Combat is resolved through the Attacker and Defender simultaneously rolling and comparing the various dice that represent their Cultists, Servitors and other summoned Monsters.
One roll is made for each piece involved in each segment of combat with losses removed from the dice pool. The die for each Cultist, Servitor or Monster is only rolled once per combat segment with the benefit being that stronger creatures have more dice.
- Assemble Forces
- Combat Segment One:
- Declare Combat Cards
- Roll, Rank, Match, and Remove
- Attacker May Retreat
- Combat Segment Two:
- Declare Combat Cards:
- Roll, Rank, Match, and Remove
- Play Other Cards
- Determine Victor and Reform Forces
Example:
On his turn, Geoff mounts an attack on one of Daniel’s Nodes. He moves 3 Cultists and 3 Servitors onto the adjoining Ley line and rolls 3d6 to see if any Cultists are affected by the Gate Mishaps Table. He doesn’t roll any 1s, so all his forces make it across and once Geoff has resolved any other separate movement, the Combat Phase begins. Daniel turns out to be Geoff’s only target otherwise Geoff could choose who he would attack first.
1. Assemble Forces
Geoff’s Servitors attacks with 3 Cultists and 3 Servitors. His total dice pool is (3 times 1d6) + (3 times 2d6) = 9d6
Daniel’s Node is protected by 2 Cultists and 2 Servitors. Daniel is playing ‘Great Cthulhu’, whose Alchemical ring is that of Water and Daniel is occupying a Node in that ring. His total dice pool is (2 times 2d6) + (2 times 3d6) = 10d6
2. Combat Segment One
A. Declare Combat Cards
Next, any Great Old One may declare any Combat cards that they decide they would like to play.
Geoff decides to bulk out his attack, sacrifices two Cultists from among his other occupied Nodes and plays a random Monster ‘Dhole’ card and adds the Dhole token worth 3d6 to his side taking his dice pool total to 12d6.
He also plays ‘Automatic Weapons’ on his Cultists adding an additional dice per Cultist (3d6).
Geoff’s dice pool is now up to 15d6.
Sam decides to even things up by playing ‘Bind Servitors’ on Geoff’s Servitors, preventing them from taking part in either round of the attack (-6d6) which Geoff decides to counter, while Daniel sacrifices two of his own Cultists and summons a 3d6 ‘Shuggoth.’
Geoff’s final dice pool is 15d6; Daniel’s is 13d6
B. Roll, Rank, Match Remove
Roll: No other cards are played and the first set of dice rolls is made.
- Geoff rolls: 3,5,6,2,4,1,5,1,3,2,6,4,4,6,3
- Daniel rolls: 6,6,3,2,5,1,3,2,2,5,6,6,2
Rank: Dice are divided into groups of similar type and ranked high to low:
- Geoff: [6,6,6] [5,5] [4,4,4] [3,3,3] [2,2] [1,1]
- Daniel: [6,6,6,6] [5,5] [3,3] [2,2,2,2] [1]
Match: Next the Attacking and Defending dice are matched off against each other to determine losses. Matching dice result in a loss for both sides Remember, combat is simultaneous and so are casualties – both Great Old Ones will remove tokens at the same time to reflect this fact.
- Geoff: 6,6,6,5,5,4,4,4,3,3,3,2,2,1,1
- Daniel: 6,6,6,6,5,5,3,3,2,2,2,2,1
Remove:
- Geoff removes 7d6 from his dice pool reducing it to 8d6
- Daniel removes 11d6 from his dice pool reducing it to 2d6
The first combat segment is complete.
Daniel plays ‘Deflect Harm’ and chooses Fred to take his losses instead, but Fred has a different idea and plays an ‘Elder Sign’ that cancels the effect so Daniel is forced to take his losses himself and hope that his dice rolling will be better in the second segment.
C. Attacker May Retreat
Geoff can choose to flee at this point, but decides to stick it out for the second combat round and press his advantage.
3. Combat Segment Two
A. Declare Combat Cards
No one decides to play any further combat-related cards leaving Geoff to roll 8d6, while Daniel plays a further Monster, a ‘Star Vampire’ and adds 3d6 to his dice pool taking it up to 5d6.
B. Roll, Rank, Match Remove
Roll:
- Geoff rolls: 5,6,4,1,1,3,6,3
- Daniel rolls: 3,2,5,5,6
Rank: These are divided into the following groups and ranked as before:
- Geoff rolls: 6,6,5,4,3,3,1,1
- Daniel rolls: 5,5,5,3,2
Match: The dice sets are matched off against one another.
- Geoff rolls: 6,6,5,4,3,3,1,1
- Daniel rolls: 5,5,5,3,2
Remove:
- Geoff removes 1d6
- Daniel’s remaining forces have been annihilated.
The second combat segment is complete.
4. Play Other Cards
At this point Daniel decides to play the ‘Herbert West’ card, post-combat and rolls 3d6 to determine how many of his Cultists he can recover. However as he has lost control of his Node of Origin he returns his resurrected forces to his Spawning Node. Daniel rolls a total ‘9’ and restores two Cultists, licks his wounds and considers his next move.
5. Determine Victor and Reform Forces
Geoff has won the combat and successfully gained the Node, and Daniel passes him the relevant Node Card.
Geoff now needs to cash in his dice and reform his forces. He has a remaining dice pool of 7d6. Each Cultist is worth 1d6 and each Servitor 2d6 so he decides to exchange his pool for 3 Cultists and 2 Servitors.