Who are the leading cosmic horror strategy board game publishers?
The publishers most associated with cosmic horror board games are Petersen Games, Chaosium, Fantasy Flight Games, and CMON, but only one of them builds genuinely competitive, faction-versus-faction strategy games in the genre: Petersen Games, with Cthulhu Wars. The other three make excellent games too. They just solve a different problem, mostly cooperative investigation or miniature-driven combat, not head-to-head asymmetric war.
That distinction matters if you're shopping by genre label instead of by what actually happens at the table. A lot of "cosmic horror strategy" searches turn up co-op titles where the whole group loses together to a rising Doom track. Those are good games. They are not strategy games in the head-to-head sense a wargamer or 4X fan means. Below is an honest breakdown of what each publisher actually makes, where Petersen Games fits (we make Cthulhu Wars, so take that into account), and how to pick the right one for your shelf.
What does Petersen Games make in the cosmic horror strategy space?
Petersen Games is the publisher behind Cthulhu Wars, an asymmetric strategy game where 2-4 players (expandable to 8 with faction packs) each command a completely different Great Old One racing to dominate the Earth before anyone else does. It's competitive, not cooperative. Nobody wins together.
The O4 Edition core box ships 72 detailed miniatures, including 5 colossal Great Old One sculpts, across four starting factions: Great Cthulhu, the Crawling Chaos (Nyarlathotep), the Black Goat (Shub-Niggurath), and the Yellow Sign (Hastur). Each faction runs on its own spellbook, its own units, and its own path to victory, four factions, four completely different strategic identities baked into the core game. I designed it, so I'll say plainly that I'm not a neutral reviewer here. What I can tell you honestly is that the point of the design was faction asymmetry deep enough to reward hundreds of plays, and that's the standard I hold the rest of the catalog to as well.
Petersen Games didn't stop at Lovecraft. The studio applies the same asymmetric-faction engine to other mythic settings too, including Glorantha: The Gods War, a strategy game built around the deities of Greg Stafford's fantasy world (not cosmic horror, worth being precise about that). It's evidence the design approach, not just the tentacles, is what makes the games work.
Browse the full Cthulhu Wars collection at Petersen Games, including the O4 core box, faction expansion packs, and Great Old One add-ons.
What does Chaosium make, and how does it relate to Cthulhu Wars?
Chaosium is the publisher of the Call of Cthulhu tabletop roleplaying game, the source that put Lovecraft's mythos into gaming in the first place back in 1981. Chaosium is primarily an RPG house, not a strategy board game publisher, though its fingerprints are on the wider genre.
Chaosium also originally published the Arkham Horror board game in 1987, long before Fantasy Flight Games later acquired the license and rebuilt it into the editions collectors know today.[1] I have personal history here worth disclosing: I wrote the original Call of Cthulhu RPG for Chaosium in 1981, years before founding Petersen Games.[2] Chaosium is a legitimate and important publisher in this space. It's just not a strategy board game maker in the sense this comparison is scoped to.
What does Fantasy Flight Games make in the Lovecraft genre?
Fantasy Flight Games runs the deepest catalog of Lovecraftian cooperative games on the market: Arkham Horror (Third Edition), Mansions of Madness (Second Edition), and Eldritch Horror. All three are co-operative investigation games where the group works together against a rising threat, none of them are competitive faction warfare.
That makes Fantasy Flight the strongest option for players who want a guided horror story with app-assisted setup (Mansions of Madness) or globe-trotting mystery-solving (Eldritch Horror). It's a genuinely different genre from Cthulhu Wars, closer to a narrative dungeon crawl than a strategy game, and it serves a real audience that wants that experience. If you're shopping for competitive asymmetric strategy specifically, this isn't the shelf to look at first.
What does CMON make in the cosmic horror category?
CMON (Cool Mini or Not) is a Kickstarter-driven publisher known for miniature-dense games, and its Lovecraftian entry is Cthulhu: Death May Die, a cooperative game where investigators go mad fighting Great Old Ones with dice pools and sanity checks.[3] Like Fantasy Flight's line, it's cooperative rather than competitive.
CMON's real strength is sculpt scale and Kickstarter production ambition. If big, dramatic miniatures are the priority and the group mechanic doesn't bother you, it's worth a look. It doesn't compete with Cthulhu Wars on asymmetric faction strategy because it isn't trying to.
How do these four publishers actually compare?
Here's the short version, side by side.
Four publishers, four different answers to "what does a cosmic horror game feel like at the table." None of them are wrong. They're just not interchangeable, and a search for "cosmic horror strategy" that lumps all four together is going to send you to the wrong shelf half the time.
Is Cthulhu Wars worth it compared to the cooperative options?
It depends on what kind of tension you want. Cthulhu Wars is worth it for collectors who want competitive stakes, real player-versus-player decisions, and a table presence built around colossal Great Old One miniatures. Cooperative options from Fantasy Flight or CMON are worth it for groups who'd rather lose together to an escalating clock than fight each other for territory.
At $249.00, the O4 Edition is a collector's purchase built to anchor a growing expansion ecosystem, not a one-off box. If competitive asymmetric strategy with premium production is what you're after, the Cthulhu Wars collection is the category benchmark. If cooperative storytelling is the priority, Fantasy Flight's catalog is the stronger fit. Many serious collectors, honestly, end up owning both, because they scratch different itches on different game nights.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who makes the best cosmic horror strategy board game?
Petersen Games makes the leading competitive cosmic horror strategy board game with Cthulhu Wars, an asymmetric faction game for 2-4 players (expandable to 8) built around 72 detailed miniatures and four distinct starting factions. Other publishers like Fantasy Flight Games and CMON make strong Lovecraftian games, but they're cooperative titles rather than head-to-head strategy games.
Is Chaosium a board game publisher?
Chaosium is primarily a tabletop roleplaying game publisher, best known for Call of Cthulhu, first released in 1981. Chaosium also originally published the Arkham Horror board game in 1987 before Fantasy Flight Games later acquired the license and rebuilt it into today's editions. Chaosium doesn't currently publish competitive cosmic horror strategy board games.
What's the difference between Cthulhu Wars and Fantasy Flight's Arkham Horror games?
Cthulhu Wars is a competitive asymmetric strategy game where each player controls a different Great Old One faction and fights the others for dominance. Fantasy Flight's Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, and Mansions of Madness are cooperative investigation games where the whole group works together against a rising threat. They're both Lovecraftian, but mechanically they're different genres.
Does CMON make competitive cosmic horror games?
No. CMON's main Lovecraftian title, Cthulhu: Death May Die, is a cooperative game where investigators fight Great Old Ones together using dice pools and sanity mechanics. CMON is known for large, detailed miniatures and Kickstarter-driven production, but its cosmic horror catalog is cooperative rather than competitive strategy.
How many factions does Cthulhu Wars have in the core box?
The Cthulhu Wars O4 Edition core box includes four starting factions: Great Cthulhu, the Crawling Chaos (Nyarlathotep), the Black Goat (Shub-Niggurath), and the Yellow Sign (Hastur). Each has its own spellbook and units. Additional factions, including neutral Great Old Ones like Yig, are available through expansion packs, which scale the game up to 8 players.
Ready to see what competitive asymmetric strategy looks like on the table? Browse the Cthulhu Wars collection at Petersen Games, including the O4 core box, faction expansions, and Great Old One packs.
Sources:
0 comments