undead, and so the King and 2 remaining Undead stay behind, along with Cthulhu’s Cultist, who is now en prise, vulnerable to the King to be

Captured!

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The following Battle Examples include abilities from expansions.

Complex Battle Example

2

42

Grant initiates a Battle with 2 Leng

Spiders and an Acolyte against Spencer who has Hastur and an Acolyte.

There are no Pre-Battle abilities, so they both roll their dice. Grant scores 2 Pains. Spencer rolls 1 Kill.

Spencer, using Hastur’s Vengeance ability, assigns the Kill he rolled to one of Grant’s Leng Spiders, rather than

Grant’s Acolyte.

Now that the Kill has been assigned,

Black Goat, who is in the game and has the Necrophagy Spellbook, decides to send in both of her Ghouls, adding 2

Pains to both Grant and Spencer.

Grant, with his 2 Leng Spiders’

Bloodthirst ability, decides to turn all

4 Pains scored against Spencer into

2 Kills. Spencer must lose both his

Acolyte and Hastur.

The 2 new Pains scored against Grant send his remaining Leng Spider and his

Acolyte to an adjacent Area.

Complex Battle Example

3

Anthony has Shub-Niggurath with a Fungus and initiates a Battle against David who has 2

Gnoph-Keh.

With no Pre-Battle abilities, they both roll their dice. Anthony rolls 1 Kill and 1 Pain.

David also rolls 1 Kill and 1 Pain. Anthony chooses his Fungus to receive the Kill, and

David must assign his to one of the Gnoph-

Keh. The Gnoph-Keh’s Berserkergang ability is now activated when a Kill is assigned to it, which Eliminates an enemy Monster or Cultist.

However, there are no enemy Monster or

Cultists to assign it to (the Fungus is already assigned a Kill, and Shub-Niggurath is a Great

Old One).

Anthony initiated the Battle, and so he first

Pains Shub-Niggurath to an Area, followed by the remaining Gnoph-Keh, who is Pained elsewhere by David.

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Complex Battle Example

4

John is playing as Black Goat and has

Cthugha and 2 Acolytes with Frenzy, and initiates a Battle against Andrew who has

2 Gnoph-Keh.

There are no Pre-Battle abilities, so both roll dice and each scores exactly 1 Kill, and no Pains. Andrew must assign the

Kill to one of his Gnoph-Keh, while John takes the Kill upon his Acolyte.

The Gnoph-Keh’s Berserkergang ability is triggered, meaning John will have to also assign an Elimination to his other

Acolyte (since Cthugha is immune, as a

Great Old One).

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However, after Andrew assigned the

Kill to his Gnoph-Keh, John decides to

“spare” the Gnoph-Keh with Cthugha’s

Fire Vampires ability, and gain 1 Power by reducing the Kill scored against the

Gnoph-Keh to a Pain instead. Since the

Berserkergang ability was triggered via the Kill assignation, which created an

Elimination, the use of Fire Vampires does not retroactively nullify the

Berserkergang’s use, even though the

Gnoph-Keh is now only going to receive a Pain.

After applying both Kills and the

Elimination, the Gnoph-Keh is now the only unit with a Pain, and is Pained to an adjacent Area by Andrew.

Complex Battle Example

5

Lincoln has Yig and an Acolyte who is poisonous via the Snakebite ability, and a

Serpent Man. Joey has an Acolyte and a

Starspawn with the Regenerate Spellbook.

Both roll their dice, and Lincoln rolls a Kill and 2 Pains. Joey rolls 1 Kill only. Lincoln assigns the Kill to his Acolyte, while Joey assigns the Kill to his Starspawn.

Post-battle abilities now occur, and Lincoln’s

Acolyte adds a Kill result to Joey’s total results. Joey must now choose whether he will apply the second Kill to the Starspawn, or to save the Starspawn and Kill his Acolyte.

He decides on the Cultist, and so the Pain is applied to the Starspawn (the other Pain that

Lincoln rolled is ignored, as there are no Units to assign it to).

With a single Pain and a single Kill assigned to it, the Starspawn is merely Pained out of the

Area (due to Regenerate).

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Complex Battle Example

6

Bruce has a lone Nyarlathotep and initiates a

Battle against Bill who has the King in Yellow with an Undead.

Bill has no Combat, but Bruce rolls a single

Pain. Bill assigns this Pain to his Undead to prevent Bruce from gaining any benefit for

Paining a Great Old One (via Harbinger).

Black Goat, however, is in the game with a

Ghoul and sends it into the Battle via her

Necrophagy Spellbook, adding a Pain to both sides.

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Nyarlathotep is now Pained, but there is also a Pain against the King in Yellow, and so

Nyarlathotep’s Harbinger ability takes effect.

Bruce decides to gain 2 Elder Signs, and then, via Madness, Bruce decides where the King, the Undead, and Nyarlathotep are all Pained to.

Complex Battle Example

7

Arthur has Gobogeg, 3 Leng Spiders, and a Formless Spawn, and initiates a

Battle against Alice who has 6 Acolytes and a Gug.

There are no Pre-Battle abilities, so dice are rolled. Arthur rolls 2 Kills and

2 Pains. Alice rolls 1 Pain. Alice assigns the 2 Kills and 2 Pains all to Cultists.

Arthur assigns the Pain to Gobogeg.

Since Gobogeg is Pained, his

Threnody ability then causes all Units

(on both sides) without a result to receive a Pain. Alice’s remaining 2

Acolytes without results and her Gug will all receive a Pain, 5 in total.

Arthur then uses his Leng Spiders’

Bloodthirst to turn 4 of those Pains into 2 Kills (this is two uses of the

Bloodthirst ability, which he can do once per Leng Spider in the Battle).

Alice has 2 of her Acolytes receive those Kills, and she now only has a single Pain to assign (since four of them went away), which she puts on an

Acolyte. Her sixth Acolyte and her Gug end up with no Battle results assigned to them at all. However, 4 of her

Acolytes ended up being Killed. Had

Arthur chosen to use his Leng Spiders’

Bloodthirst ability before Gobogeg’s

Threnody ability, then there would have been fewer Pains for him to turn into

Kills with Bloodthirst!

Now all the Units are Pained, except the last Acolyte and Gug.

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Complex Battle Example

8

Adam has a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth and an Abomination, and all 6

Spellbooks on his Faction Card (thus he has Unlimited Battle as an option).

Dave has an Elder Thing. (Greg has a

Shantak and a Y’Golonac in a different

Area.)

Adam initiates a Battle, and rolls no Battle results. Dave rolls 2 Pains.

The Spawn of Yog-Sothoth and the

Abomination both get Pained to another Area, and then promote (via

Million Favored Ones) into 4 Mutants and a new Spawn of Yog-Sothoth, respectively. They are Pained into an

Area that contains Greg’s Shantak with

Y’golonac.

Since Adam has Unlimited Battle, he chooses to spend 1 Power to Battle

Greg.

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Adam rolls 1 Kill. Greg rolls 1 Kill as well. Adam chooses a Mutant to be

Killed, and Greg selects Y’golonac.

Before Adam can promote (via

Million Favored Ones), Y’golonac’s ability Orifices allows him to replace his Killed Y’golonac with a surviving enemy Monster. Greg selects the

Spawn of Yog-Sothoth, and hands

Y’golonac’s Loyalty Card to Adam, who is sad. It happens in this order, because Million Favored Ones reads that it takes effect after all Pains are also resolved, which has not happened yet. Orifices needs only a Kill to occur.

Adam’s 3 remaining Mutants promote into Abominations. Adam wants to

Battle Greg again, in the hopes he can get a Kill on Greg’s Shantak and transfer Y’Golonac back, but cannot do an Unlimited Battle in the same

Area twice on his turn, so Adam remains sad.

Complex Battle Example

9

Alex is playing as the Tcho-Tcho, and has Yig, an Acolyte, and his High Priest.

He initiates a Battle against Joey who is playing as Opener of the Way with

2 Mutants and the Unique High Priest

Keziah Mason.

Both sides roll exactly 1 Kill. Alex takes the Kill on his Acolyte, and Joey takes his upon an Abomination.

Since Alex’s Acolyte has the Snakebite ability, it adds a Kill to the total results against Joey, who assigns it to Keziah

Mason.

Now that Keziah Mason has been assigned a Kill, her Daemon Heroine ability is triggered, which will then add 2

Kills scored against Alex.

Since Alex’s High Priest takes a Kill, which has the Tcho-Tcho Spellbook of Martyrdom, all other Kills against the Tcho-Tcho Units are transformed into Pains (even the rolled Kill already assigned to Alex’s Acolyte since

Martyrdom applies to all Kills that were assigned). However, the Snakebite ability that triggered an extra Kill on

Joey has already taken place, so it is not removed from Keziah Mason—otherwise a paradox would occur! Post-Battle abilities that are triggered can modify the assignings of results, but do not retroactively prevent other Post-Battle abilities from having taken place; in this case, Yig’s Snakebite.

In the end, Alex’s High Priest is Killed, while Yig and his Acolyte are both

Pained. One of Joey’s Abominations and

Keziah Mason are both Killed, leaving his other Abomination the only Unit remaining in the Area. (He doesn’t have the Million Favored Ones Spellbook yet, so it doesn’t promote into a Spawn of

Yog-Sothoth.)

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50

Victory

:

Ending and Winning the Game

There are two ways that the game’s end is triggered: by a player reaching 30 or more Doom, or by the

Ritual of Annihilation track reaching Instant Death.

When a Faction reaches 30 or more Doom along the Doom track, the game will end. Since Doom increases most often during the Doom Phase, it normally ends during the Doom Phase, and if so, complete the entire Doom Phase before declaring final victory. However, a player could reveal Elder

Signs during the Action Phase, for example, and if these new Doom points increase his total to 30 or more, the game will end at the end of the current player’s turn (even if it is not the turn of the player who revealed those Elder Signs and caused it to go over 30 ).

The game can also end during the Doom Phase when the Ritual of Annihilation marker reaches the

Instant Death space. All players who have not had a chance to perform a Ritual of Annihilation may still do so. At the very end of that Doom Phase, the game will end, even if no one has reached 30 or more

Doom points.

No matter how the game’s end was triggered, all players may reveal all their Elder Signs before finally declaring victory.

When the game’s end is triggered, and after adding everyone’s Elder Signs to their Doom totals, the player with the most Doom AND with 6 Spellbooks on their Faction Card is the winner. If the player with the most Doom does not have 6 Spellbooks, whoever has the most Doom among those with all 6

Spellbooks on their Faction Card is the winner.

If two or more players have the most Doom, and both have all 6 Spellbooks, the game ends in a draw.

Both players rejoice in their shared victory!

If the game ends and no player has all 6 Spellbooks, then humanity wins! All Great Olds Ones, Monsters and evil Cultists are sucked back through the collapsing Gates. (Yay!) But all players lose together.

Rule Omega : The Final Question

We have sought diligently to cover all possible rules questions, and to make the game as true to Lovecraft as we can. But we are mere mortals, and as such, subject to error.

If you come across some ability or Spellbook conflict, and cannot find the answer in one of our FAQs (or our website FAQ online), we recommend that the players in the game vote on the desired outcome—the owner of the game should probably get a bonus—like their vote counts for double. In the end, Cthulhu

Wars is your game. If you feel compelled to add house rules to cover such issues, please do so with our blessing.

Player Tips

GENERAL TIPS

The play can be divided into two main periods—the early game and the late game.

Early Game

In the first two to three Action Phases players should try to acquire Spellbooks, build up a power base, and Summon at least a minimal army. Be choosy about when you Awaken your Great Old One, because this generally leaves you weak for the rest of that Action Phase. Battle in the early game is opportunistic, based on attempts to take Control of enemy Gates or fulfill Spellbook requirements.

Late Game

This starts once you have your Great Old One out and three to four Spellbooks under your belt. You still need to finish up your last Spellbooks, but you can now afford a Ritual of Annihilation once in a while. Remember that the earlier you do your Rituals, the cheaper they are (and the more expensive your enemy’s become). At this point, the purpose of Battle changes. You now seek to reduce your enemies’

Gates so they are less effective at Rituals. If one player surges ahead in Doom Points, get the other players to work with you against them. If you are the player who surges ahead, try to break up such alliances.

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PLAYING GREAT CTHULHU

Your Spellbooks and abilities, even unused, cast a baleful influence on your enemy’s activities.

Submerge, Dreams, and Y’ha Nthlei all cast a pall over the map hindering your opponents.

In the early game, you get Spellbooks quickly. Get

Cthulhu out on Action Phase two or three, even if he is vulnerable to an enemy attack. After all, you can re-Awaken him cheaply and gain one Elder

Sign. It is far easier to get your two “Kill/Devour”

Spellbooks once Cthulhu takes the field.

Regeneration

With this, Starspawn inure your army to harm, making them the flip-side to Absorb’s massive damage output. Cthulhu accompanied by two

Starspawns is well-armored even against enemy

Great Old Ones.

Cthulhu’s Faction is focused on destruction. Of all Factions, your Units are the most effective in a fight. On the other hand you are limited in obtaining Elder Signs, so you need to use your combat strength to ruin your enemy’s bases and keep them from taking the lead.

In the late game, use Submerge to strike critical enemy Areas. With Regeneration or Absorb plus

Cthulhu’s Immortal ability, you can hurl your forces into Battle with impunity. Cthulhu only rolls six dice, but an Absorbent Shoggoth gives you heft, plus Cthulhu’s Devour ability is better than a free Kill.

Absorb

Turns Shoggoths into major combat dice. You only need one Shoggoth per attack, so long as he has “food” available. Remember that Cultists and

Deep Ones are also useful to soak up hits so you may not want to Absorb them all.

Submerge

A critical Spellbook in the late game. Once

Cthulhu’s army submerges, not only is he safe from harm, but other players react in desperation.

If you attack an Ocean Area, you can Submerge again after the strike.

Y’ha Nthlei

Like Dreams, this inhibits the enemy. Your foes are less likely to conquer your Ocean Gates, and you don’t care as much if they do.

Devolve

Keep a Deep One in your Pool to render you immune to Capture. Just Devolve a threatened

Cultist immediately.

Dreams

This means that your enemies dare not leave a

Cultist alone on a Gate. You may not often use

Dreams vs. experienced players, but it affects their behavior throughout the game.

THWARTING GREAT

CTHULHU

Cthulhu has strong Units, but not many of them.

Each loss is a setback for him. When he hurls his might against an Area he is going to win, but you can mitigate this by not putting all your eggs in one basket. Killing Cthulhu himself isn’t particularly effective (unless you are Crawling

Chaos, since Harbinger then gives you two Power or Elder Signs), because soon he’ll be back at

R’lyeh, ready to Submerge and make your life hell.

GREAT CTHULHU:

EPILOGUE

“It was gargantuan. A mountainous form rising from the sea, surrounded by lesser monstrosities that oozed and dragged themselves toward us with distorted limbs, tentacles, and pseudopods. When we heard that the Pacific Islands were empty, we didn’t understand. We still thought in human terms. We hadn’t considered that the colossal Thing had been eating, scouring the islands of life.

And now it was here, hungry again.”

—David Mendiola

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PLAYING CRAWLING CHAOS

In the early game, focus on safety and powerbuilding. Use Flight to set up bases in inaccessible

Areas. Nightgaunts with Abduct discourage enemies from attacking your Cultists—at least they’ll need to send more than one Monster. You won’t need Nyarlathotep himself for a while, and he is stronger later in the game anyway. Your most awkward Spellbook requirement is often “Capture a Cultist”, so look for any chance to pull this off.

Crawling Chaos is all about opportunism; striking at the weak and vulnerable. While some other Factions have a faster start on attaining

Spellbooks, Crawling Chaos is often the Faction that completes his collection first. Your Units are not mighty in Battle, and your Spellbooks are defensive in nature. You are good at harassment, and debilitating foes over time.

In the late game, everything changes.

Nyarlathotep now has a huge combat ability (up to twelve dice), and instead of fearing Battle, you should seek it. Smite their Great Old Ones for the

Harbinger bonus. You can perform Rituals more safely than other players, because you can restore the Power imbalance with Thousand Forms, so you are not left as vulnerable afterwards.

Invisibility

Safely place an invulnerable Flying Polyp in an enemy Area. Also good to cancel obnoxious Units such as Starspawn.

Madness

Your signature Spellbook. It is not immediately destructive, but over the course of the game, your enemies’ Units scatter inconveniently and it takes time and energy to restore the situation.

More than any other player, you can hit an enemy where he is weak. As a result, if one player has surged ahead, the rest may try to convince you to save the day. Go ahead and save the day, but be sure to exact promises and tribute from the others. For instance, “Before I strike, I want you to evacuate your Gate in South America.” Promises are not binding in Cthulhu Wars, so make sure you

“see the money” before taking whatever Action you see fit.

Seek and Destroy

Now your Gates are protected across the world from weak-to-medium attacks, since you can throw in a two-dice Monster at will. While on the offensive, your attacks are cheaper, since your

Horror joins in for free. Also gives Nyarlathotep extra meat shields in case he is ambushed.

Abduct

In the early game, this protects Gates from enemy

Monsters. In the late game it is not as good, as you often need your Nightgaunts to soak up enemy Kills. It can sometimes be combined with

Invisibility to pick off a good Monster.

Thousand Forms

Early in the round, it forces enemies to give up a

Power advantage. Late in the round, it boosts you when they are most vulnerable. Combined with

Harbinger, you can achieve a surprise Power surge that makes your foes whine.

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Emissary of the Outer Gods

Less useful when Great Old Ones are out, but it does keep expensive Nyarlathotep safe from cheap attacks. Remember to use a Pain to retreat him somewhere safe!

THWARTING CRAWLING

CHAOS

Crawling Chaos Units are excellent at staving off weak raids, but less effective against a major attack.

Therefore take the gloves off and hit him with everything—as the Germans say, Klotzen, nicht

Kleckern !

Nyarlathotep is terrifying, but if you do Kill him, it is a major setback, and Crawling Chaos may take a whole Action Phase to recover. His Cultists have no real defensive capability, unlike other players

(Cthulhu has Devolve, Yellow Sign Passion, and Black

Goat Frenzy), so they are vulnerable.

There is not much you can do about his Power drain abilities. Just suck it up and remember that it may be better to let your own Power drop rather than give him an undeserved boost.

CRAWLING CHAOS:

EPILOGUE

“The uncertainty is the worst. No one looks up. I remember when we could see the sun. You can’t now, because They blanket the sky. No one wants to look up, and They know that. Everyday we live with the knowledge that it might be your last day. The only warning is a slither of sucking wind, flapping of wings, or the brush of something utterly alien on your skin. Then you’re gone. I see fewer and fewer friends as time passes. How long before it is my time?”

—David Mendiola

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PLAYING BLACK GOAT

In the early game, the most common mistake a novice Black Goat player makes is to initiate diasporas of Cultists to immediately achieve the

“Have Units in X Area” Spellbooks—but your enemies will move in once you are helpless from lack of Power. Build up at a sedate rate. Ensure that when you move Units into an Area they have support and protection, and in general use cheap

Monsters to occupy Areas for Spellbook purposes, rather than Cultists. Thousand Young is best used defensively, for instance when an enemy moves on one of your Gates, reactively Summon a heap of trouble for him. Create a stronghold where you can Summon Shub-Niggurath safely.

