This game belongs to Han, and it comes with a huge number of small figures. The box you see here only holds the basic parts, like the main board, the boards for each player, and the tokens. However, all those small figures do not fit inside this one box. You actually need at least two other big boxes to carry all the monsters and pieces for the game. When you take this game to a friend’s house for game night, you will have to carry several bags. It feels like you are going on a long trip or getting ready for a war just to bring it over.
Cthulhu Wars is a game about controlling areas on a map, similar to a war game. You play as powerful ancient beings trying to take over the world. Every person playing controls a different group, or faction. There are some basic rules that everyone follows, but each group has its own special powers, unique units, and different ways to get points. One thing everyone shares is the use of cultists. You need to put your cultists at special gates to call forth your monsters. There are three sizes of monsters: small, medium, and large. Your large monster is the main leader of your group. This is a game where you win by getting points. It might not sound like a fighting game, but I promise there is still a lot of battling. Some of your points are shown to everyone, but some are kept secret. Because of this, you never know for sure who is winning or how close someone is to finishing the game. One of the main ways to get points is to control the gates on the board. You get points for these every round.
Here is the personal board for one of the groups. They are all different from each other. At the start of a round, you get action points, which you track on the bar near the top of the board. Not everyone gets the same amount of action points. Different groups have different ways to get them. Having cultists on the board is one way to get action points, but there are other ways too. Every time you do something in the game, you spend these points. Once you run out of points, you cannot do anything else and have to wait for everyone else to finish using their points too.
The player board lists all the special units for your group, how strong they are in a fight, and what special things they can do. The six spots on the right side are for your spell books. These tell you what you need to do to earn them. Spell books give your group special abilities. They are all very helpful. You must earn all six spell books before you are allowed to win the game.
Hans copy of the game is all painted in color. He did all this painting while he was stuck at home during the pandemic. It must have taken a lot of hard work to finish it all!
Cthulhu Wars is a very American-style game. You get a big view with many nice-looking small figures on the board. These days, American-style games often mix in some European-style game ideas. You are not just fighting without a plan. You choose how to attack, and fighting is a way to reach your goal. You must use your group’s special abilities well to get the most points. Some groups like to fight a lot. For example, one group gets stronger monsters whenever one survives a battle. Fighting for them is not just about winning, it is about staying alive and coming back stronger. Cthulhu is the boss of the seas. It can hide under the water and then pop up somewhere else, but it must be in a sea area, and it brings troops with it. However, there are also groups that do better when they live peacefully near others.
This is a game with few pieces. You only have a small number of each type of unit. You cannot make new units forever. When you want to move units, each one you move costs an action point. Moving around takes a lot of energy! You have to use your action points carefully. Your units can be in the same space as another player’s units. When you enter a space with units from other groups, you do not fight them right away. In fact, if you want to fight them, you have to wait until your next turn and spend an action point to do it. Big fights take a lot of planning to make happen.
Fights are decided by rolling dice. Some sides of the dice do nothing, some make the other player move their units back, and some remove enemy units from the game. You do not always get points for taking out other units. You should only fight if you have a good reason. Otherwise, you are just wasting your action points.
In the game we played, I was not very aggressive. I focused mostly on getting all my spell books. I did not try hard to get points. In the end, I did get all my spell books, but not much faster than the others. By that time, I was far behind in points, and it was hard to catch up. I should have fought more earlier in the game to make sure I did not fall behind. To really have fun with this game, you need to know what the different groups are good at. This changes how you play. We had six people playing. By the time we saw one or two players getting ahead of the rest, we should have worked together to stop them. But most of us were busy learning the rules and did not team up against the leaders. I was certainly busy doing my own thing and stayed out of the fights. Looking back, that was not a smart move. I played a war game like it was a peaceful strategy game. That was not going to turn out well.
The most interesting part of Cthulhu Wars is how different each group is. Your experience playing will change a lot depending on which group you control. You have to learn to use your group’s unique powers well. The game also feels different depending on which groups are playing together. If you like the Cthulhu theme, you will probably have a good time with this.
