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Fate of the Elder Gods
30m - 90m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 13+
Meeple on Board Rating
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In Fate of the Elder Gods, players take on the ever-maddening role of cults trying to summon ancient evil and herald the fall of mankind! Each cult is in competition to be first to summon their god, but they all must also repel intrepid investigators working to seal off the gate to beyond with Elder signs. Gather arcane artifacts, cast powerful spells, embrace the Dark Gift of your Elder God, and be first to hasten doom…before it’s too late!
During the game, players use a variable hand of spell cards to do one of two things to aid their cult in their mission: Use the spell’s Astral Symbol to navigate the areas around Arkham on the unique Fate Clock board, or use the symbols in a location’s Astral Column to ready a spell. Readied spells can be cast at any time, but while in a cult’s Spell Reserve their primary Astral Symbol can aid in readying future spells, creating an engine for pumping out more potential power.
As cults travel to the six locations on the Fate Clock, they activate specific powerful abilities, such as gaining useful artifacts at The Museum or enabling their Elder God’s Dark Gift at The Ceremony. As cults send more and more cultists to a location, they may gain control there, adding even more powerful abilities. However, cults must be careful how they navigate Arkham as a location with lots of activity will attract pesky investigators. Tempt fate too many times and the investigators may raid your cult’s lodge, placing Elder Signs, and generally getting in the way of summoning your Elder God. Gain too many Elder Signs and it’s game over!
If any cult can manage to raise their Summon Track to 9 before the investigators save humanity, their Elder God awakens and they win! Of course, “win” is a relative term as it will certainly herald the end of the world — but that’s a small price to pay for eternal servitude to the Ancient Ones.
| Ages | 13+ |
|---|---|
| Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
| Play Time | 30m – 90m |
| Designer | Christopher Kirkman, Darrell Louder, Richard Launius |
| Mechanics | Area Control / Area Influence, Area Movement, Dice Rolling, Hand Management, Take That, Variable Player Powers, Worker Placement |
| Theme | Dice, Miniatures, Adventure, Horror, Mythology |
| Publisher | Greater Than Games |
FuzzyLlamaReviews
Fate of the Elder Gods is a very unique game. In this one YOU are controlling the cult attempting to summon the god you worship into the world! A nice twist from all the “trying to stop the cults” type of Lovecraft style games. Firstly this game can be played solo or with up to 4 people total. It does play a tad differently depending on number of players but honestly I like the variation. Makes the game feel fresh. To win you either must move a small wooden token all the way around this numbered cycle on your oversized god player card (which summons your god into the world) OR you must fill up opposing players numbered cycle with elder sign tokens (which seals the elder god away for all time). There are quite a few gods to choose from starting out and each god has a completely different special ability which keeps each play through fresh. Looking through them I can say that certain ones focus on certain aspects of the game such as curses or cult members and others focus more generally towards the game as a whole. Now of course these abilities are only a small portion of the game but they give you a nice basis on how you might want to play starting out. The game itself leans more heavily towards a worker placement style where you place your cult members in certain locations on the alter (the game board) and then reap the benefits of said placement. Of course it’s not quite as simple as that. You have a hand of minimum 3 spell cards which has a certain symbol on them. You can only move the “Fate piece” to a location that contains one of the symbols on the cards in your hand. Of course you draw a card at the end of your turn so you eventually always have the option to move anywhere on the board BUT your starting 3 cards really dictate how you start your game. However I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a bad thing as you just evolve your strategy and make whatever locations you CAN move to work for you. The instruction booklet is pretty well written and goes over most everything you need to know and the game comes with these handy dandy reference cards for each player that dictate the turn procedure, the icons in the game and what each location does for you when you move there. All that said, this game has a lot to remember. The board itself has a small written reference along the outside edges of each location so you can kinda see what the location does but starting out you will finding yourself going back to those handy reference cards multiple times. Actually during my first game in its entirety I had to reference those cards every single turn I took as I was afraid I was forgetting something. I imagine after 3 or 4 plays you will get it down easy peasy though. The game took about an hour and half to finish which was a good time. My only real gripe from our time spent was that both of us really didn’t know how to “win”. Like we knew we had to either seal away the other god or summon our own but we didn’t really know HOW to do that. There is one particular location on the game board that allows you to sacrifice cultists to gain points around your summoning circle so one player went for that route HOWEVER you have to move to a particular other spot on the board to get a card that allows you to move there and since they missed out on drawing THAT particular card multiple times……well that put them pretty far behind myself and I did end up winning the game. So there is a bit of luck involved as well, however as I play more and more I’m sure I will discover new ways to achieve victory. There is just a lot to take in starting out. Now on to my favorite part of these reviews…..the stuff I like! First off the component quality of the entire package is top notch! Very few games I come across are this well-crafted. The player board (the alter) is shaped like a hexagonal alter with each location around the edges and the abyss in the middle where you cultists go if sacrificed. The colors of the board are exquisite, the artwork is perfect and it even has the spot UV treatment which gives the board even more “pop”. As game boards go this one has been elevated into the ranks of one of my favorites. The minis the game comes with are all well done, not the most detailed I have ever seen but they are well made and solid. All the cards in the game including the elder god player mats have a nice linen finish and are of a good card stock which makes them feel of a higher quality to your hand. Again all the artwork is excellent. The dice are of a greenish color and look like they belong with the theme. Oh yeah! Almost forgot about the tokens, which are very thick and solid. The same goes for the beautiful game board, it has a real thickness to it that makes it feel very solid and well-made and it lies down perfectly flat on your table. I really just cannot say enough good things about the overall component quality of this game. The gameplay itself is fun although can get overwhelming at times with all the different things you can do on your turn but after a few playthroughs you will breeze through it. If you enjoy the Lovecraft theme then I would HIGHLY recommend this game. As far as worker placement style games goes it’s not the best but I feel like it holds its own in a very unique if something complicated way.
DonovanLoucks
This would've been a 5 if I hadn't created standees with icons to show what each spot on the altar did. Even with that improvement, it still doesn't feel like I'm running a cult, despite all the rules and mechanisms at work here. Although the game isn't that complex, it's too complex for a game that's so abstract.
alanbyrne
A Cthulhu area control game with nice artwork and minis. Wasn't particularly enjoyed by the family so moved on.