Sandy’s Design Corner:

A Collection of Further Strategies for Cthulhu Wars

Assembled from the posts and updates of He Who Shall be Named: Sandy Petersen

Compiled by David Scheimann

Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 2

Table of Contents
Unique Abilities and Elder Sign Acquisition .............................................................................................. 3
Novice Mistakes to Avoid - don't DO these! (Update 42) ....................................................................... 4
Spotlight on Black Goat (Update 40)......................................................................................................... 5
Fertility Cult ............................................................................................................................................. 7
Spotlight on Crawling Chaos (Update 48) ................................................................................................. 8
Spotlight on Great Cthulhu (Update 41) .................................................................................................. 10
Timing and Opener of the Way (Update 56) ........................................................................................... 12
Spotlight on Sleeper (Update 39) .............................................................................................................. 17
Spotlight on Windwalker (Update 61) ...................................................................................................... 20
Spotlight on Yellow Sign (Update 53) ...................................................................................................... 22
Spotlight on The Independent Great Old Ones ........................................................................................ 25
Abhoth: a closer look (update 35)........................................................................................................ 25
Mother Dagon (update 36) ................................................................................................................... 25
Tulzscha (Update 38) .............................................................................................................................. 26
Map Summaries (compiled from “Sandy Talks about Maps”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qE239s-xiA ................................................................................. 26
Sandy's Design Corner: How, exactly do the monster & great old one figure expansions
work? (Update 51) ...................................................................................................................................... 27
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 3

Unique Abilities and Elder Sign Acquisition

Black Goat
Unique Ability: Fertility Cult (ongoing): When this faction Summons Monsters, the player can
Summon multiple Monsters of one or more types, from one or several Gates. (Black Goat may
only Recruit a single Cultist per Recruit Action).
Elder Sign: (With Blood Sacrifice Spellbook): If Shub-Niggurath is in play during the Doom Phase,
the player can choose to eliminate one of her own Cultist (from anywhere on the map). If she
does so, she gets 1 Elder Sign.

Crawling Chaos
Unique Ability: Flight (ongoing): All of this faction’s Units can fly (even Cultists). When
moved, they can travel 2 Areas. They can fly over Areas containing enemy Units.
Elder Sign: The Harbinger: If Nyarlathotep is in a Battle in which one or more enemy Great Old
Ones are Pained or Killed, the faction receives Power equal to half the cost to Awaken those Great
Old Ones (even if Nyarlathotep is pained or killed himself). Per enemy Great Old One, you may
choose to receive 2 Elder Signs instead of the Power.

Great Cthulhu
Unique Ability: Immortal (ongoing): Once Cthulhu has Awakened, he costs only 4 Power each
additional time he is Awakened.
Elder Sign: Whenever this faction Awakens any Great Old One, it gains 1 Elder Sign.

Opener of the Way

Unique Ability: The Beyond One (Action Cost: 1): Select your Unit with a Cost of 3+ in an Area
with a Gate, but lacking an enemy Great Old One. Move your Unit to any Area on the map
lacking a Gate. In doing so, your Unit takes the Gate with him, plus any controlling Unit.
Elder Sign: Doom Phase only

Sleeper
Unique Ability: Death from Below (Ongoing): In the Doom Phase, place your lowest cost
Monster in an Area containing one of your Units.
Elder Sign: Demand Sacrifice: You may gain an Elder Sign as an opponent’s option

Wind Walker
Unique Ability: Hibernate (Action Cost: 0): Add +1 Power to your total for each enemy Great
Old One in play. You can take no further Actions during this Action Phase. At the start of the
next Gather Power Phase, do NOT lose your Power, but add it to your total.
Elder Sign: When you place a specific Spellbook, you gain one Elder Sign for every player with all
six Faction Spellbooks.
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Yellow Sign
Unique Ability: Feast (ongoing): During Gather Power, this faction gains 1 Power for each Area
containing both a Desecration Token and one or more of its own Units.
Elder Sign: (With The Third Eye Spellbook)—If Hastur is in play, the cost of Desecration is
reduced to 1. If the Desecration succeeds, the faction also obtains 1 Elder Sign.

Novice Mistakes to Avoid - don't DO these!

(Update 42)
Everyone starts as a novice. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Heck, in MY first game of Cthulhu Wars I
was technically a novice (though an informed one). In an effort to help you take the first step up the
ladder of skill (or help your friends), I’m going to list some beginner actions I see all the time, which
set you back.

Mistake One - BUILD TWO GATES THE FIRST TURN

Unless you are certain that no one can capture one of your cultists and cost you the
Gate. Usually only Crawling Chaos can be assured of this – and even he can’t if the other
players are on the ball. Here is what will happen if you build two gates:
First Action – move Cultist to adjacent Area;
Second Action – build Gate;
Third Action – move second Cultist to another Area;
Fourth Action – build Gate. You are now out of Power.
If all the other factions mimicked your actions up to that point, any faction following
you in turn order still has 3 Power left. Instead of building a Gate, he can summon a 1-pt
monster, move to your Gate, and capture your butt. If he didn’t move a cultist for his
third action, but summoned the monster instead, he can even move the Cultist now, and
take over your Gate. At a minimum he gets a +1 boost for the captured cultist (and you
get 1 less).

Mistake Two - MOVE A UNIT WHEN YOU CAN SUMMON

I wince visibly when I see a player move a Deep One or Nightgaunt to guard an
threatened Gate. For the same exact cost, he could have just Summoned an identical
monster AT the gate, and left the original one where he was. Then he’d have two
monsters instead of one, for the same cost in Power.

Mistake Three - TURTLE UP!

I’ve discussed this before, but Cthulhu Wars is an aggressive, interactive game. If you sit
back and meditate on the cosmos you will lose. You need to be in the other players’
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house, going through their bathroom cabinet, emptying their sock drawer onto the floor,
and leaving the fridge door open.

This does not mean you need to engage in battle at every opportunity. Every faction has
its own ways to mess with their neighbors. Yellow Sign rarely declares Battle – but with
Zingaya and the King capturing cultists willy-nilly, he is lethally obnoxious. Black Goat
has Avatar, Ghroth, and Necrophagy which have no function beyond pestering others. A
Crawling Chaos who sits safe at home watching TV never gets his Harbinger reward –
remember every time Nyarlathotep shakes the King in Yellow tree, two Elder Signs drop
out!

Mistake Four - IGNORE THE EXPIRATION DATE

Some spellbooks and abilities are better in the early game. Use them then! Many times
I’ve seen someone play Black Goat (for example) and only realize in the last turn that he
could have been Avataring around the map. In the last turn, Avatar is risky as heck - it
leaves Shub-Niggurath exposed, and an enemy with 6 spellbooks can attack her before she
can escape. In the early game, by contrast, Avatar is powerful – enemy attacks are
telegraphed, and the Gates are less well-defended, so Avatar is better at conquering them.
That’s just one example. If you wait on getting Yellow Sign’s Desecrations till you have a
mighty undead army, then you’ll be blundering into briar patches, thick with monsters,
when you go on your walkabout for spellbooks. Do it early, before they can oppose you.
Similiarly, Cthulhu’s Dreams, Black Goat’s Blood Sacrifice, and Crawling Chaos’ Emissary
spellbooks are all much more useful in the early game than later. Be aware.

Spotlight on Black Goat (Update 40)

Black Goat can easily be misplayed or misunderstood. One result is that when I am in a core
game with 3 people who haven’t played with me before, they often leave Black Goat (which
they consider the feeblest) to me. I love Black Goat, and I love getting “stuck” with her for
two reasons. First, I love seeing their jaws drop when they realize that they are getting crushed
by the faction they thought was the weak sister. Second, I love seeing their eyes bug out
when they see how terrifying Black Goat’s powers are, used properly.

Cthulhu Wars has opening moves, just like Chess. And just like Chess, the opening choices
of Cthulhu Wars affect the course of the game (though not as deterministically). Let’s talk
about some common First Turn choices for Black Goat.
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Bad Choice 1 – Build Two More Gates

This is pretty much always a losing plan if your opponents aren't novices, because one of
them (typically Cthulhu, Crawling Chaos, or Windwalker) is certain to capture one of
your Cultists and cost you a Gate. Generally speaking, in the first turn, never construct
more than one Gate. Also, build a monster as a threat to keep the other players honest.
In this excellent thread on Boardgamegeek, the OP talks about how to prevent Crawling
Chaos from building two Gates. (Hint – prevention is really easy.)

