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Same here. $45 shipping, 20% VAT on top, customs, handling fee - it'd take the $200 level up to $350 odd, or $150 to $250. It's far better for anyone in the UK to wait for retail on this one, particularly because it has been funded so there's no pressure to 'back it or lose it'.

I don't mind $45 shipping for a big boxed game, the killer is the customs. If this was being distributed from the UK (like Sedation Wars) I would definitely pledge.

Same here, the shipping is a deal breaker. No I don't expect free service, but simple math is that its cheaper to buy at retail than pre-order via Kickstarter.

Will definitely be buying this for my group when it goes retail though, the game looks fantastic.

Yeah customs charges have me hard on a couple of occasions so waiting for retail is the best option.

Right, while I slept this monster filled KS has been rolling on

$150K achieved: Azathoth paid add on unlocked

$200K achieved: Primeval Earth Map paid add on unlocked

next up Yuggoth Map paid add on at $250K


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Now I've caught up here's the detailed info on the Tsathuogga, Ithaqua and Azathoth paid add ons


The Tsathoggua expansion turns indolence into a virtue. He has Wizards, Formless Spawn, and Serpent Folk. He can capture enemy monsters, copy other player’s unique faction abilities, and force other players to donate to his cause.

The Windwalker

the Ithaqua expansion focuses on the late game with a variety of potent abilities that flower as the game progresses. Like Yellow Sign, the Windwalker faction has two Great old Ones!
UNITS – Wendigo (small), Gnoph-Keh (large), Rhan-Tegoth (Great Old One), Ithaqua (Great Old One)
You will receive in the expansion:
-16 figures
-Faction sheet
-Tokens
-New rules

Here is a short description of the Azathoth expansion from Sandy himself!

You will receive:

1) Set of Rules

2) Azathoth – a Great Old One.

3) Four types of monsters (Elder Thing, Star Vampire, Dimensional Shambler, and Servitor of the Outer Gods)

4) Special “loyalty” cards for the monsters & Azathoth.

The Azathoth” faction” is neutral – anyone can summon one or more of its monsters or Azathoth. The first person to summon a particular type of monster gets its loyalty card, which has its statistics & special ability (all these monsters have a special ability). Then only that person can summon that monster, unless and until he has no more of them on the map.

For instance, the first person to awaken Azathoth gets the Azathoth loyalty card by his faction sheet, and he places the Azathoth figure on the board. It will work for him until it is Killed or otherwise leaves the map. Then someone else could awaken Azathoth.

How much are UK Customs likely to charge on this?

I remember ordering some WarGods figures several years ago and getting charged by customs and then charged by the Post Office for their service in taking the payment for HMC from me.

IIRC the models were ~£30 and I ended up paying ~£15 on top.

I tried looking through HM Customs website but lost D6 SAN in the process :(

 Souleater wrote:
How much are UK Customs likely to charge on this?

It's a board game which is a zero rated category so you only need to worry about VAT (20%) but that is also charged on the postage

so roughly

$150 game + $45 shipping will cost about £25 in tax

$300 game & extras + $45 shipping will cost about £44 in tax

there would also be an additional fee charged by the courier to collect this tax (the swine), Royal mail charge £8

so not cheap, if they can work out a way to ship from within the EU (they are looking into this) i'll be delighted


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INFO ON FREEBIES (paraphrased from Sandy & crew in the comments)

pledge $200 in total (BEFORE shipping, so for international backers this will be $245) and you'll get a number of great old one miniatures (as we reach these stretch goals) currently listed on the roadmap

there are intended to be other freebies which will be based on your pledge level (ie Cultist, Cult de Ghouls), later in the campaign (funding permitting) which is why the pledge description mentions stretches


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and a final addition, then I think i'm up to date

Sandy Peterson (project creator) is actually at a convention (and thus really busy)so the account is also being manned by a number of others (family members, the games concept artist) so responses to PMs may be a bit slow for a while,

and they may not be have the authority to answer certain questions/commit to certain actions until Sandy himself is able to get to them, so be patient

That's a pretty good looking project, and looks like a fun game.

Thanks for the reply and keeping this thread up to date, Orlando. That doesn't seem too bad, bar the postage which is an understandable cost.

I pinged Sandy about obtaining full sets of the miniatures, and his response was that Fenris is going to be publishing the miniatures in both metal and resin.

The boardgame doesn't interest me, but the miniatures most certainly do. Looks like I'm going to be dropping a mint on the figs when they come out.

Should be interesting to see what happens pledge- wise once they start hitting free Great Old One territory, since you need to pledge at least 200 dollars (which was confirmed somewhere or other).

Are all the people at cultist going to bump up, in effect nearly doubling their pledges as the old ones begin to rise? Things might blow up even more than they already have.

