This is my second preview report on Cthulhu Wars, but my first chance to play with the entire set. The first preview can be found here.
In a nutshell: all of the extra creatures and expansions work seamlessly with the core game and the new maps provide significant challenges and new gameplay.
Everyone had a ridiculous amount of fun and if you've seen the Yuggoth video, that's me in the upper left (well, my legs anyway)
The text of the preview and some images are below, but the properly formatted article can be found here, along with more images.
Last weekend, <PERSON> invited me down to take another sneak peek at Cthulhu Wars. This time to see the whole thing in all its sprawling glory: the core set, the expansions, every add-on, every creature. It was a blast and I have a bunch of stuff to report, but before I go any further I have to show you something:
This was a quick shot of us unboxing and setting out the factions and figures. For scale, this wooden counter is over two feet wide and easily twenty feet long. And when I took this picture? WE WERE STILL TAKING THINGS OUT OF THE BOXES. Seriously, if you ordered the DVM ‘get everything’ pledge, prepare your body. You’re going to swear you failed a sanity check as stuff keeps pouring out of the boxes. I’ll drop some close ups of the figures as I go along.
The State of the Game
The scope of the game is huge. Not only does every figure come with special abilities, and in some cases their own spellbooks, but there are three additional expansion maps, each with their own special rules and figures. The combinations of factions, neutral forces, and maps is staggering.
I asked <PERSON> what, out of all this stuff, we could play. He pointed at the vast sprawl in front of us and said, “Anything you want. You choose.” I wasn’t sure if he was serious, so I offered to help playtest anything that still needed work or balancing. He just grinned at me. ”No need. It’s done.”
So we spent the day playing anything we wanted on any map we wanted. And guess what? He was right. 504
Everything fits together like clockwork. It’s ready.
How It Works: Azathoth Comes for a Visit
Think of the core factions as hubs. The neutral Great Old Ones and monsters socket into your faction, expanding your forces on the map and granting you access to their powers. If you think facing <PERSON> is bad, wait until you see <PERSON> coming your way arm-in-arm with his new buddy <PERSON>. And some Elder Things. And maybe a Star Vampire or two.
Players start the game with only their faction in play. But as they accumulate points and power, they can bring in heavy hitters on a first-come-first-served basis. If I purchase a Star Vampire, then only I can bring them in for the rest of the game. Of course, they don’t come cheap, so I need to make sure they compliment whatever mad strategy I’m in the middle of pursuing or I’ve wasted precious resources.
You would think that this would quickly become a convoluted mess, but <PERSON> has managed to create a system that provides complexity without complication. The unspeakable horrors that you summon integrate neatly into any of the factions, providing the expected benefits that are common to all creatures, plus a specific power or two that work within the existing gameplay as you would expect.
You get clear and usable options, rather than puzzle pieces that don’t fit. A good example are the High Priests. For all intents and purposes, they act like regular cultists and provide the same benefits: producing a power each turn, taking ownership of gates, and selflessly throwing themselves in front of your enemy on command. But they can also be used as living eldritch batteries that can be sacrificed to give you a burst of power when you need it most.
New Factions
There are three new factions and they’re all brutal. Each one has a new and unique play style and can easily go toe-to-toe with the four original factions.
Windwalker is a combat powerhouse. He’s slow to build up, but the longer the game goes on, the more ridiculously powerful he becomes. First of all, as combat begins to happen around the board, you’ll discover that battlefield deaths are summoning your <PERSON> for free. You’ll also notice that every one of the powerful Knoph Kehs that you summon is cheaper than the previous one. 366