Fate of the Elder Gods

We had 10 guys out at the club on Tuesday. Bruce and Scott played Crusader Rex while Taylor hosted a game of Space Hulk.

With Hallowe'en approaching, Terry dug out a Cthulhu-themed game called Fate of the Elder Gods. Unlike Cthulhu Pandemic, here you are trying to summon an elder god as well as prevent rival cults from doing so while the game mechanics play the role of the pesky investigators (man, I hate those guys...)..

The putative goal is to move the little wooden piece (below left) in your lair around the circle clock-wise. Along the way, bad things happen and I think the real game is to get as far as you can and then try to cause the game to end by screwing your neighbour.

The mechanics include card draw and hand management (mostly making sets), some resource management (cultists and spells), dice rolling, and area control on the big board. There was also some memory work involved (face-down spells, curse management) and planning. It was a fair bit to take in at first but, by the end of two hours, we had mostly gotten the hang of the turn sequence and how the different mechanics interact.

In the end, Wiley lost (although that seemed a touch random since I thought he'd played well) and the rest of us compared scores (with Richard winning). Interesting game. It went on 30 minutes too long but that may reflect the learning curve--I suspect it would be faster on second play. There was a fair bit of chaos and luck mid-game that requires a flexible strategy for winning.

Up next: The end of a long rebasing project, some WW1 gaming with Bruce and some Hallowe'en minis.