In the late game, you can sadly annoy other players. Ghroth slows and cripples rivals. Battle becomes common, so Necrophagy can occur multiple times in a single Action Phase. Avatar steals weak enemy bases with prejudice—teleport to the spot, and they must send someone to your homeland. You can then Capture their Cultist or, if the Gate is Abandoned, Recruit your own Cultist to take it over.

The enemy often comes to you, in an attempt to stop the hurting, so sit tight. If you do need to strike at a distance, you have Avatar. You may not have as many Gates as other, more mobile,

Factions, but you can make up for this—even with just two Gates plus Shub-Niggurath, Blood

Sacrifice nets you two Elder Signs and four Doom

Points per Doom Phase if you Ritual.

Necrophagy

Use with impunity, as Ghouls are cheap (free, after

Thousand Young). In a small battle, it can clean out an entire Area, allowing your Ghoul to Recruit a Cultist and take the Gate. Teleporting Ghouls around the world also helps meet Spellbook requirements.

As befits a fertility cult, Black Goat’s emphasis is on occupation and expansion—sort of like a fungus infection. Unlike other Factions, you tend to be geographically restricted. You are not deadly in Battle (in fact, you have no battle Spellbooks except Frenzy), but you have plenty of cheap throwaway Units, so you are resilient. As you hole up in your homeland, your abilities let you target enemies by remote Control. This is your true strength.

Blood Sacrifice

Lets you earn an Elder Sign every Doom Phase.

As a bonus, it puts Cultists back in your Pool, so you can Recruit them for use with Avatar or

Necrophagy Gate-stealing.

Ghroth

A complex Action, requiring timing and preparation, but worth the trouble. Some players focus on Ghroth as a central strategy. Others keep it as an occasional treat. Both techniques are effective.

Frenzy

Excellent both defensively and offensively. If a foe moves a Monster into an area, hoping for a cheap

Capture, declare Battle, and Pain him right back out.

Red Sign

Gives you potentially more baseline Power than any other Faction, plus Gate-Controlling Units that can’t be Captured. Remember, when you

Summon a Dark Young under Red Sign, you can place it right on the Gate (replacing the Cultist who Summoned it).

The Thousand Young

Its utility is obvious, but it contains subtle touches.

For instance, Summon a single Ghoul for zero

Power, in effect marking time while seeing what the other players do. It is also demoralizing for a foe to launch a mighty attack on you, destroying three or four of your Units, only to have you Summon your lost Units right back at trivial cost.

THWARTING BLACK GOAT

Black Goat is hard to dig out once settled in.

However, they are easy to fend off in the first place, as their offensive Action is limited. Their Monsters are feeble, and have other tasks to perform besides fighting. This means that their main tools for conquest are Avatar and Necrophagy, and both involve starting out weak in the target Area. React vigorously to drive them back.

Once they are established, they are hard to stop, because they gets extra Power from Red Sign, and extra Elder Signs from Blood Sacrifice. At some point, you may need to go take out one of their citadels. Luckily, all three of the other Factions can pull this off with their Great Old Ones, properly used. Don’t make the mistake of trying to extirpate

Black Goat entirely—you will fail, and if you keep focusing on them, other enemies may surge ahead.

Remember: Don’t try to cure the Black Goat infection, just keep it contained.

BLACK GOAT: EPILOGUE

“You can’t rest these days. We have nowhere to simply lie down. Our streets are overrun with beasts, loping with cloven hooves and jackal grins. The skies are no better, filled by flying abominations, dripping with fungus. I hear they take your brain. I don’t know what they do with it. Eat it? They say not. Something worse. But whatever you do, don’t go into the newly-grown woodlands. You’ll find

Them there, giant horrors all mouths and tentacles. And at the center, stands the one who made Them. No, my friend, stay out of the forest.”

—David Mendiola

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PLAYING YELLOW SIGN

In the early game, be aware that you earn

Spellbooks more slowly than other players, but concentrate on them. Awaken the King in Yellow soon (in the first Action Phase).

It’s easy to send the King in Yellow to North

America after Desecrating Europe or Asia, but occasionally it’s wiser to get into Africa early and even harsh on enemies by Capturing

Cultists with the King, or spreading Zingaya.

Many players prefer to migrate straight to

Africa or America after Awakening the King, and save the Desecration of Europe or Asia for last.

The King in Yellow, despite its lack of Combat, is a terror. It moves quickly around the board with its Undead bodyguard, and its ability to take a second Action (with Screaming Dead) means you can Move into an enemy area and immediately use Zingaya, Capture a Cultist, or

Shriek additional Byakhee there in preparation for devastating effect. You don’t spend much

Power on Summoning Monsters (most are generated via Desecration attempts), so focus on other priorities. Remember to leave a trail of Monster “breadcrumbs” behind you, so they can suckle Power from your Desecrations.

Even if an enemy moves into the area to attack you, this will cost them 2 Power (one to move, one to Battle), so a rearguard’s Elimination is no tragedy. Plus it puts your Monster back into your Pool to be recalled upon the next

Desecration or Zyngaya.

In the late game, you need to finish remaining

Spellbooks. Usually you have few Gates, so you rely on Third Eye or your two Great Old

Ones for Elder Signs. Thanks to Vengeance, when Hastur rolls into Action, you can ensure an enemy Great Old One will die. By this time you should be getting significant Power from

Feast, to be used for Rituals or other purposes.

With Hastur, you now have two choices for your double-Actions: either the King or Hastur can move, and then you can do something else useful. In the late game, Hastur’s signature move is to use He Who Is Not To Be Named to enter an enemy’s space, then Shriek of the

Byakhee to give them a bodyguard, and then declare Battle (Unlimited with six Spellbooks) to assassinate any other Great Old One.

You are constrained by strange rules, and seem to be playing your own separate game.

However, in doing so, you do plunge the other players into a living nightmare. You leave a trail of scattered Units across the map, forcing foes to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy to expunge your traces. You have no real home base, but are nomadic, leaving ruin in your wake. You get Actions more quickly than other players, and can often do two things on the same turn, which gives you a flexibility no one else has. Your Units are weak, but usually free, and numerous, which makes you resistant to loss. In effect, you can’t dish it out, but you sure can take it.

He Who is Not to be Named

The basic function is to assassinate an opposing

Great Old One, but it has other uses which become obvious with experience. Remember the extra Action does not have to involve Hastur.

Passion

Can actually “resurrect” you when out of

Power. It also hinders the foe. (i.e., they may choose to attack someone else, rather than give you Power).

Screaming Dead

You’ll use this a LOT, so don’t put it off. It needn’t be the first Spellbook you acquire, but it shouldn’t be the last either.

Shriek of the Byakhee

Flexible, and gives both defense and offense.

Shriek when an enemy invades, or after Screaming

Dead or He Who is Not to be Named to give your

Great Old Ones oomph.

Third Eye

Once you finish earning Spellbooks, Third Eye keeps you interested in Desecrating. In effect, you get an Elder Sign for 2 Power (one to move and one to Desecrate), plus at the same time you earn a potential power source and a new Monster. It’s the best bargain in the game!

Zingaya

The biggest problem with Desecration is mustering the troops. With Zingaya, you not only get a Unit, but your enemy is down a Cultist.

THWARTING THE

YELLOW SIGN

If you are playing against Yellow Sign, remember their Monsters are puny. Because they are also numerous, you need to attack them more than once to knock out an area, but at least you don’t have to fear serious losses. Third Eye is terrifying, but they need both their Great Old Ones out, plus enough Monsters to succeed at Desecrating. This gives you many tools to stop them. the Map. You can’t spend all your time attacking these, but do it when convenient.

Yellow Sign is constrained by his need to Desecrate certain Areas. If you can keep him out of, say,

Africa or the Americas, you stop their progress.

This is easier said than done, but each turn you delay their advance, the more desperate they get.

One of Yellow Sign’s oddities is that they tends to have too many Cultists sitting around in

Europe—he is benefited by losing a few of them early game, so he can use the King to bring them forth around the world. So if you want to cause the most damage, don’t hit Europe, strike at the King itself. You are unlikely to Kill the King, but just scattering their zombie army really hurts.

Yellow Sign has plenty of weak pseudo-bases (in the form of Desecration Tokens) scattered round

YELLOW SIGN: EPILOGUE

“I’ve done horrible things. I killed lifelong friends. Parents. Children. Why, you ask? Because … the King in Yellow.

He whispered … secrets and portents. It just made sense. Don’t worry, my victims didn’t stay dead. They are a gift to the

Unnamed One and so they follow, like the others. So the

King in Yellow has his entourage as he spreads his message.”

—David Mendiola

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Two Player Rules

Cthulhu Wars requires a number of sizable changes to make it an effective two-player game. First, ensure that you and your opponent are familiar with the basic set of multiplayer rules. You do not need any components or expansions beyond the base game to play 2 -Player.

TWO PLAYER SET-UP

‘ Use the 3 -Player side of the Map.

‘ Use the 4 -Player Ritual of Annihilation track.

‘ Take an unused Faction’s Doom Marker and place it at 0 on the Doom Track. This marker becomes the Decay Marker.

‘ Most expansions can be used. With the multiplicity of options available in Cthulhu Wars, however, it is likely that some combinations of expansions and Factions may lead to inequity. Please be aware of this.

CHANGES FOR TWO PLAYER GAMES

General Rules

When a Unit is Eliminated or Killed, the opposing player gains Doom equal to that Unit’s Power cost!

However, when a Unit is replaced by another, no Doom is gained.

‘ Example 1 : Black Goat Eliminates 2 Cultists for their Spellbook requirement. Their enemy gains

2 Doom.

‘ Example 2 : A Shoggoth absorbs a Cultist for Battle. Their enemy gains 1 Doom.

‘ Example 3 : When Opener of the Way Replaces a Spawn with Yog-Sothoth, or Promotes monsters with Million Favored Ones, no Doom is gained by the enemy.

‘ Example 4 : Cthulhu Devolves an Acolyte into a Deep One, no Doom is gained by the enemy.

Some Units have variable Power costs. In this case, the Doom gained is equal to the average of the Unit’s different Power costs added together, whether or not the Power benefit is currently in effect . Always round up the final total.

‘ Example 1 : Cthulhu’s Power costs are 10 / 4 , so Killing him is worth 7 Doom.

‘ Example 2 : Black Goat’s Units have a Power cost which is potentially 1 less due to Thousand

Young. Therefore, Ghouls have an average Power cost of ( 1 + 0 )/ 2 , or 0 .

5 , which means they still give the opponent 1 Doom when they die. The same goes for the other Black Goat Units, all of which end up giving the opponent Doom equal to their baseline cost, due to the rounding factor.

‘ Example 3 : Windwalker’s Gnoph-Kehs have a Power cost of 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 , which when averaged is 2 .

5 , so killing a Gnoph-Keh is worth 3 Doom.

Units which are able to avoid death by means of Abilities or Spellbooks still provide Doom to the enemy which “Killed” them, but only half as much (rounded up).

‘ Example 1 : If Rhan-Tegoth uses Eternal to avoid dying, the enemy gets 3 Doom for “Killing” him.

‘ Example 2 : If Nyarlathotep avoids death by Emissary of the Outer Gods, the enemy still gets 5

Doom for “Killing” him.

‘ Example 3 : Regenerating Starspawn who takes a single Kill and thus avoids death gives the enemy

2 Doom (half their cost of 3 ).

Action Phase

Most Actions are unchanged. Some, however, are adjusted.

At the Start of Your Turn

Before taking your turn, you must pay Power equal to the position of the Decay Marker on the Doom

Track. This marker starts at 0 , and then starts to increase when the other player runs out of Power, in effect penalizing you for taking multiple Actions in a row.

Unlimited Battle

When Unlimited Battle is unlocked for a player (by possessing 6 Spellbooks on their Faction Card), the other player also immediately gains Unlimited Battle.

Voluntarily Dropping to 0 Power

You cannot voluntarily drop to 0 Power, if you have more than 1 Power. You must perform an Action on your turn.

Running Out of Power

If you are out of Power (or, for Windwalker, if you are Hibernating), when it would be your turn to take an Action, increase the Decay Marker by 1 . Then the other player takes their turn.

Example : Rich has 1 Power left, while Frank has 10 . Rich decides to Recruit an Acolyte, going down to

0 Power. Frank then takes his turn, Moving 1 Unit. Now Frank has 9 Power. Rich is out of Power at the start of his turn, so he bumps the Decay Marker up to 1 . Frank now pays 1 Power for Decay, then takes another Action (declaring Battle, for 1 Power). Frank is now down to 7 Power. Rich is still out of Power, so he bumps the Decay Marker up to 2 . Now Frank, before taking his next Action, pays 2 Power for the

Decay Marker. His Action is to recruit a Cultist, for 1 Power. Now Frank is down to 4 Power. Rich on his

“turn” moves the Decay Marker to 3 . Frank pays 3 Power and then has 1 Power left for what is his last

Action.

Gather Power Phase

‘ Return the Decay Marker to the 0 spot on the track at the start of Gather Power.

‘ Gain Power per normal rules.

Determine First Player Phase

‘ Unchanged

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Doom Phase

‘ You do not gain Doom for simply Controlling Gates!

‘ The Ritual of Annihilation still produces Doom equal to your Controlled Gates (plus an Elder Sign per Faction Great Old One in play).

BALANCE ADJUSTMENTS

Some of the normal rules and Spellbooks from Cthulhu Wars need adjustment for the two-player version.

‘ When rolling the die for Ghroth, Thousand Forms, and Dread Curse of Azathoth, the effects are halved (round up).

Example 1 : If a 1 – 2 is rolled for Thousand Forms, only 1 Power is extorted. If a 5 – 6 is rolled, 3

Power is extorted.

Example 2 : Ghroth Eliminates 1 Cultist on a roll of 1 – 2 , and 2 Cultists on a roll of 3 – 4

(assuming Black Goat has 4 Fungi From Yuggoth in 4 Areas).

Example 3 : Dread Curse of Azathoth doesn’t halve the results; instead the number of dice are halved. Thus, if Opener of the Way has three relevant Monsters in play, he rolls 2 dice (instead of 3 ).

‘ Opener of the Way’s Gate Spellbook requirement for 12 Gates is reduced to 10 (as noted on the

Faction Card).

‘ Yog-Sothoth’s Combat is always 4 .

TIPS AND TRICKS

The damage from the Decay Marker is significant, and changes the game flow significantly. Early game strategies that work in Cthulhu Wars multiplayer may no longer be effective in the two-player version.

However, rest assured that new strategies have arisen to meet the challenge, and the game has as much depths, aggression, and chicanery as before. Have fun exploring!

Keeping your Great Old One alive is even more important than before, because his death gives the enemy a major Doom boost. Some Spellbooks become more important—Ghroth, for instance, is now one of the mightiest weapons available to Black Goat.

Also, choosing when to NOT using abilities can become a critical decision. For example, Yellow Sign may not always want to use Passion’s Power gain (since it’s not always beneficial).

We recommend against using Bokrug, Servitors of the Outer Gods, the Dhole, or the Library of Celaeno map for the two-player game. That said, it’s your game and you can do as you please.

Additional Factions

New Factions can dramatically change the gameplay of Cthulhu Wars. With the core game’s Earth Map, you may play with one of these as a fifth Faction (or with all of them with a 6 – 8 Player Map expansion), or you may replace any or all of these with any of the core game’s Factions. Every combination is interesting and different! These have been painstakingly balanced with great care through hundreds of playtests over several years.

On average they tend to entail more complexity than the core game Factions, but not always.

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Opener of the Way

COMPONENTS

PLAYING OPENER OF THE WAY

Opener of the Way is probably the weirdest

Faction of them all. Your Faction is delicate and requires precision, but has unparalleled flexibility.

In fact, your Faction begins with an important strategic decision—where to start! More than any other Faction, you must react on the fly to other players’ actions. You always have something effective you can do, but it differs depending on the situation. declare more than one Battle on a turn. This is huge for you.

Channel Power

A handy spell for obvious reasons. Your Faction is often Power-hungry, so save it for special occasions.

Don’t only use Million

Favored Ones to get big Units out—you can always purchase them outright.

Keep a Mutant with your Cultists—if someone enters your Area, this is a perfect opportunity to

Battle and promote with Million Favored Ones!

This also puts Cultists back in your Pool to be

Recruited by Monsters placed via They Break

Through.

Dragon Ascending

Choose the right time and this can reverse the course of play. Remember that using this

Spellbook is NOT an Action, which means you can do it even if you are out of Power.

Dragon Descending

If you wait until the perfect moment, you might not get its benefits—seize the day.

Though Yog-Sothoth really costs 10 Power to

Awaken ( 6 for him and 4 for the Spawn you give up), he is flexible because you can pay on the installment plan: Summon a Spawn one turn, then

Yog-Sothoth the next. Everyone else has to pay for their Great Old One all at once. Don’t forget you can Summon Monsters through him.

Dread Curse of Azathoth

Pester enemies with death from the sky. Enemy

Units are often in the same Area as Gates, and you can drive them out with Dread Curse while your

Units stay behind.

Beyond-One is best in the early game. You not only steal a Gate, but Move long distances and escape threats.

Million Favored Ones

A core ability you’ll want early.

Summon a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth early, despite the huge cost, so you can bring out your Great Old

One at the right time (usually once two to three others have taken the field). You won’t dominate the game in the beginning—you must grow over time, by promoting Units and re-designing the map’s Gate structure. Movement is not cheap for you, so use Beyond-One and They Break

Through as affordable alternatives.

They Break Through

Possibly your Spellbook most hated by Enemy players.

Use numbers to swamp an Enemy once you’ve built up. Do not fear to “promote” a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth into as few as two Mutants.

Remember once you have six Spellbooks, you can

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THWARTING OPENER OF

THE WAY

Opener of the Way’s Monsters are expensive, so he tries to promote them rather than to Summon. If you can Kill a Monster in each Battle, it becomes a losing proposition for him. He is also restricted by his need to share territories to earn Spellbooks. Turn this to your advantage by setting up traps—Areas where you can counter with overwhelming force.

OPENER OF THE WAY:

EPILOGUE

“At first we thought it was a disease. We even tried to treat it. People, seemingly at random, developed disgusting deformities.

But those people couldn’t be treated.

They didn’t want to be treated. They lashed out and, in their anger, became more and more monstrous. Near the end, fire came from the skies, destroying cities, farmland, countryside. Finally, It appeared. It was bigger than human words and seen all around the world, by everyone at the same time. Impossible? That word is now useless. We pretend to hope it won’t find us, but hiding hasn’t worked yet. No, it simply hasn’t gotten around to all of us.”

—David Mendiola

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Sleeper

COMPONENTS

PLAYING SLEEPER

Your Faction is not particularly interested in combat, and instead your Units debilitate your foes outside of Battle. You are not the quickest

Faction to gain the lead, but can be lethally petty.

Burrow

Spectacularly useful. Doubled up with Lethargy, you can save Power like crazy.

In the early game, try to build up your power base.

Summon cheap Monsters the first Action Phase, so you can start to spawn better ones via Death From

Below. Do not discount the usefulness of Cursed

Slumber, especially early game.

In the late game, ability accumulation bears grim fruit for your foes. With Tsathoggua on the Map, you can spend Action after Action in Lethargy.