Better Choice 1 – Naked Aggression

As your first action, eliminate 2 Cultists for the spellbook. Take Red Sign. This costs 0
Power, so you can observe the other players. Summon a Dark Young. If anyone is dumb
enough to build a Gate next to you, move the Dark Young and take the Gate, via Battle
or Capture. Otherwise, move the Dark Young to an adjacent Area and straight up build an
uncapturable Gate. Spend your last Power on getting a Cultist back. You’ll start turn two
with 10 Power like everyone else, but you’ll have an extra Cultist in your Pool to recruit
somewhere useful. Plus the Dark Young.
Another option is to take Frenzy, and use cultists as attackers. A Frenzied cultist has a
50% chance of booting an enemy Cultist out of an Area.

Bad Choice 2 – spread into 6 Areas for two Spellbooks

This costs a minimum of 5 Power, depending on the map layout, and you’re spread so
thinly you're certain to see your guys picked off one by one.

Better Choice 2 – spread into 4 Areas for one Spellbook

You are still spread thin, but then follow up this with the “eliminate 2 Cultists” spellbook,
thus handily removing two of them from vulnerability. You end up with 2 Spellbooks,
can then use your remaining 5 Power to build a Gate and recruit back your Cultists, or
take 1 Cultist and a Ghoul for defense. You’ll enter turn 2 with 5-6 Cultists, 2 Gates, a
Ghoul and 2 spellbooks.

Bad Choice 3 – Awaken Shub-Niggurath for Thousand Forms

I see people Awaken Shub-Niggurath on the first turn maybe 20-25% of the time. While
this can be a defensible plan, so often they ruin it by then taking Thousand Forms. It's a
great spellbook, but you can’t use it until the second turn! And you’ll go into that
second turn with just 6 Power. Since you need to recruit two cultists back, that leaves you
with only 4 Power – if you build a second Gate, you’re out. All you got out of Thousand
Forms was two free Ghouls. Was it worth it?
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Consider – if, instead, you built a Gate the first turn, sacked two Cultists for a spellbook,
then recruited them back and summoned a Mi-Go to defend your new Gate, you’d start
the second turn with 10 Power. Then awaken Shub-Niggurath, takeThousand Forms,
recruit your two free Ghouls and resummon your lost Cultists with the remaining 2
Power. As compared to the first option, you’d go into the third turn with 1 extra Doom
point, 1 extra Mi-Go, and 1 extra spellbook. Better in every way.

Better Choice 3 – Awaken Shub-Niggurath but DON’T choose Thousand Forms

Is there any purpose to Awakening Shub the first turn? Well, when I do this, I like to
take Blood Sacrifice as my spellbook – I can use it in the Doom phase immediately
following. I still enter my second turn with a live Great Old One and only 6 Power. But
rather than waste 4 of it on a second gate, I capture an enemy Gate via Avatar. If
everything goes like clockwork, the cheapest I can do this is just 2 Power – Avatar to a
Gate and recruit a Cultist. (Usually the defender lets his Cultist be Avatared away, rather
than see him captured.) Then I can recruit back my 3 Cultists. If all goes as planned, I’ll
start the third turn with two Spellbooks, 2 Elder Signs (for my second Doom phase Blood
sacrifice), & 10 Power. I’m probably behind the other players in terms of raw Doom, but I
do have 2 Elder Signs in my pocket to comfort me.
Other possibilities await you if you Awaken Shub the first turn, but I leave those as an
exercise to the reader.

Of course Black Goat has many other options – build up more slowly, relying on Red Sign
and Frenzy for defense, and only awakening Shub on the third turn. Remember that it is
better to use Avatar and Necrophagy to earn the “occupy 6 or 8 Areas” spellbooks, rather
than simply making a costly super-Move – this way your moves are purposeful. One of my
sons like to set himself up for a series of Ghroths on the fourth or fifth turn, to ruin the gate
control of whoever is in the lead at that time.

One reason Black Goat is fun is because she has so many choices in the first turn (more than
any other player in my opinion), but she can be a challenge for that same reason – those
choices can be daunting unless thought through.

Fertility Cult
This is probably the least-respected faction ability (it never gets stolen by Sleeper!), and it is
admittedly weak, but it can be extremely useful on occasion in the mid-game or late game.
First I want to say I see no need to make it more useful. Black Goat is just fine, and as
previously stated, every faction is not just one ability, but how they all work together. So
what use is Fertility Cult? It lets you spawn multiple monsters in a single action. This usually
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seems good to brand-new players. But after a while they learn that spending lots of power all
at once is for suckers, and then they generally stay away from it so much that they forget
about its utility.

My experience is that among experienced players, Fertility cult is typically used maybe once
in a game. Here is how and why it comes in handy. Black Goat has comparatively weak battle
strength. Her GOO has Combat based on gates & cultists, but she tends to kill her own
cultists – it’s rare that she has more than 4 at once. Her spellbook requirements and spells all
provoke her to sprawl across the map. Her best monsters, Dark Young, are typically only 1 per
area, manning Gates. So she is a big fat target with low defenses, except maybe where Shub
herself is sitting, and even that’s not guaranteed. In mid-game, the enemy starts to get some
strength, and they want to flex their muscles. Black Goat makes an obvious target!

Here is where Fertility Cult comes into play. If Cthulhu or Nyarlathotep (or anyone else)
sends a force into one of your areas, hoping to reap a reward, you can immediately spend 3-4
Power and suddenly bump up that Area’s defense discouragingly. No one else can do this.
Remember, your monsters, once you have Thousand Young, are 1 combat for 1 power, the
same as Cthulhu’s. Even a mere ghoul can take a kill for you, and he's free to replace.
Now, in the late game a 6-spellbook enemy can move into your area and attack before you
can use Fertility Cult. But it is still sometimes handy, because you can use it to restore your
position after you have taken losses, keeping third parties from exploiting your weakness. Of
course, once players are on to this trick, you'll use it even less, because you will be attacked
less often. But that’s fine, too.

Spotlight on Crawling Chaos (Update 48)

Well really Crawling Chaos doesn't need a lot of help. He's pretty straightforward. So instead,
I will take a different tack. Crawling Chaos is a really flexible faction so it takes some
ingenuity to come up with genuinely terrible strategies. But here are some ways I've seen is
how to lose with Crawling Chaos:
A) don't awaken Nyarlathotep till just before the game's end, because he's so
expensive. Then do it only for the 6th spellbook.
B) forget to use Thousand Forms during the Action phase.
C) never summon Hunting Horrors. Who can afford them? Even better, summon
them, but don't get Seek & Destroy till late game.
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D) enemy Great Old Ones are scary. Do not chance a bad experience. Never
use Harbinger.
Remember - the above is about how to LOSE Cthulhu Wars. Otherwise, you probably want
to get Nyarlathotep out in the 2nd or 3rd turn, and get Hunting Horrors, plus Seek &
Destroy. Get out there and punk the enemy with Harbinger. It will really help you.
Hey what am I doing here? Don't I serve Nodens? (answer: not any more)

All of Nyarlathotep's monsters serve a fine purpose. In general, you don't care about your
monsters' Combat dice, since Nyarlathotep rolls the bulk of your dice. The Monsters are
mostly there for their special spellbooks.

The function of Nightgaunts is twofold - to Abduct enemies in small battles, but to be cheap
meat shields when guarding Nyarlathotep. (In general you don't want to Abduct in a battle
involving Nyarlathotep - you need the extra padding.)
 The Hunting Horror's purpose is to be Nyarlathotep's bodyguards. They can also fly
in for extra help in small battles, but they really save you Power costs since you should
never ever need to move them.
 The Flying Polyp falls in between the Nightgaunt & Hunting Horror thematically.
They are good as guards and captors, but also as excellent protection for
Nyarlathotep.
One of the quickest ways to lose at this faction is not supplying Nyarlathotep with adequate
defenses. This includes attacking an enemy faction who rolls a ton of combat dice (Cthulhu).
Or... not taking into account the possibility of "Dread Curse of Azathoth", leaving
Nyarlathotep alone in an Area when Opener is running rampant.

