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Sandy Petersen + Cthulhu + High Quality Components = A lot on money, apparently!

2 more updates the firsty bring us back 'up to date' with the unlocks as far as the descriptions go

Ah, the infamous proboscidian godlet. Chaugnar Faugn gives you the ability to alter the way the Elder Signs work (to your advantage). In addition, he provides you with a new action:

Miri Nigri (Action: Cost 1) select an Area in which you have units. A battle immediately begins there. All your Cultists in the Area add +2 to their Combat.

This is a valuable defensive ability (though of course it can also be used offensive, under some circumstances). If someone marches a critter into your Area, hoping to capture some cultists or otherwise make trouble, you can drive him right back out again. The Miri Nigri action is particularly useful for Black Goat (whose Cultists already get some Combat power via her Frenzy spellbook) and Yellow Sign (whose Cultists tend to cluster together in large groups).

On the other hand, his spellbook Curse of Chaugnar Faugn is actually way better for Great Cthulhu and Crawling Chaos, because it messes with the way Elder Signs work, and generally Black Goat and Yellow Sign are the factions who most rely on Elder Signs.

So this is a Great Old One whose specific use differs depending on which faction takes him.

and the second is for Cthuga the current stretch goal

As I write this (7:40 am, June 11th), Cthugha has not yet been unlocked. However, I am going to be out the rest of the day talking to teenagers at my son's school for Career Day (note: my son is a teacher at the school, not a student). So I thought no one would mind if I went ahead and jumped the gun for this one. It's either that or wait till way later.

Cthugha is difficult to get (you have to sacrifice a Great Old One!). Of course, since some Great Old Ones are bad for you, even if you control them (Bokrug, for instance), this can be a blessing at times.

Cthugha changes the way Battle results work. You can transform your Kills rolled into Elder Signs. Of course, this spares your opponent, but hey, Elder Sign! Also, his spellbook, Fire Vampires, earns you Power for damage inflicted on YOU.






Automatically Appended Next Post:
More info from Sandy

Right now we are hoping to make all of the currently-unlocked stretch goals available in Q1 2014. This is dependent on a lot of factors, so please don't shoot the messenger.

(so I presume that implies 2 sets of shipping, rather than ship to some backer early and some with expansions later, but no official word on that)

He's going to have to update that front page unlocked stretch goals graphic!

And, he's going to have to add in more stretch goals too - he's at $440K now, and the next two are for $475K and $500K and given the pace this things moving at...more will be needed soon!

Sandy has mentioned that he has some non-GOO stretch goals planned which will be included with the Cult pledges and above, so hopefully some of those will be coming next (not that I don't like free GOO but some variation would be nice soon).

Human faction (or two) has been mentioned before so I wouldn't be surprised if they turned up in an expansion soon.

Aeneades wrote:
Human faction (or two) has been mentioned before so I wouldn't be surprised if they turned up in an expansion soon.

Hard to imagine how they will fit in.

 Manchu wrote:

Aeneades wrote:
Human faction (or two) has been mentioned before so I wouldn't be surprised if they turned up in an expansion soon.

Hard to imagine how they will fit in.

Indeed. At the point where you have multiple great old ones slugging it out, the stars WERE right some time ago, and humanity is kind of the white marbles in the eldritch horror equivalent of Hungry Hungry Hippos.

Found one of his quotes explaining how one of the human factions would work (I don't believe he has explained how investigators would work yet) -

Or maybe we could even have two different human factions. Investigators vs. Authorities. I can even see them being hostile to one another.

The basic concept now is that with the Authorities form of the game, the humans will START in control of much of the board, and their position will deteriorate as play proceeds. They need to hold off long enough to achieve victory despite the inevitable decay. My psychological model for this is Axis & Allies Pacific, where the Japanese start big, and then get smacked around the rest of the game.

Wow. I somehow missed this earlier. The factions look great!

I might just wait for the game to come out and decide, but I'm certainly interested in this one.

Geez. I know games like this aren't cheap to make but, damn that a chunk of money! Couldn't they offer a cheaper version of the game with cardboard tokens instead of the mini's? :(

 Warplock wrote:
Geez. I know games like this aren't cheap to make but, damn that a chunk of money! Couldn't they offer a cheaper version of the game with cardboard tokens instead of the mini's? :(

Yeah they probably could, but where's the fun in having a little cardboard chit of old squid face when you can have a big MASSIVE figure of him that you could probably club your opponent with if they get to mouthy?

