Cthulhu Wars Board Game by Petersen Games for Strategy Lovers

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1. J. EARLS Verified Buyer – 21 March 2024

   Is it worth the price? Yes. Are the miniatures intricately detailed and actually huge? Yes. Is the game fun to play? Absolutely. Everyone I have played this game with has either bought their own core game or joined the latest Kick starter to get all the extras. Each Faction plays by its own rules, so every time you play it’s like a different game. I never expected to get into a game so much or even play another board game again. This game has changed my perspective and given me a plethora of monstrosities to play with. My only regret is that I couldn’t get in on the initial Kick starter for this game and get the two Exclusive 1st player markers.
   

2. Masche79 Verified Buyer – 6 September 2024

   Ordinato 2 volte, ogni volta arrivato fortemente danneggiato… il gioco non la scatola esterna di imballaggio, presumo dunque sia partito già danneggiato… per 200€ di gioco, tra l’altro da collezione mi aspetto la perfezione
   

3. Vincent J Mallia Verified Buyer – 13 December 2024

   The box had dings all over and some of the boards inside the box we’re bent. When you spend 150 on a game plus shipping you expect a lot better.
   

4. Tiew Jagerson Verified Buyer – 21 January 2025

   Fantastic game. I love the miniatures and the game itself is intimidating when you first open it but has proved to be pretty simple to learn after a game or two you’ll have it fairly well in hand. The miniatures really make this game though intact all the art and components are amazing the only grips I have at all is some times the miniature pile into areas so much can be kind of difficult to keep track but that’s a very minor problem to an otherwise perfect game of tentacles teeth and insanity!
   