Some specific anti-Crawling Chaos tactics: Some suggestions from Boardgamegeek:

Cthulhu: I like to get unlimited battle early. Then Unsubmerge on top of Nyarlathotep with
some big units. He might use Harbinger on you, but if you can take him out it'll really set
him back. Also, Blue tends to have small gates with only one cultist. Move a monster in with
them and use Dreams on the cultist, thus transferring control without even a fight.
Black Goat: Blue tends to defend his gates with just one monster, which means Shub-
Niggurath can Avatar into the area. Blue gets the sad choice of either swapping the cultist,
leaving the gate empty, or the monster, leaving the cultist to be captured by Shub-
Niggurath. Also, Necrophagy helps you jump in and grab empty gates before Blue can
fly cultists there. And Ghroth can whittle those cultists down over time also. Usually the
other factions will cooperate in letting you take out Blue with the full Ghroth.
Yellow Sign: The King in Yellow is peripatetic anyway, so along the way, capture Blue's
cultists. He can only be stopped by Nyarlathotep, but with Screaming Dead you can capture
his dudes before he can follow you. If Nyarlathotep stands in your way, just Zingaya his
cultists instead. And of course Hastur can assassinate Nyarlathotep.
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 10

The thing to keep in mind is Crawling Chaos needs to spend 10 extra power (in a chunk of 4
and 6) sometime in the game to get 2 of his spellbooks. It is this particular weakness that
everyone else should look to exploit. There is NO convenient time for the Blue player to
spend that power.
Finally losing his Great Old One is a crippling blow for Nyarlathotep - worse than for perhaps
any other faction.

Spotlight on Great Cthulhu (Update 41)

Great Cthulhu is pretty much the game's poster child. Yet some people struggle with him.
Many Cthulhu players follow a course similar to this: take a slight early lead, because you are
initially unopposed - our monsters are scary, and Devolve protects you. Hold on, defensively,
to your stuff. Then fall behind because you can’t turn your battle advantage into a board
advantage, plus you have no real Power-saving abilities, and watch as the foes steal your
Gates and trample you beneath their pseudopods. End the game dead last. There are two
fundamental rules to follow in playing Cthulhu.

Be Aggressive

This rule is a general truism for every Cthulhu Wars faction. A player who turtles up is likely
to lose. This doesn't mean every faction has to to seek out battle - "being aggressive" means
something different for Yellow Sign than it does for Great Cthulhu. But Cthulhu has to be
even more aggressive than the other factions. Since most players, the first time they play a
game, tend to hang back and "get a feel for things", this puts their use of Great Cthulhu at a
disadvantage.
As Cthulhu, you can’t hang back and defend your gates – for one thing, you don’t have
enough units. Instead, if Crawling Chaos (or whoever) flies to one of your Gates to take it,
let him! Devolve the cultist to deny a Capture, and move to capture someone else’s Gate in
exchange. Remember that even if your Gate is taken, you’ll still get 1 Power from it via Y’ha
Nthlei so no biggy. Plus you have a Deep One left behind as a constant threat to pin down an
enemy monster.
If you boldly rush into battle, you can easily get all your spellbooks by the end of the third
turn. This gives you in turn 4 and 5 a Submerging Cthulhu who can emerge and immediately
battle. That’s a hard-to-beat formula for pounding on the enemy. Sure Necrophagy and
Madness might scatter your units to prevent an instant Gate capture. So what? Slaughter
them! Think on this – if you can send in Cthulhu plus 2 Starspawn, you’ll roll 12 dice, plus a
Devour, and your enemy has to roll 3 kills before any of your guys dies. This means on the
average you kill 3 enemy units to his 0. That’s a differential that’s hard to make up.
What I'm trying to say is that as Cthulhu you are designed to be aggressive. Seize the reins.
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 11

You are the Apex Predator

Act like you are Cthulhu, not a puling mongrel. Here are two bits of advice taken directly
from discussions at Boardgamegeek (i.e. not written by me)
(Adam Stark) To play Cthulhu well, you have to act like the apex predator [Sandy - love that
phrase!] Get Dreams out relatively early, so Crawling Chaos can't get away with controlling 5
gates; Build a big army, then park it with Submerge, and wait patiently, biding your time by
moving units, summoning cheaper monsters, etc. A giant army waiting on the fringes casts
just as much of a pall over the game as Dreams. Most new players don't see the obvious
utilities in Dreams, and they also often try and get their "Kill 1/2 Units" spellbooks before
they have a big enough army. They'll also be impatient to use their big army and
immediately Un-Submerge, which lifts the pall.
(Kyle S.) It's hard in this game to be a straight up bully and win at the same time because you
get ganged up on. So I have spent the last few games playing Green and trying to tighten up
my gameplan. And what I found after a few games was pretty cool. It was not Blue who
dictated that first round. It was me. … The key for me is to not play scared. Allowing Blue
game after game to easily take 3 opening gates because the rest of us are afraid of Blue's
harassment is not the mindset I wanted any longer. I am the Great Cthulhu after all!

Sample Simple Cthulhu Strategy

TURN ONE – build a Gate and summon a Monster to guard it plus threaten another player’s
Gate, if they are so foolish as not to defend it.
TURN TWO – take Devolve in the Doom phase. The errata now also give you an Elder Sign
with this first spellbook. Awaken Cthulhu and take Y’ha Nthlei if anyone else has, or is likely
to get, a gate in the ocean. Otherwise, go for Submerge.
TURN THREE – you have 10 Power (more if Y’ha Nthlei kicked in), Cthulhu, and a spare
monster. First get that second Ocean Gate. Easiest/cheapest way (assuming no one was
foolish & built next to your start area) is to march Cthulhu into an adjacent sea, then devolve
a Cultist back home. Recruit that cultist into Cthulhu’s spot and Gate ‘er up. For your fourth
Gate, it depends whether the enemy gate structure is vulnerable to Dreams or not. If so,
get Dreams. Otherwise take Submerge or maybeRegenerate. You still have 6 Power. Summon
a monster or Cultist and spend 2 Power to move Cthulhu & his li’l buddy to an adjacent
enemy Gate. Bound to be one. (If you took a cultist,Devolve him pre-Battle). You might
possibly fail to take the Gate if a spoilsport invisible Polyp, or necrophagous Ghoul is around,
but you’ll still murder one defender, and probably two. (Maybe you’ll luck out with 3 kills
and get two spellbooks. It’s far from unlikely with 7-9 dice plus Devour.) Do not neglect the
possibility of taking a Gate by Capture. Yeah, you may give up a spellbook since you didn't
fight for it, but it’s cheap and effective.
TURN FOUR – you have 14 power from 4 Gates (again, possibly more with Y’ha Nthlei or a
Capture). You also have 3-4 spellbooks (all 6 if you were lucky with kills last turn). Ritual this
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 12

turn for the extra Doom & Elder Sign - you'll have 8-9 Power remaining; still enough to get
any remaining battle spellbook.
TURN FIVE – if you kept your 4 gates from last turn (or, more likely, traded Gates with
someone) then after Ritualing you have 20 Doom and at least 5 Elder Signs (1 from Cthulhu,
2 from Rituals, and 2 from your spellbook requirements). Since an average Elder Sign is
worth 1.67, you are ~28 Doom. You might even have 30, in which case cash in and win! This
is the turn in which the other players have the power and the will to turn against you, and will
demolish you as best they can. You’ll be lucky if you end up with 2-3 Gates. Try to keep 4
Power to re-awaken Cthulhu if he’s killed. This also nets you an Elder Sign, which, again,
might be enough to put you over the top and win the game immediately. That will chagrin
your foes.
TURN SIX – of course this turn won’t go into the action phase. Even if you’re down to 1-2
Gates and Cthulhu is dead, you should Ritual. If you managed to hold onto 2 Gates and
Cthulhu (not unlikely), you’ll have 24-25 Doom and 7 Elder Signs, giving you a final score
ataround 35, generally more than sufficient.
Remember – don’t be afraid to Ritual. Don’t be afraid to fight. Let the other players fear
you. They certainly have reason enough to do so.

