The Servants Of Cthulhu
"Kill ‘Em All"
by M. Patrick Ebright

Cards marked with an * are from the Assassins expansion set.

The Group cards:

• C.I.A.
• F.B.I.
• CFL-AIO
• Center for Disease Control
• Republicans
• Democrats
• Newt Gingrich*
• The Mafia
• Fiendish Fluoridators
• The Men in Black
• Robot Sea Monsters
• Suicide Squad (Resource)
• Necronomicon (Resource)
• Cyborg Soldiers (Resource)

The Plot cards:

• Poison (Assassination)
• Sniper (Assassination)
• Tornado (Disaster)
• Nuclear Accident (Disaster)
• Meteor Strike (Disaster)
• Atomic Monster (Disaster)
• Oil Spill* (Disaster)
• Annual Convention
• Swiss Bank Account
• Terrorist Nuke
• The Big Score
• Benefit Concert
• Martial Law
• Slush Fund
• Cold Fusion (x2)
• Back to the Salt Mines*
• Don't Forget to Smash the State (NWO)
• Global Warming* (NWO)
• Australian Rules* (NWO)
• Blinded by Science* (Goal)
• March on Washington
• Agent in Place
• Hoax
• Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know
• New Blood
• Sucked Dry and Cast Aside!
• Power Grab
• Opportunity Knocks
• Sufficiently Advanced Technology*

The Strategy:

The beauty of this deck is that you've got destroy bonuses that cover almost everything, so depending on what other players bring out, you build your power structure accordingly, and then hack, maim, burn!!!

• Criminals - F.B.I. and Mafia
• Corporates - CFL-AIO and Robot Sea Monsters
• Governments - Robot Sea Monsters
• Liberals - Newt Gingrich (He has a 17 base power to directly destroy a liberal!)
• Straights or Conservatives - Fiendish Fluoridators
• Personalities - C.I.A.
• Places - Center for Disease Control
• Coastal Places - Robot Sea Monsters again, including with Disasters!
• Secrets - You have three Secret groups, so they can't hide from you.
• Any - Men in Black (+6 from a Secret)
• Any - Democrats and Republicans (high Global Power)

You're best lead is Men in Black, to get a Secret in early and a good bonus, though with no arrows, it may limit your ability to build a strong core to your power structure. Your second best bet is Democrats, giving you 5 Global and 2 arrows.

Early game:

Start out by making yourself a strong power first. Cthulhu-heads tend to start destroying too early on and wind up vulnerable when victory is nearly in their claws. Watch what other players are doing to get an idea of who to bring in first: if someone is The Gnomes bring out CFL-AIO, if you see a Straight-Conservative deck bring out Fiendish Fluoridators, lots of Places in sight means CDC and Robot Sea Monsters, etc. Power Grab the bigger powers. While things are still calm, see if Opportunity Knocks.

Mid-game:

Start out putting Plot cards back in your deck in ways that will come back logically, because as you destroy you'll be drawing them (2 with Fiendish!) You have NWO's that hinder your opponents a little, but they also come in handy if something is hindering you. You have a lot of Science, so Sufficiently Advance one and give it The Necronomicon. One lucky Violent still gets Cyborg Soldiers. The New Blood is for Robot Sea Monsters to give that wide variety of bonuses some raw power as well. The Suicide Squad is best against Orbital Mind Control Lasers, because a reversed alignment in the middle of an attack can turn a +4 to -4, not to mention losing any particular bonus you had against that former alignment.
If you've built a strong core with appropriate cards for the enemy, you should destroy in chunks and really make it hurt. Save the disasters for the middle of other peoples turns, to keep everyone disoriented (and don't forget the Annual Convention.) Don't always go for the easy fringe target. Gather all those pluses and hit close to home: they'll lose a key group and a whole wing of their structure ends up back in their hands. Then they have to worry about rebuilding rather than revenge.

End-game:

Save as many +10 cards as possible to give you a defensive as well as offensive edge when things start getting down to the wire and everyone keeps recounting your destroyed pile. Don't be afraid to cannibalize yourself: have the C.I.A. take out Newt, or the F.B.I. take out The Mafia. For that one final blow, Suck Dry and Cast Aside one of those 6 powers with a +10 on it.
The sneak attack: It wasn't until after I built this that I noticed how many Science groups came up. If you're subtle and don't bring attention to that fact as your building up (don't use the Cold Fusions unless you have to), you're only one away from the Blinded by Science Goal! Who's expecting that?

Have fun!!!

Next: Heart Of Gold, Armor Of Steel - Back: The Science Of Drawing Plots
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