Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn! — Let's All Play Cthulhu Wars!

It's because Hastur is so big and scary and mobile! But it's only the end when someone has 6 spellbooks. So we've got one more round anyway.

And for Elder Signs, I explained that in a PM I sent out early on. Do you need it again?

No, I'll go back and check. Sorry!

EDIT: the second site you sent doesn't seem to be alive; it shows an error with the host. Any suggestions?

Try this one.

OK, I'm good.

OK, I think we're on to Windwalker choosing direction of play and then on to the Doom Phase.

We're going leftward, toward Yellow Sign.

I take the Herald of the Outer Gods spellbook for being first player.

I get 6 doom from my gates, and I'll do a ritual, spending 5 power to get 6 more doom and 2 signs.

Power: 15
Doom: 19
Signs: 2

(help how do i signs can i get that pm resent)

A ritual costs 6 power at this point.

Sent.

I didn't say anything, I think your ears are playing tricks on you.

(Noted. Thanks.)

I get 2 doom.

I'll do a ritual, spending 7 power for 2 doom and 2 signs.

Power: 10
Doom: 8
Signs: 6

I get 1 Doom.

Not much gain for me to do the Ritual, so I won't.

Power: 10
Doom: 8
Elder Signs: 1

1 Doom for 1 Gate, no Ritual.

Power:10
Doom:8
Elder Signs:0

2 Gates and no Ritual, for 2 Doom points.

Power: 10
Doom: 23
Elder Signs: 6

On to actions!

Windwalker, Turn 1

Power: 15
Doom: 19
Signs: 2

Action: Move Wendigo from South America West to North Pacific.



Power: 14

Round 5
Yellow Turn 1

Power: 10
Doom: 8
Signs: 6

ACTION: Use tSD to move the King et al. to North Asia. (1 power)

No second action.

Power:9
Doom: 8
Signs: 6

Sorry, no map updating capabilities right now.

Round 5
Great Cthulhu Action 1

Power: 10 11
Doom: 8
Elder Signs: 1

Action: Recruit Cultist in Central America, control Gate

Power: 9 10

It appears we all have 1 fewer power than we should. There were two open gates (Central America and South Asia), not one, during the Gather Power phase.

I guess we can just ignore it without much effect if we want, since it affects all of us. But I'd prefer to give it to everyone.

Yes, let's all adjust 1 upwards.

Ah, I missed the South Asia one since it was buried under your army there.

EDIT: At first I was about to edit this saying that those who got minimum power shouldn't adjust up, but then I realized that minimum power itself went up because of the gate, so everyone does still get 1 extra.

Black Goat Round 5 Action 1

Power:11

Sac 2 Cultists for Red Sign spellbook.

Power:11

Note: CC, if you take your last spellbook this round, assume I take mine immediately afterward.

Round 5
Crawling Chaos Action 1

Power: 11
Doom: 23
Elder Signs: 6

Action: Spend 6 Power for the Abduction spellbook.

I'll then reveal my 6 Elder signs:

2 points
1 point
1 point
1 point
1 point
1 point

This brings me to 30 Doom points, which should end the game. I'm not sure how the timing on this interacts with Windwalker's ability to take a spellbook at any time, but it could be relevant if Windwalker has had exceptionally lucky Elder Sign draws.

Nicely done! Everyone else can now reveal Elder Signs. If Windwalker were to exceed your score, he'd win, and if he ties with you, the victory is shared. Otherwise, you win!

(Also, mind removing the Elder Sign code? I don't want to have to recode them for future games!)

1 1 3 2 2 2 for me, 19 total.

This game was a lot of fun. Thanks a lot for setting it up, Sarcasmorator.

I must say that the endgame left a lot to be desired. It certainly doesn't have the "conquer the world" satisfaction of Risk.

The two I drew during the Ritual were both +1, so there's no chance the two I get here will save me.

Good game.