Timing and Opener of the Way (Update 56)

Some factions in Cthulhu Wars are harder to figure out than others. This is not to say that
any faction is trivial to master – my previous design corners on Cthulhu & Sleeper are meant
to show this. But after all, people “get” the basics of Cthulhu and Sleeper right off the bat
(which is not to say they can then immediately win with them). But two factions people are
likeliest to struggle with are Yellow Sign & Opener of the Way. My experience is that
typically, about halfway through their first game, a Yellow Sign player suddenly smites his
forehead and exclaims, “NOW I get it! I’ve been doing it wrong all along!” And of course
they still lose, because they wasted the first half of the game, but in the SECOND game as
Yellow Sign they do fine. To be fair, some players can’t seem to figure out Black Goat at first,
too. They just can’t wrap their head around it. But I would say at least half the people who
play Black Goat can see how she “flows” from the start.

With Opener, most players take about a game and a half before that “Aha!” moment. So
they flounder around the whole first game and halfway through the second. Starting with the
third game, they are a force to be reckoned with. Opener works like a well-oiled machine.
This has its drawbacks. When everything is going right, Opener pulls off fabulous victories far
beyond any other faction (as we shall soon see). But when things go wrong, Opener doesn't
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 13

so much fly as ... plummet. Opener is rarely middle of the pack (a position that Cthulhu, for
instance, often holds).

To pull off an Opener victory, you need correct timing. Which makes sense, because Yog-
Sothoth surpasses space & time. You have to learn to apply that time effectively. This timing
issue occurs throughout your faction and your spellbooks, but it is most recognizable with
the two Dragon spellbooks, and Million Favored Ones.
The Dragons are obvious – you can only use each one once per game, so if you save them
till the last minute, they might not have much of an effect, whereas if you pull them off
early, you may have “buyer’s remorse” at later opportunities.

Million Favored Ones is less obvious. The way it works is that your units can promote after
Battle, (kind of like Pokemon). A beginner blunders by summoning say, a Mutant, then
Battling to promote him. Now he has a 3 cost monster! But what he isn’t noticing is that it
cost him 3 points to get that monster (2 for the Mutant, then 1 for the Battle), so he's saving
no Power. Of course he also got to possibly inflict a Battle result, but so did, the foe. What
I’m saying is that Million Favored Ones doesn’t save you Power in summoning unless you
battle with multiple units at once, so you can promote them all together. The problem then
becomes trying to set up that mass battle. If you just start summoning Mutant after Mutant
at someone’s Gate, planning to instigate a big battle, long before you finish your task, he will
respond – launching his own counterstrike or preparing defenses. If instead you move a big
army to an Area, then any Power saved on summoning is wasted by the Move action.
Look at it this way. If I summon two Mutants in an enemy Area, then declare battle, even if
both my units survive, the result is that I spent 5 Power to get 6 Power worth of
Abominations. Yay(?) But I had an opportunity cost too – I only rolled 2 dice in the Battle -
If I’d straight-up summoned Abominations, I’d have rolled 4 dice.

Time battles properly, even with Million Favored Ones. If an enemy blunders into one of
your Areas, seize the moment & Battle, promoting a ton of guys at once. Or figure out when
and how a Battle advantages you. Don’t depend on Million Favored Ones as a way to get
heavy units into play – apply it as a tool, and a threat – you’ll find that enemy factions are
leery to attack you, because you promote. Sometimes you need to battle anyway, so why
not promote? But if you seek out battle for the purpose of promotion you have it wrong way
round.
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 14

The Horror

There is an infamous Play-By-Forum game on Boardgamegeek called Dimensional Shift. It

was actually the 3rd forum game ever, and set up a PR problem for me, which I will get into.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1222029/cthulhu-wars-pbf-3-dimensional-rift-
finished

This game consisted of Great Cthulhu, Opener of the Way, Yellow Sign, and Sleeper. Here in
its liveliest awfulness, is what Opener of the Way perpetrated on the other (mostly
experienced) players.

TURN ONE – start in South Asia. Move a cultist to Arabia, build Gate, summon Mutant to
Arabia, move the Mutant to Europe (Yellow Sign’s home). That’s 8 Power.

TURN ONE ANALYSIS – this is a straightforward opening move. Yellow Sign isn’t worried
about the Mutant, because he doesn’t really care if his Cultists are killed or captured. There is
as yet no sign of the upcoming storm.

TURN TWO – start with 10 Power & 2 Doom. So does most everyone else (except YS, who
has 9 Power & a desecration). Cthulhu starts off by building a third Gate, so there are now 8
gates and Opener gets the spellbook They Break Through.

Now Opener summons a Spawn of Yog in Sleeper’s home territory. On his next action, he
awakens Yog-Sothoth there and takes Dragon Ascending as his spellbook. He is now at 0
Power, but IMMEDIATELY used Dragon Ascending to rise from 0 Power to 9 Power (which
is what another player had). He then summons an Abomination to a Gate in South America
(6 Power left) and takes Million Favored Ones for being at two Gates (he did this late –
should have done it when he summoned his Spawn in North America). Opener now uses
Beyond-One to move the Gate in North America (with Yog) to North Asia (5 Power left).
(Sleeper responds cunningly by using Cursed Slumber to save that Gate.) Then the
Abomination captures a Sleeper cultist in South America (4 Power left), and then Opener
uses Beyond-One to move the South American gate (with cultist!) to North Asia, after
which he captures the cultist (3 Power left).
At this point only Opener has Power left. So he uses his last 3 Power for: Move Cultist from
South Asia to the Gate in North Asia, Battle in Europe (he rolls a kill!) upgrading his Mutant
to an Abomination, and capturing one of Yellow Sign’s cultists. (Yellow Sign had passion,
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 15

and was able to do things after the Kill & Capture of course, but didn’t try to stop Opener,
since Yellow Sign kind of likes it when his cultists die.)

TURN TWO ANALYSIS - This is the turn where Opener ruled supreme. He saw his chance
(used his timing) and leapt into the lead. See and marvel. He “only “got 9 Power for his
Dragon Ascending but he spent 19 Power on this turn. No wonder he’s ahead. But the
problem for Opener is how to stay ahead, since this is a trick he can only do once. Watch and
see.

TURN THREE – Opener starts with 16 Power (four gates, including Yog-Sothoth; six cultists;
2 captives). Second-best is only 12 (it was Cthulhu). Opener has 6 Doom, but Rituals for 4
more (final total 10 + 1 Elder Sign). No one else Rituals. (Rare in turn 3 for most players, but
made sense for Opener here).

Opener now moves Yog to South Asia (his homeland) and the Europe Abomination to
Arabia (9 Power left); then summons a Mutant to South Pacific, where Cthulhu just
awakened(!) (7 Power left); then moves Yog & a cultist to the Indian ocean (5 Power left –
Yog’s safe because Cthulhu, who has units there, is out of Power); Opener now captures
Cthulhu’s cultist in the Indian ocean, and takes the Gate (Cthulhu could have devolved the
Cultist to save him, but then Yog could have taken the Gate with his own cultist for free);
At this time, Opener has 4 Power left, and no one else has any. He proceeds to: move a
Cultist from South Asia to Arabia, and then the Arabian one to East Africa (2 Power left).
Then he moves Yog-Sothoth to South Pacific, taking the Dragon Descending spellbook for
having his GOO in the same area as another (Cthulhu).

TURN THREE ANALYSIS – Opener uses his lead effectively to stay ahead, and keep the other
factions more or less suppressed. Note that he doesn’t use Beyond One at all this turn,
though it was the key to his success in Turn Two. Now he no longer has to depend on it.
TURN FOUR – Opener starts with 17 Power and 15 Doom! (5 Gates now, including Yog-
Sothoth). He rituals, adding another 5 Doom and an Elder Sign PLUS he uses Dragon
Descending to add yet another 5 Doom for a total of 25 Doom. This does cost him 6 Power.
He then declares battle in South Pacific, and his Mutant is killed, so he gets his 5th spellbook.
(He doesn’t care if Yog-Sothoth is killed.) As his next action, he builds a Gate in East Africa,
which makes 12 gates on the map, and takes his last spellbook. He then immediately reveals
his two Elder Signs, which are a 3 & a 2, for 5 and he immediately wins, going to exactly 30
with 6 spellbooks.
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 16

TURN FOUR ANALYSIS – he lucked out on his Elder Signs, but the win was locked in, so
really this just saved the other factions some pain. The others were of course all plotting to
band together against Opener this turn, but it was clearly too late - unless they could knock
him down to 0 Gates, Opener had this game in the bag. The other factions only had 6, 7, & 8
Doom respectively at this point. (With, admittedly some Elder Signs. Still.)

