As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
Cthulhu Wars - (Chaos in the Great Old One World)
MrBody
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello and welcome to Cthulhu Wars! Many of you may remember Chaos in the Old World, an old forum favorite where each player controlled a dark god vying for supremacy in the Warhammer World. Cthulhu Wars is a similar, but different game using the Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Rules
Objective
Be the player with the most doom points when the game ends.
The game ends when:
-One player reaches 30 or more doom points (VP essentially). The game ends at the end of that turn's doom phase.
-The ritual track reaches "sudden death". The game ends at the end of that turn's doom phase.
-One player reaches 30 or more doom points via revealing elder signs (hidden VP chits worth 1-3 doom points each). The games ends immediately. (other players may still reveal their elder signs)
Only players with all 6 spell books are eligible to win when the game ends, regardless of doom points. The player with the most doom points AND all 6 spell books is the winner. If the game ends and no one has 6 spellbooks, the Great Old Ones are sucked back into the gates and humanity wins. Booo!
The game ends when:
-One player reaches 30 or more doom points (VP essentially). The game ends at the end of that turn's doom phase.
-The ritual track reaches "sudden death". The game ends at the end of that turn's doom phase.
-One player reaches 30 or more doom points via revealing elder signs (hidden VP chits worth 1-3 doom points each). The games ends immediately. (other players may still reveal their elder signs)
Only players with all 6 spell books are eligible to win when the game ends, regardless of doom points. The player with the most doom points AND all 6 spell books is the winner. If the game ends and no one has 6 spellbooks, the Great Old Ones are sucked back into the gates and humanity wins. Booo!
Basic turn
Gather power phase-
Doom Phase-
Action phase
Battle
1. Earn 1 Power for each Cultist you have on the map.
2. Earn 2 Power for each Gate you control.
3. Earn 1 Power for each abandoned Gate on the map – each player gains 1 Power per Gate.
4. 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 prisoner – they must be returned.
At the end of Gather Power, if your Power is less than half that of the player with the most Power, set your Power to be half of his (round fractions up).
2. Earn 2 Power for each Gate you control.
3. Earn 1 Power for each abandoned Gate on the map – each player gains 1 Power per Gate.
4. 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 prisoner – they must be returned.
At the end of Gather Power, if your Power is less than half that of the player with the most Power, set your Power to be half of his (round fractions up).
Doom Phase-
1. Doom Track advancement
+1 doom point for each controlled gate
2. Rituals of Annihilation
The current player may spend Power equal to the current position of the Ritual marker on the track.
The player now advances the Ritual marker one step up the Ritual of Annihilation track, which often increases the cost for later players.
Finally, the player now advances his Doom marker on the Doom track 1 step for each Gate he controls. (doubling his Doom boost for this turn based on Gates.) In addition, for each Great Old One he controls in play, he gains an Elder Sign.
3. Special Events
Certain spellbook and special ability effects.
4. Victory/Defeat determination
Check for game over condition.
+1 doom point for each controlled gate
2. Rituals of Annihilation
The current player may spend Power equal to the current position of the Ritual marker on the track.
The player now advances the Ritual marker one step up the Ritual of Annihilation track, which often increases the cost for later players.
Finally, the player now advances his Doom marker on the Doom track 1 step for each Gate he controls. (doubling his Doom boost for this turn based on Gates.) In addition, for each Great Old One he controls in play, he gains an Elder Sign.
3. Special Events
Certain spellbook and special ability effects.
4. Victory/Defeat determination
Check for game over condition.
Action phase
The current player may perform one non-unlimited action. (unlimited actions may be performed as many times as you wish in your turn)
-Recruit Cultist
Place a cultist anywhere you have a unit (if no units, cultist can be placed anywhere)
-Summon Monster
Place a monster anywhere you control a gate.
-Awaken Great Old One
Your faction's special conditions for doing so must be met.
-Build Gate
(3 power) Place a gate anywhere you have a cultist. Limit one gate per area.
-Move
Spend as much power as you wish. For each power spent, move one unit one space. Each unit may only move once that action.
-Battle
(1 power) Initiate a battle against ONE other player in an area where that player has units and you have at least one combat die.
-Capture Cultist
(1 power) Capture another player's cultist if you have a monster/GOO present. Monsters block capture by other monsters, but not GOOs. GOOs can only be blocked by other GOOs.
-Unique action
Faction specific action.
