Cthulhu Wars noobs ,,,

Late to the party I know but it looks like I might get my first game of this in tomorrow. Should be 3 or 4 players. Any tips for first time players?

Shellie taught me the game in about 6 minutes, so my advice is "don't overthink". It's a really streamlined game but it doesn't appear to be based on the rules

The process is REALLY easy. The only think that may need a rules check is the Ritual of Annihilation. But here is the secret. It is really just paying power to double your doom take for the turn, and the cost to do so goes up every time someone does it. The key strategy is to do it when you have an advantage on gates. And this is super important because it is how you pull ahead to win. If everyone has three gates and you do the Ritual, they go up three and you go up six.

Enforce on players that controlling gates is really key...as is not getting your Cultists nabbed by monsters. They need bodyguards.

Actions- pay power to do 'em. There is a short list on the player aid and most are self explanatory.

Combat- 6s hit, 5 and 4 "pains" (retreats), everything else is a miss. Simultaneous casulaties. Done.

The key to remembering the spellbook stuff is sell them off as video game achievments. Do this thing, you pick one of six. You don't really have to know them all up front.

You must have all 6 spellbooks to be eligible for victory; if players are lagging, take advantage and push the ritual track up towards game end and ignore their score when the ritual marker hits game over.

With 6 spellbooks you can both move and declare a fight on the same turn. Late game but really strong.

Hierarchy of dudes - monsters protect cultists from capture, GOOs trump monsters and can capture unless another GOO is protecting.

Don't think this is Nexus Ops; rolling dice isn't the point. Controlling gates is, unless you are Yellow Sign. You can play a good game and win with minimal battles.

Don't burn your power early in the round. Other players will take all your shit when you can't respond effectively.

Thanks everybody, unfortunately it sounds like we might have 5 show up and since I just have the base game will probably have to do something else.

Scott and Michael nailed it.
I guess I would just add that's it's good for everyone to know every factions' power.
Knowing your own strategy is good, knowing how to play around/against others is equally good.

I'm awaiting the arrival of "Onslaught 2" so I can increase the player count. I don't how well the game will play past 4, but I'm going try it!

We did end up with just 4 so we did get a game in. I'll post a short after action report to the what have you been playing thread.