Sandy’s Ensuing Problem

The response of the average person watching what Opener perpetrated in this game was *eye-
twitch*

Unsurprisingly, it seemed to some that nothing could have been done and that Opener was
grossly unbalanced and unstoppable. The players discussed it for a while post-game, and
concluded that he could indeed have been stopped - the players needed to have immediately
recognized that when Opener used Dragon Ascending in Turn 2, this gave him a 19 Power
turn. Of course, they really couldn't have stopped him in Turn 2 - they needed to cooperate
and move on him in Turn 3, which was their chance. They formed their anti-Opener cabal
just one turn too late.

This of course, is true for other factions, many a game I've won as Sleeper, or Cthulhu, or
Black Goat because the other players united against me a turn too late.
And of course a lot of factions have a broken-seeming sure-fire way to win. Whether it's a
Turn 2 Hastur 3rd Eye rampage, or a Yog Sothoth Dragon rampage, or a turn 4 unmolested
Windwalker rampage, or a Turn 3 Flying Burrowing Tsathoggua rampage doesn't really
matter.

These things tend to only happen one or two times in a particular gaming group, because
there are easy ways to prevent such attempts, if not outright punish the user. They only
look unbeatable. When the stars are right, any faction can be a powerhouse. Watch for it,
and at least now you know how Opener pulls it off.
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 17

Spotlight on Sleeper (Update 39)

Cthulhu Wars is widely praised for its wide-open, Ameritrash play style. It is freewheeling,
with sudden changes of fortune, overclocked powerhouses, and fast action. But the fact
remains that it also stands up to carefully analysis. We're going to do that with Sleeper so you
can see what I’m talking about. This is a long Design Corner with a lot of technical stuff. You
might want to go bone up on Sleeper's spellbooks & abilities before reading the rest of this.
I'll wait here <whistles and swings his legs>

Ah, you're back? Excellent. Well then, every faction has a particular means of gaining extra
Elder Signs. Sleeper, however, is in a peculiar position in this regard. His Elder Signs come via
his Demand Sacrifice spellbook, which means he only gets them if his enemy agrees.
Naturally, a sapient foe only coughs up the Elder Signs if Sleeper seems to be behind in Doom
points. So While this power is useful as a catch-up bonus, it won’t solidify or gain a lead. As a
result, Sleeper has to rely entirely on gate control and Rituals of Annihilation for Doom. This
takes a lot of Power. Plus Sleeper has to spend at least 9 Power to earn three of his spellbooks.
He has to do a Ritual of Annihlation for a fourth. Finally, his Great Old One takes him 11
Power to awaken (counting the Formless Spawn you need). That’s at least 25 Power that
is not being spent on building your own conquering enemy Gates. Since a typical game
of Cthulhu Wars lasts only 5 full turns, if we figure Sleeper earns 8 Power the first turn, 10 the
second, and 12-14 for the last three turns, this is a mere 50-60 Power for the whole game,
almost half of which is going towards spellbooks and Tsathoggua.

However, Sleeper's situation is far from hopeless. Remember his advantages! First – he is a
cheap faction to play (perhaps only Yellow Sign is less costly). His movement is half-price. He
gets a free monster every Doom phase (basically a 2-3 power boost per turn). He needs to
guard fewer Areas, because one Gate is off-map. Second, he is the most flexible faction in
terms of choices. Lethargy lets you sit back and observe your prey waste energy till you wish
to strike. Energy Nexus and Ancient Sorcery give you many possibilities.
The first thing you need to do in every game as Sleeper is consider your opponents and think
on their unique abilities. Which abilities do you want to borrow via Ancient Sorcery? And
when? Know your plan. Remember that Ancient Sorcery has two uses - if it is the last part of
the Action phase and you’re not sure what to do with remaining Power, Ancient
Sorcery transfers that Power to the next turn for you!
The bottom line here is that while Sleeper is cheap and flexible, he doesn’t earn extra Power –
he just hangs onto what he’s got for longer. This (again) means he needs to rely on board
presence and Gates. Too often Sleeper sits back in his corner and slowly builds up his forces -
this is death for him. He needs to get out there, building or capturing Gates, setting himself
up for more Power, more Doom, more choices. He must use his abilities – not just hoard
them in the corner, chortling over his box o’ tricks. The more Power you earn in the first few
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 18

turns, the more options you have later on, once your spellbooks start kicking in, and your
Power savings come into effect.

How to use Tsathoggua – he is weird, because his Combat is based on the enemy’s current
Power. This seems to conflict with Lethargy. You see, if he waits till the end of the turn to go
on a rampage, then Tsathoggua won’t get many dice (because the foe has 0 Power). But if
goes into battle early, what use is Lethargy?
Here is how to use it properly – if you need fight the bad guys, do it early in the turn. THEN
use Lethargy. At the end of the turn, use Tsathoggua to Capture Monsters & Cultists rather
than battle. This sets you up for an awesome following turn.
Here is a sample plan for Sleeper, to show you what I mean. (There are many ways to go. This
is just one idea.)
TURN ONE – build two Gates. Build two Wizards to guard them. Build a Serpent Man.
TURN TWO – You have 10 Power. Get a free Serpent Man; earn 2 Doom in the Doom phase.
In the Action phase, spend 3 Power to earn the Cursed Slumber spellbook. I like to see if
Yellow Sign is willing to make a deal – desecrate my Area, but don’t capture any Cultists, in
return for 3 Power. If not, screw it – pick the requirement that makes everyone lose a
Power). Spend 1 Power to fire your Gate off into space. Spend 3 more Power to build a third
Gate in the now-empty spot. Spend 2 Power on your third Serpent Man. You have 1 Power
left over. It’s unlikely anyone will mess with you yet. You had five monsters to guard just 2
Gates, which is plenty for turn 2.
TURN THREE – assuming no one was able to mess with you, you now have 12 Power & 3
Gates. You still only have 2 Gates on the map to guard. Take your free Formless Spawn and
earn 3 more Doom. Awaken Tsathoggua and either take Ancient Sorcery or Capture
Monster, depending on where the other players’ units are. Then Lethargy till they are drained.
If the enemy is foolishly close, go Capture their Monsters. If not, send all your Serpent Men
out via Ancient Sorcery. Remember if Yellow Sign Desecrates one of your territories,
use Ancient Sorcery to copy him – you’ll get an extra Power via Feast!
TURN FOUR – you still only have 3 Gates, but you should also have captured units and/or
have Serpent Men returning to the fold, bringing Power with them. In any case I’d guess
you’d have around 14-15 Power this turn. You get ANOTHER free Formless Spawn and 3
more Doom (total of 8 Doom). Do a Ritual of Annihilation – it's still early, so might be the
first one, only costing 5 Power. At most it should be 6. You now have 11 Doom, an Elder
Sign, and 9-10 Power, plus you got a new Spellbook from the Ritual (Demand
Sacrifice or Tunnel?). Still, you only have 3 Spellbooks total, so it’s time to earn more.
Lethargy as desired or an opportunity presents. Then go to battle and steal a Gate. Use
Tunnel to make your attacking move cheap. If no one is near, use Ancient Sorcery to copy
Crawling Chaos’s Flight to reach them. The fight nets you another spellbook (since you
should roll 6 dice in Battle). Your own Gates are still safe – you have no less than 7 monsters
in play plus your Great Old One. Spend 3 of your remaining Power for yet another spellbook
(perhaps Demand Sacrifice or Energy Nexus, to make attacks easier). You now have 5
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 19

spellbooks, 4 (maybe 5!) Gates, and probably 2-3 Power left. If you can use your remaining
Power to capture another Gate (Lethargy makes it easier), do so. If not, use Ancient
Sorcery (perhaps copying and using Hibernate, if Windwalker is in the game) to shift your
Power to next turn.
TURN FIVE – you should have 14-16 Power from Gates & Cultists, plus 3-4 Power from
captured units and Ancient Sorcery. Total 16-20 Power. You gain 4-5 Doom, giving you a
total of say 15. Then absolutely Ritual again, bumping you from 15 to 19, plus you now have
2 Elder Signs. You still have 8-12 Power left. Blow 3 for your last spellbook. All your
monsters are now out except one Formless Spawn. If you have enough Power, go ahead and
summon him – your Spawn will roll 5 dice apiece. Terrifying, eh? Lethargy, capture enemies,
rely onDemand Sacrifice to keep you safe, and build or capture a fifth Gate. Tsathoggua can
go on a rampage with a Wizard and he is quite safe – if anyone tries to attack, first use Energy
Nexus to Move Tsathoggua & his Wizard out of the battle area. WithTunnel, the evasion
move only costs 1 point. Now Tsathoggua only fights when and where you please.
FINAL DOOM PHASE – You should have been able to score a 5th gate last turn, in which
case you are looking at (including the Ritual) ending the game with 29-30 Doom and 3
Elder Signs. That’s a fairly solid shot at victory. Of course your chances are even better if you
remembered, when stealing gates & capturing Monsters, to pick on whoever is the biggest
threat.

