WI backed both the original Cthulhu Wars and the Cthulhu Wars: Onslaught 2 Kickstarters. The first RPG I ever played was 3rd Ed Call of Cthulhu and I was always fascinated by the macabre and alarming tentacular beasties that were illustrated in the ‘Beastiary’ sections.
I bought some of the early lead CoC miniatures, some Investigators, cultists and gribblies and enjoyed painting them. (If I ever find hem, I’ll post pictures here0.
Nearly three decades later and I discover the Cthulhu Wars Kickstarter, chock full of superb 28mm Mythos beasties. Well, I didn’t have to think twice – I was in, for as much as I could afford. And not long after, I jumped in with both feet for the Onslaught 2 Kickstarter. Just over a week after that was delivered, (there was quite a delay, but it was well worth the wait) Petersen Games have launched their Cthulhu Wars Onslaught 3 Kickstarter, which is currently live. Go check it out, there’s some great new sculpts involved (especially the Masks of Nyarlathotep set).
But back to Onslaught 1 & 2. After receiving Onslaught 2 in the post, I began to wonder just how many Mythos beasties I now actually have. So, I put them all onto one table. You can see how that looks below..!
And I didn’t fit them all into the frame for that shot! Here’s a quick tour of some of the miniatures. Firstly some Cultists who’d better know what they’re doing as they’ve summoned Cthulhu to the power of three (or one ‘Buffthulu’ as the central sculpt has been dubbed by Cthulhu Wars fans; and two Cthulhus)
The Cthulhu on the right is a glow-in-the-dark version, a stretch goal from Onslaught 2. The ice blue dude to his right is Rhan-Tegoth; another glow-in-the-dark Great Old One (GOO)
Next up, the ‘King in Yellow’ faction. The fearsome-looking large dude in the middle is Hast- *cough* He-Who-Is-Not-To-Be-Named , with the glow-in-the=dark version to its right.
The ‘Crawling Chaos’ faction, with the superb sculpt of Nyarlathotep dominating the centre of the shot.
My favourite faction sculpts ‘The Opener of the Way’ aka Yog-Sothoth and his cohorts.
What’s all this Ia! then? Oh, it’s the ‘Black Goat’ faction, Shub-Nigguarth and her Dark Young. Tentacles-a-plenty and some superb sculpts. Very gribbly and the fully capturing the essence of the Mythos. Gibbering horror!
Tsathoggua doesn’t look too pleased to have been woken from his slumber by this High Priest..!
The Watcher of the Green Pyramid, with Slime Moulds to its left and right.
A Hound of Tindalos emerging from the right angles of an intermodal shipping container. This great sculpt, along with ‘Buffthulu’ above, were made available through artist Richard Luong’s Kickstarter which produced an artbook of his work from the first Cthulhu Wars kickstarter. As far as I can tell, Richard hasn’t been involved with Cthulhu Wars Onslaughts 2 and 3; and as good as the artwork is for both of these, I miss seeing his exceptional work. I encourage you to look at his Tentacles and Teeth Facebook page for more of his eerie and visually arresting art.
A gigantic Dhole, about to make a Cultist’s day very bad (albeit very brief)…
A selection of independent Great Old Ones, with Leng Spiders and Gugs to their right – none of which you’d care to meet in a dark alley. Or anywhere else. At all. Ever. No sir.
Abhoth, the so-called ‘Source of Uncleanliness’ -my absolute favourite miniature from all three Onslaughts to date. A giant, dripping brain sat astride a pustulant mass of flesh and slime with writhing tentacles, emerging from a bubbling lake of filth. Sanity check please!
A Star Vampire. you can’t really make it out in this photo, but there’s a screaming victim laying prone on its base, as the Vampire feeds… *shiver*
Bholes, Zoogs and Cultists. The dark red miniatures were collector’s editions from the 1st Onslaught Kickstarter. I was particularly glad of these, as it gave me some sculpts that I hadn’t otherwise been able to afford (as despite having bought a helluva lot of Cthulhu Wars products, I haven’t been able to buy everything). Cthulhu Wars is a premium product game, top quality stuff and the price points reflect this.
Edit 10th August 2017
Woo-Hoo! Just over a week ago I saw a post on the ‘Cthulhu Wars Cultists’ Facebook group (heartily recommended if you’re a fan of either Cthulhu Wars game or the Cthulhu Mythos in general and essential if you like both) saying that a UK retailer had some Cthulhu Wars items back in stock. I took a look immediately and was delighted to find that the three factions I didn’t have were available; ‘Windwalker ‘ (with Ithaqua and Rhan-Tegoth Ā as the GOOs), ‘Sleeper’ (Tsathoggua) and the Tcho Tcho (with Ubbo-Sathla). And all three were at a discounted price too!
Bank balance and overdraft be damned, I clicked and ordered all three sets. I hadn’t expected to be able to get any of these here in the UK outside of the Onslaught 3 kickstarter so I’m very pleased to have been able to do so. They arrived just the other day and I’m really looking forward to trying them out in a game (especially the Tcho Tchos) as the asymmetrical rules Sandy Petersen has created really give each faction their own unique flavour, style and strategies to discover and master.
First up, the Windwalker faction.
These look like they’re white in the photo above, but they are actually a very appropriate frosty blue colour.The Gnoph-Keh (the quite tall furry beasts with long, low-slung arms, one of which is on the far left of the photo above) never really appealed to me when I saw their concept art, or photos of the finished sculpts, but seeing them in the flesh/plastic I do like them – they’re suitably weird and yet menacing.
The Sleeper action with the mighty Tsathoggua bigature (he ain’t mini). This is one solid hunka plastic. Man, summoning this GOO has got to be so satisfying. “I summon Tsathoggua…” *puts bigature on table* Boom! (table shakes).
The Formless Spawn are another great sculpt- oozing tentacular toothy gribblies. And the Wizards? What the what!? These guys are just plain odd. It’s a cape, no it’s wings! How many legs has he got, they’re not even human-shaped and Ye Gods what the hell is he pulling apart and proudly waving at us..?!? Ewww!
Just look how pleasssed the Sssnakeman on the left of this shot is to sssee you. Rubbing his little handsss with glee.
Last and by no means least, the Tcho Tcho faction. The Tcho Tcho have always creeped me out, with their almost-human-but-not-quite vibe. This faction is different from all the others in that their GOO is not worshipped by them, it’s their slave. This faction has its own unique sculpts for the Cultists, setting them apart nicely from the other factions.
Unique Cultist sculpts for each faction are being introduced as part of the Onslaught 3 kickstarter; a completely unnecessary but utterly cool development.
The Tcho Tcho have fewer monster types than the other factions. They just have the Proto-Shoggoths to utilise, but what great beasts these are. Take a look at the concept art first (which I think is by Kent Hamilton, my apologies if I have this wrong).
You can clearly see in the illustration that the Proto-Shoggoth is erupting from a human disguise and the shedded skin is ripping and crumpling away . Reminds me of something from one of my all-time favourite movies – John Carpenter’s The Thing.
And here’s the finished sculpt in all its toothy glory. Smile for the camera! Cheese!!!
Blimey, I have got a LOT of painting to do, but it’s going to be fun!
Thanks for reading! š
The Other One's Vault of the Undead 
Hey,
We love this!
If you email me I’d like to possibly feature this in one of our CW O3 updates….
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