Cthulhu Wars: Shaggai Map Expansion
Cthulhu Wars: Shaggai Map Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 6 Worms of Ghroth (figures)
- 15 Eradication Markers & Loyalty Card (see Eradicators below)
- 5 Worm Degradation Dice
- 5 Shaggai Hint Cards
- 2 Shaggai Map Boards, printed on both sides
Transcription note: the Shaggai Hint Cards are shown in the source only as a photograph of a German-language card. Their printed text is too blurred at the source resolution to transcribe faithfully, and the rulebook does not restate it in English. The hint card rules are therefore not reproduced here.
Eradicators
The Eradicators have been provided with special, optional rules for use by experienced players. To use these rules, you'll need the 15 plastic Eradication markers from the Shaggai Map. Note: do not use these rules in any games that take place on the Shaggai Map. Petersen Games does NOT recommend using the Eradicators in every game.
Transcription note: the Eradicators Loyalty Card is printed as a small image. Its heading and body text are transcribed below. The parenthetical timing label after each ability name and the two short coloured labels beneath the setup line are not legible at the source resolution and are omitted.
Eradicators
Note: In a Game with the Eradicators, Windwalker, Opener of the Way, Tcho-Tcho and the Ancients must place their Glyph tokens in their Start Area.
Pay 2 Doom to take the Loyalty Card, then place 1 Eradicator into each player's Start Area.
Anti-Eradicators
Eradicators are not Units. They cannot Move, nor do they participate in Battle. They cannot be Eliminated or affected by any abilities or Spellbooks. Once placed, they are permanent.
Overreach
Each player gains 1 Power for each Gate he Controls that shares an Area with an Eradicator but must choose and Eliminate 1 of his own Units from each of those Areas. The Eradicators' controller instead gains 2 Power for each of his Gates that shares an Area with an Eradicator, but must still Eliminate one of his own Units in each such Area.
Annihilate
Starting with the first player, each player in turn places 1 Eradicator on the Map into any Area that does not already have an Eradicator. Once all 15 Eradicators are in play, ignore this ability.
Set Up and Map Basics
Millennia ago, the fabled world of Shaggai was destroyed. This Map represents the struggles and events surrounding that disaster, in which entities of cosmic power feasted on the catastrophe while seeking to avoid their own oblivion.
Set up the Map in the same way you would with the Cthulhu Wars Earth Map. The oceans are organized in a single band around Shaggai's equator and all have the words "Ocean Belt" in their titles.
The First Player places any one Worm of Ghroth figure into the Area labeled "The Worm that Gnaws in the Night". After all other Doom Phase events:
Worms & Eradication
Degrade Worms: Roll one Worm Degradation die for each player. Each Worm has a number on its base; each Worm whose number corresponds to a rolled result is removed from the Map & replaced with an Eradication token. If no Worm matches any rolled result, no Eradication Markers are placed. For example, in the first Doom Phase of a 4-player game, four dice would be rolled. If the starting Worm has a 3 on its base and one or more dice turned up as "3," that Worm would be Eradicated.
In each newly-Eradicated Area:
I. Remove any Gate, Cathedral, or other game marker (such as the Ice Age Marker). If a removed Gate was Controlled by a player, that player earns 1 Elder Sign. A removed Cathedral provides 1 Doom to the Ancients' player.
II. Eliminate all Units. Those Units' owners receive 1 Power for each of their Units so Eliminated. Each Faction Great Old One that is Eliminated also provides its owner with 1 Elder Sign. (Since Yog-Sothoth counts as a Gate, he provides 1 Power and 2 Elder Signs if Eliminated).
Place New Worms: Beginning with the Starting Player, each player places one Worm either adjacent to the Worm that Gnaws in the Night Area, or adjacent to any already-Eradicated Area. Only one Worm may be placed in an Area. If there are no more Worms or legal Areas by the time this segment gets around to a given player, that player and any after him do not place any Worms.