5. Fuzzy Llama Reviews Verified Buyer – 22 January 2025

   2-4 players, Competitive, Area Control Overview of Gameplay- Cthulhu Wars is played out round after round with each player taking a single action until either a player reaches 30 “Doom” points or the “Instant Death” section on the Ritual of Annihilation Track. Yes it all sounds very ominous and as you know, I enjoy ominous things. So each players turn will see them performing a single action which will consist of either moving units around, summoning monsters or cultists to the board, casts spells from their active spell books (if any) or attacks another players units. These actions cost power points which will detract from your overall total throughout the round. Once a player has used up all their power they must pass for the remainder of the round. The Action Phase that I just described is the meat of the entire game but there are other phases that you actually perform before that phase. In order these are: Gather Power, Determine First Player, Doom, Action. You start out by increasing your power that you will later spend. This is MOSTLY determined by how many summoning gates you control on the board. But there are also other ways such as how many cultists you have on the board and some factions have abilities that allow them to gain power in other insidious ways. After this we move to determine the first player. This game is unique in that the first player is in a constant state of flux entirely dependent on who has the most power. After the gain power phase whoever comes out on top with the most power gains the first player marker and then gets to determine the direction of play, that is, the player turn order. After that super quick round the Doom phase transpires in which the Doom track advances per player based on how many controlled summoning gates they have and then each player in turn order can choose to perform a Ritual of Annihilation. The Ritual of Annihilation is a very expensive ritual and arguably one of those things that won’t be done a lot in the game till towards the end of the game. You have to pay the cost in power to perform the ritual and then you gain the benefit. Here’s the thing, the cost is always high, and it gets higher the more it’s performed, and you really don’t get much out of it. BUT what you do get could mean the difference between winning and losing the gain. Basically it’s a gamble. What you get out of this expensive ritual is to move your Doom marker up along the doom track 1 step for each gate you control and you get to draw an elder sign token out of the bag for each elder god you control on the board, (which for most players is one unless you are playing as Hastur). Speaking of which I forgot to mention the Elder Sign bag. This is a bag chock full of little tokens with numbers ranging from 1-3 (mostly 1’s) and certain events such as the Ritual allow you to collect them. You keep these babies a secret throughout the game and can reveal them at any time to instantly gain that amount of Doom points to add to your Doom total. This could push you over the edge on the Doom track to initiate the End Game. But beware as if there are other players close to your score, they also get to finish their turns so they could end up beating you. And…………..there is ONE MORE THING that I need to go over in order to win, the spell books. Each player starts the game with a specific player board with 6 spell book slots and 6 different spell books. On the player boards there are very specific instructions for different situations such as, destroy 2 units at once or summon your elder god etc. Once you complete one or multiple of these instructions you can start placing your spell books on these spots which unlock new abilities for your faction. This is also needed to win the game. You see you MUST have ALL of your spell books placed on your player board by the time someone reaches 30 Doom on the tracker or you have no chance of winning. If you have all your spell books placed AND have the most Doom on the tracker, you win! Components/Game Board – I really like the components here, the miniatures are just out of this world. Each faction is colored differently to easily differentiate then on the board which is always a good thing in any area control game. Also they are super detailed with some of them having some awesome detailed bases such as the cultists. And did I mention the elder gods are freakin HUGE? The table presence this game puts off once everything is setup is awe inspiring to say the least. All the colors and the impressive minis, it’s truly a sight to see and it’s very picturesque. The tokens are also super thick and the boards are sturdy. The one complaint I have are the battle dice as they are just regular dice. For a game to be super decked out with all these colors and enthralled in all the luxuriates of the elder gods, it’s a shame to see the dice you roll to be so……basic. Reminds me of War of the Ring who made the exact same mistake in including some of the most basic dice for battles when everything else in the game is decorated. Now you CAN of course buy special elaborate battle dice made for this game…..and I did order some mind you……but I feel like they should have come with the game. It just feels so off without them. Box/Storage – The box is pretty large and hefty and very durable. I was instantly impressed with how thick the sidewalls of the box lid was actually. The insides are composed of extremely thick plastic inserts that are ehhhh ok. The plastic is super thick and durable feeling for sure but I’m not a fan of how it holds the miniatures in place. It’s got that molded feel to it so once you get everything taken out it’s kinda a pain to figure out how everything goes back in, almost a puzzle. Plus even though there are spaces and gaps in specific spots in the insert nothing really has enough space to hold everything of anything. So you end up putting most of something in a space and then scattering the rest of the components around in the excess space you can find. Everything does fit but it’s kinda a mess. Visual Appeal /Theme– Classic Cthulhu theme here at its finest. This particular Elder god theme is interesting because usually you have investigators literally going insane trying to prevent cultists from summoning the gods. Here there are no investigators to stop you, just other elder gods and their cultists. And more than likely they will be so busy doing their own summoning that you will easily be able to summon your Elder God…hence the whole “Wars” aspect to this Cthulhu game. Visually the game is a looker for sure. I already mentioned how much I enjoy the colorful miniatures and how they stand out on the board. Likewise the board itself is colorful, although…..I am not a fan of the board’s design. The way the lines separating the different areas are connected with the land and oceans are sometimes confusing and combine that with the colors they use on the board and you get a mishmash of areas. On top of that this is further complexified depending on how many players you have playing as you flip certain sides of the two boards to accommodate different player counts. Rulebook – Let me start by saying the Rulebook is CRAZY more intimidating looking than it actually is. This is one of those situations where its bark is worse than its bite for sure. Like When I pulled out that rulebook and say it was like 175 pages thick…I gasped, slowly pushed it away and quickly chugged down a gulp of coffee, burning my luscious lips. Then once I started looking through it I found that the vast majority of the book was just advertisements to more products for the ongoing Cthulhu Wars game line. The game is surprisingly easy to learn and play and I had very few questions after reading through the rulebook. Table Talk/Fun Factor – From what I’ve played thus far this game does create a decent amount of table talk, especially when units start converging on the same area. I mean you can choose to move around in the same area and not bother one another……and it’s probably a good thing to announce this to the other player if you plan on moving through there…..but at the same time, are you REALLY not going to battle them? Who knows? It always creates tension when units get too close especially to areas that contain those precious gates and those helpless cultists. As far as fun goes this one lagged for me a bit. Perhaps I am spoiled with the incredible Chaos in the Old World but I just wasn’t as impressed with the game mechanics in this one as I was in Chaos. For me in Cthulhu Wars it seems like EVERYTHING hinges on those gates. I mean you get vastly more power per round the more gates you control, you get more precious Doom points per gates you control, in turn taking a ritual of annihilation is much more appealing the more gates you control. That leads to more places you can summon monsters etc etc. Now of course each faction is asymmetric so playing as Hastur there is a strategy that involves collecting elder sign tokens instead and this could be said of the rest of them too BUT new players are not going to know this at all. So much of the time new players will try to run around and toss up new gates or fight over gates, which is a pretty bland straight forward area control game. Now playing with seasoned players that worked towards their factions strengths makes the game slightly more interesting but still I feel that it wasn’t nearly as intriguing as Chaos with its events and corruption and dial trackers. Also, and this is a huge one for me, the turns are dull most of the time. You get ONE action. In a 4 player game let’s say you decide to summon a monster at one of your gates. You deduct the required power, place your mini and you’re done. You will see this a lot around the table. Just people moving around the board, summoning monsters usually. When a battle does happen that brings the game to a screeching halt for the rest of the players. They gotta sit there and watch and it will take a bit while everyone counts up the plethora of dice they are using based on what monsters are in the battle and then count up all the aftermath. And then what’s worse is if you run out of power much sooner than other players (which happens more than you’d think) you just sit there getting skipped for who knows how long until everyone else finally runs out of power. This happens often when someone summons one of their elder gods (they take a lot of power obviously). Optimal Player Count/Replayability – As with most area control games you really need at least 4 players to get the most out of them. The more players you have running amok plotting and planning, the more intriguing situations you can have pop up. This game in particular plays from 2-4 out of the box but the game board is made to play up to 5. So right off the bat I would suggest picking up one of the many elder god expansions to add that 5th player if you normally play with groups of 5 or more. Each faction has a different play style so that does add to the replayability plus as I kind of alluded to earlier there are many different ways to go about winning. You could focus on the gates to garner power or you could try to learn your faction’s strengths and work to those abilities. Positive Final Thoughts – The game is massive in scale with the huge miniatures tromping around on the board and they all look very awesome. I love the detail and design of each of them. The colors are grand and the presentation is spectacular. The game is overall easy to learn and play and the player boards with the spell books look cool and the asymmetric powers are neat. Negative Final Thoughts – The game just isn’t all that fun unfortunately when compared to other Area Control games I’ve played. It’s primary focus it seems was its presentation and it nails that in spades but when it comes to gameplay it comes off very lacking. I’m not saying I would never play it if asked as I do enjoy the idea of manipulating these very large and impressive miniatures around on the boards, but there are many other area control games that I would choose over this one.