-Recruit Cultist
Place a cultist anywhere you have a unit (if no units, cultist can be placed anywhere)
-Summon Monster
Place a monster anywhere you control a gate.
-Awaken Great Old One
Your faction's special conditions for doing so must be met.
-Build Gate
(3 power) Place a gate anywhere you have a cultist. Limit one gate per area.
-Move
Spend as much power as you wish. For each power spent, move one unit one space. Each unit may only move once that action.
-Battle
(1 power) Initiate a battle against ONE other player in an area where that player has units and you have at least one combat die.
-Capture Cultist
(1 power) Capture another player's cultist if you have a monster/GOO present. Monsters block capture by other monsters, but not GOOs. GOOs can only be blocked by other GOOs.
-Unique action
Faction specific action.
Battle
1) Pre-Battle
The attacker, then defender, applies any Pre-Battle abilities he wants to.
2) Battle
Roll dice
3) Post-Battle
Determine casualties. Remove one unit for every 6 rolled by opponent. Retreat one unit for every 4 or 5 rolled by opponent. Cannot retreat to area where that opponent has units.
The attacker, then defender, applies any Pre-Battle abilities he wants to.
2) Battle
Roll dice
3) Post-Battle
Determine casualties. Remove one unit for every 6 rolled by opponent. Retreat one unit for every 4 or 5 rolled by opponent. Cannot retreat to area where that opponent has units.
Spellbooks
Spellbooks are upgrades and special abilities specific to your faction. Your faction sheet tells you the conditions where you get the earn a spellbooks. When the condition is met, choose a book of your choice. You cannot win the game unless you have all 6 books.
Factions
Great Cthulhu
Spellbooks-
Devolve (Ongoing): At the end of any player's Action (even if it's not your turn), transform one or more of your Acolyte Cultists anywhere on the map into Deep Ones.
Absorb (Pre-Battle): Remove any of your non-GOO units from the area. For each such unit, the Shoggoth adds 3 to his Combat.
Regenerate (Battle): Star Spawn can accept up to 2 combat results. If they are both kills, it dies. On ANY other combination, it is pained.
Submerge (Action: Cost 1): If Cthulhu is in an Ocean Area, remove him from the map and place him on your Faction card, along with any or all friendly Units in the same area. On a later Action, perform Submerge again to place Cthulhu (plus any accompanying Units) anywhere on the map.
Dreams (Action: Cost 3): Choose an area with enemy Acolyte Cultists. Your enemy must eliminate an Acolyte Cultist (chosen by victim) and replace it with one of yours from your pool.
Y'ha Nthlei (Ongoing): If Cthulhu is in play you get 1 power for each Gate in an Ocean area that you do not control. (uncontrolled Gates do not count, because everyone gets one
power from them anyway, but Yog-Sothoth does count).
Crawling Chaos
Spellbooks-
Abduct (Pre-Battle): Eliminate a Nightgaunt, your foe must eliminate a non-GOO unit in the same area.
Invisibility (Pre-Battle): Each Flying Polyp can select one non-GOO to be sidelined, and not take part in the battle.
Seek and Destroy (Pre-Battle): Whenever a battle is declared in which one of your units participates, you may move any or all of your Hunting Horrors on the board to the location of the battle.
Madness (Ongoing): Whenever there is a combat anywhere on the map, you may choose where units that are pained move to.
Emissary of the Outer Gods (Ongoing): Nyarlathotep must be in play; Unless an enemy Great Old One is in the battle, any kill inflicted on Nyarlathotep becomes a pain.
The Thousand Forms (Once-Per-Action-Round: Cost 0): Nyarlathotep must be in play; roll 1d6 and all other players have one minute to decide if they will lose that much power. If they decide not to lose the Power, Nyarlathotep gains that much Power.
Black Goat
Spellbooks-
Frenzy (Ongoing): Cultists have a Combat of 1.
Necrophagy (Post-Battle): Move any or all Ghouls to that battle and apply an additional pain result to each side for each Ghoul so moved. Ghouls that are already in the combat cannot participate in Necrophagy.
Ghroth (Action: Cost 2): Roll a die. If the result is equal to or less than the number of areas containing Fungi, then your enemies must collectively lose that many Acolyte Cultists from the map. If they can't decide in one minute do it for them.
The Red Sign (ongoing) your Dark Young can now Build Gates, Control Gates, earn 1 Power each during the Gather Power phase, and add +1 apiece to Shub-Niggurath's Combat. They do not act as Cultists with respect to any other purpose.