Supposedly there will be stretch goals further down the line that all pledge levels will benefit from.

I'll sit on my EB Cultist until I see what the other big guys will look like. Hopefully my sanity will remain intact. Wallet probably won't be.

Sandy has posted his own thread in N&R to answer questions but I'll keep this one going as I suspect he may not be around as often as we want

he posted these

So here is a thread for me to answer direct questions about Cthulhu Wars. I figure you guys can discuss and evaluate it on your own, but at least I can answer questions. Looking at the other thread, I noticed tthese questions so answering them as best I can for now.

Q. Might have to throw that 50 in at some point. Will it be ok taking GBP?
A. You pledge to Kickstarter using Amazon, and they magically convert it to US$ at some point when it comes to us at Green Eye Games. So we can accept any kind of cash that Amazon can accept. I assume everything except maybe North Korean “won”.

Q. I'm curious if the figures will be in the strong, sharp plastic that comes in model kits,
A. the figures are PVC plastic, as is used in Fantasy Flight products. If you’ve seen DESCENT, for instance, we are aiming at about that level quality. The figures have lots of surface detailing so they paint up quite nicely. There are images of some painted figures in another thread, and also on Boardgamegeek (look up Cthulhu Wars, then browse images).

Q. this is what it's going to hinge on for me - whether they're board game pieces or "proper" miniatures.
A. they are plastic, not metal, but they are 28mm scale and made of glossy, stiff, material. I realize that the size listed on the site is 40mm for the Cultists, and that is correct, but they are 28mm “scale” if you get my meaning. They are on a thick base with one arm upraised which increases overall height. Still they match my other Games Workshop and Grenadier miniatures. And of course Fenris Games is doing the figs individually in metal & high-quality resin, But those are super-expensive (but nice).

Q. with no real provisions made for non-US backers?
A. we are using a UK drop point to help decrease out-of-country costs, and we are eating $15 of the shipping cost to the EU, so we are actually trying to make it better for our European fans as much as we can. The ways of the UK customs and VAT are a mystery to us but we are striving diligently to minimize this added cost as much as possible.

The emphasis in red is mine, and if I'm right about the way UK customs will work the fact that they intend to use a UK drop point for EU shipments means that THEY (not the backers in the EU) will be the importers and thus liable for tax

(fenris games has posted the following about it in frothers thread: "As an aside re:shipping/import duty - the plan/hope is that I'll get a container shipped direct to me and then redistribute to UK & European backers to save on hideous direct airmail costs. We're trying to work out the figures at the minute...."


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Stretch goal achived

$250K reached so the Yuggoth map paid add on is unlocked

next up is a good one

$300K, a FREE Yig (Great Old One) mini & rules for all who have pledged $200 (not including shipping)

Designer Sandy Peterson answers some questions about CW here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/532257.page

Yes... I might answer the lure of the Old Ones and wait for Dreamforge to release their female minis after all.

The Rage might have gone out of me...

I can't believe I didn't make that connection earlier--but I didn't realize it was "that" Sandy Petersen. Talk about a degrees of bacon moment--I remember Sandyman from my Age Of Empires days (where I first made this nick)--then later I ended up working with Rick Goodman at SSS after he split from Sandy/ES. What a flashback!

I will be pledging to this KS on his name alone. For those who don't know Sandy Peterson, he has a very extensive history in game design, Cthulhu and in my experience, is always very interactive/informative with the players of his games. Excited to see him still around and excited about the game!

Yeah, I am "that" Sandy Petersen. Those who don't know who I can can google me or look me up on Wikipedia.

Sorry I didn't know only one thread per game system, though this thread saddens me for mispelling my last name.

Just finished showing off the game at NTRPGcon for several hours. We played the game for a little under 8 hours, and had 4 run-throughs, plus each time I had to explain the rules again to the new set of players. Plus we took breaks between the games, so ended up being slightly less than 90 minutes per game to play.

Sandy Petersen wrote:
this thread saddens me for mispelling my last name

Fixed it.

Is there any chance we'll see a game play video?

As nice as a PDF of the rules are, I've always felt I've learned more actually watching the goings on of a quick game session. I was able to pick up X-Wing in a flash tonight just by a quick game session.

The game feels a bit expensive to me but I am in for now. Those minis are just too tempting.

Sandy Petersen wrote:
Yeah, I am "that" Sandy Petersen. Those who don't know who I can can google me or look me up on Wikipedia.

Sorry I didn't know only one thread per game system, though this thread saddens me for mispelling my last name.

Ooops, sorry Sandy I didn't notice I'd misspelled it

fixed (by one of the MODS, thanks for helping out there Manchu)


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so streach goal hit, and the Free Yig is in

next up

$325 FREE Atlach Nacha (Great Old One) mini & rules for those who pledge $200+ (not including shipping)

Mr Petersen, thank you for keeping the Cthulhu mythos alive for all these years for us to enjoy.

