Modiphius is planning to release Cohors Cthulhu: Tactics, a solo and co-op skirmish wargame where you lead heroes and soldiers from the Ancient Roman world to battle against the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos, very soon. As a preview, Modiphius released a 32-page pdf called Cohors Cthulhu: Tactics Prologue on 5/10/24, which introduces the main mechanics of the wargame in three scenarios of increasing complexity. Below I will highlight some of the more unique and interesting mechanics of the wargame preview.
The first scenario is extremely basic with many common features of a wargame that uses d6s, including: rolling to hit, rolling saves, and charging. Where it differs is that the Player's unit (not Heroes) have Fear dice.
In a single Round there are three Phases: Action, Mythos and End. The Player activates (carries out 2 actions per Action phase per unit) and then the creatures of the Mythos activate in the Action Phase. A point of strategy is that the Hero unit can merge with the Legionaries unit to bolster them, but then you have one unit to carry out an action rather than two.
If the Mythos monsters Charge in the Action phase, the defending Romans (Player's unit) can choose a Combat Response: Counter-Attack, Defend or Hold. Counter-Attack and Defend will increase your Fear dice number by 2 or 1, respectively; and that allows the unit to counter-attack or increase their Saves by 1, respectively.
In the second and third scenarios the function of the Fear dice is revealed. Fear dice simultaneously serves as a measure of morale for the non-Hero unit, and as a resource the player can use to get more actions out of the unit at the risk of increasing the Fear value and having models in the unit Flee.
The value of the Fear dice varies between 1 and 6. If the unit’s Fear dice value is 6 then the unit is said to be Wavering. The only Action a Wavering unit can execute is Bolster, which reduces the value of the Fear dice by 1.
The value of the Fear dice is also used in an action economy manner. If a Player’s unit is within Leadership Range of Marius (the Ld value of 5” on Marius’ profile), and within 8” of a Mythos unit that has finished resolving an Action; once per turn the Player’s unit may make a Unit Reaction. Execution of a Unit Reaction will increase the Player’s unit’s Fear dice value by 2, and can only be carried out if the resulting value of the Fear dice is not above 6. Therefore, a Player’s unit cannot take a Unit Reaction if its Fear dice is 5 or 6.
Unit Reactions can be: making a Move Action, making a Charge Action targeting the triggering Mythos unit, or a Loose Action (ranged action) targeting the triggering Mythos unit.
In addition to Unit Reaction, in a Player’s Action phase a Soldier unit may increase their Fear dice value by 1 to take a third Action. There is still a hard cap of two identical actions taken by a single unit per Action turn, so you can’t take three Move Actions for example. Mastering management of your unit’s Fear values to get extra actions is one of the paths to victory for your plucky Romans.
Panic is a mechanism by which Mythos units can frighten your troops, possibly increasing their Fear dice value above 6, which subsequently causes individual models in your unit to Flee the battlefield. Panic occurs in the Mythos Phase.
Panic works in the following manner. If a Mythos unit is close to a Player’s unit (within 4”) then the Mythos unit causes Panic 1. A Mythos unit may cause 2 Panic if the Mythos unit has at least twice as many models as the Player’s unit it is causing Panic in.
Panic does not automatically convert to Fear. The Player’s units have a Grit score. Roll a number of d6 equal to the Panic value and see how many dice are less than the Player’s unit’s Grit score. The number of Panic dice rolled under a Player’s Grit score are added to the Player’s unit’s Fear dice value. For each point in excess of 6 Fear a Player’s unit suffers, one model in the Player’s unit Flees the battle. The Panic value can be reduced by 1 if the Player’s unit is in the Close Order formation. A disciplined Roman formation reduces Panic.
Overall, I like the Fear rules because it more interesting and creative than just a mechanic that primarily decreases the sanity of your units over time, leaving them like burnt out candles at the end of the fight. A game that is strictly inspired by the Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green sanity mechanics could have simply made a direct copy of their sanity rules, but Cohors Cthulhu Tactics turned Fear into a resource you manage to give your units strategic benefits in the wargame. That’s creative and cool.
Close Order is a buff to the Player’s Soldier units that allows for enhanced actions or new mechanics. Close Order can be acquired by a unit if it meets a few criteria. First the unit must be of three or more models that has not moved through rough terrain at the end of a Move Action. In addition, a Player’s models in the unit must be arranged base to base in a straight line to qualify for Close Order. So, be disciplined Romans, don’t go charging through those trees!
Close Order gives a unit a number of advantages. For the Roman Legionary unit, Close Order allows your men to lock shields, re-rolling Saves if you rolled a 1. Counter-Attacking while in Close Order allows you to do your damage first to the targeted Mythos unit rather than simultaneously, which can be a tremendous advantage. Also, making a Loose Action (throwing Pila) while in Close Order allows the Player to count hits twice against Mythos units when calculating whether the target unit is Staggered. The Roman Auxiliary Archer unit gains advantages as well to their actions if they are in Close Order. Also don’t forget that Soldier units in Close Order get a benefit to reducing Panic as described above.
The Staggered and Stalled debuffs for Mythos enemies are one of the mechanisms that the Roman player must exploit to ride to victory. Staggered means the Mythos unit loses one of its Actions next turn. Stalled simply means the Mythos unit has two Staggered tokens and must use both of its Actions next turn to remove the Stalled condition. The Player can apply a Staggered token by inflicting a number of Hits on a Mythos unit equal to the number of half of the models in the Mythos unit or more.
Given that Mythos units can potentially take extra actions in the Mythos Phase depending on what the Player rolls on the Threat Level, take two Actions on their turn during the Action phase normally, and can Press the Attack; the Player needs to lock down their enemy unit’s action economy, if the Player cannot preferably destroy outright the gribbly Mythos unit in a given turn.
The elements of solo play involve Mythos forces Spawning and accounting of the Threat die. The Threat die only applies in the Mythos Phase of the third scenario; and on average it escalates and makes things more challenging for the Player! Fun!
The Spawn Pool involves introducing Mythos units to the battlefield. As described on page 17 of the book the Player rolls 2d6 on the Spawn table and on average a Mythos unit will spawn. The higher the Player rolls on the Spawn table, the more dangerous the enemy is.
The Spawn table and Pool are also influenced by the Threat die. The Threat die is included in the third scenario because an inimical Place of Power is introduced to the battlefield. The Threat die value increases by 1 (or 2 if the Place of Power has 6 Magic Points) every Mythos Phase. Also in each Mythos Phase, the Player must roll on the Threat table, in which results generally escalate the Mythos danger as the Threat value increases. When the Threat level reaches 6, a very bad thing occurs in which a Chosen of Mormo (an elite and dangerous Mythos unit) appears on the battlefield.
The Threat die value also increases the value of the 2d6 roll on the Spawn table every turn. Thus, as time goes on, there is a greater chance of the more nasty Mythos gribblies Spawning and attacking the Player’s troops.
The Threat table can also increase the number of Magic Points in the Place of Power, which when the Place of Power reaches a Magic Point value of 6, causes the Threat die value to accumulate faster.
All in all, the 32-page pdf Prologue is well referenced, designed to be a clear read, and provides three scenarios of which the latter two are interesting tactically. The first scenario is a very basic introduction to wargames and the essentials of the system. The last scenario reads like it is very challenging, in that the Romans must survive for 7 turns in the face of increasingly accelerated Mythos threats.
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