Blood Sacrifice (Ongoing): Each Doom Phase you may sacrifice 1 Cultist to get an Elder Sign. Shub-Niggurath must be in play.
The Thousand Young (Ongoing): Shub-Niggurath must be in play. All Ghouls, Fungi, and Dark Young cost 1 less power to summon.
Yellow Sign
Spellbooks-
Passion (Ongoing): When one of your Cultists is eliminated by an enemy Action (Captured, Killed, Etc.) during the Action phase, gain 1 Power.
Zin Gaya (Action: Cost 1): In an area with an Undead and an enemy Acolyte Cultist replace that Acolyte Cultist with another Undead.
Shriek of the Byakhee (Action: Cost 1): Move any or all Byakhee on the map to any single area on the map.
The Screaming Dead (Action: Cost 1): Move the King in Yellow and any Undead in the same area to a neighboring area, you may immediately perform a second, different action (may not perform He Who Must Not Be Named as the second action).
He Who Must Not Be Named (Action: Cost 1): Hastur immediately moves to an area on the map with a Cultist. He may then perform a second, different action (may not perform The Screaming Dead as the second action).
The Third Eye (Ongoing): Hastur must be in play; Desecrate costs only 1 Power to perform, and grants you an Elder Sign when successful.
Spellbooks-
Devolve (Ongoing): At the end of any player's Action (even if it's not your turn), transform one or more of your Acolyte Cultists anywhere on the map into Deep Ones.
Absorb (Pre-Battle): Remove any of your non-GOO units from the area. For each such unit, the Shoggoth adds 3 to his Combat.
Regenerate (Battle): Star Spawn can accept up to 2 combat results. If they are both kills, it dies. On ANY other combination, it is pained.
Submerge (Action: Cost 1): If Cthulhu is in an Ocean Area, remove him from the map and place him on your Faction card, along with any or all friendly Units in the same area. On a later Action, perform Submerge again to place Cthulhu (plus any accompanying Units) anywhere on the map.
Dreams (Action: Cost 3): Choose an area with enemy Acolyte Cultists. Your enemy must eliminate an Acolyte Cultist (chosen by victim) and replace it with one of yours from your pool.
Y'ha Nthlei (Ongoing): If Cthulhu is in play you get 1 power for each Gate in an Ocean area that you do not control. (uncontrolled Gates do not count, because everyone gets one
power from them anyway, but Yog-Sothoth does count).
Crawling Chaos
Spellbooks-
Abduct (Pre-Battle): Eliminate a Nightgaunt, your foe must eliminate a non-GOO unit in the same area.
Invisibility (Pre-Battle): Each Flying Polyp can select one non-GOO to be sidelined, and not take part in the battle.
Seek and Destroy (Pre-Battle): Whenever a battle is declared in which one of your units participates, you may move any or all of your Hunting Horrors on the board to the location of the battle.
Madness (Ongoing): Whenever there is a combat anywhere on the map, you may choose where units that are pained move to.
Emissary of the Outer Gods (Ongoing): Nyarlathotep must be in play; Unless an enemy Great Old One is in the battle, any kill inflicted on Nyarlathotep becomes a pain.
The Thousand Forms (Once-Per-Action-Round: Cost 0): Nyarlathotep must be in play; roll 1d6 and all other players have one minute to decide if they will lose that much power. If they decide not to lose the Power, Nyarlathotep gains that much Power.
Black Goat
Spellbooks-
Frenzy (Ongoing): Cultists have a Combat of 1.
Necrophagy (Post-Battle): Move any or all Ghouls to that battle and apply an additional pain result to each side for each Ghoul so moved. Ghouls that are already in the combat cannot participate in Necrophagy.
Ghroth (Action: Cost 2): Roll a die. If the result is equal to or less than the number of areas containing Fungi, then your enemies must collectively lose that many Acolyte Cultists from the map. If they can't decide in one minute do it for them.
The Red Sign (ongoing) your Dark Young can now Build Gates, Control Gates, earn 1 Power each during the Gather Power phase, and add +1 apiece to Shub-Niggurath's Combat. They do not act as Cultists with respect to any other purpose.
Blood Sacrifice (Ongoing): Each Doom Phase you may sacrifice 1 Cultist to get an Elder Sign. Shub-Niggurath must be in play.