I read Lovecraft and Derleth in my youth (a French translation, but a very good one) and found that the game was still in print only last year. With my gaming group being slowly overtaken by a critical mass of kids, boardgames have now become the go-to instead of PnP roleplaying or tabletop games. I'm definitely picking this up.

 Manchu wrote:
The game feels a bit expensive to me but I am in for now. Those minis are just too tempting.

Same here!

I'm in for the base (!) Cultist level, but the 'completionist' in me wants ALL the expansions.

The bank account though says "No!"

Think of it this way, the bank account is a bully that wants to keep you away from awesome things. By taking the money anyway, you're just standing up to it and taking control!

Or being reasonably well-restrained

For those that want to get more in the mood for the game you can legally download all HP Lovecrafts stories in various placed

(they're all out of copyright now, one reason we're drowning in Cthulhu stuff)

a decent place to go is Cthulhu Chick who's put together an all in one file for various e-reader & formats, and has other Cthulhu stuff too (thanks to Talae on the Reaper forums who flagged this up for me)

http://cthulhuchick.com/free-complete-lovecraft-ebook-nook-kindle/

and you can read the work of his contemporary and fellow Mythos creator Clark Ashton Smith at The Eldritch Shadow

http://eldritchdark.com/

The last of the three original Mythos masters was Robert E Howard who was much more prolific, wrote in a bunch of different genres, and some of who's stuff is still under copyright

(I've got it all on paper so havn't paid any attention to what's out there digitally but I'll have a look and see what I can find)


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Stretch target hit

$325K funded: FREE Atlach Nacha (Great Old One) mini & rules for those who pledge $200+ (not including shipping)

next

$350K : FREE Ghatanotha (Great Old One) mini & rules for those who pledge $200+

Well this is the first Kickstarter I have backed. I played Call of Cthulhu back in the 80s and seeing Sandy Petersen's name linked was enough to get me in on the $138 level.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Should be interesting to see what happens pledge- wise once they start hitting free Great Old One territory, since you need to pledge at least 200 dollars (which was confirmed somewhere or other).

The $200 requirement frankly pisses me off. Assuming the game goes retail, the creator's are already making more off these direct KS sales than they will be after the distributor's and retailer's take their required cuts. The "stretch goal" for expansions boil down to "buy this at more than you can from any online discounter, 6 months in advance!". So that's crap. Same with the base game now that the good early birds are gone.

And they cant afford to throw the backers a bone?

That's a not an unreasonable way to look at it

BUT just don't get upset about it,

especially as this is a brand new company which has already spend a fair chunk of money and over year getting to this point. It's not as if they've had a revenue stream to draw on

Later on in the campaign Sandy has said there will be free stuff for the cultist level which you could have got for $110 (and can still get for $138), we just have to get there to generate enough cash for them to be able to do so

I'm personally going to wait for retail for the (most of) expansions just because I can't afford them all, they may end up cheaper, but you can never be certain. A lot of stuff is heavily discounted by online retailers,

but not everything, and since this is a new company we don't even know what distribution model they will use. It could be everywhere, it could be stores, it might even be direct sale only so assuming it will be available cheaper is always risky


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New Update

Opener of the Way adds the cosmic horror of Yog-Sothoth. He changes the fundamental laws of reality. With his ability of the Million Favored Ones, his units are able to promote for free after combat. Cultists promote to Mutants, Mutants become Abominations, and Abominations become Children of Yog-Sothoth. (Children of Yog-Sothoth can fragment into as many Mutants as are in your unit pool.) He also has the Dragon Rising and Dragon Descending spellbooks, which can only be used once per game (they are flipped upside-down after use). These give him potent one-time boosts which are real game-changers. Other spellbooks let him rain death from the sky; summon monsters from enemy-held gates; and channel raw Power into a Battle. And of course, Yog-Sothoth gives you the ability to move from Gate to Gate without passing through intervening Areas.

In our playtests, Yog-Sothoth has proven to be an extremely powerful faction, as befits the status of the One-in-All. Other players have learned to keep one eye cocked at the Opener of the Way, because he has powers that produce sudden upsets and reversals of fortune.



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and another (Sandy's back in the office I guess)

The Sleeper turns indolence into a virtue, as the greed-crazed God of Entropy, Tsathoggua, emerges from the depths to turn the world upside-down. The Sleeper can force enemy factions to make sacrifices to him, and he is able to capture and sacrifice enemy monsters. In addition he brings out ancient sorceries, with monsters that appear for free on-map, burrowing their way up from underground, arcane wizards who are able to teleport to an enemy player's Faction Card and parasitize their special abilities, and the fearsome Formless Spawn.

