Manual — Cthulhu Wars: Opener of the Way Expansion

Copyright © Sandy Petersen 2014
Opener of the Way Expansion
I. Components
• Faction Card
• 6 Spellbooks
• Rulebook
• 18 figures (6 different types, all purple):
o Power marker; Doom marker
o 6 Acolyte Cultists
o 4 Mutants
o 3 Abominations
o 2 Children of Yog-Sothoth
o 1 Great Old One (Yog-Sothoth)
II. Set Up
After all other players have set up, Yog-Sothoth places 6 Acolyte Cultists and a controlled Gate in any unoccupied Area of his choice.
III. Playing the Opener of the Way
Opener of the Way is probably the weirdest faction of them all. Your faction is delicate and requires precision, but has unparalleled flexibility. In fact, your faction begins with an important strategic decision – where to start! More than any other faction, you must react on the fly to other player’s actions. You always have something effective you can do, but it differs depending in the situation.
Keep a Mutant with your Cultists – if someone enters your Area, this is a perfect opportunity to battle and promote with Million Favored Ones! This also plops cultists back in your Pool to be recruited by Monsters placed via They Break Through. Don’t fall into the trap of using Million Favored Ones exclusively to get big units out – it is okay to buy them straight-up.
Though Yog-Sothoth “really” costs 10 Power to Awaken (6 for him and 4 for the Spawn you give up), he is flexible because you can pay on the installment plan – summon a Spawn one turn, then Yog-Sothoth the next. Everyone else has to pay for their Great Old One all at once. Don’t forget that you can summon Monsters through him.
Beyond-One is best in the early game. You not only steal a Gate, but move long distances and escape threats.
Summon a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth early, despite the huge cost, so you can bring out your Great Old One at the right time (usually once 2-3 others have taken the field). You won’t dominate the game in the beginning – you must grow over time, by promoting units and re-designing the map’s gate structure.
Movement is not cheap for you, so use Beyond-One and They Break Through as substitutes.
Use numbers to swamp an enemy once you’ve properly built up. Do not fear to “promote” a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth into as few as two Mutants. Remember once you have 6 spellbooks, you can declare more than one Battle in a round. This is huge for you.

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• Channel Power → a handy spell for obvious reasons. Your faction is often Power-hungry, so save
it for special occasions.
• Million Favored Ones → a core ability you’ll want early.
• Dread Curse of Azathoth → pester enemies with death from the sky. Enemy units are often in
the same area as Gates, and you can drive them out with Dread Curse while your units stay
behind.
• They Break Through → possibly your spellbook most hated by enemy players.
• Dragon Ascending → choose the right time and this can completely reverse the course of play.
Remember that using this spellbook is NOT an action, which means you can do it even if you are
completely out of Power.
• Dragon Descending → if you wait until the perfect moment, you might not get its benefits –
seize the day.
A. Thwarting the Opener of the Way
Opener of the Way’s monsters are expensive, so he tries to promote them rather than summon. If you
can kill a monster in each battle, it becomes a losing proposition for him. He is also restricted by his
need to share territories to earn spellbooks. Turn this to your advantage by setting up traps – areas
where you can counter with overwhelming force.
B. Opener of the Way: Epilogue
“At first we thought it was a disease. We even tried to treat it. People, seemingly at random, developed
disgusting deformities. But those people couldn’t be treated. They didn’t want to be treated. They lashed
out and, in their anger, became more and more monstrous. In the end, fire came from the skies,
destroying cities, farmland, countryside. Finally, It appeared. It was bigger than human words and seen
all around the world, by everyone at the same time. Impossible? That word is now useless. We pretend to
hope it won’t find us, but hiding hasn’t worked yet. No, it simply hasn’t gotten around to all of us.”
- David Mendiola
IV. FAQ

Q. How does Key and the Gate Work?
A. Opener gets 2 Power for Yog-Sothoth during Gather Power. He also gets 1 Doom point for having Yog-
Sothoth on the map during the Doom Phase. If he performs a Ritual of Annihilation, he gets a point for
Yog-Sothoth as a Gate (plus of course an Elder Token for Yog-Sothoth as a Great Old One).
As a Gate, Yog-Sothoth can always summon monsters at his location. Unlike other Gates, he can
co-exist with a normal Gate, plus he is never “abandoned”. Cultists do not Control him nor can they
“ride” him. He cannot be moved with The Beyond One as if he were a Gate.

Q. How does Key and the Gate Work on the Dreamlands map?
A. Yog-Sothoth counts as a controlled Gate in a Citadel Area (even if Zoogs are present!). Besides giving
him a slight advantage on the surface of the Dreamlands, this means that two players could control a
Gate at a single Citadel Area. During the Doom phase, if Yog-Sothoth is in the Citadel Area that the Bhole
attacks, he is destroyed along with the normal Gate if there is one.

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Q. How does Key and the Gate Work on the Primeval map?
A. If playing on the Primeval Earth map, Yog-Sothoth is never “occupied” by a Glacier.