If your foes don’t react, you’ll be the last player with Power left, and use it to march Tsathoggua

(cheaply, using Burrow) to Capture Monsters.

Even though Tsathoggua’s Combat is low late in the Action Phase, a couple of Formless Spawns let you inflict Kills. Demand Sacrifice either protects you from retribution or makes your opponent pay for it. If you Move with a Wizard, you can use

Energy Nexus to run away before any fight.

Capture Monster

Even for the most inexperienced player, the advantages are clear.

Cursed Slumber

Gives you a smaller Map footprint, plus you can use its cancellation to teleport a

Gate anywhere on the Map.

Then Cursed Slumber a new

Gate from your home base and set up a Gate factory.

Sleeper gets the equivalent of a two to three Power boost every turn via his free Monster from Death From Below.

Do not discount this.

Demand Sacrifice

They’ll spend the Doom point when facing

Tsathoggua, but otherwise, you can act with impunity.

Ancient Sorcery

Again, too many choices to list them all. To name just one possibility—copy Cthulhu’s Faction ability to replace a dead Tsathoggua on the cheap (plus earn an Elder Sign).

Energy Nexus

This Spellbook has SO many different ramifications and possibilities we can’t list them all!

Just two possibilities—use Cursed Slumber to Move a threatened Gate off-map, or to fulfill one of

Sleeper’s Spellbook requirements and immediately gain the Demand Sacrifice Spellbook to use in that very Battle!

You have a spellbook requirement that gives another player 3 Power—use this to bribe or bully your opponents into doing your will.

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THWARTING SLEEPER

The Sleeper is weak in Battle until he has two or more

Formless Spawn out. Take advantage of his early feebleness. Unfortunately, with Demand Sacrifice, he is hard to Kill. Sometimes you just have to suck up giving him an extra Elder Sign. To suppress Sleeper, take Actions that force him to spend Power and lose his late-turn advantage. For instance—Killing two

Formless Spawn costs him six Power to restore. Of course, Killing Tsathoggua is always a treat. Without giving him an Elder Sign, you can Eliminate his

Cultists outside of Battle (using Dreams, Zingaya or just plain Capture). He usually does not have many Gates, and they are often ill-protected, so it is effective to strike at his Gates, even if you can’t Kill him, but merely Pain him away.

SLEEPER: EPILOGUE

“The end came unexpectedly. I always thought it would be zombies or aliens or nuclear weapons. Instead, it was this ooze. It was as if the earth itself was falling apart, bleeding black tar. You couldn’t fight it any more than you could fight the ocean. Slowly, but surely, the ooze dragged us from our homes, from our families. It dragged us to that awful beast’s waiting maw. I can still see it, every time I close my eyes.”

—David Mendiola

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Tcho Tcho

COMPONENTS

SET UP

The Tcho-Tchos do not have a Glyph on the

Map. Instead, they set up after all other players in an Area with any Faction Glyph that is currently unused.

Please note that the Tcho-Tchos can set up in one of Windwalker’s starting Areas, in which case

Windwalker is forced to set up in the other one.

We do not recommend doing this if you can avoid it, though, because it gives Windwalker an instant

Spellbook (for having a Gate in another start Area).

In an 8 -player game, this is unavoidable, but does not prove a real advantage for Windwalker due to the nature of 8 -player games.

If you are using the High Priest expansion, replace one of the Tcho-Tcho’s six starting Acolytes with a High Priest. (Thus, they will start with a

Controlled Gate, five Acolyte Cultists, and a High

Priest.) The purpose behind this is that with the inclusion of High Priests, the other factions have been boosted in strength. Hence the Tcho-Tchos need a slight nudge too. This also gives them some early-game flexibility. (Note that the Tcho-Tchos do not get an extra High Priest in their Pool with this—they still only have 3 ).

If Opener of the Way is in play, place Opener’s

Faction Glyph token in his starting Area (The

Tcho Tcho need to know where it is for their

Idolatry Spellbook).

Also please note that if you are using the Unique

High Priest rules (available from Petersen Games), the Tcho-Tchos may only have one such High

Priest. You will need to distinguish him or her somehow from your other two “generic” High

Priests.

We have included Tcho-Tcho Brain Cylinder tokens in case you play a game on the Yuggoth map (or are using a homebrew version using the

Laboratory token included with that Map).

PLAYING THE

TCHO-TCHO

The Tcho-Tcho is an exciting new humancontrolled Faction. Representing the psychically advanced, but ethically repulsive Tcho-Tcho tribe, their Great Old One, Ubbo-Sathla, is a tool and slave rather than an object of worship!

Your Faction faces numerous decisions throughout the game, and requires planning. Should you accumulate High Priests or expend them to gain immediate Power? Which enemy Start Areas should you target? It is almost impossible to gain all of your Spellbooks until the fourth Action

Phase at the earliest, so in what order do you take them? Your choices affect not only you, but other

Factions who will be vying to discourage your attention.

Your only Spellbook available in the first Action phase is the one for removing your starting Gate

(not necessarily recommended). Since you’ll need a

High Priest to Awaken Ubbo-Sathla, one of your

Actions should always be to recruit a High Priest.

You now have to choose between trying to create a Gate or recruiting a second High Priest for your first round’s activities. Remember that having an extra High Priest lets you jumpstart your second round with 12 + Power (by sacrificing him), giving you a slight leg up on the other players, even those who have two Gates.

You are weak defensively at first, but enemies are typically reluctant to attack an Area containing your High Priests (due to Martyrdom). If they don’t send in Great Old Ones, you can often handle riff-raff with Proto-Shoggoths.

In the first Doom Phase take your first Spellbook for Awakening Ubbo-Sathla. If you take

Hierophants as your reward, you’re set up for 6 free High Priests over the rest of the game.

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You have a major Power advantage in the early game, because you normally spend 0 Power on your Great Old One. You can use this offensively not only to capture or build Gates, but to place your Units in enemy Start Areas to harass them.

As the game goes on, your Faction loses steam, so you eventually are fighting a rear guard action, clinging to your remaining Gates as long as possible. This is the time to finally get Tablets of the Gods, start churning through your High

Priests, and stacking up those Elder Signs.

Properly using and recycling High Priests is key to your success.

Be sure to keep a sharp eye out and notice when people are performing Rituals of Annihilation, so you can seek your Sycophancy reward.

Hierophants

Should be your first Spellbook about 90 % of the time.

Idolatry

Useful both for escaping an enemy as well as massing for an attack.

Martyrdom

A significant defensive boost for you. Not always useful as your first Spellbook.

Soulless

An excellent protective Spellbook, and the Tcho-

Tchos’ signature ability.

Tablets of the Gods

Best in the late game, though its effects do add up over time. It lets you get an Elder Sign for what amounts to 3 Power, an excellent bargain.

Terror

Transforms the puny Proto-Shoggoths into an effective Battle Monster.

THWARTING THE

TCHO-TCHOS

The Tcho-Tchos are strong at first, but then hit a wall. Appropriate Actions on your part can reduce their Map footprint. You know exactly where they are headed: your home Area! Your Monsters can attack them effectively—even non-Combat

Factions such as Yellow Sign and Black Goat have Monsters which can fight mere Tcho-Tchos.

Ubbo-Sathla is usually not dangerous until the

4 th turn or so, so don’t be frightened off by its presence.

TCHO-TCHO: EPILOGUE

“At first we thought them laughable primitives. Our obvious technical and educational superiority made us pity them.

As they moved among us, they were true to their ancient law ‘Another’s sorrow is thy joy.’ It took time to realize that our religious, business, and political leaders were being targeted disproportionately, dying to mysterious tumors, poisons, and fanatic assassins. Meanwhile, their agents whipped up frenzied mobs among the hopeless and homeless, and spent ominously vast quantities of money on mass amnesties of prisoners. Gangs of criminals terrorized the population. Anyone on the streets ran the risk of being kidnapped or murdered. Wild hordes broke into homes, plundered and raped. Then came the next step—the Tcho-Tchos emerged openly, and began to round us up to sacrifice to their foul deities. It is now clear they share no empathy with the rest of humankind. Our so-called “superiority” in law, medicine, and engineering were useless against the arcane science they practiced—they were nothing if not practical. Were any of them ever human mentally? They are in my hotel. I hear screams and gunshots, though no police are left. Who is shooting? I hear footsteps in the corridor—not all of them human.”

—Sandy Petersen

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Windwalker

COMPONENTS

PLAYING WINDWALKER

As Windwalker, you are a late bloomer. Your

Spellbooks are not always useful in the early game, and you have no good movement abilities until you Awaken Ithaqua. As the game progresses your

Units become cheaper, your strength increases dramatically, and an array of powerful options appear.

Arctic Wind

It is useful for marching your unstoppable horde to victory.

Hibernate every other Action Phase—if you do it every Phase, you are not actually getting a Power advantage. Do the math. It can be tempting to

Hibernate with a lot of Power in the bank, hoping for a super Phase next time, but if your enemies are high on Power too, this is risky. When other players have their Great Old Ones out, you should be able to bank on 2 to 4 extra Power every other

Action Phase via Hibernate.

Berserkergang

Best when you have a lot of

Gnoph-Kehs, so they are cheap to replace.

Special Rule for

Windwalker

The Windwalker Faction may never be the First

Player at the beginning of the game!

Herald of the Outer Gods

Simple and reliable. Combine with your Power advantage from Hibernate to pull ahead every turn if you dare.

Gnoph-Kehs are expensive initially, but you must start producing them to get the cost down. Before

Battling is common, you may need to Summon a

Wendigo or two—later, they should be the product of other people’s fights. While Ferox lets you leave

Cultists alone more-or-less safely, you still need to beware Cthulhu’s Dreams.

Cannibalism

Take this Spellbook early, to start your Wendigo army. It also acts as a damage shield— so long as you score a Kill in a fight, you can instantly replace one loss!

Not sure what to do with the extra Power from Hibernate? When in doubt, summon a

Gnoph-keh!

Your Great Old Ones are inexpensive and useful.

Remember that you can Awaken Rhan-Tegoth without a Gate, at either pole. This is a nasty surprise for an Enemy who thought himself safe

(particularly in light of Rhan-Tegoth’s resistance to injury).

Howl

Useful for clearing out an Area to capture a Gate, or removing an Enemy Great Old One’s protective guard.

In the late game, bring out Ithaqua to advantage, and your Spellbooks start to kick in. This is when

Ice Age is most valuable, plus your army is large enough to take the field. You lead one of the few forces that can take on even Great Cthulhu.

Generally as Windwalker you bank on one gigantic turn in which you achieve massive success, controlling five to six Gates by the end, then using your Power advantage to perform a massive Ritual of Annihilation on the following Doom Phase.

Ice Age

Useful to defend a vulnerable Gate or to lock down an Enemy Area in preparation for an invasion.

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THWARTING

WINDWALKER

When you face Windwalker, take action early, while he is still accumulating his Spellbooks and armies.

Seek an early lead in Doom points, and spread your empire far and wide, so he can’t cripple you with one big attack. The harder you harass him in the early game, the later he comes into his glory, and that’s good for you.

It may seem like a smart move to preemptively seize a polar Area, but usually all this ends up getting you is a Great Old One in the face. Rhan-Tegoth is a particularly knotty problem—you can’t Kill him, and you don’t want him to stay.

Like Cthulhu, Windwalker has a huge nighindestructible army, but a weak periphery. However, unlike Cthulhu, Windwalker is expensive to play so keep him Power-starved, to make him easier to deal with.

WINDWALKER: EPILOGUE

“They came from the North, with fur and claw. We were confident in our weapons, guns, tanks, aircraft. We tried to fight back and, at first, we held on. Little by little, they overcame us. They kept getting stronger, and our armies melted away. When the impossible juggernaut appeared, indestructible and unrelenting, all hope seemed lost. We fled, choosing to hide, rather than fight. We hoped that would keep us safe, that maybe they’d stay in the cold. But then we heard it—the sound that brought the winter. We heard the Howl.”

—David Mendiola

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Neutral Monsters

Neutral Monsters are Monsters in every way, except that they do not belong to a Faction from the start, and they have an inherent ability (rather than a Spellbook to provide them with one). They can be played with any combination of other expansions—on any Map, and with any Factions.

You may purchase the ability to Summon a Neutral Monster during the Doom Phase. You may only earn one Neutral Monster type per Doom Phase; however, there is no total limit to how many Neutral

Monster Loyalty Cards you obtain.

When it is your turn to perform a Ritual of Annihilation, simply lower your Doom by 2 points. You may still perform a Ritual if you wish. When you spend the Doom points, choose a Neutral Monster Loyalty

Card from among those available and place it by your Faction Card, adding the figures into your Pool. When you take the card, you usually get a free Monster that can be placed immediately.

Once you earn a Neutral Monster Loyalty

Card, you keep it for the rest of the game.

From then on, only you may Summon and

Control its associated Neutral Monsters.

“There were scenes of old wars, wherein Leng’s almost-humans fought with the bloated purple spiders of the neighbouring vales.”

—H.P. Lovecraft,

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

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Dreamlands Surface Monsters

Dreamlands Underworld Monsters

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Terrors

Terrors are a new type of Unit only found in some expansions.

Terrors are Summoned like Monsters, with a Summon Terror Action, requiring a Controlled Gate. They are equal to Monsters in their ability to Capture Cultists. That is, Monsters can protect Cultists against

Terrors (and vice-versa), and Great Old Ones can still Capture a Cultist protected by a Terror. However, being a separate Unit type, they are not vulnerable to abilities which specifically target Monsters. You may purchase a Terror’s Loyalty Card during the

Doom Phase.

You may purchase only one Loyalty Card per Doom

Phase, so you may not gain a Neutral Monster in the same Doom Phase as a Terror.

When it is your turn to perform a Ritual of

Annihilation, sacrifice 2 Doom and 2 Power. You may still perform a Ritual if you wish. When you spend the Power and Doom, choose a Terror

Loyalty Card and place it by your Faction Card, placing the figure on the Map as instructed.

Once you earn a Terror Loyalty Card, you keep it for the rest of the game. From then on, only you may Summon and Control that Terror.

Cosmic Terrors

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Independent Great Old Ones

Independent Great Old Ones are very similar to

Faction Great Old Ones. They have an inherent ability, are Awakened to bring into play, and have a Spellbook which only goes on its Loyalty Card.

They are very powerful, as with Faction Great

Old Ones, and can amplify your Faction’s abilities greatly—as well as disrupt enemy plans! Because many new and surprising strategies open up when you involve the use of Independent Great Old

Ones, we recommend not playing with them until you’ve had a few games of Cthulhu Wars under your belt.

The rules below govern all Independent Great Old

Ones.

SPELLBOOK

Each Independent has its own Spellbook to be earned. When the requirements are met, place the Spellbook on the Loyalty Card and reap its benefits so long as you Control the Independent.

This does not count as one of the Spellbooks on your Faction Card for any purpose (you cannot place it on your Faction card), it does not unlock

Unlimited Battle, and does not count for winning the game!

AWAKENING

Take its Loyalty Card and place the figure on the map, under your Control. Add its Spellbook and any tokens to your pool. There is no limit to how many Independents you may Control. You may use an Independent to help Awaken another one.

DEATH

If your Independent Great Old One is Killed, place its Loyalty Card, figure, unused tokens, and

Spellbook back in the general Pool (tokens already on the map remain there). If you had earned its Spellbook, it “falls off ” the Loyalty Card, and is no longer in effect. If this Independent is Awakened again, even by the same player, the

Spellbook must be earned again.

DOOM PHASE

When you do a Ritual of Annihilation, do NOT gain an Elder Sign for any Independent Great

Old Ones you Control. In the original release of

Cthulhu Wars, we did not specify this rule, and in playtests originally included Independent Great

Old Ones as providing Elder Signs when you

Ritual. This leads to particular balance issues that prove problematic. Therefore, ONLY Faction

Great Old Ones provide Elder Signs when you perform a Ritual of Annihilation. (Great Cthulhu still gets an Elder Sign when Awakening any Great

Old One, however).

Note : For your first game with Independents, we recommend using one fewer Independent than the number of players.

Great Old One Pack

1

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Great Old One Pack

2

Great Old One

Pack

3

Great Old One Pack

4

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Faction Great Old Ones as

Independents

These are Loyalty Cards, Spellbooks, and abilities designed by Sandy so that all the Faction Great Old Ones may be used as Independents as well. We do

NOT recommend using any of these as

Independents when a player is using them as a Faction in play.

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“Yog-Sothoth knows the gate.

Yog-Sothoth is the gate.

Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate.”

—H.P. Lovecraft,

The Dunwich Horror

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Mixed and Miscellaneous

Expansions

These expansions can fall into multiple categories—some include Independent Great Old Ones, as well as Neutral Monsters. Some add entirely new elements, and some are merely to replace die cut pieces with fancier plastic elements to jazz up the look and feel of the Cthulhu Wars experience.

“Outside the ordered universe is that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud...”

—H.P. Lovecraft,

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

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Azathoth

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BASICS

The Azathoth Expansion is not a playable Faction.

Instead, it has Neutral Units and Spellbooks, available to any player. Players can individually access Azathoth itself, its Monsters, and its

Spellbooks. One player may have one Neutral

Spellbook, while another receives a different one.

They are mix-and-match. Similarly, two players may each control a different Monster type.

AZATHOTH ITSELF

Azathoth is an Independent Great Old One, and as such is governed by the same basic rules for all

Independent Great Old Ones as detailed on page

86

.

Unlimited Battle, winning the game, and any other rules or abilities that reference Spellbooks on your

Faction Card (such as Nyarlathotep’s Combat rating, or the Moonbeasts’ ability for example).

Remember, Azathoth’s own Spellbook, Nuclear

Chaos, is NOT a Neutral Spellbook—it can only be placed on Azathoth’s Loyalty Card by the player who controls Azathoth. It is never placed on a player’s Faction Card.

NEUTRAL MONSTERS

The 4 Neutral Monsters in the Azathoth expansion are governed by the same basic rules for

all Neutral Monsters as found on page 80.

NEUTRAL SPELLBOOKS

These Spellbooks are a unique type of gameplay item. To earn one, simply take it instead of your normal Faction Spellbook when you achieve a

Faction Spellbook requirement.

Example : Black Goat Awakens Shub-Niggurath for the first time, which fulfills one of her

Spellbook requirements. Instead of one of her own Spellbooks, she picks one of the Neutral

Spellbooks (in this case, the Mao Ceremony).

Once you take a Neutral Spellbook, no one else can earn it. You retain that Spellbook throughout the game (exception: Recriminations). This DOES mean that you will NOT have access to one of your normal Spellbooks in this game, so choose wisely.

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A Neutral Spellbook counts as one of your 6

Spellbooks on your Faction Card for purposes of

AZATHOTH: EPILOGUE

“Everything you’ve been told about the nature of the universe is a lie. There was never any intent behind the formation of the constellations, nor placing Earth among them. Neither are the cold physics of the Big Bang Theory accurate. The truth is somewhere between, yet having little to do with either.

When well-meaning physicists begin talking about cycles of expansion and contraction, they draw near the truth. Theologists have a nugget of understanding when they discuss an all-knowing, all-caring ‘god’ (or ‘gods’) responsible for the formation of matter. But both are yet off the mark.

