What's the best order to buy Cthulhu Wars expansions in?
Buy a faction expansion first, a neutral Great Old One pack second, Terrors third, and a map pack last. That order tracks impact: a new faction reshapes every session, a Great Old One pack adds shared strategic weight, Terrors add variety at a lower price, and a map pack only pays off once your table has grown.
That's the short version. The rest of this guide breaks down why each step comes where it does, what you get for the money, and which specific products to look at first if you already own the Cthulhu Wars O4 Edition core set.
What's already in the O4 core box?
More than most buyers expect. The O4 core set includes 5 Great Old Ones, four complete factions, and 72 miniatures total. Know what's in the box before you spend on anything else.
The four core factions are Great Cthulhu, Crawling Chaos (Nyarlathotep), Black Goat (Shub-Niggurath), and Yellow Sign (Hastur, the King in Yellow). Yellow Sign ships in the core box; it isn't an expansion, and you don't need to buy it separately. Each of those four factions has its own spellbook, its own units, and a genuinely different way of winning. That's already a complete asymmetric game for two to four players before you add a single expansion.
So the question isn't "does the base game need help." It doesn't. The question is which addition gives you the most for the next dollar you spend, and that's where the buying order below comes in.
Step 1: which faction expansion should you buy first?
A faction expansion, full stop. Each one adds a complete fifth (or sixth) player position with its own miniatures, spellbook, and win condition, and that's the single biggest change you can make to how the game plays. Three of the most commonly recommended first picks:
- Windwalker ($59.99) - the Ithaqua faction, built around Arctic territory control and gate denial. It plays nothing like the four core factions and is a popular first add for groups who already know those well.
- The Sleeper ($59.99) - a separate expansion faction built around Tsathoggua, the God of Entropy. This is not a variant of Great Cthulhu; it's its own faction with its own units and its own strategy centered on slow, grinding decay.
- The Tcho-Tchos ($59.99) - their own human cultist faction, and the most disruptive pick on this list. Rather than fielding a Great Old One of their own, the Tcho-Tchos worship and interfere with other players' Great Old Ones. They're not the cultists of the Yellow Sign and don't field Hastur; they're a completely separate mechanical concept from any core faction.
Pick based on what your group wants more of. Windwalker for aggressive territorial play, the Sleeper for a slower attrition game, the Tcho-Tchos if your table likes messing directly with everyone else's plans. Any of the three is a defensible first purchase; the wrong move is skipping factions entirely and going straight to a Great Old One pack, because a faction is the only expansion type that adds a new seat and a genuinely new way to play.
Step 2: why buy a Great Old One pack second?
Because it deepens the factions you already own instead of adding new ones. Great Old One Pack 1 ($39.99) includes five neutral entities: Abhoth, Chaugnar Faugn, Cthugha, Mother Hydra, and Yig. None of them belong to a faction. Any player's faction can recruit any of them during a game, which means the pack adds strategic weight across your whole table without requiring an extra player.
Yig is worth calling out specifically, since it's easy to misfile. Yig is not a playable faction and doesn't come with its own faction slot. It's a Great Old One with its own spellbook, sitting in the neutral pool where every faction can compete for it. That's the appeal of GOO Pack 1 as a second purchase: it changes the mid-game calculus for every faction already at your table, faction expansion or not.
Buy this after your first faction expansion, not before. A Great Old One pack rewards a table that already knows its factions well enough to fight over shared entities. Skip straight to it before adding a faction and you're spending on depth for a game that hasn't grown yet.
Step 3: what do Terrors add, and are they worth it third?
Terrors are a separate unit type from Great Old Ones, and they're a cheaper, lower-commitment third purchase. The Cosmic Terrors pack ($29.99) includes the Great Race of Yith, the Dhole, and Quachil Uttaus. Quachil Uttaus is a Terror, not a Great Old One, and it plays by its own rules rather than joining a faction's roster the way a recruited Great Old One does.