Q. How does Key and the Gate Work on the Yuggoth map?
A. He can only control the Slime Sea Overlook if there is not already a controlled gate present (the controlled Gate takes precedence if both are present). He can use the Laboratory Surgery ability without controlling the Gate (and if there is also a controlled Gate there, that player can also use the Surgery ability). He gets the +1 Power when he is at the Green Pyramid; his presence may awaken the Watcher even if there is not a controlled Gate there.

Q. Does Yog-Sothoth provide Power to Cthulhu via Y’ha Nthlei if he is in an Ocean?
A. Yes, because Yog-Sothoth is an enemy-controlled Gate in the Ocean!

Q. If Yog-Sothoth is in the Area where Ithaqua is Awakened, do you have to replace Yog-Sothoth (as the Gate) with Ithaqua?
A. If Yog-Sothoth is the ONLY Gate in the Area, then yes. If there is another available Gate, then you must replace THAT Gate with Ithaqua instead.

Q. Can I use Beyond-One to move a Gate to an Area containing Yog-Sothoth, since he is, after all, a Gate as well?
A. Despite this fact, yes you can Beyond-One to Yog-Sothoth’s Area.

Q. Do enemy Great Old Ones still cancel Beyond-One if the gate in question is not controlled by their Faction?
A. yes.

Q. If an Opener of the Way unit in an Area is turned invisible by a Flying Polyp, does it count as “participating in a Combat” for the purpose of getting promoted by The Million Favored Ones?
A. No. The Invisibility spellbook states that the Unit “takes no part in the rest of the Battle”. This includes post-battle effects.

Q. If I have a Mutant and an Abomination eligible to promote via The Million Favored Ones, but I do not have an Abomination figure in my pool, can I first promote the Abomination, then the Mutant (now that an Abomination figure has returned to the Pool)?
A. Yes. You can cycle units through your Pool in this way to promote them.

Q. If I promote a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth into 2 or more Mutants via The Million Favored Ones, and that Spawn was Pained in the Battle, are all of his Mutant “progeny” Pained?
A. Million Favored Ones happens after the Pains and Kills are inflicted, so the Spawn first retreats into a neighboring Area, THEN shatters into multiple Mutants.

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This also means that if a Spawn is eliminated by a Pain result because it was surrounded by its opponent, you do not get the Mutants.

Q. How do Battle abilities interact with Dread Curse of Azathoth?
A. Dread Curse is not considered a Battle, despite the fact that Combat dice are rolled. It cannot be combined with Channel Power or any other Pre-Battle, Battle, or Post-Battle effects (such as Regeneration, Necrophagy or even Madness).

Q. Can I use Channel Power more than once in the same Battle?
A. Yes. You can keep re-rolling misses (rolls of 1, 2 or 3), paying 1 Power per re-roll, until you run out of Power or all the dice are hits.

Q. Do you select the targets of Dread Curse of Azathoth?
A. The victim selects the targets; you just choose which results apply to which faction. Thus, if you rolled a Kill and 2 Pains, you could apply the Kill and a Pain to one faction, and the remaining Pain to another.

Q. Vis-a-vis Dread Curse of Azathoth, where do Pained units retreat?
A. After the victim selects which units are Pained, you select which adjacent Area each unit retreats to, including Areas containing Opener of the Way units.

Q. Can the Dread Curse of Azathoth be used to attack the Units that are not Controlled by any Faction, such as Zoogs on the Dreamlands Surface Map, or Abhoth’s Filth tokens after Abhoth has been Killed?
A. No, because that Spellbook requires you to apply the Combat results to particular Factions. In the case of, Abhoth, once he is back in play, the Filth tokens may be targeted, but the Zoogs are never under the control of a particular Faction, so they can never be targeted.

Q. Does They Break Through permit you to summon a Monster at an abandoned Gate?
A. Yes. With this spellbook, you can summon a Monster at any Gate on the map.

Q. Can I use Dragon Ascending even if I am out of Power?
A. Yes, because it is not an Action – it is simply an effect that you can apply “at any time”.

Q. If I use Dragon Ascending during Gather Power, who becomes the First Player?
A. You will be tied for most Power with another Player, and so whoever was First Player in the previous turn will choose.

Q. To Awaken an independent Great Old One, you need a controlled Gate & your own Great Old One. Does Yog-Sothoth, by himself, fulfill both these requirements?
A. No, because Yog-Sothoth is not, technically, a “controlled” Gate.

Q. Chaugnar Faugn’s Miri Nigri ability gives gates 3 Combat dice. Does this apply to Yog-Sothoth?

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Copyright © Sandy Petersen 2014
A. Of course! For example, if there are 5 enemy Great Old Ones on the map and Opener controlled Chaugnar Faugn, then Yog-Sothoth’s Combat would be 13 (10 + 3). However, if Opener also Controlled a normal Gate in the same Area as Yog-Sothoth, you would only add +3 to your Combat in that Area, you would not add +6. The ability reads “in an Area” which implies that you only get the Combat bonus once per Area, rather than once per Gate.

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