The Formless Spawn, a signature monster, have battle strength equal to the number of them on the map. For instance, if you have all four Formless Spawn in play, each has a Combat of 4 (which is huge). He has other abilties such as Cursed Slumber, Lethargy, Death from Below, and Burrow, all of which let him do more with less, making him the most Power-efficient faction around.

In our playtesting, The Sleeper has proven to be one of the most popular factions to play. He doesn't win any more often than any other faction, but man is he fun.




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'tis a flood

The Windwalker features a new and unusual faction, with Ithaqua, the god of Outer Space. His faction is most powerful in the late game, when his mighty army, fueled by his Sweeping Winds, Howl, and Ice Age spellbooks and abilities, dominates play. He also features the dread Gnoph-Kehs, strong monsters whose cost lessens the more numerous they become, setting up a feedback loop that forces other players to take note.

In our playtests, Great Cthulhu is traditionally the most powerful faction in Battle. But a late-game Ithaqua has proven equal or greater than Cthulhu's wrecking squad. Players, knowing this, sometimes try to weaken Windwalker in the early game, but he has proven extremely resilient. His cultists are immune to capture, his Wendigos appear for free anywhere a unit is killed in battle, and his lesser Great Old One, Rhan-Tegoth is Eternal, and almost impossible to kill.

Ithaqua himself is usually the last Great One One to be awakened, but before that time, Rhan-Tegoth's proves a useful and durable ally. If you are more interested in late-game prowess than early building, this is the expansion for you.



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a veritable tide

The Azathoth expansion is a unique "neutral" expansion. When you awaken Azathoth, or are the first player to summon one of the four Monster types associated with this faction, you get that unit's Loyal Card. This lists the Monster's (or Azathoth's) stats, gives his special ability (all Azathoth monsters have these), and so forth. From then on, only YOU can summon that Monster type.

At least, until all of that Monster type have been wiped off the map. For instance, if you are the first person to summon an Elder Thing, then no one else can do so. You can summon all three available Elder Things, should you choose to do so. But if all your Elder Things are ever killed off, you lose their loyalty card, and if someone else seizes the opportunity to summon an Elder Thing before you, THEY become the new controller of that species.

Azathoth is unusual in many ways. When he is summoned, you choose how much Power you want to spend, and place a special marker on your Power track. This is Azathoth's combat ability - so the more you spend, the more deadly he is. Of course, in some games, a person, fearing Azathoth's misuse, might summon it cheap and dirty just to keep it out of the hands of another player. That's all part of the fun.

Oh Gods, the stars are right

The Primeval Map expansion includes a map of the ancient earth. Like the normal game map, it is double-sided and can be assembled into four different maps.

It changes play dramatically. Each turn, a Glacier piece appears in one of the polar areas, and moves south (or north). As the game progresses, the glaciers begin constraining the actions and movements of the players, until everyone is forced to move into the equatorial regions, which naturally enough ensues in a bloodbath.

If you like massive clashes and forced battle in the mid-to-late game (even more than in a normal game of Cthulhu Wars). this is the expansion for you.

Bossk_Hogg wrote:

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Should be interesting to see what happens pledge- wise once they start hitting free Great Old One territory, since you need to pledge at least 200 dollars (which was confirmed somewhere or other).

The $200 requirement frankly pisses me off. Assuming the game goes retail, the creator's are already making more off these direct KS sales than they will be after the distributor's and retailer's take their required cuts. The "stretch goal" for expansions boil down to "buy this at more than you can from any online discounter, 6 months in advance!". So that's crap. Same with the base game now that the good early birds are gone.

And they cant afford to throw the backers a bone?

Get cultist + the first expansion, that should bring you up nearly to 200. The game is designed for 5 players but the base game only ships with 4, so the extra expansion is worth it. I don't find the extras at the 200+ pledge levels to be worth it, so bumping up a cultist level is ideal for me.

Honestly the fact that Cultist Level states 'any Stretch Goals applicable!' when there are none that are applicable and advertising the game as '3-5 Players' when its really only up to 4 without purchasing an expansion that pisses me off. There really should have been *Something* that actually applied to Cultist in the first set of stretch goals to warrant that text. 2 Player Rules and Color Rulebook don't qualify, those should have just been done regardless, and just go into the boxed game. The # of Advertised players should be what is in the box, and any expansions that increase that should be labeled as such.. especially since it appears that not all of the expansions actually allow for a 5th+ Player to join in.

I'm going to hold onto my EB Cultist for now in the hopes that it gets better, but it still puts me off.

500k, Cultist gets Dagon and Hydra for free, so that is the first of, hopefully, many!