What's in the box of the Great Old Ones?
"Box of the Great Old Ones" points to two different things at Petersen Games. Most often it means the Cthulhu Wars (O4 Edition) core box, which ships with 72 miniatures including 5 colossal Great Old Ones. Some shoppers use the same phrase for the separate Great Old One Pack expansions that add more entities after you own the base game. This guide covers both.
Cthulhu Wars is a big box by design. Petersen Games builds it as a centerpiece game first and an expandable system second, so the core set alone is heavier and denser than most strategy games on a shelf. Here's exactly what you get when you crack the shrink wrap.
What comes in the Cthulhu Wars O4 core box?
The core box ($249.00) is built around 72 detailed 28mm miniatures, a full-color mounted game board, and everything four players need to start a match the same night it arrives. Nothing about setup requires a separate purchase.
- 72 detailed 28mm miniatures, including 5 colossal Great Old Ones plus the cultist and monster figures that fill out each faction's forces.
- A full-color mounted game board showing Earth, divided into the regions factions fight over.
- Custom dice for combat and power resolution.
- A full-color rulebook covering setup, turn structure, and faction-specific rules.
- Player aid cards for each faction, so you're not flipping through the rulebook mid-turn.
- 4 faction spellbooks, one for each core faction. Each spellbook lists the unique tasks that faction needs to complete to reach its full power.
That's everything for 2 to 4 players, expandable to 8 once you add faction expansions. No expansion is required to play a full game the day it lands on your table.
Which Great Old Ones are in the core box?
Four of the five colossal Great Old Ones anchor the four playable factions: Great Cthulhu leads the oceanic dominance faction, Crawling Chaos is led by Nyarlathotep's manipulation-focused forces, Black Goat fields the fertility cult of Shub-Niggurath, and Yellow Sign spreads madness under Hastur. Yellow Sign ships in the core box; it isn't an expansion faction. Petersen Games' own product listing counts 5 colossal Great Old Ones total in the box but doesn't break the fifth figure out by name beyond that headline count, so we won't guess at it here.
What does "box of the Great Old Ones" mean if you already own the core game?
Once you have the base game, the phrase usually points somewhere else: the four Great Old One Pack expansions. Each pack adds new colossal Great Old One figures and their spellbooks to a game you already own, and every entity in every pack can be recruited by any faction across the whole expansion ecosystem.
- Great Old One Pack 1 ($39.99), 5 entities: Abhoth, Chaugnar Faugn, Cthugha, Mother Hydra, and Yig.
- Great Old One Pack 2 ($34.99), 4 entities: Atlach-Nacha, Bokrug, Father Dagon, and Ghatanothoa.
- Great Old One Pack 3 (Gobogeg) ($14.99), 1 entity: Gobogeg, an original creation designed for Cthulhu Wars rather than pulled from the classic Lovecraft mythos.
- Great Old One Pack 4 ($29.99), 3 entities: Byatis, Nyogtha, and Tulzscha.
Each pack is sold separately and requires the O4 core box to play. If you're weighing which pack to buy first, that's a longer question with real trade-offs by price-per-entity and table variety. We break that comparison down in a separate post: Which Cthulhu Wars Great Old One Pack Should You Buy First?
Why does the box feel this dense?
Cthulhu Wars leans into cosmic horror pulled from the Cthulhu Mythos, the shared fictional universe H. P. Lovecraft originated and other writers expanded over the decades that followed.[1] Petersen Games doesn't own that mythos; nobody does. What the studio owns is its own execution of it: the sculpts, the faction mechanics, the specific asymmetric design that makes Great Cthulhu play nothing like Nyarlathotep's cult. That's the part you're actually paying for in the box.
The component count reflects that ambition. BoardGameGeek lists Cthulhu Wars among its tracked strategy titles with detailed component and faction data logged by the community over a decade of play.[2] Board game coverage site Dicebreaker has also profiled the line as part of its ongoing games database, a useful cross-reference if you want a second read on the faction lineup before you buy.[3]
How many players fit around the table, and how long does a game run?
Four is the built-in ceiling out of the core box, two is the floor. Add faction expansions and that ceiling stretches to 8 players, which is unusual for a strategy game this dense. Petersen Games' own product page doesn't publish an official play time, so don't take a specific runtime as gospel from the store listing. Community reporting on BoardGameGeek clusters most games around 90 to 120 minutes, though that varies with player count and how many factions are in play.
Setup itself moves fast once you know the board. Sort miniatures by faction, seat 2 to 4 players, hand out spellbooks, and you're rolling dice within about ten minutes of opening the box for the first time.
Ready to see the box for yourself?
The core box is the entry point for everything else Petersen Games builds around Cthulhu Wars, from Great Old One Packs to faction expansions to the wider collectible ecosystem. Browse the full Cthulhu Wars collection to see the O4 core box alongside every expansion currently available, or go straight to the Cthulhu Wars (O4 Edition) product page for the full component list and current price.
In-stock orders ship within 48 hours (2 business days). US orders move via USPS Ground Advantage, typically 2 to 5 business days in transit; Canada ships DHL Ground, typically 3 to 7 business days in transit. Exact rates calculate at checkout based on destination and weight.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's in the Cthulhu Wars O4 core box?
The core box ($249.00) ships with 72 detailed 28mm miniatures, including 5 colossal Great Old Ones, a full-color mounted board showing Earth, custom dice, a full-color rulebook, player aid cards, and 4 faction spellbooks, one per core faction. It supports 2 to 4 players out of the box and expands to 8 with additional faction expansions.
What does "box of the great old ones" mean in Cthulhu Wars?
Shoppers use the phrase two ways. Some mean the Cthulhu Wars core box itself, since it's the box that ships with the game's Great Old Ones. Others use it as shorthand for the separate Great Old One Pack expansions (Packs 1 through 4), which each add more Great Old One miniatures and spellbooks to an existing game.
Can Great Old Ones from the expansion packs be used by any faction?
Yes. Every Great Old One in every Great Old One Pack can be recruited by any faction in Cthulhu Wars, including expansion factions beyond the four core ones. That cross-faction design is what makes the packs useful regardless of which faction expansions your table owns.
Do I need the core box before buying Great Old One Pack expansions?
Yes. The Great Old One Packs are add-ons that require Cthulhu Wars (O4 Edition) to play. Once you own the core box, every pack snaps in without edition conflicts.
How many players does Cthulhu Wars support?
The core box supports 2 to 4 players. With faction expansions added, the game scales up to 8 players. Petersen Games' product listing doesn't publish an official play time, though BoardGameGeek lists community-reported sessions running roughly 90 to 120 minutes.
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