Cthulhu Wars

Goal and factions: Players control the base factions Great Cthulhu, Crawling Chaos, Black Goat and Yellow Sign, contesting Gates, Power and Doom. Six Spellbooks are required for victory eligibility, after which eligible players compare Doom. Units, awakening requirements and book conditions differ by faction. The current base box supports two to four; three and four use the general sequence, while two-player play has a dedicated chapter.

Setup and four phases: Select the Earth map side and Ritual track for the player count. Follow faction setup for Cultists, the starting Gate, Power and Doom; Spellbooks wait to be earned. Begin with Action, followed by Gather Power, Determine First Player and Doom, then return to Action. Setup already provides the first Action phase’s Power, so do not insert an extra normal income phase before play.

Action: Beginning with the First Player and following the chosen direction, take one legal action at a time, paying Power first. With Power remaining you cannot simply pass for free; in the normal three/four-player rules you may voluntarily drop Power to zero. With zero Power even zero-cost actions are unavailable, but an ability granting new Power restores your ability to act. Continue until everyone has no Power.

Common actions and Gates: Recruit Cultist, Summon Monster, Awaken Great Old One, Move, Create Gate, Battle and Capture Cultist are the seven common actions, supplemented by faction and requirement actions. Movement normally costs one Power per unit to an adjacent area. Creating a Gate normally costs three Power and requires the appropriate Cultist and Gate conditions. Control normally comes from a Cultist atop the Gate, not merely a large unit; a Gate without a controller is Abandoned.

Power and order: Gain one Power per Cultist in play, two per controlled Gate, one for every Abandoned Gate on the map for every player, and Power for captured Cultists, which return to their owners. Add faction effects. Anyone below half the highest Power total increases to half, rounded up. Highest Power receives First Player; the previous First Player chooses among tied leaders. The new First Player chooses clockwise or counterclockwise order.

Doom and Ritual: First, everyone advances Doom by controlled Gates; Abandoned Gates give no Doom. In player order, each may perform at most one Ritual, paying its current track cost and advancing the marker, then scoring controlled Gates again and gaining Elder Signs for their faction Great Old Ones in play. Costs rise from five to ten as the track advances, so order affects expenditure. Resolve other Doom-phase faction effects at their stated timing.

Battle and capture: Enemy units sharing an area do not automatically fight. Choose and pay for Battle; units and abilities determine dice. Normally six gives a Kill, four or five a Pain, and lower results no effect. Assign results under the rules: Kills return units to the pool and Pains require legal retreats. Capture Cultist is a separate action governed by Monster/Great Old One protection; Cultists alone cannot capture enemies. Spellbooks can modify these normal outcomes.

Spellbooks: Meeting a faction requirement earns an available Spellbook to cover that requirement; later losing the condition normally does not remove the book. If earned during a Battle, wait until the whole Battle is resolved. Six books determine eligibility and unlock certain options as well as improving abilities. Observe each power’s timing, cost and mandatory or optional wording; a battle ability does not automatically work in other phases.

End timing: Thirty or more Doom, or the Ritual track reaching Instant Death, triggers the ending. If triggered in Doom, finish the entire Doom phase, including Ritual opportunities for players who have not had one; further Rituals cost ten. If revealing Elder Signs during Action reaches thirty, end at the completion of the current active player’s turn, rather than granting everyone a further round of actions.

Winner and two-player scope: Everyone may reveal Elder Signs before the final comparison. Highest Doom among players with six Spellbooks wins; tied eligible leaders share victory. If nobody has six, all players lose. Two-player rules use the three-player map side, four-player Ritual track and Decay marker; eliminated units can award the opponent Doom and voluntary reduction to zero Power is forbidden. Use that dedicated chapter rather than importing the normal three/four-player exit rule.