How to Lose as Sleeper

Now, a common approach for a Sleeper player is as follows:

TURN ONE – build a Gate & summon a Formless Spawn and a Wizard.
TURN TWO – 10 Power, earn 2 Doom and a Wizard. Summon Tsathoggua. Lethargy for a
while, then use your remaining 2 Power on something trivial.
TURN THREE – Still only 10 Power (you still have just 2 Gates!). Doom rises to 4. At least
you have Tsathoggua. Spend 3 Points on a spellbook. Take Tsathoggua into battle to get
your 6 Combat dice spellbook. Summon two Serpent Men in a failed attempt to earn a free
Formless Spawn next turn.
TURN FOUR – still only 10 Power & 2 Gates. Get your last Serpent Man. At least he was
free. Suddenly remember that you need to a Ritual for a spellbook, and do it quick, while it’s
still only 5 Power, so your Doom goes up to 8 this turn and you get an elder sign. With your
remaining 5 Power, get another 3 point spellbook and then try but fail to capture a gate.
TURN FIVE - 10-11 Power & 2 Gates. Your Doom rises to 10, but you don’t want to pay for
a Ritual, instead spending 6 Power on your last two Spellbooks. With your remaining Power
you luck out and manage to capture a Gate.
FINAL DOOM PHASE – you have 3 Gates. Ritual and your doom goes up to 16, plus 2 Elder
Signs. You might not even break 20 Doom. The other players, meanwhile, are all all far
ahead. You lose miserably and curse Sandy’s incompetence in designing Sleeper. “This
faction’s totally lame. I’m going back to Crawling Chaos!”
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 20

There you have it – the same faction played with an eye to exploiting its advantages, or just
flailing around. It’s like night and day. I could do an analysis like this of all the factions,
frankly. Should I? Also again, to make myself plain – the plan I wrote up here for Sleeper is
not the One True Way – he has many many different roads to victory. But all of them
involve knowing how Sleeper works and a modicum of planning ahead. The take-home
lesson is that with Sleeper, I think it is typically a mistake to awaken Tsathoggua on the
second turn. This can work for Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth or the rest, but you
need that extra turn of growth to prepare for Tsathoggua’s arrival. Remember – he is the
Sleeper. Don’t awaken him too soon!

Spotlight on Windwalker (Update 61)

I was recently reminded that I didn’t do a Design Corner for Windwalker. He is a pretty
straightforward faction. Basically he has three big strategic decisions.

First – which Area do you start in? On the Earth map, your choices are the Arctic Ocean or
Antarctica, but all maps share a similar choice. Typically one of the two start Areas gives you
better access to enemy homelands, but also gives them better access to you. So this decision
helps set the tone for the game. Do you want to be in the mix, slugging from the start? Or do
you want to sit back and wait till you’ve built up a bit? There is no right or wrong answer here
– it’s just what you think will work for the particular mix of factions – and player
personalities – in this particular game. Remember that if you choose the “safe” start Area,
while this will mean you are likelier to be sale from molestation, it also means it’s harder for
you to bring your conquering army to bear in the late game.

Second – do you awaken Rhan-Tegoth in your start Area, or in the other Area? If you
awaken Rhan Tegoth in the alternate Start, this helps you to get that Gate up earlier. But it
also leaves Rhan Tegoth far from the rest of your units, where he might be vulnerable to
Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, or other predators. Yeah, he’s “Eternal” so you can keep him alive,
but it still costs Power better-spent on other things. The safest way to get your gate in the
alternate Start Area is to awaken Rhan-Tegoth in your real Start Area, then later on awaken
Ithaqua, then use his Arctic Winds ability to march your entire crew up to the other area,
then build your Gate. Though this is the “safest” this doesn’t mean it’s the best – choosing
the path of safety in Cthulhu Wars oft consolidating your end-game score by giving up 1st
place in exchange for 2nd!
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 21

Third – when do you launch your final attack? Generally speaking, Windwalker has one BIG
turn in which he scores a lot of points. If he’s really lucky, he has two such turns. But you can
rely on one. You need to time it such that your army is at its peak (or nearly so – if you wait
till you have EVERY unit out, you are almost certainly waiting too long), then plow across
the world, stealing Gates from your enemies, and trying to end up with 5-6 Gates under your
control at the end of the Action phase. This is eminently doable. Even if you only Ritual
twice during the game, you should be able to earn an easy 9 extra Doom from these, and 4
Elder Signs. Add to this the Elder Signs from your special spellbook requirement, and you
should at least be a contender! But of course you needn’t settle for contender. Go for it all!

Here are the two tips to remember: First, don’t put off summoning Gnoph-Kehs. The first
one costs a lot, so people often wait till “they can afford it”. But tomorrow never comes. You
need to do it when it still hurts a bit, to ensure a potent force with Ithaqua – if he has 4
Gnoph-Kehs, he is really scary, plus Berserkergang gives him an almost-certain extra kill.

Second, don’t be afraid of your enemies. Hit the guys who have the most Doom, and the
biggest and baddest armies. You can take it. You’ll annihilate them!

Look at this example: It is turn 5, and you are boldly attacking Crawling Chaos in his home
base. He has 3 Cultists, a Nightgaunt, a Flying Polyp, and ol’ Gnarls himself. Of course two
hunting horrors teleport in. You have Ithaqua, Rhan-Tegoth, 3 Gnoph-Kehs, a Wendigo, and
1 cultist (all you could afford to bring). Both your armies cost 23 Power. Say Nyarlathotep is
at around 21 Doom (not implausible for this time in the game). You’ll roll 21 dice.

Pre-Battle - Crawling Chaos sacks his Nightgaunt, you’ll lose your cultist. Your Wendigo
Howls one of his cultists out of the Area. The Flying Polyp turns one of your Gnoph-Kehs
invisible.

Battle - Crawling Chaos rolls 17 dice. You’ll roll 21 dice. Say you both score 3 kills.

Post-Battle – you take 1 hit on Rhan-Tegoth, leaving 2 more hits. Take one on a Gnoph
Keh, and one on your Wendigo. Then use Cannibalism to spawn a cultist or Wendigo in the
Area (I recommend a cultist for reasons to be seen), meaning you really only lost 2 cost-1
units (the Abducted cultist & the Gnoph-Keh). You now apply Berserkergang to kill an extra
enemy, meaning he lost 4 units.

Aftermath. Crawling Chaos lost his Nightgaunt (Abduction), 2 cultists, a flying polyp, and a
hunting horror. Everyone is pained out of the Area except Rhan-Tegoth and your newly-
spawned Cultist. Since Rhan-Tegoth already took a hit, and the new cultist wasn’t part of the
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 22

fight, even Black Goat’s Necrophagycan't kick you out. You killed 8 cost worth of units to
your 2, and captured the Gate. Of course, Nyarlathotep does get 4 Elder Signs. Nothing’s
perfect. See how scary you can be?

Spotlight on Yellow Sign (Update 53)

Yellow Sign has generally weak monsters, no combat abilities (except Hastur'sVengeance,
which is generally a last resort), generally has the least Power and Doom in the early game,
AND is the most difficult faction to master for a beginner. Nonetheless, he notoriously has a
high win percentage. Why is this?