At the center of the universe is indeed a consciousness; an impossibly vast, monstrously cruel force that at once creates, and yet does not understand creation. It sloughs off galaxies to fend for themselves. It shudders and suns dim. When it dreams, worlds die in holocausts of madness and terror.

It is the center of all things, it is the creator and destroyer of reality.

It is Azathoth.

Madmen and sorcerers call out its name in reverential fear. They reach out to the Blind Idiot

God, hoping for secrets of power, immortality, wealth. What they receive is petulance, rage, and nightmares made real. They listen to the piping of the cavorting demons, hoping to hear a whisper of Azathoth’s truth, and come away mind-blasted shells.

Still Azathoth plays on. Unknowingly it creates universes, and moments later destroys them. Moments of its unquenchable insanity have no corresponding measure in our own time. Then there’s the real secret. The universe we inhabit, the reality we think we know… it’s not even the first one. Countless times has it been created and resorbed by Azathoth.

Countless times have beings warred, Battled, loved, died. Has it been the same universe, created and destroyed over and over? Have you lived this same life a million times? Made the same mistakes throughout eternity?

No one knows. Except Azathoth, who cares not.”

—Ben Monroe

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Ramsey Campbell Horrors

1

Ramsey Campbell Horrors

2

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High Priests

PLAYING WITH HIGH PRIESTS

The High Priest is a new type of Cultist, and belongs to the Faction of its own color. He is Recruited, like an Acolyte. He generates 1 Power during Gather Power, can Create and Control a Gate, and can be

Captured. Each Faction has only a single High Priest available. Because the High Priest is Recruited, rather than Summoned, a Gate is not needed. The High Priests benefit from all Spellbooks or abilities that reference Cultists (but not Acolytes).

Tips and Tricks

‘ Sacrifice him during Gather Power to ensure you are First Player.

‘ Recruit your High Priest in the first Action Phase. Then Sacrifice him to enable you to Awaken your Great Old One (and still have Power remaining) in the second Action Phase.

‘ If your High Priest is alone on a Gate, and an enemy threatens to Capture him, on your turn

Summon a Monster and then immediately Sacrifice the High Priest. He is safely removed from the

Map and your new Monster is not only paid for, but can help defend the Area.

‘ Sacrifice him when the other players are out of Power to “resurrect” yourself. Now you have 2

Power left to spend on Actions while they have none.

‘ Sacrifice him to permit a Ritual of Annihilation at a critical time

.

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Unique High Priests

The Unique High Priests are an additional set of rules for your High Priests, adding 8 unique abilities.

To play with the Unique High Priests rules, you need the regular High Priest miniatures.

When you Recruit a High Priest, you may choose for him or her to be a regular High Priest (with the

Unspeakable Oath ability), or to be one of the named, Unique

High Priests. (The Unique High Priests do NOT have the

Unspeakable Oath ability).

When your High Priest is

Killed or Eliminated, the next time he is Recruited, you can again choose for him to be normal or unique.

However, once you have selected a Unique High

Priest, that is the ONLY one you may Recruit during that game. Once a player has selected a Unique High Priest by

Recruiting him or her, no other player may Recruit that particular one (even if it is not currently in play, because the High Priest is dead or that player has Recruited him anew as a normal High Priest).

This is not a physical product. You can download the eight Unique High Priests from www.PetersenGames.com.

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“Asenath, it seemed, had posed as a kind of magician at school; and had really seemed able to accomplish some highly baffling marvels. She professed to be able to raise thunderstorms, though her seeming success was generally laid to some uncanny knack at prediction. All animals markedly disliked her, and she could make any dog howl by certain motions of her right hand.”

—H.P. Lovecraft,

The Thing on the Doorstep

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Colour Out of Space

The rules for the Colour Out of Space are presented below, and you can also download them in PDF form from www.PetersenGames.com

We do not recommend playing with these rules in every game. The grey Gates can be used to replace the regular die cut tokens from the core game.

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The Shining Trapezohedron

The Shining Trapezohedron contains plastic representations and miniatures of things that are otherwise die cut punchboard tokens in various other products of the Cthulhu Wars game system.

Lovecraft Bust

First Player Marker

Use this in place of the First Player token found in the core set. When you are the First Player, simply point him in the direction you want play to go.

“Thro’ the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber, past the wan-moon’d abysses of night,

I have liv’d o’er my lives without number,

I have sounded all things with my sight;

And I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being driven to madness with fright.”

—H.P. Lovecraft,

Nemesis

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Battle Dice

Use these in place of regular six-sided dice during Battle. This image is for Pains. is for a Kill, this image

Custom Dice

Use these in place of regular six sided dice for various abilities and events in Cthulhu Wars.

Additional Maps

As with additional Factions, new Maps can dramatically change the gameplay of Cthulhu Wars. Each one adds new plastic figures and new rules that only apply to that Map. As with the Earth Map in the

Core Game box, they all handle play from 2–5 players, and can be used with any of the Factions (core or additional), as well as any combination of other expansions desired.

They all add complexity, though some more than others, and can affect game length somewhat.

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Dreamlands Map

COMPONENTS

SETUP AND MAP BASICS

The Dreamlands Map has a Surface and an Underworld, each with the normal 3 - and 5 -Player sides.

Setup the game for your player count, with one of the Surface sides, and one of the Underworld sides.

For your first 4 -Player Dreamlands game, we recommend using the 5 -Player side where the majority of players start. Usually this will be the Surface.

Place the Bhole in the Vale of Pnath on the Underworld side. Place the Zoogs next to the Surface, within easy reach.

The Dreamlands Map is flat, rather than a globe. Therefore, the Surface and Underworld have edges and corners, and Units cannot move around from one edge to another.

All the Areas with Sea in their name (or in parentheses) count as Oceans or Seas for any game text referencing Oceans or Seas. We realize that the Underworld “Seas” are not necessarily water. But they have liquescent aspects (pitch, fungus goop, and Bholes swim through a canyon filled with bones called the Vale of Pnath), so they are considered ocean-like in biogeography.

TUNNELS

Moving Between the Maps

Four Areas on each board are marked with a Tunnel Glyph. Areas with a Tunnel Glyph are adjacent to the Area with the matching Tunnel Glyph on the other board. For example, a Unit in Zura can directly Move to the Ruins of Karoth. (So, for example, since Crawling Chaos’

Units may Move 2 spaces, Nyarlathotep in Zura could Move to the Ruins of Karoth, and then to another, adjacent Underworld Area, such as the Tower of Koth or Vale of Pnath).

A Unit in a tunnel Area that is Pained can retreat through the Tunnel to the other map, because they are adjacent for every purpose.

Tunnel Glyph

Players using other, Movement type, abilities to travel may do so between the two boards freely. For instance, Shub-Niggurath can Avatar to either side, Crawling Chaos’s Hunting Horrors can use Seek and

Destroy to either board, Cthulhu can use Submerge to hit both boards, etc.

Keen-eyed players may notice that the Gates and passageways do not have a direct one-to-one correspondence to the geography of the two boards. This is how things are in the Dreamlands.

CITADELS (VICTORY)

The Dreamlands Map provides an alternate source of victory. Each board has 4 Citadels. If a single player Controls Gates on all 4 Areas with a Citadel on a single board, he immediately wins, regardless of whether he has 6 Spellbooks on his Faction Card or not (or the most Doom points).

You must Control a Gate at all 4 Citadel Areas on a single board—Surface OR Underworld, and not merely some from each, in order to win.

Citadel Glyph

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If no player ever Controls Gates at all 4 Citadels of a single board, the game ends and victory is determined normally.

If Opener of the Way is in play, Yog-Sothoth’s presence in a Citadel Area DOES counts as Controlling a

Gate in that Citadel Area—even if another Faction Controls the normal Gate in such an Area, Opener of the Way could win the game by simply Controlling 3 normal Gates in the other 3 Citadel Areas!

Citadels are numbered. Some Citadels have more than one number—these Citadels are especially attractive to pesky creatures. The numbers control Bhole and Zoog activity.

THE BHOLE (UNDERWORLD)

The Bhole is a gigantic creature that normally dwells peacefully in the Vale of Pnath. Over-stimulated by the clash of forces that is Cthulhu Wars, the Bhole ravens forth to feast upon the otherworld energies released by the Factions and their Great Old Ones.

Bhole Activation and Attack

At the end of each Doom Phase, after all players have had a chance to perform a Ritual of Annihilation

(or not), check for the Bhole’s Activation and Attack.

If the Bhole is in an Area containing a Gate, it remains in place and destroys the Gate, as well as

Eliminating any Controlling Unit. The Bhole does not affect anything else in that Area. This

Elimination counts as an enemy Eliminating your Unit (so, for example, Yellow Sign can benefit from

Passion).

If the Bhole is not in an Area with a Gate, roll 1 six-sided die and move the Bhole to the Underworld

Citadel labeled with the appropriate number (even if the designated Citadel lacks a Gate). For example, on a five-player map, when a 1 or a 2 is rolled, the Bhole goes to the Sea of Pitch. On a 3 , it is sent to the

Vaults of Zin. If the Citadel the Bhole enters contains a Gate, that Gate is immediately destroyed, along with any Controlling Unit. The Bhole does not affect anything else in that Area.

If Opener of the Way is in play, and the Bhole attacks the Area with Yog-Sothoth, it destroys and

Eliminates Yog-Sothoth! (Sometimes it’s not beneficial to be coterminous with all space and time). It does this in addition to destroying the normal Gate in the Area.

How to Defeat the Bhole

Any player may initiate a Battle against the Bhole (with a Unit in the same Area).

The Bhole has a Combat rating of 6 .

A single Kill result destroys the Bhole (though it will return on the next Doom Phase!)

A Pain always sends the Bhole to the Vale of Pnath, regardless of the presence of other Units (it may not be Eliminated due to being surrounded). Crawling Chaos’ Madness Spellbook cannot send the Bhole

elsewhere, nor can Units who Battled the Bhole be Pained to the Vale of Pnath (if the Bhole is Pained). If the Bhole is already in the Vale of Pnath, it ignores the Pain.

The Bhole is a Terror Unit type. Additionally, while Spellbooks and abilities can be used in Battle against it, they can only affect your own Units. For example, you cannot use Windwalker’s Howl to send the

Bhole out of the Battle Area, nor does Demand Sacrifice have any effect on the Bhole’s dice results.

The Bhole costs 0 Power, has no Spellbooks or Doom, and has no Power of its own, or any other normal feature of a Faction for all purposes such as calculating the Combat of Tsathoggua, Ithaqua,

Nyarlathotep, etc.

The Bhole Respawns!

If the Bhole is Killed, a new Bhole re-appears in the Vale of Pnath at the end of the Doom Phase! A newly-spawned Bhole does not immediately roll to Move onto a Citadel, but is merely placed and stays in the Vale that Doom Phase. However, it does destroy a Gate and any Controlling Unit if there is one in the Vale of Pnath when it reappears.

This means that when Killed the Bhole goes to the Vale of Pnath for one Doom Phase, giving players a short grace period (as there is no Citadel in the Vale of Pnath).

ZOOGS (SURFACE)

Zoogs are small, mischievous creatures, native to the forests of the Dreamlands. When Cthulhu Wars erupts, the clever Zoogs seize their opportunity to make their mark and torment your Cultists to distraction.

The Zoogs are Monsters, and can thus be affected by any Spellbooks or abilities targeting or referencing

Monsters.

Zoog Activation and Effects

At the end of the Doom Phase, after rolling for the Bhole, roll 1 die for each Zoog that is not in play

(remember, at the start of the game, no Zoogs are in play, so roll 6 dice in the first Doom Phase). Then, place a Zoog on the Surface Citadel for each number rolled. Zoogs already on the Map simply remain in their Areas. Do not roll for them. For example, if there are 3 Zoogs not in play, roll 3 dice. If their numbers are 1 , 6 and 6 , then place a Zoog at the Surface Citadel marked with a 1 , and place the other 2 in the Surface Area with the Citadel marked with a 6 .

Any Controlling Unit on a Gate in a Citadel Area with Zoogs must immediately come off that Gate, which is now Abandoned. Zoogish pranks and other shenanigans render that Gate impossible to Control until the pests are abated.

Units may not Control Gates in Areas that contain one or more Zoogs. Before your Cultist (or Dark

Young) can Control a Gate in a Zoog-infested Area, you must rid the Area of Zoogs. To do this, you’ll need appropriate Spellbooks or to engage in Battle.

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Yog-Sothoth is not affected by Zoogs! He always counts as a Controlled Gate in a Citadel Area even if

Zoogs are there as well.

How to Defeat the Zoogs

Like the Bhole, Zoogs may be Battled.

Zoogs have 0 Combat, and so never roll any Combat dice.

Each Kill result Kills a Zoog.

Each Pain result likewise Eliminates a Zoog, but also Pains one of your Units in the Battle. This does not count as a Kill. It just means the Zoog vanished into the underbrush. As with normal Pain rules, you cannot be Pained to an Area containing Zoogs.

(Windwalker’s Howl Eliminates a Zoog, but does not reflect back a Pain, as it is not a Pain).

Remember, since Zoogs are Monsters they can be Killed, Pained, or Eliminated by appropriate

Spellbooks and abilities.

If a Zoog is somehow moved to an Area that is not a

Citadel, it is instead Eliminated from the Map.

Regardless of your efforts, all Killed and Eliminated

Zoogs return to the Map in the next Doom Phase.

“Ninety aeons ago, before even the gods had danced upon its pointed peak, that mountain had spoken with fire and roared with the voices of the inner thunders. Now it towered all silent and sinister, bearing on the hidden side that secret titan image whereof rumour told. And there were caves in that mountain, which might be empty and alone with elder darkness, or might—if legend spoke truly—hold horrors of a form not to be surmised.”

—H.P. Lovecraft,

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

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Library at Celaeno Map

COMPONENTS

SETUP AND MAP BASICS

The Library at Celaeno Map consists of two levels, the Lower Floor and the Upper Floor. Each of these is a separate board, and they should be kept near each other in play, but do not need to be adjacent. They do not connect normally, as the Library is not a globe. Therefore, the two levels have edges and corners, and Units cannot move around from one edge to another.

As with other maps in Cthulhu Wars, use the 3 -Player sides for a 3 -Player game, use the 5 -Player sides for a 5 -Player game, and use one 3 -Player and one 5 -Player side for a 4 -Player game.

There are 4 Upper Floor Areas which have square slots on them, named Barrier of Naach-Tith, Guardian

Under the Lake, Larvae of the Outer Gods, and Yr and the Nhhngr. Place each corresponding Library

Tome in its slot.

If Opener of the Way is in the game, it CANNOT start in any of those four Areas with the Library

Tomes.

The Librarian and Custodian figures begin off-Map.

Part of the library is flooded, which makes these Areas Seas. In all cases these are labeled either with the word Sea in their name, or in parentheses as (Sea). Any Sea Area is an Ocean or Sea Area for all game purposes. Note, for example, that the word “Lake” in the name does NOT denote an Ocean or Sea

Area—it must include the word Sea or Ocean.

THE STAIRWELLS AND ARCHWAYS

Stairwells

Certain Areas boast Stairwells and are are lettered A-F on each floor. These Areas are adjacent to the matching Area on the other level. For instance, in the 3 Player side of the Lower Floor the Chamber of Apkallu contains Stairwell D. It is therefore adjacent to the Area of Barrier of

Naach-Tith which is marked with a D on the Upper Floor (for both 3 and 5 player sides).

A Unit in a Stairwell Area that is Pained can go through the Stairwell to the other Floor, because they are adjacent for every purpose.

Stairwell

Archways

Several Areas contain an Archway. These are similar to Stairwells, except that they are not lettered A-F. For purposes of the Move Action and movement type abilities, each Archway

Area is adjacent to EVERY OTHER Archway Area on both Floors of the Library.

However, unlike the Stairwells, the Archways are NOT adjacent when being Pained or

Retreated.

Archway

Players using other movement type abilities to travel may do so between the two boards freely.

For instance, Shub-Niggurath can Avatar to either side, Crawling Chaos’s Hunting Horrors can use Seek and Destroy to either board, Cthulhu can use Submerge to hit both boards, etc.

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Spontaneous Gate Creation

THE LIBRARY TOMES

At the start of the first Doom Phase, place a Gate in each of the four Areas where the Library Tomes were placed during setup (unless a Gate is already present).

This Gate creation only happens once. If one or more of these Areas is missing its Gate in later Doom

Phases, nothing happens.

The Library Tomes

The Library Tomes themselves act as additional Spellbooks you can have. However, they are not placed on your Faction Card and do not count towards having 6 Spellbooks (for Unlimited Battle or winning the game).

When you Control a Gate in an Area with a Tome, take that Area’s Library Tome (if it is still on the Map) and place it by your Faction Card. You may now use its ability like any Spellbook.

Overdue Library Tomes

If you lose Control of a Gate in a Library Tome Area, then that Area’s Library Tome is now Overdue.

This does not affect your use of the Tome—it remains next to your Faction Card, and you can keep using its effects.

However, having an Overdue Library Tome means you are now vulnerable to the Librarian’s vengeance

(see The Librarian on

page 129

).

SILENCE TOKENS

At the start of each Doom Phase, all players take 1 Silence Token. If a player still has a Silence Token after the Action Phase (when the Gather Power Phase starts) he must discard it. Therefore, a player can never have more than a single Silence Token at a time.

On your turn, as an Action, you may spend 0 Power, discard your Silence Token, and do one of the following:

‘ Activate the Custodian

‘ Activate the Librarian, if an enemy player has an Overdue Library Tome

Note : You may also discard a Silence Token to unflip certain Library Tomes, or to cancel the effects of the Barrier of Naach Tith.

THE CUSTODIAN

When you Activate the Custodian, you may place or Move it to any Area (or keep it in the same Area).

Then roll the Agony die. If the Custodian stays in the same Area without Moving, add + 1 to the Agony die’s final total.

A number of Units in the Custodian’s Area equal to the Agony die’s total must be Moved to The

Oubliette. If more than one Faction is present, the Activating player gets to choose how many Units must go from each Faction (up to the Agony die’s total), but the affected players get to choose which

Units are moved. The player who Activated the Custodian can be affected as well, if he chooses a number of his own Units. If there are fewer Units in the Area than the Agony die’s roll, then just Move all Units present to the Oubliette.

Example : The Yellow Sign spends 1 Silence Token to Activate the Custodian in the Black Chamber.

There are 3 Factions present—Great Cthulhu (with Cthulhu plus 2 Cultists), Crawling Chaos (a

Nightgaunt and 2 Cultists), and The Yellow Sign (King in Yellow alone). A 2 is rolled, which is increased to a 3 because the Custodian was already in the Black Chamber and didn’t Move. The Yellow Sign selects himself as one of the victims, and happily evacuates his King to The Oubliette. He decides that Crawling

Chaos must Move the remaining 2 units, and that means Cthulhu need Move none. Crawling Chaos chooses to Move his 2 Cultists, leaving his nightgaunt behind.

No player may take Control of an Abandoned Gate in the Area inhabited by the Custodian.

If the

Custodian is sent to an Area with a Controlled Gate, the Gate may remain Controlled (for the time being). If you Create a Gate in an Area with the Custodian, it must remain Abandoned, until the

Custodian leaves!

Additionally, the Custodian cannot be Battled by players. It is immune to all Spellbooks, abilities, and other effects. The only interaction it has with a Faction is when it is Activated by a player using a Silence

Token. It is not any Unit type.

