Crowdfunding Spotlight: Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3

Published: July 26, 2017 5:11 PM /

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Cthulhu Wars A Sandy Peterson Game Wide

Cthulhu Wars is the dream of many a Lovecraft nerd: select from one of several factions and battle it out with the other old gods. The original game earned nearly $1.5 million in its first Kickstarter Campaign, and successful campaigns to fund expansion content such as the Onslaught Two Kickstarter followed some time afterward. Petersen Games is back at it again with Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3, a crowdfunding campaign that seeks to fund a new faction called The Ancients.

This campaign is featuring four brand new expansions. The Ancients expansion includes a die-cut faction sheet, six spellbooks, a faction token, a doom marker, a plastic doom marker, a plastic power marker, 6 Acolyte Cultists, 3 Un-Men, 3 Yothans, and 4 plastic Cathedrals. The Shaggai map is a new map for 3-5 players that comes with 6 Worms of Ghroth miniatures, 15 eradication markers, and a hint card. Masks of Nyarlathotep is a set of new neutral entities that includes a Bloated Woman figure, a Shadow Pharaoh figure, nine Dark Demon figures, three Loyalty Cards, and a Spellbook. Lastly, Beyond Time and Space is a set of new neutral units including 3 Loyalty Cards,  a Hound of Tindalos figure, four Wamp figures, and two Voonith figures.

Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3 The Ancients Faction
One of the highlights of the Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3 Kickstarter campaign is the addition of The Ancients faction.

Cthulhu Wars is a game with a lot of expansions—over 50 official products in total. With that in mind, the Pledge Tiers are split up depending on how much of the game you want to pick up. The $149 WAMP Tier gets you The Ancients Faction, the Shaggai Map, Masks of Nyarlathotep, Beyond Time and Space, and the Stretch Goal Box—all four new gameplay expansion products that are being released with this Kickstarter. The $199 Yothan Tier includes all new expansion products (not just the gameplay ones), adding new faction acolytes, Dire Cthulhu, 20 faction dice of any one color of your choice, and neutral unit rings to the previous tier.

If you don't own the game at all, the $200 Acolyte pledge tier is the one for you. It includes the Cthulhu Wars Core Game, one Faction Expansion of your choice, Dire Cthulhu, and the Stretch Goal Box. Conversely, if you already own the Core Game then the $599 Hound of Tindalos tier will get you everything that Petersen Games is offering during the Kickstarter Campaign save for the Core Game: The Ancients Faction, Shaggai Map, Masks of Nyarlathotep, Beyond Time and Space, new Faction Acolytes, Dire Cthulhu, the Opener of the Way Faction, the Sleeper Faction, the Windwalker Faction,  the Tcho-Tcho Faction, the Azathoth Expansion, a 6-8 player Earth Map, Cosmic Terrors, Eldritch Gates, High Priests, 200 Battle Dice (10 sets of 20 dice in different colors), a custom dice pack, neutral unit rings, and the Stretch Goal box. Bump up your pledge a bit to the $749 Great Old One Tier and you'll get everything in the Hound of Tindalos tier along with a copy of the Cthulhu Wars Core Game. Bear in mind that as pricey as these packages packed full of content may be, they're well below the MSRP; as an example, the Great Old One Tier would retail for $961 out in stores.

As for Stretch Goals, the Kickstarter campaign for Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3 has unlocked 13 of them so far at the time of writing. These are:

  • $250,000 - Everyone gets the new hardcover rule book
  • $350,000 - The Ancients die cut Cathedrals are upgrade to plastic
  • $370,000 - New printed rules for Dire Cthulhu in that box
  • $385,000 - Everyone gets a code to buy a Cthulhu Wars shirt at cost
  • $410,000 - Everyone gets a classic green gate and the Colour out of Space rules will be updated
  • $450,000 - The die cut Eradication Tokens are upgraded to plastic for the Shaggai map
  • $470,000 - Everyone gets a maroon H.P. Lovecraft lamp 1st player market and new rules to use during gameplay
  • $485,000 - Everyone gets a neutral grey Ancients Acolyte
  • $505,000 - The Ancients faction card is upgraded to 3mm die cut
  • $520,000 - Everyone gets a new unit type called The Investigator: John Dark along with more new rules
  • $540,000 - Everyone gets a neutral grey Black Goat Acolyte
  • $565,000 - The Voynich Monster type is added to the Beyond Time and Space Expansion along with 2 figures and a loyalty card
  • $580,000 - Everyone gets The Investigator: Naomi Joslyn along with some new rules
Two tiers that have to yet to be unlocked are currently visible: at $600,000, everyone gets a neutral grey Crawling Chaos acolyte and at $620,000 everyone gets new rules for using Worms of Ghroth in non-Shaggai map games.

For clarity's sake, when a Stretch Goal says "everyone gets," that means that these are the items that will go in the previously mentioned Stretch Goal box. Anyone who pledges at one of the available tiers ($149 and up) will receive this box with all of the unlocked things mentioned in such a manner. Stretch goals specific to an expansion are noted as such.

Of course, you might want to get a few things beyond one of the lower tiers here and a variety of add-ons are available. The Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3 add-ons include options such as battle dice (either one color or a set of 200 in ten colors), the newest expansions, updated versions of the old expansions, and many other lovely goodies to add to your arsenal.

Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3 Beyond Time And Space Neutral Units
What's a game of Cthulhu Wars without a few new horrifying eldritch entities to add to the mix?

As for shipping, a helpful table is included at the bottom of the campaign to help you calculate what exactly you'll have to pay. Shipping costs are being charged separately, and they'll entirely depend on which items you get. VAT and similar taxes are being included in the shipping costs for most regions. Some countries and regions do not allow import taxes to be included in such a fashion, and while Petersen Games is working on it for some parts of the world, you might have to handle it yourself depending on where you're getting the game shipped to.

Petersen Games concedes that the launch of Onslaught 2 didn't go as well as they would have expected; one reason for delays in the game's previous Kickstarter was the fact that the games were held up at customs for a month. However, in this case they had all sculpts, text, and art ready to go before beginning the campaign and that (in combination with leaving some time to spare) should ensure that things ship more or less on time for Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3. That said, Petersen Games nonetheless cautions backers that unexpected issues can always arise despite the levels of preparation that they strived to achieve for this campaign.

If you'd like to embrace the darkness and get your hand on the next wave of content for this game you can check out the Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3 Kickstarter here.

The campaign is already well over 500% funded, so at this point it's all about whether or not you want to grab one of the tiers for yourself. The Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3 Kickstarter campaign ends on Monday, August 14, 2017, at 10:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time.

What do you think of Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3? Does the new faction and content being funded by this particular campaign intrigue you? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
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