Actually a lot of Yellow Sign's victories come about as a result of what might as well be called
social engineering. Yellow Sign seems weak, so he is usually not picked on in the early game.
It's much easier to see Cthulhu, Crawling Chaos, or Black Goat as a threat while they establish
gates, declare battle, and generally get in your way. Yellow Sign, by comparison, is almost
self-effacing. Yeah, the King might drop by once in a while and capture your guy or drop a
Desecration, but then he moves on, his antics forgotten. Plus remember that turn he straight
up gave you 3 Doom points? What a nice guy. Sure he can Desecration your African home
land, as long as he promises to leave next turn. Why not give him a break?

You get the picture. Then, by turn 4-5 he has the MOST Power and he is Third Eyeing Elder
Signs left & right. You are afraid to mess with him because Hastur is on the board and ...
Vengeance. Still you do what you can, but that pile of Elder Signs keeps growing and then he
wins, to the sweet sweet melody of bitter recriminations all around.

The problem is that Yellow Sign is deceptively weak in the early game, and slides under the
radar. With more experienced, Yellow Sign doesn't win quite so often, because players are
able to tell when he is getting close to his "breakthrough" - once he has 3-4 Undead in his
army, you are about to enter a world of hurt. So you have to stop him before then.

What to do about Yellow Sign in the early game

Yes capturing his cultists gives him Passion, which is discouraging. Plus he really doesn't mind
losing a few cultists in the early game - he is faced with a problem unknown to the other
factions. Namely he has trouble getting more Gates, because all his cultists are idly sitting
around in Europe, getting fat instead of earning their keep. If one or two get killed in the
early game, he can recruit them with Desecration in other Areas, and build a couple Gates to
keep competitive (he doesn't need as many Gates as the other factions, but he still needs a
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 23

few - a Yellow Sign that spends the whole game with 1-2 Gates will lose, regardless of
Desecrations).

So don't eliminate his Cultists, unless this will also cost him a Gate. But DO eliminate his
undead - they are precious to him. Plus you don't want them in your Areas Zingayaing your
peeps. If you are Cthulhu, spend a point to Devour one of his Byakhee. Do not tolerate him
in your Areas, no matter what he says. Yes, he will still eventually pull off his Desecrations.
But for Azathoth's sake don't make it easy for him!

What to do about Yellow Sign in the Late Game

Basically in the late game your problem is that you need to break up the Third Eye Engine.
Fortunately, you have a number of techniques available, but they vary with your faction.
Note that NONE of these techniques work unless another faction cooperates with you,
which they will only do if it is obvious that (A) they won't lose on the deal and (B) Yellow
Sign is in the lead or threatening to go there. But if Yellow Sign is trailing, then why bother to
take him down anyway, right? Instead improve your own position.

What I'm saying here is if you, as Cthulhu say, have 15 Doom and 3 Elder Signs, and Yellow
Sign has 5 Doom and 2 Elder Signs, you are better off building or capturing gates, rather than
attacking Yellow Sign. On the other hand, if Yellow Sign is at 10 Doom and 9 Elder Signs (not
uncommon) you need to focus on his demise. But you should be able to get allies.
Particularly point out that he has 16 Power left for this turn, and will be able to Third Eye for
6-8 more Elder Signs if he isn't stopped.

You have three choices for trying to stop Yellow from winning, late game. First, is Killing
Hastur. This takes a LOT of forces or finding him vulnerable. Second is destroying Yellow
Sign's Cultists or Gate infrastructure. Yes, he gets Passion Power when you do this, but if you
can reduce his Cultists faster than he can replace them (example: via Ghroth), you can steal
his Gates away. Even with two GOOs and Third Eye getting 0-1 Gate Doom points is going
to hurt.

The third, most common ploy, is to attack the King & his army of undead. Let's examine it.

How to Battle All the King's Horses & All the King's Men

Remember you can't to catch the King unless he is out of Power, or you have 6 Spellbooks.
Don't even try, because he'll simply scream his way out of danger. But once you have 6
spellbooks, he is meat on the table. Remember that the King, even with a full army of 6
undead, rolls only 5 combat dice, This means he is likely to get maybe 1 Kill, which you can
weather.
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 24

If you are Crawling Chaos, you'll have Nyarlathotep, two Hunting Horrors (you DID
summon your HHs, right?) and a nightgaunt to take the King's likely Kill he rolls. Or a
Flying Polyp to phase one of his guys out of battle, so he rolls less. You'll roll probably 10-14
dice, enough to pain ALL of his guys, and kill at least 2. Use Madness to scatter his army
inconveniently, forcing him to spend the next few actions gathering up the spilled pieces.
Your Flying Polyp's Invisibility actually scatters him even more effectively, because one stays
behind in teh Battle Area. And you earn 2 Elder Signs out of it. Follow up with ANOTHER
attack on the nearly-naked King, before he can collect the pieces, and you may be able to
Kill him (plus get 2 more Elder Signs). Typically by the time you finish off the King, the
other players are eyeing YOU as the leader. The risk here is that he will use Hastur to Kill
Nyarlathotep. One way to prepare for this is by killing off his Byakhee first, so Hastur is at risk
in the combat (otherwise he'll Shriek his Byakhee to the Battle as protection).

If you are Great Cthulhu, things are simpler. You get to devour a guy pre-combat, and with a
Regeneratng Starspawn you may well take zero deaths yourself. If Crawling Chaos is willing to
use Madness to scatter the army post-Battle that's even better, but you may be able to
straight-up kill enough of his army to handicap the King regardless. Again, in a follow-up
Battle you may be able to Kill the King. And, you don't fear Hastur's reprisals, because you're
not afraid of dying.

If you are Black Goat, you really can't seek out Battle with the King, unless he is foolish
enough to move into one of your nests, in which case, seize the day! You have PLENTY of
combat dice to use on him. Get someone else to attack the King - even if they only have
Monsters to do the job, you can Necrophagy and Pain the King's undead awkwardly. And do
not forget Ghroth.. Yes, he gets Passion Power from this, and can start re-recruiting, but in
the meantime you and the other factions can capture away his newly abandoned Gates with
enough Ghroths.

If you are Opener of the Way, again it is hard to seek out Battle with the King. But you can
Dread Curse him and don't even need Crawling Chaos to cooperate via Madness. Two-Three
Dread Curses in a Row, rolling 4-5 dice each, and you can Kill the King.

If you are Sleeper, your best bet is to straight up Capture his undead and Byakhee instead of
battling. Keep a Wizard on hand, so if Hastur decides to punish you, you can Energy Nexus
out of Dodge City, thumbing your nose at him as you flee. Be sure to Ancient Sorcery
Yellow Sign every turn, so you get a Power boost from the Desecrations in your territory. He
hates that. You can also Lethargy your time away so when you do turn on Yellow Sign, he
can't respond.
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 25

If you are Windwalker, once you have 6 Gates just track him down.and kill him with all your
combat dice. If you have less than 6 Gates, you are probably better off using Ice Age to
hinder him in Desecration,

If you are the Tcho-Tchos, Terror and even just a couple of Proto-Shoggoths keep the King
from scoring any real damage. Ubbo-Sathla in the late game can score enough hits to spread
the army, And best of all, you don't care if Hastur kills Ubbo. He was free! Also, if you have a
High Priest with Hierophant in your Area, even Hastur may not be able to score a Kill in
retribution.

Spotlight on The Independent Great Old Ones

Abhoth: a closer look (update 35)
Abhoth's unique ability is that if he is in play, you can pay 1 Power and spawn a Filth token
anywhere on the map.

Filth tokens act like Combat 0 Monsters that cannot Move nor initiate Actions. They are still
affected by abilities and spellbooks and other game events. For example, Cthulhu could
Submerge with them, they can be Pained, etc.).

But Abhoth's spellbook, when earned, suddenly renders the Filth tokens dangerous. Enemy
Gates in Areas containing a Filth token no longer count during the Doom phase. This is
huge. Now all enemy players have to spend time and trouble exterminating the Filth from
their Areas before the Doom phase or lose points. Every player has to consider this, including
you - do you spend your time spawning Filth to waste your opponent's time, or do you take
other actions? It's a whole world of options, new tactics, and new strategies.

For those interested in Abhoth, he comes in Great Old One Pack 1, along with a sheet of die-
cut Filth tokens. Now you know.

