Cthulhu Wars is a Beast of a Game
That’s why we all love it, right?
Last week we had a big game night here at Quimbley’s where all the employees showed up for a Cthulhu Wars battle royale. We had three massive games going at once, with Sandy Petersen himself teaching mechanics to the newbies. We even had a game with eight players on an expansion map, so we were conquering hard!
It was awesome!
We had veterans helping novices, with the novices sometimes getting the better of the vets with surprise moves. There was a ton of laughter and good-natured ribbing.
In short, it was exactly what a game night should be.
Pro Tips from the Experts
Afterward, I sat down with some of the experienced players and asked them for tips on how to play more effectively in the future. It surprised me that they all had similar things to say. That being the case, I figured I would share their insights. I’m sure many of you already know these tips, but for the less experienced, these are things that will elevate your gameplay and make you more of a threat when desecrating the world or building your gates.
Tip 1: Understand your faction
Every player in Cthulhu Wars controls a faction, be it Cthulhu, his cultists and monsters, or Hastur and his armies. The great thing about Cthulhu Wars is that each faction is completely unique. They have different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Some can fly and have an advantage in moving across the board, others have two Great Old Ones to wreak havoc, while others (like the Bubastis expansion) are just mean and nasty in every attack.
If you’re going to win at Cthulhu Wars, you need to understand your faction's strengths and weaknesses.
During our game night, I was playing as Hastur. Now Hastur’s faction has two Great Old Ones. I was able to conjure the King in Yellow early on, which allowed me to start desecrating continents. I realized pretty quickly that where other factions needed to concentrate on building gates, that was going to be secondary for me. I was going to wreck as many continents as I could.
The more I understood my specific spell cards too, allowed me to take advantage of the moves of my opponents and catch them off guard. It was really fun to see how my choices could screw up the best-laid plans of the person next to me (in this case, it was my wife!).
Tip 2: Understand your opponent’s factions
Everyone ends up having a favorite faction. Some love the Crawling Chaos faction of Nyarlathotep. Others the Wind Walkers. But if you only know your faction, you’re going to be taken out by the unique abilities of your adversaries. The more you know about the other factions on the board, the better you will play against them.
I kept seeing it a lot like chess. Imagine if you were playing and didn’t understand that the knight could move one space to the left or right and then two spaces forward. If you didn’t know to combat that move, you would be decimated by an opponent with more knowledge than you.
It’s the same thing with Cthulhu Wars. If you don’t know that Cthulhu can submerge and come out anywhere on the map, you’re going to be in trouble. If you don’t know that the Black Goat can summon monsters as an unlimited action, you’ll find yourself overrun before you can combat the spread.
The more factions you’re familiar with, the greater your odds of blunting their attacks with your own.
Tip 3: Use your power wisely
Every round, you have a limited span of power depending on a lot of factors from previous rounds. You could simply use all your power moving cultists around and building gates, but if you never use your power to conjure an Old One, that strategy could lead to your annihilation. Early in the game you may want to move around and establish gates, but eventually you’ll need to make bold decisions that will use up more power.
Sometimes you’ll need to conserve power with a lot of small moves, and sometimes you’ll need to go big and scare everyone on the board. Only you know when it’s the right time to do either during the game, but your power will determine your abilities either way, so be wise!
Tip 4: Make alliances
Yes, we’re all playing to win and it’s every Great Old One for himself, but there are times when teaming up can be a great advantage.
As we played last week, the Black Goat quickly started amassing monsters, gates, and power. It became evident that if the rest of us continued fighting amongst ourselves, old Shaggy was going to spawn us all to kingdom come. We formed an alliance (however brief) to halt the Black Goat’s progress.
And it worked.
We were able to keep her from growing too powerful too early and all of us evened out a bit until we really started crushing each other.
Conclusion
Cthulhu Wars is an incredibly fun, and infinitely replayable game for those of you who have never tried it. And for those of you who have, the expansions (and there are a lot of lesser-known ones like Here, Here, and Here) create entirely new combinations and dooms to exploit.
Get to know your favorite faction, all the other factions, use power wisely, and make alliances. And most of all, play to win! It all comes down to choices, and the better you choose, the more likely you are to destroy the world and remake it in your Old One’s image.
All hail Cthulhu! Or Hastur. I really liked playing as Hastur.
Have a great week, and I’ll talk to you guys soon!
