What are the different types of Cthulhu Wars expansions?
Cthulhu Wars expansions split into four categories that behave differently at the table: faction expansion packs (new playable sides, $59.99 each), Great Old One packs (neutral colossal figures any faction can recruit), Duel expansions (content built for the standalone two-player Cthulhu Wars Duel line), and the Cosmic Terrors pack (a third unit class called Terrors). Knowing which is which keeps your buying decisions and your rules straight.
That's the short version. The rest of this guide walks through each category, what entity class it actually adds, and how the four fit together into one ecosystem built around the Cthulhu Wars O4 Edition base game.
What do faction expansion packs add?
A faction pack adds a whole new playable side. Each one comes with its own spellbook, cultist units, monsters, and a Great Old One (or, in one case, a neutral entity) that anchors it. The O4 core box already ships with four factions: Great Cthulhu, Crawling Chaos (Nyarlathotep), the Black Goat (Shub-Niggurath), and the Yellow Sign (Hastur, the King in Yellow). The Yellow Sign is core, not an expansion, a detail that trips up a lot of new buyers browsing the store.
Beyond the core four, faction expansion packs sold separately (list price $59.99 each) include The Sleeper (Tsathoggua, God of Entropy), Opener of the Way, Windwalker, Bubastis, The Daemon Sultan, and the Tcho-Tchos. The Tcho-Tchos deserve a specific callout: they're their own human cultist faction, not the cultists of the Yellow Sign, and they don't field Hastur's forces. Their whole gimmick is interfering by worshipping other players' Great Old Ones instead of their own.
Each faction pack changes the player count ceiling and the strategic mix simultaneously. Add one and every other faction at the table has to account for a set of abilities nobody has seen before. That's the entire design point, and it's why faction packs are the category most collectors reach for first once they know the base game well.
What do Great Old One packs add, and how are they different from a faction?
This is where a lot of confusion starts, so here's the plain distinction: a faction is a playable side; a Great Old One in one of these packs is a neutral, cross-faction figure. Nobody "plays as" the entities in a Great Old One pack the way they play as the Sleeper or Crawling Chaos. Any faction can simply recruit them into an ongoing game.
There are four Great Old One packs. Pack 1 ($39.99) is the biggest, with five entities: Abhoth, Chaugnar Faugn, Cthugha, Mother Hydra, and Yig. Yig in particular gets misidentified online as a faction leader; he isn't one. He's a neutral Great Old One that any faction can recruit, same as the rest of the pack. Pack 2 ($34.99) has four entities (Atlach-Nacha, Bokrug, Father Dagon, Ghatanothoa), Pack 4 ($29.99) has three (Byatis, Nyogtha, Tulzscha), and Pack 3 is the single-figure Gobogeg release, a Great Old One Sandy Petersen created specifically for Cthulhu Wars rather than drawing from Lovecraft's own fiction.
All four packs are compatible with every faction and with each other. There's no dependency order among them, which makes Great Old One packs a flexible second purchase once you know which factions your group actually plays.
What are the Duel expansions, and how are they different from the main game's expansions?
Here's the part of the taxonomy people get wrong most often: Cthulhu Wars Duel isn't an expansion of the main O4 game at all. It's a separate, standalone two-player game that runs on the same design language, and it has its own expansion line that doesn't cross over into the multiplayer version.
The base Cthulhu Wars Duel pits Great Cthulhu against the Black Goat in a compact head-to-head match. Its two expansions build out that separate line: Duel: Extinction ($29.99) adds two brand-new factions built specifically for the Duel format, The Sleeper and Ithaqua the Windwalker, plus a new map. Duel: Reunion ($7.99) adds exclusive miniature units that don't exist anywhere in the main Cthulhu Wars line at all.
Neither Duel expansion attaches to the 2-8 player O4 Edition, and O4's faction packs or Great Old One packs don't attach to Duel either. The Sleeper and Windwalker do also exist as full faction expansions for the main game, but those are separate products tuned for a multiplayer table, not the same box as the Duel version. If your group plays the big multiplayer game, Duel expansions aren't for you. If you and one regular opponent want a faster, tighter cosmic horror contest, the Duel line is its own self-contained track.
What's in the Cosmic Terrors pack, and why isn't it a faction or a Great Old One pack?
Cosmic Terrors ($29.99) introduces a third entity class entirely: Terrors. It's neither a faction expansion nor a Great Old One pack, and the product itself labels the contents plainly as new unit types for the game. The pack contains three miniatures: the Great Race of Yith, the Dhole, and Quachil Uttaus, all classified as Terrors.