The Thousand Young (Ongoing): Shub-Niggurath must be in play. All Ghouls, Fungi, and Dark Young cost 1 less power to summon.
Yellow Sign
Spellbooks-
Passion (Ongoing): When one of your Cultists is eliminated by an enemy Action (Captured, Killed, Etc.) during the Action phase, gain 1 Power.
Zin Gaya (Action: Cost 1): In an area with an Undead and an enemy Acolyte Cultist replace that Acolyte Cultist with another Undead.
Shriek of the Byakhee (Action: Cost 1): Move any or all Byakhee on the map to any single area on the map.
The Screaming Dead (Action: Cost 1): Move the King in Yellow and any Undead in the same area to a neighboring area, you may immediately perform a second, different action (may not perform He Who Must Not Be Named as the second action).
He Who Must Not Be Named (Action: Cost 1): Hastur immediately moves to an area on the map with a Cultist. He may then perform a second, different action (may not perform The Screaming Dead as the second action).
The Third Eye (Ongoing): Hastur must be in play; Desecrate costs only 1 Power to perform, and grants you an Elder Sign when successful.
Posting actions
Post your action just like Chaos in the Old World. All orders in your player color, then list how much power you have remaining. For remaining power, list what your power was at the start of the action then the amount you have left after your action. This is to easily catch any mistakes made with how much power you have left and the cost of what your actions was.
Ex. Red starts his action with 8 power. He recruits a cultist, which costs 1 power.
Recruit cultist
8->7
MrBody on
0
Posts
It's an unwritten rule that hosts can't really play their own game but I really really wanted to give this a try.
Astaereth had mentioned hosting a game. We'll see if there's enough interest to get 2 games going. If so I'll just hop onto that one.
Never played before.
At TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS, I think a PbP is a nice way to test drive
Never played before but have played a couple of games of CitOW as Nurgle and Horned Rat
Let's go with a 24 hour time limit. Players give notice ahead of time if they can't check once a day.
Speaking of Ghroth, how do Mi-Go come into play? I don't see any mention of them anywhere else.
According to a random BGG thread I found, they're just the fungi
Top 4 rollers get spots:
geth roll 1d1000 for Phyphor
geth roll 1d1000 for Preda
geth roll 1d1000 for Lykouragh
geth roll 1d1000 for Bobkins
geth roll 1d1000 for Daemonis
geth roll 1d1000 for Jam Warrior
geth roll 1d1000 for admanb
Bobkins, Phyphor, Preda, and Daemonis are in
Since this is everyone's first game, we'll let everyone pick their faction. List your 1st and 2nd choice.
I just checked my physical original KS copy. My spellbook says each costs 1 less and my faction says that means 0/1/2. So depending on where you got those faction images, I'm guessing you have an errata'd version of the faction sheet but not an updated version of the spellbook.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1369165/rules-changes-cthulhu-wars
Maybe it was a variant someone posted?
Are there any other contradicting differences on the other sheets?
Regardless, I edited out all the text under the action sections. All the info there was either misleading or redundant.
Cthluhu:
-your spellbook requirement says "during cleanup phase of the turn in which you achieve 5 spellbooks, automatically receive this spellbook." Once again, "cleanup phase" is wrong, and here this is actually missing the extra elder sign. Mine says: "In any Doom phase in which you have 5 faction spellbooks, receive this spellbook. Also receive 1 Elder sign."
-your spellbook requirement says "control 3 gates in ocean areas", while mine says "Control three Gates in Ocean Areas OR four Gates exist in Ocean Areas"
-Your unique ability ("Immortal") differs from mine in that mine gives you an Elder Sign every time you summon a Great Old One.
-Your "Devour" ability is poorly reworded. Mine says "The enemy player eliminates one of his Monsters or Cultists in the area, his choice."
-Cthulhu's Awaken text is less compact on mine (3 steps--there must be a gate in his starting area, even if abandoned or enemy controlled, pay 10 if first awakening and 4 if not, and Cthulhu appears in starting area [not "South Pacific" as it says on yours]). There's also a reminder on mine to get your Elder Sign for summoning him.
-Cthulhu's cost on your sheet is 8, and his combat value is 3. On my sheet, his cost is 10/4, and his combat value is 6.
Crawling Chaos:
-Your spellbook requirements say to control 3 gates or 4 gates; mine say, control 3 gates OR have 12 power and control 4 gates OR have 15 power.