Mother Dagon (update 36)

<generates random number> this time I got Mother Dagon, so let's see how SHE affects the
entire game. Well, Mother Dagon's spellbook is the Zygote - the way this works is, when you
recruit a Cultist, you pay 1 Power and then place all Cultists from the Pool. I.e., not just one.
So naturally this completely changes the way you recruit and use Cultists! You don't mind at
all when they are killed en masse, and it's a godsend to factions who tend to lose a lot of
cultists (Cthulhu & Black Goat spring to mind). Now Mother Dagon affects YOUR strategy
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 26

and how you plan your game but not so much your enemies, though of course they are
affected by your actions.

So she is quite a major factor in your gameplay, but works kind of the opposite from
Abhoth. As you may recall from the last update, Abhoth affects other players strategies, and
messes with their plans, limiting their options. But Mother Hydra expands your options
instead.

Tulzscha (Update 38)

I generated yet another random number, and today it came up Tulszcha! At last, one of the
new ones! (My secret plan was to continue doing this till I got a new one.)
So, how does Tulszcha change the game for everyone. Well, conveniently for the point I've
been trying to make in the last two updates, he is sort of a compromise between Abhoth's
"affects the other players" and Mother Hydra's "changes your own strategy."

Tulszcha's spellbook reads as follows: Doom phase Ceremony of Annihilation - when you
perform a Ritual of Annihilation, you may choose to pay nothing, and instead EARN Power
equal to the current position of the Ritual of Annihilation marker, then advance the marker 1
step. You earn no extra Doom points nor Elder Signs.

So let's consider this - when you use this power (probably only once or twice in the game) it
is an opportunity cost - you are basically trading Doom for Power. But a sudden influx of 5-8
Power at the start of your Action phase can be quite a terrifying thing - obviously it's only
worth it if you can use that Power to demolish your opponents or capture some gates. So to
get the proper value out of it, you need to prepare and plan and get ready for your Big Turn.
Note that the only way to capitalize on Tulszcha's power boost is to get out there and mess
with your opponents. But you have to do so by direct action. So Tulszcha changes the game
(like the other Independent Great Old Ones), but he does so by forcing you to supercharge
yourself and interact with everyone else.

Map Summaries (compiled from “Sandy Talks

about Maps”) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qE239s-xiA
Primeval Map:

 Longer distances, so it is harder to move around in than the standard earth map.
 Even though gate ownership is low, power is high
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 27

 Glaciers force factions together, so more power equals more combat!

Dreamlands Map:

 Separate levels that are non-adjacent may cause some disorientation

 Control of four citadels in either map is an additional way to win
 Random, non-faction monster appearances can disrupt faction plans

Yuggoth Map:

 Oceans are separated on this map instead of linked together

 Possessing three strategic locations adds options to faction plans

Sandy's Design Corner: How, exactly do the

monster & great old one figure expansions
work? (Update 51)
So here is another peek into Sandy's brain. I hope it doesn't creep out the younger and more
impressionable backers too much.

Early on, I wanted to have as many creatures from Lovecraft's universe as possible. But this
gave rise to a question in my mind. What faction would an Elder Thing belong to? Or a Gug?
How do I incorporate an off-brand Great Old One such as Yig into the game?
There are basically three ways of adding new units to a faction-based game such as Cthulhu
Wars. Let's discuss them all.

First Option- add new critters per faction, expanding the faction size

For example, in adding Dreamlands monsters, I might assign one monster to each faction. I
could decree, for instance that the Shantaks belong to Crawling Chaos (which is sort of
canonical), that the Gnorri worship Cthulhu, the Gugs are Black Goat (for some reason, this
makes sense to me), and so forth. Then, when adding a new pack of Great Old Ones, I'd do
the same - thus Ghatanothoa would be in Cthulhu's faction, Abhoth in Black Goat's, Atlach-
Nacha in Sleeper's, etc.
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 28

This approach had two major problems with it. The first is Cthulhu Wars is actually quite a
short game - most players don't have enough bandwidth to use more than one extra
Monster or Great Old One beyond their core units. So for instance, if we'd given Cthulhu
Gnorri, Yig, Ghatanothoa, and Elder Things (for instance) he would probably only use one of
those in any particular game. Or (worse) he'd have to skip using his Starspawn or Shoggoths
or something. The faction would be diluted, instead of intensified.
The other problem was that every single figure expansion would have to have exactly 7 figure
types in it (one per faction). Plus then if I ever created a new faction (which finally happened,
with Onslaught Two's Tcho-Tchos), I'd be screwed. So this approach - divvying up the new
figures - was dismissed.

Second Option - the neutral figures stay neutral, but are controlled by some generic means

What I mean by this is that perhaps a neutral figure obeys whichever faction controls the
Gate in their area. Or each neutral figure has a special base with a slot in it for a Cultist to sit,
and you put your Cultist in there to show you control it. For example, Cthulhu might have a
Cultist controlling one Elder Thing, but Yellow Sign controls another one in the same Area.
The Elder Things wouldn't fight as a group, but can be divvied up among players. Great Old
Ones couldn't be divvied up, but could still be controlled, and control could switch around
between players.

The problem with THIS approach was that it enervated the additions. If everyone can get an
Elder Thing, they aren't nearly as special. If Ghatanothoa is switching sides every turn, then he
seems like more of a natural hazard than a Great Old One. Again, it dilutes the new critters,
instead of putting a focus on them.

Also, and more importantly, it is a lot harder to actually base a strategy around a unit that
drops out of your control erratically, or that everyone has access to. So, again, I discarded this
plan. (Actually I only briefly considered this one. Didn't even test it out.)

Third Option - players get permanent or semi-permanent control of the new creatures, based on
their own decisions

This is the path I took. And in fact, here is the precise system I am using:

NEUTRAL MONSTERS - each Doom phase, each player in turn has a chance to "buy" one of
the neutral monsters. To do so, he pays 2 Doom, and takes that monster type's Loyalty card.
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 29

Typically he then places one of the monsters on the map for free, and the rest are added to
his force pool (and can be summoned, later). For the rest of the game, this monster type is
his, to do with as he pleases. All neutral monsters have a special ability or bonus, and it is
described on the loyalty card. For example, Leng Spiders can combine 2 Pain results into a
Kill.
In most games I've played, players only get one type of neutral monster. Players who "buy"
more find that they don't really have enough time or Power to properly use both types. Thus
the extra 2 Doom cost is rarely worth it.

TERRORS - these work just like monsters, except they cost 2

Doom AND 2 Power. Also there is only ever one Terror in a
set (Monsters come in sets from 4 to 2). You do get the
Terror for free when you buy it. You can only buy one
creature type in a particular Doom phase. Thus, if you buy
Quachil Uttaus (a Terror), you cannot also buy the Gugs (a
Monster).

GENERAL MONSTER/TERROR EFFECT - they give you new

strategies to apply to your faction, but they don't
fundamentally change the game. Basically they "super-charge"
your civilization, assuming you are able to figure out how to
apply their special power to your needs.

INDEPENDENT GREAT OLD ONES - these work quite

differently from the monsters, because I wanted them to be
so earth-shattering that they changed the entire game, for
everyone. Ergo, there needed to be a way to stop, or
neutralize them. The rule is that each Independent Great Old
One is like a faction Great Old One in that it has a rule for
Awakening, a Cost, and a Special Ability. All this is listed on
its Loyalty Card. When any player, as an Action, awakens an
Independent Great Old One, he gets its loyalty card AND its
spellbook. On the loyalty card is a slot for the spellbook,
along with the requirements for unlocking it. When you
Sandy’s Design Corner Compilation 30

successfully achieve those requirements, place that Great Old One's spellbook on the slot,
and then reap its advantages.

If an Independent Great Old One is killed, the spellbook "falls off" the loyalty card, and
whoever awakens it next has to re-earn the spellbook. Here is Yig's Loyalty Card to see what
it's like. The spellbooks of the Great Old Ones look different from the normal faction
spellbooks.
I am happy with the final results. The Great Old Ones do, in fact, affect the whole game
(though they are still clearly inferior to the faction Great Old Ones). The Monsters change
things as well, but to a lesser degree overall. On the other hand, the Monsters aren't disloyal
(as are the GOOs, potentially).