As you sit in your rocking chair, enjoying your evening tobacco and a glass of scotch, you hear a rumble in the distance. Faint as a thunderstorm, miles away. But strong enough to leave rings in the water puddle. In the horizon, a misty green light starts to ember. A feeling of dread overcomes you, as street lamps in the nearby city starts to flicker and blacken.
Once more, the minions of evil roam the streets, making sacrifices and corrupt the minds of the weak.
Once again, the Elder Gods have spoken.
Facts:
Developed Holly Verssen from Dan Verssen Games (DVG), designed by Ian Richard, aged 10+,
player count 1 – 4, playtime 30 – 90 min
Objective of the game is to hold back the forces of evil from gathering and awaken the ancient elder gods, who will enslave humanity and devour the world.
How to play:
The game is run by three phases each turn. First the summoning, then the combat followed by the Outcome phase. After completing the outcome phase, the next player starts their turn.
Phase I – Summoning
After having chosen the characters, the active player draws 4 cards from the “cult deck”, and depending on what cards is drawn does as follows:
- Minion, Horror and Gate cards is placed upon the appropriate board. (Horror card is placed face down though)
- Follower and item cards is placed next to the Cult deck, waiting for the purchase step.
Once the cult cards have been placed on the boards, the active player may use their XP coins to buy followers and or items. You may also choose to discard any of these cards, gaining 1 XP coin pr. Card.If one of the item cards is a cursed item, the active player must choose either:
- Pay the purchase price on the curse card
- Suffer the effects of the curse card.
The active player now checks for any Horrors that will awaken and suffer any sanity. (Paying XP coins matching the dice combo on the Horror card).
Phase II – Combat
The active player chooses one of the cult boards that he / she wants to attack. For instance, if the player chooses to attack the Cthulhu board, any attacks will go towards the enemies on this board and cannot be changed after the dice have been rolled.
From the start every player has two green dice and one red die. These simulate the players health and body. If desired, the player may buy spirit dice, at the cost of 1 XP coin per Dice. With a maximum of 3 per attack.
The way attacks work, is very simple
- The player rolls their attack dice.
- If desired, the player may pick any number of dice to reroll (except for dice showing a 1).
Now check if on the chosen board there are any awaken horrors. If so the player must attack these before designating any dice towards the Minions.
If attacking any Horror cards, the player must make “dice combos”. For instance, if attacking a Minor Horror, you may use two dice showing “2” as a combo, or one die showing “3” and another showing “4”. (Other rules differ if attacking Major and Unspeakable horrors – see rule book page 8 for more info).
If attacking any Minion cards, the active player can assign one or multiple dice to the card. Depending on the attack value on the given card.
The second to last thing to do doing the combat phase, is closing the gates. To close a gate, you need to destroy any Minion cards first, then the player buys the Seal Gate spell for 3 XP coins, and the gate has been closed.
Now based upon the actions of the active player, XP coins are calculated. You will find the information on the help sheet along with any information you will need doing gameplay.
Phase III – Outcome
That´s a short explanation of the first players turn, game continues until either the cult draw pile is empty or with players being eliminated, either by death or if any Elder God Board has 5 or more Minion cards at any given time, letting the cultist summon their Elder God. When the cult draw pile is empty, and there a 4 or fewer Minion cards on every Elder God board, and there are no awakened horror cards (if any game continues without drawing more cards), the players have defeated the cultist and saved not only their own lives but the entire earth.
My impressions of the game:
I must say that when I first saw this game, I wasn’t confident that this game was worth the money. But I must say I stand corrected!
If you have read any of H.P. Lovecraft’s works, you will appreciate how quickly you will feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies and dread every time you make a sanity check.
The art work, designed by Christian Quinot, is outstanding. The cards are of a quite fine quality, and though they feel a bit thin, they don’t bend easily. The cardboard could have been just a tiny bit thicker, but for all intent and purpose it works out fine, though the box seems a bit to big for the boards, so they tend to get a bump on the corners.
If you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft´s universe, I would strongly suggest that you would try this game out, as it is a strong contender in the Lovecraftian universe and a good alternative to Fantasy Flight´s Arkham Horror LCG or even Elder Signs. Don’t get me wrong, this game might not look the part, but this game is a challenge.
Though it is luck based, by drawing cards and rolling dice, it unites the unknown factor of luck with the player(s) skill of planning ahead and tears apart any signs of overconfidence that the player might have.
The rule book does a good job of explaining the rules, with loads for pictures and examples of play, all neatly edited into the different phases of the game. And as an added bonus, the last couple of pages is small stories set in the Lovecraftian universe. What´s not like about that?
Content:
- 108 full color cards
- 10 Cthulhu metal coins
- 4 full color cardboard Cult Boards
- 1 player help sheet
- And a full color rules booklet
Gallery:
Midnight Meeple 