THE LIBRARIAN

A player may only Activate the Librarian if at least one enemy Faction has an Overdue Library Tome.

If so, the player spends a Silence Token and places or Moves her to any Area containing at least one

Unit from an enemy Faction that has an Overdue Library Tome. Then roll the Agony die. As with the

Custodian, if the Librarian stays in the same Area without moving, add + 1 to the Agony die’s final total.

If more than one enemy Faction with an Overdue Tome is in the Area, the Activating player divides up the Agony die’s total between them.

Satisfying Agony

Each victim must satisfy all the Agony assigned to him by choosing from the following options:

‘ Satisfy one Agony for each of your Units in the Area you choose to Eliminate.

‘ Satisfy one Agony for each 1 Doom you choose to lose.

‘ Satisfy one Agony for each Overdue Tome you return to its slot.

If the victim does not have enough collective Units, Doom and Overdue Tomes to satisfy the Agony assigned to him, then the remaining Agony can be ignored.

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When an Overdue Tome is replaced due to satisfying Agony, and there is a Faction currently Controlling its respective Area’s Gate, then that player immediately takes possession of the Library Tome.

Note : The only way a player can replace a Library Tome back to the Map is by Satisfying Agony inflicted by the Librarian. You cannot otherwise voluntarily replace it, nor are you ever forced to do so (if you always choose to lose Doom or Units instead).

Example : It is the start of the Action Phase, and two Tomes are Overdue. Cthulhu has one of the

Overdue Tomes, and Black Goat has the other. The Librarian is currently at The Oubliette.

Sleeper pays a Silence token, but does not Move the Librarian, leaving her at The Oubliette, where

Cthulhu has 4 Units. Sleeper rolls a 3 on the Agony die, but since the Librarian did not Move, the result is actually a 4 . Cthulhu decides to lose 1 Unit, lose 2 Doom, and return his Tome. This satisfies all 4

Agony.

As with the Custodian, no player may take Control of an Abandoned Gate in the Area inhabited by the

Librarian.

If the Librarian is sent to an Area with a Controlled Gate, the Gate may remain Controlled

(for the time being). If you Create a Gate in an Area with the Librarian, it must remain Abandoned, until the Librarian leaves!

Additionally, the Librarian cannot be Battled by players. It is immune to all Spellbooks, abilities, and other effects. The only interaction it has with a Faction is when it is Activated by a player using a Silence

Token. It is not any Unit type.

“I had the book that told the hidden way

Across the void and through the space-hung screens

That hold the undimensioned worlds at bay,

And keep lost aeons to their own demesnes.

At last the key was mine to those vague visions

Of sunset spires and twilight woods that brood

Dim in the gulfs beyond this earth’s precisions,

Lurking as memories of infinitude.

The key was mine, but as I sat there mumbling,

The attic window shook with a faint fumbling.”

—H. P. Lovecraft

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Primeval Map

COMPONENTS

SETUP AND MAP BASICS

Setup the Maps the same way you would with the Cthulhu Wars Earth Map. One of the 4 -Player Map configurations has 9 Glacier Glyphs. The other has 11 . These are so you can have a more or less “icy” game. Try both and see which you prefer. None of the Glaciers start on the Map.

The Primeval Map significantly changes the layout of the world. Continents include Atlantis,

Hyperborea, Lemuria, and Mu. One huge continent runs all the way from Lomar, at the North Pole, to

Antarctica, while Hyperborea, Lemuria, and Mu are continental islands, like modern-day Australia.

The Ocean Areas are all Areas with the word “Ocean” in them, and no others.

THE GLACIERS

At the end of the first Doom Phase (after everyone has had a chance to perform a Ritual of Annihilation or not), place a Glacier in each player’s Start Area (whether it has a Glacier

Glyph on it or not). Remove any Units Controlling any Gates (they stay in their respective

Area) and place the Glacier onto the Gate. Note : If Windwalker is in play, do not add one to

Windwalker’s other Start Area—only the Area he actually starts in.

On all subsequent Doom Phases, at the end of the Doom Phase (after everyone has had a chance to perform a Ritual of Annihilation or not), the First Player must select 2 Areas on the Map that have the Glacier Glyph. These Areas cannot already have a Glacier in them. Place a Glacier in each of the 2 Areas. If there is a Gate in an Area, the Glacier goes on top of it, removing any

Controlling Unit (who remains in the Area).

Once all Areas containing Glacier Glyphs possess Glaciers, no more Glaciers need be placed. The remaining Areas are safe.

Glacier Glyph

If Opener of the Way is in play, Yog-Sothoth is never covered by a Glacier even if he is in an Area with a

Glacier Glyph and that Area is selected during the Doom Phase.

Effect of Glaciers

During Gather Power, Gates in Areas occupied by Glaciers are considered Abandoned. So, for example, if 4 Gates are occupied by Glaciers, all Factions would get 4 Power for these.

Once placed, Glaciers are permanent, and can never be moved or removed from the Map. If someone ever Creates a Gate in an Area already containing a Glacier, then the Glacier is immediately placed atop that Gate—the Unit which Created the Gate never has a chance to Control it.

You’ll notice the Power from all the Abandoned Gates with Glaciers supercharges your Faction. This is a

Power-rich Map!

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“Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of time.”

—H.P. Lovecraft

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Yuggoth Map

COMPONENTS

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Watcher Token

SETUP AND MAP BASICS

Set up the Map the same way you would with the Cthulhu Wars Earth Map. Place the Watcher

Token at 12 on the Doom Track, with the dark (asleep) side up.

If the Opener of the Way Faction is in play, it may NOT set up on any Area marked with the

Yellow Sign’s Chevron glyph (comprising the Laboratory, Slime Sea Overlook, and all of the

Green Pyramid Areas). It may set up in any other unoccupied Area.

The Yuggoth Map represents the (former) planet of Pluto, where alien horrors have established a base. It contains some special Areas—the Laboratory, Slime Sea Overlook, and the Green

Pyramid in particular (the latter comprises multiple Areas—the Pyramid Slopes and the Watcher

Postern).

Chevron Glyph Ocean Area names all end in the word “Sea.” Hence, the Nitrogen Sea, Polar Sea, etc. are

Ocean Areas for every game purpose.

Note that the Slime Sea Overlook is a Land Area, despite the word sea appearing in the name.

THE LABORATORY

A player that Controls a Gate in the Laboratory Area can perform the Surgery Action. If

Opener of the Way is in play, Yog-Sothoth can perform the Surgery Action when in the

Laboratory Area, and if a different Faction Controls a normal Gate in the Laboratory at the same time, both Factions may perform Surgery.

Surgery (Action: Cost 1)

If you Control the Laboratory Gate, Eliminate up to 4 of your Cultists in play and replace them with an equal number of Brain Cylinder tokens in your Faction’s Color.

Laboratory

You must place them in the same Area(s) as the Cultists they replace - they can replace your

Cultist on a Gate, immediately retaking Control of that Gate. You can also swap out Cultists that are not on the Map, but still in play (such as some of Cthulhu’s Cultists which are Submerged, or

Sleeper’s Acolyte that is on a Cursed Slumbering Gate. (Those guys are just having really bad dreams).

Brain Cylinders

Brain Cylinders are a new type of Cultist. They cannot be Recruited normally. Nor can they be placed on the Map due to special abilities which place Units (such as Yellow Sign’s Desecrate).

They cannot use the Move Action, but may perform any other game Action, in addition to all Cultist functions—i.e., they earn Power during Gather Power, Control and Create Gates, and permit the

Recruitment of Cultists in their Area.

To Move a Brain Cylinder, one of your other Units must Move with them. Your Brain Cylinders accompany your other Unit(s) for free in a Move Action. A single Unit can carry multiple Cylinders.

You can also bring Brain Cylinders along using a movement like ability, so long as that ability allows

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you to bring other non-specific Units along. For example, you can relocate them with Submerge, but not Screaming Dead, Seek and Destroy, Necrophagy, or Shriek of the Byakhee because the latter four specify specific Units that can are moved. Something that modifies the Move Action, such as the

Shantaks’ Horror Steed ability, would allow it to bring any number of Brain Cylinders (in addition to an

Acolyte or High Priest).

As Cultists, they benefit from any Spellbooks or abilities that affect Cultists (for example, Black Goat’s

Frenzy provides them with 1 Combat). They are NOT Acolytes, however, and so the ability must specify

Cultist (or Unit) to affect a Brain Cylinder.

Brain Cylinders have 0 Combat like all Cultist, and their cost is 0 for all game purposes.

Brain Cylinders cannot be assigned Pain results in Battle. Because of this, they tend to be left behind in Areas as their owners are driven away in Battle. They are also immune to Pain-like retreats, such as Windwalker’s Howl or Pains inflicted by Opener’s Dread Curse. They can still be assigned Kills

(remember, all Kills must be assigned before any Pains are, so Brain Cylinders cannot help you avoid Kills or Eliminations in Battle).

Important : In addition, Brain Cylinders by themselves do NOT prevent a Unit from being Pained into their Area in a Battle. Brain Cylinders by themselves cannot surround and therefore Eliminate an enemy

Unit.

Capturing a Brain Cylinder is like Capturing any other Cultist and follows the same rules. However, when a Cylinder is Captured, you may choose instead to “Convert” it into a Cylinder of your own

Faction Color, leaving it on the Map. Four Cylinders is a hard limit for each Faction, so if you already have four Brain Cylinders in play, and Capture a fifth, it cannot be Converted, but must be placed on your Faction card for Sacrifice in next Gather Power.

Note : A special bonus Laboratory token is included in this Expansion. This is not for the Yuggoth Map itself (as there is already a Laboratory Glyph on the Yuggoth Map). This is for players to experiment with in their own house rules, permitting them to access the Laboratory Area, the Surgery Action, and

Brain Cylinders on other Cthulhu Wars Maps! We suggest a hard rule that no player may have a Start

Area in the Laboratory’s Area (including Opener of the Way).

Alternately, you may play a variant in which Yuggoth has 2 Areas in which you can perform the Surgery

Action! If you use the token on Yuggoth, we suggest not putting it on the Slime Sea Overlook nor anywhere on the Green Pyramid.

This token is purely for player experimentation and Petersen Games has not extensively tested these variants to ensure game balance!

THE SLIME SEAS

The Faction that Controls the Gate on the Slime Sea Overlook takes this Loyalty Card and is allowed to perform the new Call Slime Mold Action.

If Opener of the Way is in play, Yog-Sothoth may perform the Call Slime Mold Action by being in the

Slime Sea Overlook. However, if there is also a normal Gate in the Overlook, and it is Controlled by a different Faction, then Yog-Sothoth CANNOT perform the Call Slime Mold Action. Only 1 Faction at a time may be able to perform the Call Slime Mold Action, and the normal Gate in the Overlook takes precedence over Yog-Sothoth. 139

Call Slime Mold (Action: Cost 0 or 1)

If you Control the Gate on the Slime Sea Overlook, place a Slime Mold in any Slime Sea

Area. If no Slimes are in play, this costs 0 ; if at least one Slime is in play, pay 1 .

Slime Molds have a Combat of 2 .

Slime Mold Slimes are Monsters. They cannot be Summoned, however. They are placed on the Map via the Call Slime Mold Action, which can only be performed by the player who Controls a Gate in the Slime Sea Overlook.

They cannot use a Move Action to go to the Slime Sea Overlook (but may be Pained there, or arrive via other means such as Great Cthulhu’s Submerge, or Shub-Niggurath’s Avatar, so long as it is not a Move Action).

They have no inherent ability.

No Slime Mold

Slime Molds are Controlled by the Faction which Controls a Gate in the Slime Sea Overlook.

If this Gate changes Control to another Faction, all Slime Molds in play change allegiance. If the Gate is Abandoned, the Slime Molds become neutral.

It is possible to declare Battle against neutral Slime Molds without affecting any other Faction. The

Slime Molds do fight back—roll dice for them and mark losses normally. If a neutral Slime Mold is Pained

(or Retreated) and Madness is not in effect, their attacker chooses where they are Pained to, following normal Pain rules. Neutral Slime Molds can also be affected by other abilities targeting a Monster (or

Unit). For example, Tsathoggua may use Capture Monster on one, and Shub-Niggurath may Avatar with a neutral Slime Mold.

Special Note : Although you may not Summon Slime Molds (you may only “Call” them), Black Goat’s

Fertility Cult will allow it to Call as many Slime Molds as desired, and in conjunction with Summoning other Monsters. The Slime Molds must still appear in the Slime Sea, even when Fertility Cult is used in their creation, of course.

Two special bonus Slime Tokens are included in this Expansion. These cannot be used on the Yuggoth

Map, or it would lead to confusion. Place each one in a separate Area on another Map expansion (or on the earth map). The “No Slimes Allowed” Area is where you can perform the Call Slime Mold Action if you control a Gate there. The other Area is where the Slimes must appear when Called. All the same rules for Slimes apply. These tokens are purely for player experimentation and Petersen Games has not extensively tested this variant to ensure game balance!

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THE GREEN PYRAMID

The Slopes of the Pyramid and Watcher Postern

The Green Pyramid consists of 2 4 Areas, depending on the side of the Map you are using. All are specially marked. One mark in each Area is the die roll result on which the Watcher appears.

The other mark is a symbol showing that Controlled Gates on the Pyramid earn 1 additional

Power during Gather Power. Therefore, Controlled Gates on any Green Pyramid Area

(including the Watcher Postern) produce 3 Power each Gather Power Phase instead of 2 . (Yog-

Sothoth produces 3 Power if he is in a Green Pyramid Area during Gather Power).

Dice

Abandoned Gates on the Green Pyramid still only produce 1 Power for all Factions.

The Watcher

The Watcher of the Green Pyramid is a hideous abnormality, a monstrous fellow to the

Great Old Ones. It dwells in the abysses beneath the Green Pyramid. Activity on Yuggoth periodically brings forth the Watcher, to ravage and destroy.

The Watcher Awakens

+1 Power if you

Control a Gate in this Area

After all players have had a chance to perform a Ritual of Annihilation (or not) during the

Doom Phase, if there is a Controlled Gate in any Green Pyramid Area at the end of the Phase, roll 1 die.

If the result equals the number printed on an Area with a Controlled Gate, the Watcher Awakens. Flip the Watcher token to the lit-up (Awakened) side, and place the figure on the Watcher Postern (regardless of which number was rolled).

Yog-Sothoth’s presence in a Green Pyramid Area counts for Awakening the Watcher, even if a normal

Gate is not Controlled in the same Area.

Also, if any player’s Doom marker passes over the dark Watcher Token, flip it to the lighted (Awake) side.

Thus, when a player first reaches or exceeds 12 Doom, the Watcher Awakens, if it is not already Awake.

If a player’s Doom reaches 12 during an Action Phase (due to turning in Elder Signs, for example), the

Watcher won’t Awaken until the following Doom Phase.

The Watcher Decays

If the Watcher is already Awake before the Doom Phase begins, roll 1 die and decrease the Watcher

Token’s position on the Doom Track by that many spaces. If it Decays to 0 , remove it from the Map, it is

Killed. In this way, the Watcher gradually dwindles and eventually vanishes, even if no players inflict Kills on it in Battle—though it may re-Awaken later!

Never Decay the Watcher on the Doom Phase in which he Awakens (and never re-Awaken the Watcher in the same Doom Phase it reaches 0 ).

Action Phase—The Watcher Attacks

If the Watcher is Awake at the start of the Action Phase, then it will Attack. This occurs before the First

Player takes a turn.

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The Watcher Attacks once per player. The First Player controls its first Attack, followed by the next player, and so forth, until each player had had a chance to control it once, or the Watcher has been destroyed.

Controlling the Watcher

On each Watcher Attack, the controlling player must Move the Watcher into an adjacent Area of his choice that contains Units of any player’s Faction. If no adjacent Area contains a player’s Units, the

Watcher may be teleported to any Map Area that contains any player’s Units. The Watcher may never remain in the same Area.

Immediately after Moving, the Watcher initiates a Battle with Combat dice equal to the Watcher Token’s position (initially 12 ). It Battles EACH Faction in the Area separately and independently, in the order chosen by the controller. For example, if 2 Factions, including the controlling player’s Units, are in the Area, the controller can choose to have himself attacked second, hoping the Watcher will have lost strength by the time it gets to him. If the Slime Molds are neutral, it does not attack them. All of these

Battles in the same Area against each Faction count as a single Watcher Attack.

The defending Faction rolls normal Combat dice against the Watcher. Each Kill drops the Watcher

Token down 1 point on the Doom Track. The Watcher is immune to all Pain.

The Watcher is a Great Old One. Additionally, while Spellbooks and abilities can be used in Battle against it, they can only affect your own Units. For example, you cannot use Windwalker’s Howl to send the Watcher out of the Battle Area, nor does Demand Sacrifice have any effect on the Watcher’s dice results.

The Watcher costs 0 Power, has no Spellbooks or Doom, and has no Power of its own, or any other normal feature of a Faction for all purposes such as calculating the Combat of Tsathoggua, Ithaqua,

Nyarlathotep, etc. As a Great Old One, however, the Watcher can provide Nyarlathotep with 2 Elder

Signs for scoring a Kill against it—it is immune to Pains, so Nyarlathotep must actually score a Kill (and no, multiple Kills against the Watcher do not provide Nyarlathotep with additional Elder Signs!).

Once the first Watcher Attack is complete, the second player takes control of the Watcher for the next

Attack (which again, includes both a Move and a Battle). This continues until all players have controlled the Watcher once (or until it has been destroyed). At that point, the First Player takes his first normal turn. During the rest of the Action Phase any player may initiate a Battle against the Watcher. It will roll its Combat dice and ignore all Pains as normal.

Since the Watcher first Awakes on the Watcher Postern, and it must

Move into an adjacent Area with

Units, you might at first feel safe by having a Gate on the Watcher

Postern itself. Be aware that the

Watcher may simply return to the

Postern on its very second Attack!

When the Watcher’s Token drops to 0 on the Doom track (even if it reaches 0 due to the Watcher Decay in the Doom Phase), it is removed from the board, and the Watcher Token is flipped back to the dark, sleeping side. It is then placed back at the 12 on the Doom track. It will re-Awaken if another player’s Doom marker reaches 12 , or via the die roll as normal.

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Extended Watcher Example

In a four-player game, Rich foolishly

Created a Gate on the 1 and 2 Area of the

Green Pyramid.

In the following Doom Phase, a 2 is rolled.

The Watcher appears on the Watcher

Postern.

Rich is the First Player, but he is also the only player with Units on the Green

Pyramid, so he is forced to Move the

Watcher into his own Area, where he has a Cultist, a Deep One, and Great Cthulhu.

The Watcher now rolls 12 Combat dice.

Rich rolls 7 Combat dice (Cthulhu’s Devour ability is useless on The Watcher). Cthulhu gets 1 Kill, and lowers The Watcher to

11 (The Watcher ignores any Pains). The

Watcher got 2 Kills and at least 1 Pain, so the Cultist and Deep One are Killed, and

Cthulhu is Pained.

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Angela, who is Crawling Chaos, uses

Madness to Pain Cthulhu to an adjacent

Area (The Twin Desolations) where Frank has his Yellow Sign Units. The First Watch

Attack is over.

