How to Play Cthulhu Wars: The Sleeper Expansion

Game Objective

The The Sleeper faction isn't particularly interested in combat. Instead, its units debilitate enemies outside of battle. It's not the fastest faction to take the lead, but it can be lethally petty. The overall goal is to accumulate power and use the faction's abilities to outmaneuver opponents, especially in the late game when the accumulation of abilities becomes very effective.

Preparation (Setup)

To set up the game with the The Sleeper expansion, follow these steps:

• Each player receives a Faction Card, 6 Spellbooks, and a Rulebook.
• The The Sleeper faction includes 18 figures (6 different types, all orange):
  • 1 Power marker
  • 1 Doom marker
  • 6 Acolyte Cultists
  • 4 Formless Spawn
  • 3 Serpent Men
  • 2 Wizards
  • 1 Great Old One (Tsathoggua)
• Place 6 Acolyte Cultists and a controlled Gate in the Area containing the Sleeper Glyph (on Earth, N’Kai in North America).

Game Flow

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Actions and How to Play

The The Sleeper faction focuses on debilitating enemies and accumulating power. Here are some of its abilities and how to use them:

• Burrow: This ability is spectacularly useful. Combined with Lethargy, it allows for significant Power savings.
• Cursed Slumber: Offers a smaller map footprint. Canceling this ability allows you to teleport a Gate anywhere on the map. You can then use Cursed Slumber on a new Gate from your base and set up a "Gate factory." A Gate and Cultist under Cursed Slumber are immune to enemy abilities. The Cultist in a Cursed Slumber Gate can be transformed into a Brain Cylinder on the Yuggoth map.
• Energy Nexus: This spellbook has many ramifications and possibilities. One possibility is to use Cursed Slumber to move a threatened Gate off the map. An Action must originate in the Battle Area when using Energy Nexus. This means that the Action, if linked to map Areas, must start there. For example, you can only use it to Move OUT of the Area (Burrow would apply), and not into it. You could only use Ancient Sorcery if the Serpent Man came from that Area. You could only Recruit, Summon, or Capture a Cultist or Monster in that Area. In an unusual situation, such as when using Mother Hydra's Zygote Action, at least one Recruited Cultist must be placed in that Area. You can perform the Battle action with Energy Nexus, resulting in an immediate Battle where you are the attacker, followed by the already declared Battle between the remaining units. You can only do two Battles in a row. You can do any action available to your faction with Energy Nexus, although some are useless, like Lethargy. You can use Energy Nexus even if the Battle in the Area has not been declared against you (or by you).
• Ancient Sorcery: Allows you to copy abilities from other factions. For example, copying Cthulhu's faction ability to replace a dead Tsathoggua for a low cost (and gain an Elder Sign). If Ancient Sorcery affects Great Cthulhu, The Sleeper can re-Awaken Tsathoggua for only 4 Power (and gains 1 Elder Sign when Awakening any Great Old One!). If a Serpent Man uses Ancient Sorcery on Crawling Chaos, giving The Sleeper the Flight ability, this can be combined with the Burrow spellbook, allowing The Sleeper's units to fly while burrowing.
• Demand Sacrifice: When opponents face Tsathoggua, they will spend one Doom point. Otherwise, you can act with impunity. This ability only comes into play during Combat dice rolls and does not affect spellbooks or abilities that eliminate units (such as Black Goat’s Ghroth, Cthulhu’s Dreams or Devour, Crawling Chaos’s Abduct, Windwalker’s Berserkergang, etc.). Demand Sacrifice applies to all Battles against Sleeper units, as long as Tsathoggua is in play, even if he is not personally involved in the Battle.
• Capture Monster: The advantages are clear, even for inexperienced players.
• Lethargy: You cannot use Lethargy if no one else is active.
• Tsathoggua’s Combat: Tsathoggua's Combat is equal to the enemy's Power at the moment the Battle is declared. Power spent by the enemy faction during pre-Battle or Battle (or post-Battle) does not affect Tsathoggua's Combat dice. The Power spent to declare a Battle IS deducted from Tsathoggua's total Combat, as this occurs before the Battle.
• Death From Below: Allows you to summon Monsters. Ghast neutral Monsters count as 2-cost Monsters. If you choose to summon them, you will only receive one.

End Game and Scoring

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Tips for Winning

• Early in the game, try to build your Power base. Summon cheap Monsters in the first round to be able to start generating better ones via Death From Below. Do not disregard the usefulness of Cursed Slumber, especially early in the game.
• In the late game, the accumulation of abilities bears dark fruit for your enemies. With Tsathoggua on the map, you can spend Action after Action on Lethargy. If your enemies do not react, you will be the last player with Power remaining and will use it to move Tsathoggua (cheaply, using Burrow) to Capture Monsters. Even if Tsathoggua's Combat is low at the end of the turn, a couple of Formless Spawns allow you to inflict Kills. Demand Sacrifice either protects you from retribution or makes your opponent pay for it. If you move with a Wizard, you can use Energy Nexus to escape before any fight.
• To suppress The Sleeper, take actions that force him to spend Power and lose his end-of-turn advantage. For example, killing 2 Formless Spawn costs him 6 Power to restore. Killing Tsathoggua is always a good option. Without losing a Doom point, you can eliminate his cultists outside of Battle (using Dreams, Zingaya, or simply Capture). He usually doesn't have many Gates, and they are often poorly protected, so it's effective to attack his Gates, even if you can't kill him, but just "pain" him away.