Eradication Marker Effects
Once an Eradication Marker has been placed in an Area, no Units or gameplay pieces may be Moved or placed into that Area. Such Areas are completely gone. Spellbooks and abilities that involuntarily Move enemy Units may not Move (or Retreat, etc.) them into Eradicated Areas.
Moving Through Eradication
If you have Units adjacent to an Eradicated Area, you may Move through that Area, in effect "skipping over it" to another Area adjacent to it. However, one of the Units making the Move is Eliminated when you do this (so don't Move a single Unit over an Eradicated Area!). You can Move any number of Units over any number of Eradicated Areas, and from multiple Areas, and still lose only 1 Unit in total for that entire Move Action.
Movement-like abilities and Spellbooks which let you relocate without passing through Areas do not cause you to lose a Unit. Thus, Submerge or Avatar do not cost a Unit to use, even if travel originates in an Area surrounded by Eradication tokens. However, Move-like abilities which do not "teleport" (such as Screaming Dead) do force the user to Eliminate a Unit.
Units cannot be Retreated into or through Eradicated Areas. If Units cannot be retreated, then one Unit is Eliminated as per the normal Battle rule.
The World's End (fewer than 2 Areas per player)
It is possible for a Shaggai game to reach the point that the world is basically falling apart, making it difficult to win. If the total of non-Eradicated Areas ever reaches fewer than 2 per player (e.g., less than 6 Areas in a 3 player game), then the game immediately ends and the player with the most Doom wins, as long as he also has all 6 Spellbooks.
If the game ends, and no player has all 6 Spellbooks, then no one wins. Shaggai's final catastrophe ruins it for everyone.
Example Maps
The four example Map pictures in the source are not reproduced. Their captions and explanatory text follow.
Map 1
It is a 3-player game, and The Worm that Gnaws, Haddathic Residue, and the Ocean Belt: Orange have all been Eradicated.
Map 2
Windwalker wants to Move his army from the Lower Pole to the Ocean Belt: Red (using Arctic Wind). He picks up his Army, pays 1 Power for movement, and skips over both Eradicated Areas in his way, landing in the Ocean Belt: Red.
Map 3
Because Windwalker had to skip over an Eradicated Area (actually two, in this case) he must lose a Unit en route, and so selects a Wendigo to be Eliminated.
Map 4
Windwalker also had a Gnoph-Keh in the City of Doom. He could have Moved it for 1 more Power and landed it in the Ocean Belt: Yellow. He doesn't need to lose that particular Unit, because it is all part of the same Move Action, and he already Eliminated a Unit for this Move. This is true even though the City of Doom Unit did not join up with his main army. Note that even if the City of Doom Unit were to Move across a completely different Eradicated Area, he would still only lose 1 Unit for his entire Move (of course, it could be the City of Doom Unit, in which case his main army moving from the Lower Pole wouldn't lose anything).
Worm Effects
The Worms of Ghroth
Aside from being replaced by Eradication Markers (and effects!) at the end of the Doom Phase, the Worms by themselves do nothing. They are merely harbingers of a possible Eradication. The Worms cannot be Battled, Eliminated, or otherwise interacted with in any way.
The Cosmic Power
A player Controlling a Gate in an Area that contains a Worm can tap into the Cosmic Power. As an Action, you can place any Spellbook (including those of the Independent Great Old Ones) simply by spending 6 Power instead of meeting that Spellbook's requirement. Thanks to the Cosmic Power, you need never fear Eradication depriving you of a potential Spellbook. It's usually cheaper to earn Spellbooks the old fashioned way, though.
In addition, when you Control a Gate in an Area with a Worm, you may bypass Area restrictions on Awakening or Summoning your Units by paying 2 additional Power (all other Awakening or Summoning requirements must still be met).
Example: Cthulhu need not be Awakened to the Area with his Glyph, as long as you pay 2 additional Power and Control a Gate in a Worm's Area.