Now Angela (next player in turn order)

Moves The Watcher to the Area (The

Twin Desolations) whence Cthulhu was

Pained, which also contains Frank’s Yellow

Sign Units. Angela, having a beef with

Rich, decides that The Watcher will attack

Cthulhu first. So, The Watcher rolls 11 dice against Cthulhu. Cthulhu gets 2 Kills, and the Watcher’s Combat drops to 9. Cthulhu, sadly, is Killed.

Before The Watcher can be controlled by the next player, it has to Battle all the

Factions in the Area it is in. So now it attacks Frank’s Yellow Sign Units. He has

Hastur, the King in Yellow, 3 Undead, a

Byakhee, and 2 Acolytes, who roll a total of 11 dice (the Ritual of Annihilation track is at 7). The Watcher rolls 9 dice. Frank gets 2 Kills dropping The Watcher to 7.

The Watcher gets a whopping 5 Kills and

3 Pains. Frank lets his 3 Undead and 2

Cultists be Killed (and he gains 1 Power, since he has the Passion Spellbook).

Angela, using Madness, Pains Hastur, the

King in Yellow, and the Byakhee to the

Methane Sea.

Frank is the next player in line. However, the only Area with Units adjacent to The

Watcher is the Methane Sea where his own

Yellow Sign Units were just Pained. Sadly, he now must Move The Watcher there and

Battle. It now rolls 7 dice and gets 1 Kill and 2 Pains. Frank opts to lose his Byakhee and Angela Pains his Units right back to the Twin Desolations. At least he rolled 2

Kills with his Units, dropping the Watcher to 5.

It is now Chris’s turn to Move The

Watcher. Though he could Move the

Watcher west, he is feeling devious and decides to Move The Watcher back to the

Twin Desolations to attack Frank for the third time. This time, The Watcher rolls no

Kills with his 5 dice, but it does Pain both

Hastur and the King in Yellow. Frank scores a Kill, dropping The Watcher to 4.

Angela, sad that neither Hastur nor the

King in Yellow were Killed by The Watcher, decides to split them up and Pain one to the Ammonia Sea and the other to the

Nitrogen Sea, so they are vulnerable. All players have taken a turn Moving and

Attacking with The Watcher. It now stays in the Twin Desolations where it last Moved.

The players now begin the rest of the

Action Phase, starting with Rich, who is the

First Player.

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“It traced strange pictures on the quivering air—

Half-memories that had always filled my eyes—

Vast towers and gardens; curious seas and skies

Of some dim life—I never could tell where.

But I knew that through the cosmic dome

Those rays were calling from my far, lost home.”

—H.P. Lovecraft,

Fungi from Yuggoth

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6-8

Player Maps

These Maps work similarly to the normal Maps for the Core Game and each Map expansion, but expanding the Areas to accomodate 6, 7, or 8 players. They do not come with the plastic pieces you need to play on an expansion Map—you will still need the regular 3–5 Map box to use the corresponding 6–8 player version.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Core Rules

Q . How much Power does the Crawling Chaos get for Killing or Paining Cthulhu?

A. He receives 2 Power, since that is now half the cost to Awaken Cthulhu (since, obviously, he has been Awakened once). Of course he could just take 2 Elder Signs instead. I would.

Q . Yellow Sign’s Undead and Byakhee have Combat values that change depending on how many are present in the area . If an Undead or Byakhee is exempted via Invisibility, since it is still “present” does it affect the Combat of the remaining Units?

A. An invisible Unit does not count as being “present” in the Area for this purpose. If you have two Undead in an Area, and one is turned invisible, the remaining Undead rolls zero dice, not one. The intent is that Invisibility is supposed to be useful.

Q . Regarding Crawling Chaos’s Madness Spellbook, must he obey normal restrictions on retreating Units (I .e ., not into an area containing Units of the Faction just battled)?

A. Yes, he must obey normal retreat rules. He also does not get to choose WHICH Units retreat, only their destination. Also note that with Madness, Crawling Chaos can retreat players in either order, i.e., retreating the Defender first.

Q . Black Goat has a Spellbook requirement “Share Areas with all enemies”? Do the enemies all have to be in the same Areas with your Unit(s)?

A. No. For example, in a three player game versus Cthulhu and Yellow Sign, if you have a Unit in an Area with Cthulhu’s Units and also have a Unit in an Area with a Yellow Sign Unit, this requirement is immediately fulfilled. Note that this requirement can be met during an enemy’s turn.

Q . When Crawling Chaos’s Thousand Forms or Black Goat’s Ghroth abilities are used, can a player insist on taking part of the loss, even if the other players don’t want him to?

What if a player has no Power or no Cultists—can he “disagree” with the division?

A. In the first case, this would count as a disagreement which needs to be resolved. In the second—if a player refuses to, or cannot contribute to the effect, he does not participate in further negotiations, and his agreement is immaterial.

Q . If a Ghoul is already in the target Area, but is not participating in the Battle (due to

Invisibility), can it stay there and use Necrophagy?

A. Yes! An Invisible Ghoul is “not involved” and thus could react via Necrophagy!

Q . Since Nyarlathotep cannot be Eliminated due to being surrounded (when he has

Emissary of the Outer Gods and is not Battling an enemy Great Old One), can he still

“soak” up that Elimination to protect his other Units?

A. Yes!

Q . If the Black Goat Faction is in a Battle, and uses Necrophagy, can the Ghoul that was sent to the Battle also take the Pain that it added?

A. No, the newly-called Ghoul cannot be chosen to take the extra Pain.

Q . When Yellow Sign takes the Screaming Dead or He Who is Not to be Named Action, does he have to pay the normal Power cost for his second, subsequent Action?

A. Yes! For instance, if he moved using Screaming Dead, and then immediately attempted a

Desecration, this would cost him 3 Power total (or 2 Power, if Third Eye was in effect).

Q . What happens when Crawling Chaos uses Thousand Forms, and the number rolled is higher than the sum of all other players’ power?

A. Crawling Chaos gets Power equal to the die roll.

Q . If I fail a Ghroth roll, is the free Acolyte (of any Faction) that is placed optional?

A. No. Abilities themselves are always optional (unless stated otherwise on their text), but if you choose to use an Ability, you must then do what it says—once you choose to use Ghroth, and you fail the roll, you cannot simply decide to not live with the consequences! You knew what you were getting into when you joined with Black Goat’s cult! Basically, a failed Ghroth is still intended to be a good thing—usually Black Goat has Acolytes in their Pool, but if not, then use this to place an enemy Acolyte in an Area with your Monsters so you can Capture it!

Or, help a potential ally—perhaps even request they do something for you on their turn, in return for giving them a free Acolyte.

Q . Similar to the question above, but what if I want to use Ghroth, but there are NO

Acolytes in any Faction’s Pool to be placed (in case of a failed roll)?

A. Then of course nothing happens if you fail! This is not similar to abilities such as Zingaya in which you cannot use the ability, if there are no Undead in your Pool to replace the enemy

Acolyte with. With Ghroth, chance is involved - you could Eliminate enemy Cultists (which is the main purpose of Ghroth). To be clear, the free Acolyte with Ghroth is a compensation you cannot refuse, as explained in the previous question, because you cannot normally choose to fulfill only part of an ability. But having no Cultists to place does not prevent you from trying a

Ghroth roll.

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Additional Factions

OPENER OF THE WAY

Q . How does Key and the Gate Work?

A. Opener gets two Power for Yog-Sothoth during Gather Power. He also gets one Doom point for having Yog-Sothoth on the Map during the Doom Phase. If he performs a Ritual of

Annihilation, he gets a point for Yog-Sothoth as a Gate (plus an Elder Sign for Yog-Sothoth as a Great Old One).

As a Gate, Yog-Sothoth can always Summon Monsters in his Area. Unlike other Gates, he can co-exist with a normal Gate, plus he is never Abandoned. Cultists do not Control him nor can they ride him. He cannot be Moved with The Beyond One as if he were a Gate.

Q . Does Yog-Sothoth provide Power to Cthulhu via Y’ha Nthlei if he is in an Ocean?

A. Yes, because Yog-Sothoth is an Enemy-controlled Gate in the Ocean!

Q . If Yog-Sothoth is in the Area where Ithaqua is Awakened, do you have to replace Yog-

Sothoth (as the Gate) with Ithaqua?

A. If Yog-Sothoth is the ONLY Gate in the Area, then yes. If there is another available Gate, then you must replace THAT Gate with Ithaqua instead.

Q . Can I use Beyond-One to teleport a Gate to an Area containing Yog-Sothoth, since he is, after all, a Gate as well?

A. Despite this fact, yes you can Beyond-One to Yog-Sothoth’s Area.

Q . Do enemy Great Old Ones still cancel Beyond-One if the Gate in question is not

Controlled by their Faction? And do enemy Independent Great Old Ones still cancel it too?

A. Yes and yes.

Q . If an Opener of the Way Unit in an Area is turned invisible by a Flying Polyp, does it count as “participating in a Battle” for the purpose of getting promoted by The Million

Favored Ones?

A. No. The Invisibility Spellbook states that the Unit “takes no part in the rest of the Battle.”

This includes all Post-Battle abilities and effects.

Q . If I have a Mutant and an Abomination eligible to promote via The Million Favored

Ones, but I do not have an Abomination figure in my Pool, can I first promote the

Abomination, then the Mutant (now that an Abomination figure has returned to the

Pool)?

A. Yes. You can cycle Units through your Pool in this way to promote them.

Q . If I promote a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth into 2 or more Mutants via The Million Favored

Ones, and that Spawn was Pained in the Battle, are all of his Mutant “progeny” Pained?

A. Million Favored Ones happens after all the Pains and Kills are applied, so the Spawn first

retreats into a neighboring Area, THEN shatters into multiple Mutants. This also means that if a Spawn is Eliminated by a Pain result because it was surrounded by its opponent, you do not get the Mutants.

Q . If Windwalker’s Howl is used to retreat one of Opener’s Monsters, can it still promote via Million Favored Ones?

A. No, they do not participate in the rest of the Battle, and so cannot use their Abilities.

Q . How do Battle abilities interact with Dread Curse of Azathoth?

A. Dread Curse is not considered a Battle, despite the fact that Combat dice are rolled. It cannot be combined with Channel Power or any other Pre-Battle, Battle, or Post-Battle effects

(such as Regeneration, Necrophagy or even Madness).

Q . Do you select the targets of Dread Curse of Azathoth?

A. The victim selects the targets; you just choose which results apply to which Faction. Thus, if you rolled a Kill and two Pains, you could apply the Kill and a Pain to one Faction, and the remaining Pain to another.

Q . Vis-a-vis Dread Curse of Azathoth, where do Pained Units retreat?

A. After the victim selects which Units are Pained, Opener of the Way selects which adjacent

Area each Unit retreats to. He can include Areas containing Opener of the Way Units (these

Units cannot be Eliminated by being surrounded).

Q . Can the Dread Curse of Azathoth be used to attack Units that are not Controlled by any Faction, such as Zoogs on the Dreamlands Surface Map, or Abhoth’s Filth tokens after Abhoth has been Killed?

A. No, because that Spellbook requires you to apply the Combat results to particular Factions.

In the case of Abhoth, once he is back in play, the Filth tokens may be targeted, but the Zoogs are never under the Control of a particular Faction, so they can never be targeted.

Q . Can I use Channel Power more than once in the same Battle?

A. Yes. You can keep re-rolling misses (rolls of one, two or three), paying one Power per re-roll, until you run out of Power or all the dice score results.

Q . Can I use Dragon Ascending even if I am out of Power?

A. Yes, because it is not an Action—it is simply an effect that you can apply at any time.

Q . If I use Dragon Ascending during Gather Power, who becomes the First Player?

A. You will be tied for most Power with another Player, and so whoever was previously First

Player chooses.

Q . To Awaken an Independent Great Old One, you need a Controlled Gate and your own

Great Old One . Does Yog-Sothoth, by himself, fulfill both these requirements?

A. No, because Yog-Sothoth is not, technically, a Controlled Gate.

Q . Chaugnar Faugn’s Miri Nigri ability gives Gates 3 Combat dice . Does this apply to Yog-

Sothoth?

A. Yes! For example, if there are 4 Enemy Faction Great Old Ones on the Map and Opener

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Controlled Chaugnar Faugn, then Yog-Sothoth’s Combat would be 11 ( 8 + 3 ). However, if

Opener also Controlled a normal Gate in the same Area as YogSothoth, you still only add 3 to your Combat in that Area, not 6 . The ability reads “in an Area” which means you only get the

Combat bonus once per Area, rather than once per Gate.

Q . If Sleeper uses Cursed Slumber to remove a Gate from the Map, does that lower the count towards Opener’s two Spellbook requirements which require 8 or 12 Gates to exist on the Map, respectively?

A. Yes, it lowers the count. A Gate on Sleeper’s Faction Card is not on the Map.

Q . Can Sleeper use Cursed Slumber to place a Gate from his Faction Card onto the Area containing Yog-Sothoth, but lacking a normal Gate?

A. Yes.

SLEEPER

Q . If I have Energy Nexus, and I have 0 Power, can I still do an Action that Costs 0 (Or, I’m

Hibernating via Ancient Sorcery)?

A. Yes! Using Energy Nexus does not require it to be your turn, so the rule that your turn is skipped when at 0 Power (or Hibernating) doesn’t apply.

Q . If my Serpent Man returns to the Map during the Doom Phase (Ancient Sorcery) to an

Area with Windwalker’s Ice Age token, do I pay 1 Power?

A. No, because returning the Serpent Man is not an Action—it occurs during the Doom Phase.

Q . How does Demand Sacrifice interact with the Leng Spider’s Bloodthirst?

A. Any Pains converted into Kills become single Pains. I recommend against using Bloodthrist!

Q . Can I use Lethargy forever? Thus preventing the game from ending?

A. We recommend defenestration as the quickest solution to such a player. More seriously

Sleeper cannot use Lethargy if no one else is active, just go ahead and finish out the Action

Phase.

Q . How does Ancient Sorcery affect Great Cthulhu or Yellow Sign?

A. Ancient Sorcery doesn’t affect the targeted Faction at all. However, I think what you mean is “how does Sleeper benefit from using Ancient Sorcery on Great Cthulhu or Yellow Sign?”.

The answer in the first case is that a Unique Ability that names a specific Great Old One allows

Sleeper to apply that ability to Tsathoggua. Thus, if Ancient Sorcery affects Great Cthulhu,

Sleeper can re-Awaken Tsathoggua for 4 Power (and earn 1 Elder Sign). With regards to Yellow

Sign, during Gather Power, Sleeper gains 1 Power for each Area containing one or more of his

Units plus a Desecration token (which, admittedly, had to be created by Yellow Sign).

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Q . If a Serpent Man uses Ancient Sorcery on Crawling Chaos, giving Sleeper the Flight ability, can this be combined with the Burrow Spellbook?

A. Yes. Sleeper’s Units are able to fly while burrowing. Tsathoggua is not from this part of the universe.

Q . What does it mean that an Action must originate in the Battle Area when using Energy

Nexus?

A. It means the Action, if tied to Map Areas, must begin there. So, for example, you can only use it to Move OUT of the Area (Burrow would apply), and not into it. You could only use Ancient Sorcery if the Serpent Man comes from that Area. You could Recruit, Summon,

Awaken, or Capture a Cultist or Monster in that Area. In a multi-Area situation, such as using

Mother Hydra’s Zygote Action, then at least one Recruited Cultist must be placed in that

Area. If it is not tied to a Map Area, then you may do it (such as one of Sleeper’s Spellbook requirements which are Actions). You could even do Lethargy if you wanted, but when you think about it, it doesn’t really make the most sense strategically.

Q . Can I do the Battle Action with Energy Nexus?

A. Yes. This results in an immediate Battle, with you as Attacker, which would be followed by the already-declared Battle, between whatever Units remain. You can only do 2 total Battles in a row (i.e., you cannot “chain” Battles together into an infinite loop using Energy Nexus).

However, you could use Energy Nexus to perform an Action other than Battle before the

Energy Nexus Battle which will happen before the originally declared Battle.

Q . Can I use Energy Nexus even if the Battle in the Area was not declared against me (or by me)?

A. Yes, because it is an Ongoing ability, which simply requires a Battle to be declared in the same Area as your Wizard. For example, if two other Factions Battled in an Area containing a

Wizard, Sleeper could immediately Recruit a Cultist. If all the Units involved in the Battle were

Killed and Pained out, then Sleeper could take Control of an abandoned Gate on his turn, without having to use up his next turn’s Action to Recruit a Cultist there!

Q . Can I perform Unlimited Actions in addition to my one Action when using Energy

Nexus?

A. You may Abandon and/or Control a Gate in addition to your 1 Action, but may not do an

Unlimited Battle ( 1 regular Battle is okay).

Q . Do Battle abilities still apply to a Battle if Energy Nexus removes all Units of one side so that a Battle does not really take place? For example, what if a single Monster declares Battle on Sleeper, and Tsathoggua simply uses Energy Nexus to Capture

Monster? Or, if Sleeper simply Moves all of his units out of the Area?

A. Although Energy Nexus takes place prior to Pre-Battle, follow the same rule as to what happens when all Units of a side are removed during Pre-Battle. The Battle ends, no dice are rolled, and no abilities (including Pre-Battle!) can be used at all. The Power is paid for to initiate the Battle, but no Battle actually takes place!

Q . Does Demand Sacrifice protect against Eliminations?

A. No, only Kill results.

Q . Does Tsathoggua have to be personally involved in a Battle to use Demand Sacrifice?

A. No. So long as Tsathoggua is In Play, Demand Sacrifice applies to all Battles against

Sleeper’s Units.

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Q . Can the Opener of the Way use They Break Through to Summon a Monster onto the

Cursed Slumber Gate?

A. No. The Gate and Cultist under Cursed Slumber are immune to Enemy abilities.

Q . Can Sleeper choose to Eliminate his Cultist on a Cursed Slumber Gate to satisfy losses inflicted by Ghroth (or any similar ability)?

A. Yes, but he doesn’t have to, even if it is the only Cultist he has left (since it is protected from all enemy abilities). If he DOES choose to lose it, the Gate becomes Abandoned and now provides Power to all Factions. It can still be returned to the Map by Sleeper in a later Action for 1 Power.

Q . If a Cursed Slumber Gate has a High Priest on it, can that High Priest be sacrificed for

Power and if so, what happens to the Gate?

A. Yes. The Gate becomes Abandoned, as described in the previous answer.

Q . If I have acquired the Ghast Neutral Monsters, how and when would I spawn them via

Death from Below?

A. They would count as a 2 cost Monster, since that’s their cost. If you chose to spawn them, you would only get 1 , so it is probably preferable to get some other Monster, if available, with

Death from Below.

Q . If Sleeper uses Cursed Slumber to remove a Gate from the Map, does that lower the count towards Opener’s two Spellbook requirements which require 8 or 12 Gates to exist on the Map, respectively?

A. Yes, it lowers the count. A Gate on Sleeper’s Faction Card is not on the Map.

Q . Can Sleeper use Cursed Slumber to place a Gate from his Faction Card onto the Area containing Yog-Sothoth, but lacking a normal Gate?

A. Yes.

Q . If I Move a single Shantak who brings along a Cultist (using the Horror Steed ability), does Burrow give me a refund of 1 Power?