I'm trying to resist pushing my pledge up to 200. Considering this will probably break its 500k goal before the week is done, who knows how much more junk is going to end up stuffed in this box? If I can get a pretty cool serpent at some point or another I don't think I'll have much choice.

Very curious to see what else is planned.

another stretch goal has fallen

$450K funded: FREE Cthugha (Great Old One) mini & rules for those who pledge $200+ (not including shipping)

next

$475K Dreamlands map paid add on

and the latest update provides a selection of backer avatars

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1816687860/cthulhu-wars/posts

eg

I really want to back this, but $150 is the first tier to get the boxed game? I'll pass.

There are some Early Birds left - $140 is the minimum now.

I was somehow lucky enough to come into this one late and sill grab a $115 EB...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Alpharius wrote:
There are some Early Birds left - $140 is the minimum now.

I was somehow lucky enough to come into this one late and sill grab a $115 EB...

Also, a Great Old One Clarification!

Creator Sandy Petersen about 1 hour ago

There are two categories of Great Old Ones right now. First are the Great Old Ones associated with the game or a paid expansion faction. At this time, these include Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, Hastur, the King in Yellow, Yog-Sothoth, Rhan-Tegoth, Ithaqua, and Tsathoggua. The Watcher of the Green Pyramid, though technically part of no faction, falls into this category as well, because he is part of a paid expansion. These will only come with a Character Card.

The second category are the independent Great Old Ones specifically intended for use as a game add-on. Currently all of these are free rewards for anyone at the $200 level. At this time, these include Yig, Atlach-Nacha, Ghatanothoa, Bokrug, Abhoth, Cthugha, and Chaugnar Faugn. The Father Dagon/Mother Hydra twin-pak is yet not unlocked, but will be in this category. These come with a Loyalty Card, a unique spellbook, and sometimes other counters (for instance, Atlach-Nacha has die-cut Web tokens).

For the first category, the Character Card has the same information that you would get on your Faction Card for your Great Old One. It does come with a unique Spellbook - of course if you play them as part of their main faction they have significant extra powers, and some of the faction spellbooks boost them. Really, we do not recommend players use the faction-specific Great Old Ones as random add-ons to their games of Cthulhu Wars - they have not been designed nor play-balanced for such use. The idea behind buying their figures independently was for people to ... have an extra model to paint and display, or set up a little shrine, or perhaps to use in a game of Call of Cthulhu. Of course, people may invent house rules for such use.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
$475K Dreamlands map paid add on

Oh dang, the third map is the Dreamlands? Well, there goes another $48.

The good news is that most of the Great Old Ones are either IN the paid add-ons or are 'free' if you've pledged $200 or more:

The base game has:

Cthulhu
Nyarlathotep
Hastur and the King in Yellow
Shub-Niggurath

The Opener of the Ways add-on has Yog Shothoth.

The Sleeper add-on has Tsathoggua.

The Windwalker expansion has Ithaqua and Rhan-Tegoth.

The Azathoth expansion has... Azathoth!

The Yuggoth expansion has the Watcher of the Green Pyramid.

Good news!

Works starting on the expansion (from Fenris Games on facebook)


I've been in the workshop since 6am, emailing sculptors to try and fill up slots for duties on all of the expansion models for Cthulhu Wars. It's now 11am and I haven't left the keyboard all morning, but I do have 11 sculptors confirmed and booked in. Still more needed !

14 and rising

I'm so glad I got into this one early and picked up one of the Father's Day early birds...leaves me more money for expansions!

$475K passed, on to the final posted stretch goal of $500K which is two free Great Old Ones to all who pledged for "Cultist" or higher.

And there are still 25 days to go!

Thanks Alpharius (you beat me to it)

from the KS comments, Sandy reveals the plastic colours for the factions so far


Creator Sandy Petersen 7 minutes ago

@ Joseph:
They will absolutely be color coded. Here is the full color scheme per faction:
green - Great Cthulhu
red - Black Goat
blue - Crawling Chaos
yellow - Yellow Sign
purple - Opener of the Way
brown - The Sleeper
gray - The Windwalker
white - Azathoth, the "add on" gates and all "free" stretch goal GOOs

I've posted I'm not keen on white as it tends to 'hide' detail, and end up looking dirty if you play with stereotypical 'cheeto' fingered gamers, but whether he'll listen who knows (and I'll buy them anyway)

oh, some isopropanol thinned shoepaste and a good sponge for rubbing off the excess will do wonders for shading unprimed minis, for what I've seen

The latest two updates:

GenCon now available!
Update #25 · Jun 12, 2013 · comment

Sandy Petersen will be at GenCon, with our prototype game (it's all finished and tested - just the components are prototype). This is a new pledge level. In case you are wondering why it is at $420 instead of $500 (like the NecronomiCon pledge), this is because we are NOT providing tickets to GenCon - you will have to register and purchase your own.