If you only want a taste of what Terrors add, Quachil Uttaus is also sold as a standalone blister ($8.99), which is the cheapest single entry point into the entire Cthulhu Wars expansion ecosystem. It's a reasonable way to test whether Terror-type units interest your group before committing to the full pack.
Terrors land here in the order because they add texture rather than a new player position or a new recruitable pool. Good value, smaller impact than a faction or a GOO pack, worth grabbing once you already have both of those in play.
Step 4: when does a map pack finally make sense?
Once you've actually got the players to fill it. The 6-8 Player Map Pack ($99.99) includes every 6-8 player map currently available, including Shaggai, and it's built for tables that have grown past the base game's range through faction expansions. Buying it before you own extra factions means paying for board space nobody is sitting at.
This is why map packs are last on the list, not because they're a poor product. A bigger board with more territory only matters once there are more factions competing for it. Get your faction count up first; the map pack will still be there when you need it.
Putting the order together
Here's the sequence, start to finish, assuming you're building out from the O4 core set:
- Faction expansion ($59.99 each) - Windwalker, the Sleeper, or the Tcho-Tchos, based on which playstyle appeals to your group. This is the single biggest upgrade to how the game plays.
- Great Old One Pack 1 ($39.99) - five neutral entities, including Yig, that any faction can recruit. Deepens the game for everyone already at the table.
- Cosmic Terrors ($29.99, or the $8.99 Quachil Uttaus blister as a smaller entry point) - adds unit variety at a lower price than a faction or GOO pack.
- 6-8 Player Map Pack ($99.99) - buy once you've added enough faction expansions to actually need the extra board space.
Cthulhu Wars has one of the deeper expansion ecosystems in premium tabletop gaming, and Meeple Mountain's review of the base game points to that faction-driven asymmetry as the design's biggest strength - every faction plays by different rules, which is exactly why faction expansions sit at the top of this list.[1] The Cthulhu Mythos itself, the shared body of cosmic-horror fiction H.P. Lovecraft began building in the 1920s, is public domain, which is part of why Sandy Petersen (also known for creating the original Call of Cthulhu tabletop RPG and working on the first Doom games) has had such a deep well of source material to draw expansion factions from.[2][3]
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the best order to buy Cthulhu Wars expansions in?
Faction expansion first, neutral Great Old One pack second, Terrors third, map pack last. That order matches spend to impact: a faction changes every game you play, a Great Old One pack adds shared strategic depth, Terrors add variety cheaply, and a map pack only pays off once you've got the player count to fill it.
Do I need a faction expansion to enjoy the Cthulhu Wars O4 core set?
No. The O4 core set ships with four complete factions, 5 Great Old Ones, and 72 miniatures, which is a full game on its own. A faction expansion adds a fifth or sixth seat and a new asymmetric playstyle, but it's an addition, not a fix for something missing from the box.
Is the Tcho-Tchos expansion a good first purchase?
It can be, if your group likes disruptive, cross-table mechanics. The Tcho-Tchos are their own human cultist faction that worships other players' Great Old Ones rather than fielding one of their own, which makes them mechanically distinct from every other faction pack. They're not the cultists of the Yellow Sign and don't field Hastur.
What's the difference between a Great Old One pack and a Terror?
A Great Old One pack (like Great Old One Pack 1) adds colossal entities, such as Yig, that any faction can recruit and use as their own. Terrors, found in the Cosmic Terrors pack, are a different unit type entirely - Quachil Uttaus is a Terror, not a Great Old One, and plays by its own rules rather than joining a faction's roster.
When should I buy a map pack expansion?
After you already own enough faction expansions to seat 5 or more players. The core O4 board is sized for the base game's player range, and a map pack like the 6-8 Player Map Pack only earns its price once you actually have that many people at the table.
Ready to start stacking your collection? Browse the full Cthulhu Wars collection at Petersen Games for current stock on faction expansions, Great Old One packs, Terrors, and map packs. In-stock orders process within 48 hours (2 business days, Monday through Friday); US orders ship via USPS Ground Advantage in 2 to 5 business days, and Canadian orders ship via DHL Ground in 3 to 7 business days. Rates are calculated at checkout.
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