Congratulations in order to MrChris/Crawling Chaos, then! Here's some victory art:



Re: The endgame, yeah, it did end a bit abruptly there, didn't it? The impression I get from play session reports I've read is that it's more likely to end in the Doom Phase after some big push the round before, but this time we had CC just needing his final Spellbook to clinch the win.

Anyway, thanks for playing, everyone, and for helping bang out a workable method of doing so in the early going.

I'd like to start up another game in a couple days, this time with neutral monsters and GOOs mixed in. So, four open spots to fill, and I'd like to leave two of them open to new players for now, if any are interested. Sign up in this thread!

Also, if anyone wants to run their own game, I'd be happy to send you the files needed.

Good game, everybody! And particular thanks to Sarcasmorator for setting up the game and running it! And now to comment on something Sarc mentioned at the end of Round 4; I didn't want to go too deeply into mechanics talk while the game was still ongoing.

The power economy really is complex, but the cultist/gate economy is also interesting, and something that I completely didn't pick up on until after the game had been going on for a while. Capturing cultists initially seems like a straightforward way to shift a point of power forward into the next turn while denying an opponent some power, and maybe a gate. Now I'm thinking that the real utility in capturing is that it removes an enemy cultist from circulation until the next turn; not only does that prevent your enemy from replacing the cultist quickly, but it also reduces the number of gates they can control. Since gates are most factions' primary source of both Power and Doom points, reducing a player's number of controlled gates can have a huge effect.

I agree with Sarcasmorator that movement is the biggest power expense, but that's kind of interesting in that it discourages you from doing the obvious thing and throwing all your monsters into a single attack. At the same time, since most Great Old Ones can be killed with a single lucky die roll, you want to have some meatshields for your most expensive units; as a result, every movement into enemy territory requires some risk/reward calculation. And while each faction does have some ability to make movement cheaper, they all have some sort of limitation or drawback, as we saw in the last game where Cthulhu had to spend a bunch of power moving out of East Africa before being able to submerge.

I was also surprised at how quickly the game moved. I knew going in that Yellow Sign and Windwalker tend to come into their own in the late game, but I wasn't expecting the late game to begin as early as Round 4. Over the course of Round 4, aturtledoesbite racked up enough Doom points and Elder Signs to potentially win the game, and by the beginning of Round 5, it seems pretty much everybody had a huge army ready to go; I suspect the round would have been exceptionally bloody had it been played out.

Hah, oh yes. GC's specialty is destruction, and while I unwisely let my power engine be hampered early on (too much Devolving and not enough recruiting replacements — I thought I was saving myself actions and protecting myself from capture, but in the end I crippled my power generation; I should have summoned monsters to protect them instead — and there were large areas of the map that were never even visited, with room for 7 more Gates on the board) and never really recovered, I still had enough units to really do a lot of murder. And everyone else was also set to wreck the place; one less Doom Point in your Elder Signs and we could have had a very different round. I've seen it said that every faction in CW is a complete nightmare, and it's true.

I think you're exactly right about capturing — it denies your enemy power next round, as well as costing them a power and action to replace the lost Cultist. Losing a Cultist as a casualty is cheaper. And the game does move very fast. It sounds like most table games take under an hour or so and 5 or 6 rounds is typical.

As far as movement goes, I think you're really not supposed to spend a bunch of power to move units as a mass, at least in general; it seems more for spreading out to establish a power base and repositioning key units (except for CC, for whom it's comparatively cheap and flexible). GC is obviously best in the water with Submerge, but not many units were there and I was really trying to get that two-kill spellbook. If this round had continued I'd have likely sent Cthulhu off alone or with one Star Spawn and spread out into North America to establish a new power base, since after the first time he's summoned he's cheap to replace (plus I'd get another Elder Sign upon summoning, so it could actually be advantageous to lose him!). Y'ha N'thlei appears to be meant to allow a Cthulhu player to abandon the ocean but generate power to pay for land movement. I probably should have gotten that one earlier.

I'm really, really looking forward to the meatspace game! It's supposed to be arriving before the end of the year, with expansion content early next year.