Dreamlands map expansion unlocked!
Update #26 · Jun 12, 2013 · 12 comments

Congratulations to all of you guys! We are so glad to have you on our team!

The Dreamlands expansion contains two separate maps (smaller than 40x20, but larger than half-size - together the two maps cover more area than a 40x20 map). One map is the Surface World, while the other is the Underworld. Certain Areas on the map are Portals between the two maps, and when you are at one of these sites, you can travel back and forth. For instance, the Tower of Koth (Underworld) and Sarkomand (Surface) are one linked pair.

"Why would I want to travel around?" you ask. It's simple - both maps have certain Areas that contain what we are currently calling Citadels (for example: Kadath, or the Vaults of Zin). If you control all of the Citadels on a map, then you win immediately! This gives players a whole new way to win the game! You can be far behind on the Doom track, but pull off a victory by your effectiveness in the Dreamlands.

It's not as easy as it sounds either. The game comes with 6 plastic Zoogs, and a Bhole. Both of these species are controlled by game rules - not the players. The Zoogs scuttle across the Surface World, interfering with your cultists and your Gates, as a pesky annoyance. The Bhole, on the other hand, is a fearsome predator who periodically rises from the depths of the Underworld and can demolish entire armies. Both of these make it more challenging to get a "Citadel victory" which of course improves gameplay further, because typically some players are going for the old-fashioned Doom victory, while others are going for Citadels and the interaction becomes even more thrilling.

Now we need more stretch goals!

New stretch goals are up, leading up to 700k

512k: 8 more dice added to the base game
550k: High priest expansion - Adds 7 high priests that lead cultists
600k: 6 more 3D gates added to the 3D gates add-on
650k: Dreamlands underworld monsters expansion
700k: Dreamlands surface world monsters expansion

New bundles have been added for the current expansions
All 3 maps for $120, all 4 faction expansions for $160 ($120 if you have a Cultes Des Goules)

Oh man the bundle deals got me.

So much for that Iyanden army I was planning!

Good deals on the bundles...and here was me trying to resist the expansions for now.

Dagon and Hydra are unlocked for Cultist and above! 500k in this short time? Pretty amazing!

thanks for keeping the thread up to date while I slept

adding new info to the front page now


Automatically Appended Next Post:
the bundles look great, as soon as they've finalised the 'in EU' shipping deal I'll be upping my pledge

(It would just be too expensive for me to do so until then)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
stretch goal achived

$512.5K : FREE 8 Extra dice (normal I think) for Cultist level backers and over

next

$550K : High Priest expansion (paid I think)

Just when you think things might slow down, they kind do, and don't!




Looks like bundles with actual real good value do help - quite a bit!

Well, I know it helped me a lot!

 Alpharius wrote:
Well, I know it helped me a lot!

It helped me to not buy GW miniatures, that's for sure.

512k Goal: Achieved
8 more dice will now be included in each box copy of the game! This should be enough to cover almost any combat roll if you're REALLY piling units into a single region.

Up next: High Priest expansion
Adds 7 high priests, one for each playable faction (remember, Azathoth isn't a playable faction), to lead your cultists in the world. Probably a paid expansion, hopefully inexpensive since it's small.

Project Update #29: Father Dagon & Mother Hydra free Great Old One twin-pak description

Father Dagon and Mother Hydra - two of the most well-known entities in the Cthulhu Mythos, despite the fact that they are never, ever described by Lovecraft. While there might be another tale by a contributer which does mention them, I don't recall one in 49 years of reading horror tales.

So these are (obviously) two different Great Old Ones. They do NOT look the same! They are NOT the same model in different poses! They are completely distinctive models with their own features and organs. They are as different as a bulldog and a greyhound (though both are dogs). Okay, that's out of the way.

Their powers are complementary, so if you control them both, you can use them to greater advantage. As a result, once you summon one of them, it is in your opponent's interest to summon the other, so you can't get them both.

We normally intend for you to use both Dagon and Hydra in the same game. Their combat powers and spellbook requirements are quite different. Now you know.