   

6. Scott Cowan Verified Buyer – 22 February 2025

   Cthulhu Wars is an awesome game! Play is easy to learn, but surprisingly complex for a board game. Each faction has its own particular powers and a strategy that works for one faction might not work for another. In addition, the miniatures are incredible. They are worth the price alone. They can be painted and used in other tabletop war games or RPGs as well. I can’t recommend this game enough!
   

7. Dinubabear Verified Buyer – 13 March 2025

   This is an awesome, quick, well balanced asymmetrical game. Once you are familiar with the rules, and how the different factions work, it takes between 1 hour & 90 minutes. (Unless you have players that are indecisive or drunk). The two 20″ x 20″ boards each have a 3 player side and a 5 player side. Have both on the same side for that many players, or one on each for 4 players. It comes with 4 factions, and you can purchase a 5th faction (there are 3 more available: Opener of the Way, Sleeper & Windwalker) or go online to find the rules & spells for one and cobble together a 5th faction for a 5 player game. They also have alternate maps you might be able to find or a 6/8 player map that is 30″ x 30″ x 2. September 2016 they will be rereleasing everything & have even more expansions, like an 8th faction. It is my favorite game because every game is different depending on who you & the others play and the order you acquire your spells. It is well worth the price.
   

8. Eduardo Sánchez Verified Buyer – 18 March 2025

   So much fun, even between two players. I bought this game for the figurines/collector’s value, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the game itself is super fun. Think of it like a better, quicker, way more fun version of Risk. The manual says it’s recommended for groups of 3 or more, but it also provides some minor rule modifications for 2 player games to be fun and balanced. Lots of care and play testing must have gone into this, because it’s very well polished. Lots of strategic depth to it, and the mechanics are not that complicated once you get the hang of it.
   

9. Anonymous Verified Buyer – 7 April 2025

   Excelente calidad de miniaturas, muy buen juego en general.
   Pésima calidad de encuadernación del manual, a la segunda hojeada se ha desgarrado parte de las hojas.
   

10. Anonymous Verified Buyer – 23 April 2025

    Take the necesarry time to read the rules and understand them (lots of thing to learn).

    But then, we had a blast with my friends. Our first game lasted for nearly 4 hours… because we were not used to the rules, after some time expect for 90 minutes per game… less if someone is playing really well and understood all the tricks…

    Thumbs up for this game !

    On a more trivial side, well packed and received on time. I just hope the seller of the game will have access to some extensions as they are necessary to play at 5+ players (up to 7 with the proper extensions).
    

11. Rema Dan Verified Buyer – 30 April 2025

    Abgesehen von den faszinierend riesigen Figuren und der insgesamt guten Material-Qualität macht das Spiel viel Spaß. Der Ablauf ist spannend und man hat Lust, immer neue Strategien auszuprobieren. Die Welt von Cthulu zu kennen, ist keine Voraussetzung für das Spiel. Kinder mit Vorerfahrungen in Strategie-Spielen oder Tabletop-Rollen-Spielen können auch unter 14 schon erfolgreich mitspielen. Spieltechnisch ist eine entfernte Verwandtschaft zu dem Klassiker “Risiko” nicht zu leugnen.
    Wir haben das Spiel auf Englisch gekauft, da es auf Deutsch leider vergriffen ist. Die Anleitung stellte uns vor keine Probleme. Alle Sätze sind kurz und übersichtlich formuliert und in alltagstauglichem Vokabular verfasst.
    Die Dicke des Anleitungsheftes erschreckte uns zunächst, aber der SChrifttyp ist recht groß, es gibt viele Bilder, zahlreiche Erweiterungen werden schon erklärt und zu jeder Figur gibt es eine Doppelseite mit hilfreichen Tips.