Herbert West & Priests

How do Priests work?

If you have The Blood Ceremony expansion (part of the Dunwich Pledge Level), then you already are on track for getting 10 unique priests. To use these, at the game start, you randomly shuffle your priests and each player draws one. Place it on the Priest slot on your player board. (It’s marked with a friendly Cthulhu face).

Like all the sites on your priest board, only your priest meeple can be used to activate these. More importantly, you only use your priest power once per game! They are very powerful, but timing them right is key to their successful use.

Herbert West’s power

Of course he is most famous for his appearance as the antihero of Herbert West: Reanimator, which though one of Lovecraft’s lesser efforts, was made into a fabulous movie in 1985, directed by Stuart Gordon. His ability in-game is that when he is used, you immediately rescue two cultists. This is a pretty huge benefit, and as such is tempered by a restriction, namely that you cannot use Herbert until you have a spellbook.

Please note that you don’t have to spend the spellbook to rescue your two cultists. You only have to have one in your possession! This typically means that you cannot use Herbert until the second action phase at the earliest, and usually not till the third. Some such requirement is normal for the more powerful priests, which means you must plan ahead to gain this great benefit, and may fall behind in the early game, compared to those who have more immediately-useful priests. For example, Abednego Akeley gives you 2 Magic, with no restrictions. On the other hand, once Father Akeley has shot his bolt, he’s done. But Herbert West’s 2 cultists are useful for a long long time after you take them.