A. No. Burrow gives you a refund based on spending two or more Power during a Move

Action, not on Moving two or more Units. In this situation, you would have to pay and Move at least one more Unit to benefit from Burrow.

Q . How does Demand Sacrifice interact with the Leng Spider’s Bloodthirst?

A. Any Pains converted into Kills become single Pains. I recommend against using Bloodthirst!

TCHO-TCHO

Q . How does Soulless interact with Gla’aki’s Green Decay and the Yithian’s Possession abilities?

A. Soulless makes the base reward 0 , rather than 1 Power. Gla’aki’s Green Decay modifies that reward to be an Elder Sign (meaning, it overrides Soulless, by replacing the base reward entirely from Power to an Elder Sign). The Yithian’s Possession adds to whatever the base

reward is (whether 1 , 0 , or an Elder Sign). Thus, a Yithian who Captured a Soulless Tcho-Tcho still provides 1 Power at least.

Q . What if the Tcho-Tcho has no Controlled Gate when you have the Hierophants

Spellbook, and you earn a Spellbook?

A. Place the High Priest anywhere on the Map you have Units. If you don’t have Units, place it anywhere on the Map. You’re probably going to lose this game.

Q . In an 8 player game, it seems like the Tcho-Tchos are forced to appear in one of

Windwalker’s start Areas . Is this really so?

A. Yep.

Q . When performing the Spellbook requirement of “Remove my Controlled Gate in my

Start Area” can I remove Yog-Sothoth?

A. Of course not. He is not your Controlled Gate.

Q . Do I benefit from Martyrdom if my High Priest is Eliminated in Battle (such as by being

Abducted or Devoured), but not actually Killed?

A. No. Martyrdom only takes effect if the High Priest is actually Killed.

Q . Give me an example of how Tablets of the Gods works .

A. If the Tcho-Tchos have this Spellbook, and do a Ritual of Annihilation, then they MUST

Eliminate all of their High Priests, turning them in for Elder Signs. Their only element of choice in the matter is whether they perform the Ritual in the first place. Or they could sacrifice their

High Priests for the Power reward, and only then do the Ritual.

Q . Can I use Terror to have some of my Proto-shoggoths reduce enemy combat, while the rest roll 2 dice each?

A. No. All Proto-shoggoths must “vibrate” the same way—so if you have 4 in an Area, you can either roll 8 dice, or roll 4 dice and subtract 4 from the enemy dice total—no Mister In-

Between. (and if the enemy’s reduction goes to below 0 , he still just rolls 0 . No negative

Combat ratings!)

Q . If the Tcho-Tcho Recruit a Unique High Priest, are they affected by the various abilities of the Tcho-Tcho regarding High Priests (Hierophants, Martyrdom, Tablets, etc .) and can they be used to awaken Ubbo-Sathla?

A. Yes to all—the Unique High Priest acts as your other two “regular” High Priests in every way, EXCEPT it cannot use the normal “Unspeakable Oath” ability, they can only use their own ability on their Loyalty Card.

Q: How does Sycophancy interact with Sleeper while using Ancient Sorcery?

A. Because the Tcho-Tcho Sycophancy unique ability applies to the entire Doom Phase,

Sleeper can use Ancient Sorcery to gain its benefit throughout that Doom Phase. In such a case, simply return the Serpent Man to the Map at the very end of the Doom Phase so you remember, rather then when it is Sleeper’s turn to perform a Ritual (or not), which is normally when you use abilities in the Doom Phase.

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WINDWALKER

Q . If my Serpent Man returns to the Map during the Doom Phase (Ancient Sorcery) to an

Area with Windwalker’s Ice Age token, do I pay 1 Power?

A. No, because returning the Serpent Man is not an Action—it occurs during the Doom Phase.

Q . How does Windwalker’s Hibernate interact with Crawling Chaos’s Thousand Forms?

A. Despite the fact that Windwalker is not an active Faction when hibernating, he does participate in the negotiations for how much Power is lost, and may choose to lose Power due to Thousand Forms.

Q . Normally when a Faction with 0 Power gains Power by some means, it re-enters the

Action Phase sequence . What happens if Windwalker under Hibernation gains Power?

A. You gain the Power, but remain under the effects of Hibernation and may take no Actions.

You may only spend Power when given the option via Spellbooks or abilities. For example, you can do so to keep Rhan-Tegoth from being Killed or Pained with his Eternal ability.

Q . Gnoph-Keh cost depends on the number of Gnoph-Kehs in the Pool . Please give a precise breakdown .

A. If no Gnoph-Kehs are on the Map, Summoning one costs four. With one on the map (and three in the Pool) Cost is three. With two each in the Pool and on map, the third will cost two, and the final Gnoph-Keh only costs one. Remember that a Gnoph-Keh Captured by

Tsathoggua is not in the Pool, and thus decreases the cost!

Q . If I have no Wendigos in my Pool, and a Wendigo is Killed in Battle, can I immediately re-spawn it via Cannibalism (assuming I’d Killed an Enemy Unit in that same Battle)?

A. Yes. Obnoxious, eh? It also works with Cultists.

Q . If both Cannibalism is used, and Black Goat’s Necrophagy is then immediately used in that same Battle, could the newly placed Acolyte or Wendigo be Pained out?

A. No, because that particular Acolyte or Wendigo did not participate in the Battle.

Q . How does Rhan-Tegoth’s Eternal ability interact with abilities such as Nyarlathotep’s

Harbinger or Cthulhu’s Spellbook requirement which needs a Kill to fulfill?

A. Rhan-Tegoth’s Eternal ability only remove the effect of a Kill or Pain on Rhan-Tegoth itself, not the effect such a result has on other abilities and Spellbooks. In other words, Nyarlathotep can still gain Power or Elder Signs and Cthulhu can still earn a Spellbook even when Eternal is being used.

Q . If Cthugha rolls a Kill on Rhan-Tegoth, but the latter uses Eternal to cancel it, does

Cthugha still have a chance to spare Rhan-Tegoth too?

A. No, Eternal takes precedence—if Windwalker chooses to remove the Kill or Pain from Rhan-

Tegoth, Cthugha cannot spare him.

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Q . What does it mean in the description of Ice Age when it refers to “any Action ending in the Ice Age Area”?

A. if the Action affects Units that finish the turn in the Area, or does something to the Area

itself. For example, Units can Move OUT of the Area for no extra cost. But moving INTO the Area costs an additional Power (not per Unit, just for the whole Move Action). For other examples, if Yellow Sign tried to Desecrate the Area, it would cost plus one Power. If Cthulhu emerged from Submerge in the Ice Age Area, he would pay plus one Power (but not if he left the Area via Submerge). Great Cthulhu’s Devolve is not an Action, so it is still free, though using Dreams would cost him four. Black Goat’s Avatar would cost plus one Power as at least one Unit will be ending that Action in that Area (even if the Unit ending up in that Area is not a Black Goat Unit). Opener of the Way’s Units can Promote after Battle and Sleeper can use Death From Below in the Ice Age Area free of cost, as these are not Actions. If Sleeper declares Lethargy while Tsathoggua is in the Ice Age Area, it costs one Power. If you use a multiple-Area Action, such as if you used Mother Hydra’s Zygote, and placed at least one

Recruited Cultists there, it would cost plus one.

Q . Controlling or Abandoning a Gate is defined in the rules as an Unlimited Action that costs 0 Power . Does this mean it costs 1 Power to Control or Abandon a Gate if the Ice

Age marker is in the Area?

A. No. These are the only two Actions (Controlling a Gate and Abandoning a Gate) exempted from Ice Age’s Power tax. Unlimited Battle still costs + 1 Power to initiate.

Q . Can Crawling Chaos Units fly over (but not land in) an Ice Age Area without spending extra Power?

A. Yes. They are not ending their Action in that Area!

Q . If Yog-Sothoth is in the Area in which you Awaken Ithaqua, can Yog-Sothoth be the

Gate you replace with Ithaqua?

A. If Yog-Sothoth is the only Gate in the Area, then yes. If there is another available Gate, then you must replace THAT Gate with Ithaqua instead.

Q . Who determines where the Unit is retreated to when Howl is used?

A. The victim decides which of his Units is retreated, and which adjacent Area it goes to.

Q . If Windwalker’s Units completely surround an Area before a Battle, and Windwalker uses Howl, is the retreated Unit Killed (as per the rule that surrounded Units must receive an extra Elimination if they cannot be Pained)?

A. No. It may retreat to an Area containing Windwalker’s Units, because Howl does not inflict a

Pain.

Q . Can Units retreated due to Howl still use their Battle Abilities that have not yet been activated (such as promoting Units via Million Favored Ones or Nyarlathotep’s

Harbinger)?

A. No, they do not participate in the rest of the Battle, and so cannot use their Abilities.

Q . Can Howl be used on Map enemies such as Zoogs, Bhole, the Watcher, etc .?

A. Although Howl works on any Unit, rather than the typical specification of a Monster or

Cultist, it does not work on the larger Map enemies such as the Bhole, Watcher, Librarian or Custodian. It would, however, work on Zoogs and neutral Slimes. (In the former case, it

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Eliminates it but does not reflect a Pain back, and in the latter, you choose where the Slime is sent to).

Q . Does Crawling Chaos’ Madness ability allow him to choose where victims of Howl are retreated to?

A. No. Howl is not a Pain, but a Retreat.

Q . Can Windwalker’s Howl retreat a Brain Cylinder on the Yuggoth map?

A. No. Brain Cylinders turn off their sensors, so they don’t hear the Howl.

Q . If you have Herald of the Outer Gods, do you still advance the Ritual of Annihilation marker up when paying the 5 Power?

A. Yes.

Q . During the Action Phase, if a Player reveals his Elder Signs and causes the game to end, does Windwalker still get to fulfill his Spellbook requirement which states “Take this

Spellbook at any time”?

A. Yes. Treat this Spellbook requirement similar to how every player may always reveal Elder

Signs at the moment the game ends. This means that Windwalker could also immediately turn in all the Elder Signs he might receive from fulfilling that Spellbook requirement. No one said

Windwalker played fair!

Q . If one of Windwalker’s Gnoph Kehs has been captured by Sleeper via Capture Monster, how does this affect the Summoning cost of the next Gnoph Keh?

A. A Gnoph Keh on Sleeper’s Faction Card is not considered to be in your Unit Pool. For example, if you had one Gnoph Keh In Play and one on Sleeper’s faction card, then the next

Gnoph Keh would cost you two power to Summon, because two are currently in your Unit

Pool.

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Neutral Spellbooks

(

Azathoth

)

Q . How does Undimensioned interact with unusual locations, such as Cthulhu’s Units that are currently Submerged, or Sleeper’s Gate with a Cultist that is in Cursed Slumber?

A. Undimensioned specifies that you may only rearrange Units among your Areas. So, you could not swap out a Cultist who is Cursed Slumbering with one from the Map, or change which Units are currently Submerged with Cthulhu since these are not Areas. (When Cthulhu is submerged he uses incalculable geometry such that even beings which are temporarily dimensionless cannot reach him).

Q . Do Units from my Faction need to be involved in a Battle in order to use Shriveling?

A. Yes.

Q . If Shriveling is used on one of Black Goat’s Monsters, and Black Goat has the Spellbook

Thousand Young, how much Power does Black Goat receive?

A. The Thousand Young Spellbook changes the cost of each of Black Goat’s Faction Monsters,

so Shriveling would grant Black Goat the reduced cost to Summon. For example, Black Goat would receive zero Power when a Ghoul is Shriveled.

Q . How many points does the owner get when her Gnoph-Keh is shriveled?

A. When a Gnoph-Keh is shriveled, calculate the cost it would take to Summon it at that moment, not how much it would cost to resummon it. This means that if Windwalker had all four Gnoph-Kehs on the board at the moment of Shriveling, it would grant him zero Power.

Q . Why is The Mao Ceremony worded cumbersomely, reading “after the minimum Power rule, but before Determine First Player”?

A. Because it is always the very last Power to be added—even after the half Power rule. This is the only ability in the game which must take place at that moment. To be clear, when Mao

Ceremony is In Play, first all players tally up their Power, then the half Power rule occurs, and finally Mao Ceremony can be used LAST. (By the way, High Priests can still be sacrificed for two

Power at any moment, Mao Ceremony notwithstanding).

Q . What does Recriminations mean when it says you may replace a Spellbook with any available Spellbook?

A. You may replace the selected Spellbook with one of your own Faction Spellbooks or another Azathoth Spellbook from the Pool. You may NOT use Recriminations in conjunction with any Independent Great Old One Spellbooks—only with Spellbooks which can be placed on your Faction Card.

Q . If I am playing Opener of the way, and use Recriminations to swap out Dragon

Ascending or Dragon Descending after I have flipped them face-down, do they flip faceup again? Could I take those Spellbooks again (using Recriminations) and re-use them?

A. While you could take them back onto your Faction Card, you cannot unflip them.

The Spellbook states “flip it face down to indicate that it cannot be used again”. This is categorical. It also works this way with Crawling Chaos’ Thousand Forms, which won’t unflip until the following Gather Power phase.

Q . If I use Recriminations to remove another neutral Spellbook from my Faction card, does that Spellbook go to the general Pool from where anyone can now earn it, or does it remain in my own Spellbook Pool that only I can draw from?

A. It goes back to the general neutral Spellbook Pool. If a neutral Spellbook is not currently on your Faction card, then any Faction may earn it.

Q . How many points does the owner get when her Ghast is shriveled?

A. Two, since that’s how much a single Ghast costs to Summon.

Q . What happens when you use Recriminations on a Spellbook that contains a Moonbeast?

A. The Moonbeast is removed with the Spellbook (costing nothing to do so) and follows normal rules for returning it to the Map.

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Neutral Monsters

Q . How does Demand Sacrifice interact with the Leng Spider’s Bloodthirst?

A. Any Pains converted into Kills become single Pains. I recommend against using Bloodthirst!

Q . Can Black Goat Summon Neutral Monsters at the same time as her Faction Monsters?

A. Yes. She may Summon any number of Monsters at once, so long as they are hers to

Summon.

Q . Can Yellow Sign spawn Neutral Monsters as the result of a Desecration Attempt?

A. Yes, so long as it costs two or less.

Q . How does Mind Control (the Elder Thing’s ability) work?

A. In an Elder Thing’s Area, Cthulhu can’t Devour. He can still use Submerge and Y’Ha Nthlei, as those are Spellbooks, not Great Old One Special Abilities. The exact use of an Elder Thing obviously differs for each Great Old One. And yes, it also works on Independent Great Old

Ones (but not their Spellbooks, only Special Abilities). Nyarlathotep can’t use Harbinger,

Azathoth can be Killed with one Kill result, and so forth. Shub-Niggurath can’t Avatar out of an

Area containing an Elder Thing. However, she could use Avatar to enter an Area containing an

Elder Thing, because she is not in the Area at the moment she uses her Avatar ability. And, the player controlling Bokrug could lose his Loyalty Card!

In some cases, Mind Control cancels a Great Old One’s ability over the whole map. For example—if Tsathoggua is in an Elder Thing’s Area, then he can’t use Lethargy. If Ithaqua is in an Elder Thing’s Area, then Ferox is not in effect for any of his Cultists (of course, if an Elder

Thing is merely in the same Area as one of Windwalker’s Cultists, but NOT in Ithaqua’s Area,

Ferox is still in effect). Likewise, Abhoth could put a Filth Token in an Elder Thing’s Area, so long as Abhoth himself does not share an Area with an Elder Thing. Sometimes Spellbooks are affected, even though they are not directly negated by an Elder Thing. For example: The

King in Yellow can’t Desecrate, which means that his Third Eye Spellbook can’t be used either

(and a similar effect happens to Cthugha and Ghatanothoa when they have their Firestorm or

Execration of Mu Spellbooks, respectively).

Q . Is there any way to get rid of the Servitor of the Outer Gods Loyalty Card once it has been given to you?

A. No.

Q . If I have been given Servitors of the Outer Gods, can I still gain non-Servitor Monsters by means other than Summoning?

A. Yes. For example, Windwalker can use Cannibalism to place Wendigos, Opener of the

Way can promote Units via Million Favored Ones, and Yellow Sign can Recruit via Desecration attempts. The Servitor of the Outer Gods’ ability only affects normal Summons.

Q . Can I use Black Goat’s Fertility Cult ability to simultaneously Summon all the remaining

Servitors in my Pool, as well as other Monsters?

A. Yes, you can Summon other Monsters in conjunction, so long as no Servitors remain in your

Pool at the end of this Action.

Q . If the presence of Servitors of the Outer Gods reduces my combat total to less than zero, what happens?

A. Just leave it at zero. That’s bad enough.

Q . What if I have both Star Vampires and Servitors of the Outer Gods in the same Area, reducing my overall Combat dice to less than what the Star Vampires’ would normally roll, or even reduced to zero . How do I roll my Star Vampire dice “separately”?

A. Just go ahead and roll your Star Vampires’ total Combat dice. In this case, you will actually get to roll Combat dice, even though your total is theoretically zero. However, if your total dice is technically zero, you cannot Declare Battle yourself. Weird, I know. But you’re dealing with multiple realities and alternate dimensions already, if Elder Things and Servitors are In Play.

And yes, in this case, the Combat results of the Star Vampires still DO apply in the Battle, as usual.

Q . When a Star Vampire rolls a Kill or a Pain, in addition to the Doom point or Power that is drained from the target, is the Kill or Pain inflicted on the Enemy?

A. Yes, you always add the Star Vampire’s Combat results to the Battle (even if, as in the above question, you technically have zero Combat dice). However, if the Enemy has no Power (or no

Doom points), the Star Vampire’s drain does nothing.

Q . What if my Star Vampires roll more Kill and/or Pain results than there are Enemy Units in the Battle?

A. You still get to take the Doom and/or Power from your Enemy, even if some of the Battle results are not applied to Enemy Units (unless, of course, your Enemy doesn’t have enough

Doom or Power to take). This also means, for example, that if Rhan Tegoth uses his Eternal ability when fighting your Star Vampires, you still get to take the Doom or Power if a Kill or

Pain was initially assigned to Rhan Tegoth! Likewise, if your Star Vampire rolls a Kill against

Nyarlathotep when he is protected by Emissary of the Outer Gods, you get a Doom point, but the Kill is reduced to a Pain (as per Emissary).

Q . If Yellow Sign Recruits a Dimensional Shambler (or Moonbeast) while attempting a

Desecration, where does the Shambler appear?

A. Sadly, in the Area, as the Desecrate ability says. This also applies to Moonbeasts.

Terrors

GREAT RACE OF YITH

Q . How does the Tcho-Tcho’s Soulless interact with the Yithian’s Possession ability?

A. Soulless makes the base reward 0 , rather than 1 Power. The Yithian’s Possession adds to whatever the base reward is (whether 1 or 0 ). Thus, a Yithian who Captured a Soulless Tcho-

Tcho still provides 1 Power at least.

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Independent Great Old Ones

ABHOTH

Q . Can you combine placing Abhoth’s Filth with Black Goat’s Fertility Cult? Or Sleeper’s

Death from Below? Or Yellow Sign’s Desecration?

A. YES to all!

AZATHOTH

Q . When I Control Azathoth, can I modify the Nuclear Chaos die roll to be 0 or 7?

A. Yes!

Q . Can Azathoth absorb more than one Kill result in a single Battle?