-My Nyarlathotep costs 10, not 9.
-My Nyarlathotep combat wording makes it clearer that you're adding the number of spellbooks you've unlocked and the number your opponent in this particular battle has unlocked.
-My Nyarlathotep "Harbinger" rule is different. Mine says: "If Nylarathotep is in a Battle in which one or more enemy Great Old Ones are Pained or Killed, you receive Power equal to half the cost to Awaken those Great Old Ones. (Even if Nylarathotep is killed or Pained himself.) Per enemy Great Old One, you may choose to receive 2 Elder Signs instead of the Power."
Black Goat:
-My sheet has notes telling you that the Cultists have 1 combat with the Frenzy spellbook, and that with the Thousand Young spellbook, ghouls cost 0, fungi cost 1, and dark young cost 2.
Yellow Sign:
-Instead of your requirement, "As your sole action in a round, spend 2 doom points," I have, "As your Action for a round, select another player. That player gains 3 Doom points."
-My "awaken Hastur" spellbook requirement also gives the player 1 Elder Sign.
-My combat notes for Undead and Byakhee make it clear that you calculate power based on that type (Undead if Undead, Byakhee if Byakhee) and only what's in that specific area, not global.
-My "Desecrate" action clarifies that you get to place a cultist or monster with cost 2 or less in there, which I guess doesn't matter because they're all 2 or less.
-My awakening for the King in Yellow only requires any unit in an area with no gate, not a cultist specifically as it says on yours.
-My Hastur has a completely different power. Yours is called Obliteration and kills all enemy units in an area if Hastur is killed in battle. Mine is called Vengeance and says if Hastur is involved in any battle, you get to decide which combat results are applied to which enemy unit.
That's just the faction sheets; do you want me to check the spellbooks, too?
1. Cthulu
2. Chaos
For my faction preference
Black Goat:
-Ghroth says "fungi" instead of "mi-go" on mine
Cthulhu:
-Dreams makes it clear that Cthulhu's replacing cultist must come from his pool, not elsewhere on the map
Crawling Chaos:
-Emissary of the Outer Gods is subtly different; your version says that (unless there's an enemy GOO in the battle) Nylarathotep cannot be chosen to receive a Kill but can still be pained (so Nylar won't die but your other units might). My version says that (unless etc) any Kill inflicted on Nyar becomes a Pain (so Nylar actually soaks up that casualty, protecting your other units).
Yellow Sign:
-Shriek of the Byakhee clarifies on mine that they all have to move to the same single area.
-with Zingaya, the wording is clearer on mine that you need at least one Undead and at least one enemy Cultist (your wording could be interpreted to mean you need exactly one of each).
All the rest are just immaterial wording changes.
2. Crawling Chaos
According to rumor, the designers had Aussie friends and did it to deliberately annoy them.
Phyphor: Cthulhu
Daemonis: Yellow sign
Bobkins Flymo: Black Goat
Preda: Crawling Chaos
Cthulhu is first player. @Phyphor to determine if play this turn goes clockwise (order listed above), or counterclockwise (Phyphor->Preda->Bobkins->Daemonis). Then take your first action.
Since taking control of a gate with a cultist is an unlimited action, we'll just assume everyone automatically takes control if they have a cultist on a space with a free gate. Everyone starts with 8 power (6 cultists + 2 from 1 controlled gate).
Post your action just like Chaos in the Old World. All orders in your player color, then list how much power you have remaining. For remaining power, list what your power was at the start of the action then the amount you have left after your action. This is to easily catch any mistakes made with how much power you have left and the cost of what your actions was.
Ex. Red starts his action with 8 power. He recruits a cultist, which costs 1 power.
Recruit cultist
8->7
This is for Shub's combat stat.
8->7
We will be going clockwise @daemonis
@Bobkins Flymo
Total cultists on the board.
Come, my siblings! We must prepare for her glorious arrival!
Spend three power, moving a cultist:
- from West Africa to East Africa
- from West Africa to Arabia
- from West Africa to the South Atlantic
I believe this satisfies my spellbook requirement (units in four areas). @MrBody to check8 -> 5
@Preda
Let us all participate in the bloodshed! Read from the Book of Frenzy, children, and learn to rend flesh and break bone as our matron and her children!
(Cultists have 1 Combat)
Summon an Hunting horror at my single gate 8->5
@Phyphor
7->4
@Daemonis