You need not actually Awaken Cthulhu to the Area with your Gate and the Worm; he can be placed in ANY Area!
By Controlling a Gate in a Worm's Area, the Cosmic Power also allows the Ancients' Cathedrals to be placed similarly. For example, you can Create a second Cathedral in an Area with [chevron glyph] by paying 2 extra Power. This also means the Ancients can earn Spellbooks via substitution. If the Ancients have not yet earned the Spellbook requirement for placing a Cathedral in an Area with [ribbed glyph], they may need to use the Cosmic Power Action of spending 6 Power to attain it.
Transcription note: the two glyph icons in the sentence above are pictures in the source, not text. They are shown here in brackets by their appearance on the page.
Special Rule for Bubastis: Bubastis is allowed to use the "Pay 6 Power" rule but not the "Pay 2 Power" rule even though the Moon can't have a Worm. Cats are like that.
Shaggai Notes from the Base Rulebook
The following passages are the Shaggai-specific parts of the base Cthulhu Wars rulebook and its FAQ. The rest of those pages applies to every game and is not reproduced here.
Ancients Set Up (printed page 64)
Shaggai Map: The Ancients may not set up on the Worm That Gnaws in the Night Area (but who would want to?)
Note for the Shaggai Map (printed page 71)
Bubastis is allowed to use the "Pay 6 Power" rule even though the Moon can't have a Worm.
Worms of Ghroth (printed page 106)
The Worms of Ghroth miniatures are found in the Shaggai Map expansion (see page 161). Note: Worms of Ghroth cannot be used as Terrors if you are playing on the Shaggai Map.
Shaggai Map FAQ (printed pages 197–198)
Q. Does Crawling Chaos avoid losing a Unit with his Flight ability when "skipping" over Eradicated Areas?
A. No. He must lose a Unit to trace over such Areas, though skipping over an Eradicated Area doesn't count as Moving over an Area for Flight, so he could Move over three Areas if one of them were Eradicated.
Q. Does Yellow Sign get his Passion Power when his cultists are Eradicated?
A. Yes.
Q. Does Yog-Sothoth give Opener two Elder Signs if he is Eradicated?
A. Yes, because he is not only a faction Great Old One but also a Gate. You'd also get 1 Power, since he is a Unit.
Q. Can Windwalker use Cosmic Power to pay 8 Power and summon Ithaqua "on top of" Yog-Sothoth, thus killing the latter?
A. Only if Yog-Sothoth is the only Gate in the Area. Otherwise, Windwalker must destroy the normal Gate.
Q. Can a Worm of Groth be placed on the Bubastis Moon tile?
A. No, it is not considered adjacent to any Area except for Bubastis, and cats don't bring Worms home.
Q. How does the Bubastis faction fulfill the Spellbook requirement: "...a Cat is in every other faction's Start Area..." when starting Areas are destroyed?
A. Bubastis is allowed to use the "Pay 6 Power" rule but not the "Pay 2 Power" rule even though the Moon can't have a Worm. Cats are like that.
Q. Does a Retreat across a destroyed Area on the Shaggai Map also cost an Elimination to the Retreating Units?
A. You cannot Retreat across an Eradicated Area. If you cannot Retreat due to this, you lose a Unit as with any other blocked Pain result.
Q. Can Bubastis ignore Eradicated Areas for the "Be in all Start Areas" Spellbook requirement?
A. No. But She can use the "Pay 6 Power" rule.
Q. Can the Daemon Sultan's Chaos Gate move through a destroyed area with Animate Matter?
A. Yes, but the Controlling Unit is Eliminated.
Q. How does the Leng Tribe's Dark Rituals work when an enemy Faction's Start Area has been destroyed?
A. The Dark Rituals Spellbook works normally - but since no High Priest may move to an Eradicated area, factions whose Start Areas are gone are immune.