Quachil Uttaus is the one that causes the most mix-ups. It looks and sounds like it belongs with the colossal figures in a Great Old One pack, and plenty of secondhand summaries get this wrong online. It doesn't belong there. Quachil Uttaus is a Terror, full stop, and it's also sold on its own as a standalone blister for $8.99 if you just want the single figure.
Like Great Old One packs, Terrors are cross-faction: they aren't tied to a single playable side. What sets them apart is that they're their own category rather than an extension of the Great Old One roster. Think of it as a third axis on top of factions and Great Old Ones, not a variant of either.
How does the whole expansion ecosystem fit together?
Four categories, four different jobs. Faction packs change who's sitting at the table. Great Old One packs and the Cosmic Terrors pack add pieces that any faction can pull into a game already in progress. Duel expansions build out a completely separate two-player product line that shares the same mythos and design DNA but doesn't physically or mechanically cross over with the main O4 system.
That structure is deliberate. Great Old Ones, in the wider Cthulhu Mythos tradition H.P. Lovecraft and his contemporaries built, are vast and largely independent of any single cult or civilization; Cthulhu Wars' rule that its Great Old One packs work across every faction mirrors that same idea mechanically. Petersen Games owns its own miniature sculpts, cards, and rules for these entities. The underlying mythos itself has been shared, public-domain fiction for close to a century, which is exactly why it supports an expansion ecosystem this varied without any single company claiming the source material.[1]
For a system this size, that variety is part of the appeal to collectors. BoardGameGeek's listing for Cthulhu Wars alone runs deep threads of players comparing faction picks, Great Old One combinations, and buying order, which tracks with how many distinct expansion categories the game actually supports.
Which expansion category should you buy first?
Start with the base game and learn the four core factions before you add anything. Once you're past that:
- Playing multiplayer and want more variety at the table? Faction packs first. A new faction reshapes every game it enters.
- Already happy with your factions and want more table presence? A Great Old One pack, starting with Pack 1's five-entity roster, adds cross-faction figures without touching who anyone plays as.
- Want a low-cost third category before committing to a full new faction? Cosmic Terrors sits at $29.99 for three miniatures, cheaper per figure than most Great Old One packs.
- Play mostly with one other person? Skip the multiplayer expansions and start with Cthulhu Wars Duel, then add Extinction or Reunion once you've played the base matchup a few times.
The full range, faction packs, Great Old One packs, Cosmic Terrors, and everything else in the O4 ecosystem, sits together at the Cthulhu Wars Expansions collection on the Petersen Games store. It's the fastest way to see current stock and pricing across every category before you decide where your next purchase goes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kinds of Cthulhu Wars expansions are there?
Four main categories: faction expansion packs (new playable factions), Great Old One packs (neutral colossal figures any faction can recruit), Duel expansions (for the standalone two-player Cthulhu Wars Duel line), and the Cosmic Terrors pack (a third unit class called Terrors). Each one works differently at the table.
What is the difference between a faction pack and a Great Old One pack?
A faction pack adds an entirely new playable side with its own spellbook, cultists, and monsters. A Great Old One pack adds neutral colossal figures that don't belong to any faction; any player can recruit them into whichever faction they're already playing. One changes who you can play as; the other changes what any faction can summon.
How does the Cthulhu Wars expansion ecosystem work?
Every expansion category plugs into the O4 Edition base game, but each extends it differently. Faction packs raise the player count and add new sides. Great Old One packs and Cosmic Terrors add cross-faction pieces that any player can pull in. Duel expansions build out a separate, standalone two-player line rather than the main multiplayer game.
Are Cthulhu Wars Duel expansions the same as the main game's expansions?
No. Cthulhu Wars Duel is its own standalone two-player game. Its expansions, Duel: Extinction and Duel: Reunion, only work with the Duel line. They don't attach to the 2-8 player O4 Edition, and O4's faction or Great Old One packs don't attach to Duel.
Is Quachil Uttaus a Great Old One or something else?
Quachil Uttaus is a Terror, a unit type separate from both factions and Great Old Ones. It ships in the Cosmic Terrors pack alongside the Great Race of Yith and the Dhole, and is also sold as a standalone blister.
Ready to see all four categories side by side? Browse the full Cthulhu Wars Expansions collection at Petersen Games and figure out which one fits your table next.
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