A. No.

Q . How much Power can Nyarlathotep get when he Pains or Kills Azathoth in Battle

(under Harbinger)?

A. Zero. Technically, Azathoth costs 0 Power to Awaken. The one die plus two Power you pay to Awaken him is a loss, not a cost. So all Nyarlathotep can get when fighting Azathoth is two

Elder Signs.

Q . What happens when Azathoth is surrounded by Enemy Units he just Battled, and he receives a Pain?

A. Treat it as if he received a Kill and roll a die.

Q . What happens when Azathoth is chosen to receive a Kill as a result of Dread Curse of

Azathoth (since no Battle abilities apply)?

A. Azathoth’s special ability is Ongoing, not a Battle ability, so just reduce his Combat by a d 6 .

(Yog-Sothoth can’t use Azathoth’s own curse against him, you cadaverous fool! But because

Azathoth is the Blind Idiot God, he can still harm himself somewhat).

CHAUGNAR FAUGN

Q . If I have a Controlled Gate and only Units with 0 Combat, can I declare Battle due to

Miri Nigri?

A. Yes! Although Miri Nigri does not technically add 3 Combat to a particular Unit (such as how Absorb operates), the fact that you will roll Combat dice means you can initiate Battle even if all you have is a single Cultist (on that Gate) in the Area.

Q . Chaugnar Faugn’s Miri Nigri ability gives Gates 3 Combat dice . Does this apply to Yog-

Sothoth?

A. Yes! For example, if there are 4 Enemy Great Old Ones on the Map and Opener Controlled

Chaugnar Faugn, then Yog-Sothoth’s Combat would be 11 ( 8 + 3 ). However, if Opener also

Controlled a normal Gate in the same Area as YogSothoth, you still only add 3 to your Combat

in that Area, not 6 . The ability reads “in an Area” which means you only get the Combat bonus once per Area, rather than once per Gate.

CTHUGHA

Q . If Cthugha rolls a Kill on Rhan-Tegoth, but the latter uses Eternal to cancel it, does

Cthugha still have a chance to spare Rhan-Tegoth too?

A. No, Eternal takes precedence—if Windwalker chooses to remove the Kill or Pain from Rhan-

Tegoth, Cthugha cannot spare him.

EIHORT

Q . Can Brood be moved via Cursed Slumber, since it’s not really a “movement like” ability?

A. No, you may not use Cursed Slumber on a Brood, as you can go to another Area on the map! Brood are already in a terrible slumber…

GLA’AKI

Q . How does the Tcho-Tcho’s Soulless interact with Gla’aki’s Green Decay?

A. Soulless makes the base reward 0 , rather than 1 Power. Gla’aki’s Green Decay modifies that reward to be an Elder Sign (meaning, it overrides Soulless, by replacing the base reward entirely from Power to an Elder Sign).

Unique High Priests

Q . If I Awaken The King in Yellow (as an Independent Great Old One) via Lavinia Whateley, do I get a 1 Power refund?

A. Yes

Q . How do I calculate Awakening Cthugha, when I have Lavinia Whateley?

A. Lavinia Whateley reduces the cost to Awaken Cthugha himself, not whichever Great Old

One Cthugha will replace as part of Awakening him. So, for example, if you have Hastur and want to Awaken Cthugha, the cost would be calculated by starting with 6 , subtracting 3 (per

Lavinia), and then again subtracting 10 (the nominal cost to Awaken Hastur). The result would be negative 7 . Then, per Cthugha’s Awakening requirements, you gain Power equal to the result if it is negative, so you would GAIN 7 Power by Awakening Cthugha using both Hastur and Lavinia Whateley.

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Additional Maps

DREAMLANDS MAP

Q . Do I win as Opener of the Way if I control 4 Gates at Citadels, including Yog-Sothoth but only in 3 of the Citadel Areas (e .g ., I Control Gates in Citadel Areas numbered with one, two and three, and Yog-Sothoth itself is also in Citadel three, but I do NOT control a Gate in the Area of Citadel four)?

A. No. You must Control Gates in all four Areas, not simply Control four Gates among the

Citadel Areas, you cheater. In this situation, just Move Yog-Sothoth to Citadel four and you would win.

Q . What happens if I fight three Zoogs, and roll two Kills and three Pains? How many of my Units are affected by the reflected Pains?

A. First remove the Killed Zoogs. Only one remains, so it is Pained (and removed), and one of your Units is likewise Pained. Remember, Kills always take effect before Pains.

Q . How does Black Goat’s Necrophagy interact with the Zoogs?

A. If two ghouls teleport via Necrophagy to a Battle in which Zoogs have participated, two

Units of the original Attacker are pained as normal, and two Zoogs are likewise Pained (and removed), and both ghouls are Pained by the Zoogs as well (the original Attacker receives

Pains due to Necrophagy, but not additional Pains as a result of the Zoogs being Pained by

Necrophagy—those Pains are reflected back on the Ghouls themselves).

Q . Can Cthulhu count Zoogs which are Eliminated by Pain results as Kills for the purpose of his spellbook requirements?

A. No. As stated previously, Pains Eliminate Zoogs from the map, but do not Kill them.

Q . Can Opener of the Way’s Dread Curse of Azathoth be used to attack the Bhole or

Zoogs?

A. No.

Q . Can Shub-Niggurath use her Avatar ability to switch places with a Zoog?

A. Yes. Even though Avatar specifically works on Faction Monsters, Zoogs are all identical, so it doesn’t matter which one in the given Area is chosen to swap places with Shub-Niggurath. If the Zoog is sent via Avatar to an Area that is NOT a Citadel, then the Zoog is Eliminated from the Map.

Q . Can Zoogs be captured via Sleeper’s Capture Monster?

A. Of course.

Q . Does the Shantaks’ Horror Steed ability allow it to Move freely between the two maps?

A. Yes.

LIBRARY AT CELAENO MAP

Q . If the Custodian moves my Units to The Oubliette, and an Abandoned Gate is there, can I immediately occupy it?

A. Only when it is your turn to take an Action.

Q . To Battle the player who currently has the Barrier of Naach Tith Tome, must I release a

Captured Cultist from that Faction?

A. No. You can release a Captured Cultist from any Faction to bypass the Barrier.

Q . What if I want to Battle the owner of Barrier of Naach Tith, and I don’t have a Captured

Cultist, a Silence Token, nor an Elder Sign?

A. You can’t declare Battle on that Faction. Do something else.

Q . One of the options for Yr and Nhhngr says you gain 2 Power, but the Action itself costs

1 Power . Is this basically a net gain of 1 Power?

A. Yes.

Q . If the Librarian or Custodian are Activated in the same Area several Actions in a row, do they keep adding +1 more to their roll, accumulating over time?

A. No. They just get a maximum of + 1 to their roll.

Q . Is it an Action to flip a Library Tome face up (by discarding an Elder Sign; releasing a captured Cultist, or discarding a Silence token)?

A. No, you can do it at any time.

PRIMEVAL MAP

Q . I think the map layout for Primeval Earth is interesting, and I would like to try playing it in a normal game of t, without the Glaciers . Would this work?

A. It’s your game. Give it a try!

Q . If Opener of the Way uses Beyond-One to Move a Gate from a Glacier-infested Area to a clear Area, does the Glacier travel with the Gate?

A. No. The Glacier is removed from the Gate in this case. If a Gate is Moved to where there is a Glacier, the Glacier immediately pops on top of it.

Q . How do the Glaciers work with Cursed Slumber?

A. Since you can only use Cursed Slumber with a Controlled Gate, then you may not use it in an Area already containing a Glacier. However, if you place a Cursed Slumbering Gate back on the Map onto an Area with a Glacier, then the Cultist must immediately step off the Gate.

Q . Can Opener’s They Break Through Spellbook be used to Summon Monsters at a Gate covered by a Glacier?

A. Yes. They Break Through permits you to Summon at Abandoned Gates.

Q . In the first Doom Phase, do I add a Glacier to the Start Areas of factions who were not in this game?

A. No.

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YUGGOTH MAP

Q . Can Cthulhu get his Kill Spellbook requirements from scoring a Kill on The Watcher?

A. Yes! (But not for Devour, since that doesn’t affect The Watcher).

Q . I have two Units in an Area, one of which is a Brain Cylinder . In Battle, the enemy rolls one Kill and one Pain . What are my options?

A. Kills are always assigned first. If you assign the Kill to the Cylinder, it dies, and the other Unit is Pained. If you assign the Kill to the other Unit, then the Pain is ignored.

Q . Can Windwalker’s Howl retreat a Brain Cylinder?

A. No. Brain Cylinders turn off their sensors, so they don’t hear the Howl.

Q . Does Black Goat’s Frenzy affect Brain Cylinders?

A. Yes. This represents them casting spells, planning strategy, or cheering others on.

Q . How does Yellow Sign’s Passion Spellbook apply to Brain Cylinders?

A. When a Brain Cylinder is either directly Captured or Converted to an Enemy Brain Cylinder,

Yellow Sign gains 1 Power if Passion is in play (his Cultist has been lost!). Of course, Yellow

Sign does not gain 1 Power when removing his own Acolyte in order to replace it with a Brain

Cylinder.

Q . How does Ghatanothoa’s Mummify ability affect Brain Cylinders?

A. Brain Cylinders are immune to Mummify. They are only brains, which are not affected by the mummification process according to Lovecraft. Also, Mummify specifies Acolyte Cultist, you noob.

Q . If a Battle takes place on the Slime Sea Overlook, and the Gate’s Controller is Pained or

Killed, can his enemy retreat into an adjacent Area containing only Slimes?

A. Yes, because the Slimes are now neutral!

Q . How is the Watcher affected by Elder Things?

A. The Elder Things’ Mind Control ability has no effect on the Watcher.

Q . Can Opener of the Way’s Dread Curse of Azathoth be used to attack the Watcher or neutral Slimes?

A. No.

Q . Can Shub-Niggurath use her Avatar ability to switch places with a neutral Slime Mold?

A. Yes. Even though Avatar specifically works on Faction units, Slime Molds are identical, so it doesn’t matter which one in the given Area is chosen to swap places with Shub-Niggurath.

Q . Does the Watcher count as an enemy Great Old One for Windwalker’s Hibernate ability? Does he prevent Opener of the Way from using The Beyond One?

A. Yes to both, but only when it is Awake. He is always considered an enemy Great Old One.

“He spoke very gently of how human beings might accomplish—and several times had accomplished—the seemingly impossible flight across the interstellar void. It seemed that complete human bodies did not indeed make the trip, but that the prodigious surgical, biological, chemical, and mechanical skill of the Outer Ones had found a way to convey human brains without their concomitant physical structure.”

—H.P. Lovecraft

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Designer ’ s Notes

M any years ago, I wrote an unusual tabletop roleplaying game named Call of Cthulhu, which proceeded to change my life. I expected it to be a minor cult game, that a few would love, and others ignore. I certainly never expected it to become as well-known as it did, spawning numerous spin-offs and imitations. It transformed me from a humble graduate student into a full-time game designer.

In Call of Cthulhu, I created a pattern for gamers to use to interact with the loathsome monsters from Lovecraft’s tales—basically, heroic investigators facing off against the creepy monsters and cultists. This proved to be a powerful concept, and pretty much every single Lovecraftian game since then followed this example—

Arkham Horror, Dark Corners of the Earth, even Pandemic:

Reign of Cthulhu. But all of these games, including my own, ended before the Elder Gods return to power. You never get to see Cthulhu with all his “toys”—telepathic visions blanketing the earth, mountains of protoplasm rising from the sea, et cetera.

I made a few tries at running a roleplaying campaign set in a “post-Cthulhu-holocaust” world, but these were abortive. But the concept fired my imagination, and kept lurking in my mind for decades.

The years of 2011 – 2012 was a dark time in my life. I had left my job to become partner at a tiny, ultimately-failing game company, and had been without gainful employment for almost two years. I had tried to use crowdfunding to get support for a Cthulhu phone game, and it utterly failed. My partner, Rob Atkins, convinced me to try to launch a tabletop boardgame.

I was doubtful, but gave it a shot. My theory was that it might make a couple hundred thousand dollars for myself and my partners, and perhaps set up some sort of small cash cow as supplemental income. In the meantime I sought employment elsewhere.

It was my belief that this crowdfunded game I was working on would be the very last game that I, Sandy Petersen, would ever create entirely from my own mind. I had full expectations of working on other people’s assignments for the rest of my life. (I’m not complaining—this is typical for a game designer. We rarely get to pick the topics of our games.) So, as my last personal game ever, I pulled out all the stops. I wanted this to be the ultimate Lovecraft game. I wanted the best art, the coolest plastic figures (all in 28 mm scale so I could use them in Call of Cthulhu), asymmetric strategy (my favorite play element), colorful, fast-moving and of course, finally emphasizing my theme of post-Cthulhu-holocaust. But if Cthulhu is rising to take over the world, who can stop him? Only other Great Old Ones.

This became my theme. As I said, my wife and I were out of cash at the time, and needed this to support us. As believers, we prayed for the project’s success. The game flowed out of my mind and into reality at an amazing pace. No other game I’ve worked on went this smoothly.

My artist, Richard Luong, knew nothing about Lovecraft, but proved ideal for the task of illustrating Lovecraft’s creations. All went well.

Then, we launched it. By this time my hopes were higher. I was now hoping for as much as

$ 300 – 400 k gross. This was my swan song and I was excited to see how it did. Well, it earned well over a million dollars, vastly exceeding my hopes, dreams, prayers, and expectations.

It also turned out to be a monstrous game to create, requiring our factory to invent new processes, and the million dollars we earned was barely enough to cover our costs!

In the end, I am grateful to all who believed in me. Everyone who bought this game. It turned my swan song into a phoenix—a new rebirth for me. The success of Cthulhu Wars launched my new company Petersen Games, and now we have several games under our belt, mostly designed by me. We intend to keep moving forward and try to surprise our fans pleasingly. Thank you for your support.

— Sandy Petersen

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DESIGN

Sandy Petersen

PRODUCTION

Robert Atkins

ART

Richard Luong

Credits

CULTISTS

Art Direction, Game Layout & Illustration —

Rich Fleider

Producer —Ben Donges

Biz Dictator —Ian Starcher

Project Director, Manufacturing, Rulebook

Copy, Editing —Arthur Petersen

Balance and Playtesting —Lincoln Petersen

Additional Art Layout —Penny Amaris

Customer Support and Sales —James Frashure

Additional Support —Spencer Petersen

Marketing —Ed Healy

Social Media and VF Support —Pit Lanrezac

Samurai Cop —H. Cody Hallet

Rulebook Layout —Liz Courts

SCULPTING HORDE

Master Resin Casting

Fenris Games

Shub-Niggurath

Kev Adams

Ubbo-Sathla

Peder Bartholdy

Custodian, Satyr, Eihort

Arnaud Bellier

Gate, Power Marker, Glacier/Ice Age, Filth,

Brood, Brain Cylinder

Ian Brumby

Abomination, Nightgaunt, Cthulhu, Ghast,

Starspawn, Deep One, Fungi from Yuggoth,

Hunting Horror, Gug, Shantak, Bokrug,

Gobogeg, Byatis, Y’Golonac, Gla’aki

Jo Brumby

Mutant, Moonbeast, Rhan Tegoth

Sonny Bundgaard

Great Race of Yith

Fancagne Didier

Librarian

David Drage

King in Yellow

Chaz Elliott

Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep,

Ghoul, Nightgaunt, Atlach Nacha

Mark Evans

Yig

Ed Fortae

High Priest, Chaugnar Faugn, Cthugha

Yann Hoaru

H . P . Lovecraft Bust First Player Marker

Philip Hynes

Dark Young, Elder Thing, Nyogtha

Andrew May

Acolyte Cultist, Mutant, Undead, Ghast,

Byakhee, Gnoph Keh, Servitor of the Outer

Gods

Stephen May

Flying Polyp, Ithaqua, Formless Spawn

Neil McKenzie

Father Dagon, Mother Hydra, Wendigo

Gary Morley

Slime Mold, Leng Spider, Gnorri, Abhoth,

Ghatanothoa, Wizard, Serpent Man, Zoog,

Bhole, Star Vampire, Dimensional Shambler,

Spawn of Yog-Sothoth, Tcho-Tcho High

Priest, Tcho-Tcho Acolyte, Proto-Shoggoth,

Insects from Shaggai, Dhole, Tulzscha,

Quachil Uttaus, Gla’aki

Tim Prow

Daoloth

Tidal 4

James van Schaik

Watcher of the Green Pyramid

Damien Sparkes

Web Token

Jason Wiebe

H . P . Lovecraft First Player Marker (with

Lantern) Kickstarter Exclusive

Ernst Veingart

Doom Marker, Elder Signs, Ritual of

Annihilation Marker, Desecration Markers

Derran Viss

Asenath Waite

Kev White

Tsathoggua

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PLAYTEST BRAIN

CYLINDERS

Chuck Bartholomew, Frank Bauroth, Kyle

Beasley, Sasha Begovic, Jazcek Braden, Jonathan

Cohen, David Coon, John Coon, Peter

Dannenberg, Mike Davis, Ben Donges,

Patrick Fenn, Angela Fleider, Rich

Fleider, Brad Gaffney, Nick Gaffney,

Pat Guarino, Ell Hamilton, Aaron

Harvey, Jared Harvey, Joseph Harvey,

Brian Hehmann, Guy Hoyle, Mike

Junio, Fabian Kuechler, Chris Lemens,

Andrew Lucio, Shovaen Patel, Arthur

Petersen, Grant Petersen, Lincoln

Petersen, Spencer Petersen, Greg

Robertson, Paul Slusser, Jessica Watkins,

Lori Wilson, Pedro Ziviani.

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SPECIAL THANKS FROM

BEYOND TIME AND SPACE

Ameliazoth, Henry Akeley, Donovan Albanesi, Ben Ayerbach,

Lloydy Boy, Craig Brown, Sean Brulet, Anthony Callison, Randolph

Carter, Alex Celler, Squirrel Eiserloh, David Evans, Gearbox Software, Eric

Glasgow, Ian Guistino, Susan Guistino, Vance Hampton, John Hannasch, Cyran J. Harrington, Ken

Harward, Jason Harvey, Seth Harvey, Michelle Harvey, Justin Hoeger, Jerry Howland, Mike Langlois,

Joey Larsen, Michelle Larsen, Hector-Xavier de Lastic, John Raymond Legrasse, Cora Lemens, Tara

Lemens, Reed Little, Andrew Lucio, Tiffany Lucio, Johnny Lundell, Ryan Medeiros, Dave Mendiola,

Mius, Justin Moe, Chris Mortin, Christopher Musgrave, Jeff Okamoto, Dan Pepin, Deborah Petersen,

Elizabeth Petersen, Wendy Petersen, Ben Pope, Brian Pope, Aaron Porter, Rayden Porter, Rylee Porter,

Andrew Olson, Kolby Reddish, Greg Robertson, Stephen Robertson, Graham Robinson, Robot

Entertainment, Eric Saxton, Adam Starks, Ryan Stelly, Jordon Trebas, Wilbur Whateley, Jim Wilson, and Naomi the Pup of Tindalos.

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Petersen Games

Petersen Games

www.PetersenGames.com

www.PetersenGames.com

Copyright © Sandy Petersen 2016 . All Rights Reserved.