Windwalker

Faction Ability

Hibernate (Action: Cost 0): Add +1 Power to your total for each enemy Great Old One in play, but you cannot more than double your current Power in doing so. You can perform no more Actions during the rest of this Action Phase (as if you were at 0 Power). Add your current Power to your total next Gather Power Phase.

Setup

6 Acolytes and a Controlled Gate in one of the 2 Areas with this Glyph, chosen after all other factions, but before Tcho Tcho and Opener (Antarctica or the Arctic Ocean on the Earth Map)

Cultist

Acolyte: Count 6, Cost 1, Combat 0

Monsters

Wendigo: Count 4, Cost 1, Combat 1

Gnoph Keh: Count 4, Cost "Equals the number of Gnoph- Keh in your Unit pool. (i.e. if only one Gnoph Keh is in your pool, the cost is 1.)", Combat 3

Great Old Ones

Rhan-Tegoth: Cost 6, Combat 3

How to Awaken Rhan-Tegoth:

1. Pay 6 Power.
2. Rhan-Tegoth appears in an Area containing the Windwalker Glyph.

Eternal (Post-Battle): If Rhan Tegoth receives a Pain or a Kill, you may pay 1 power to cancel its effect on him. He can only receive one combat result per battle.

Ithaqua: Cost 6, Combat "Equals half the Doom total of your opponent, rounded up."

How to Awaken Ithaqua:

1. Rhan-Tegoth has been awakened (he need not be in play).
2. A Gate must exist in an Area marked with your Glyph. You need not control the Gate.
3. Pay 6 Power and replace the Gate with Ithaqua.

Ferox (Ongoing): While Ithaqua is in play, your Cultists cannot be captured by enemy Monsters. They are still vulnerable to enemy Great Old Ones.

Spellbook Requirements

• You are the starting Player
• A Gate exists in the area marked with the Windwalker Glyph in which you did not start
• Another Faction has six Faction Spellbooks
• Take this spellbook at any time. For each enemy player with six Faction Spellbooks, gain one Elder Sign, to a maximum of 3 Elder Signs
• Awaken Rhan Tegoth
• Awaken Ithaqua

Spellbooks

• Cannibalism (Post-Battle): After a Battle in which one or more enemy Units were Killed, spawn a Wendigo or Acolyte in that Area, even if you were not involved in the Battle.
• Howl (Pre-Battle): Before Battle, if any Wendigos are present, you may force the enemy to Retreat one Unit (of their choice) out of the Area to an adjacent Area.
• Berserkergang (Ongoing): For each Gnoph-Keh Killed in a Battle, the enemy must Eliminate one Monster or Cultist.
• Herald of the Outer Gods (Ongoing): Pay 5 Power for Windwalker's Ritual of Annihilation, regardless of the position of the Ritual marker.
• Arctic Wind (Ongoing): When Ithaqua moves, any or all of his Units in the Area can be moved with him for no additional cost.
• Ice Age (Action: Cost 1): Place or move your Ice Age token to any Area. When an enemy Faction takes any Action ending in the Ice Age Area, they must pay +1 Power.

General Tips

Elder Sign Acquisition - Windwalker has several great ways to acquire Elder Signs. The primary source is going to be your ritual when performed with both faction GOOs on the map. Herald of the Outer Gods locks this cost in at 5, making it an absolute must every round after both GOOs are summoned. The second is his spellbook requirement which can yield up to 3 Elder Signs when taken after 3 other factions have 6 spellbooks. Do the best you can to wait for this opportune moment.

Offense vs. Defense - Some factions in Cthulhu Wars are better at one or the other, but Windwalker in particular has both a powerful defense and offence. Typically, WW plays defensively in the early to mid game, then transitions to offensive late game if needed (it may not be!). Focus on Herald of the Outer Gods (see below) to further your position on the doom track in the mid and late game, while using Ice Age and Rhan Tegoth (with his eternal ability) to make your starting areas difficult to assault.

When Ithaqua and your Gnoph Keh are on the board, now you have the option for strong offense. Look for an opportune time to strike. If it looks like you will need to end the game with a big round (lots of gates in the doom phase) then try and hibernate a good amount of power the round before. This will ensure you are have a good amount of power to go on the offensive when others are low. Try to focus on gates controlled by other leading players, taking them down while building yourself up might be the difference between a win and a loss.

Spellbook Strategies

• Cannibalism - If you've managed to Kill an opponent's unit in a battle, you can assign a Kill to one of your Wendigos or Acolytes and spawn one to replace it using Cannibalism.
• Howl - A single Wendigo with Howl that attacks a gate defended with one monster can force an enemy to either abandon the gate or the cultist without a fight.
• Berserkergang - Once all of your Gnoph Keh are on the board, this allows you to assign an additional kill on the enemy for the cost of just 1 power (assuming all other Gnoph Keh survived). Consider the position of Ithaqua's army before using, however, since it may be difficult to get the Gnoph Keh back where you need him.
• Herald of the Outer Gods - HotOG is an extremely powerful spellbook. Although Windwalker's army can be the most powerful in the game, they are also highly equipped for a defensive strategy. With rituals locked at 5 power, you will be gaining 2 Elder Signs per ritual when you have both of your GOOs on the map. Windwalker can focus on defending 2-3 gates and stand a very good chance at winning when using Herald of the Outer Gods. This strategy is helped further by Rhan Teghoth's Immortal ability making him particularly difficult to remove from an area.
• Arctic Wind - This is one of the most powerful abilities of any faction in Cthulhu Wars (says this Fandom User). Regardless of army size, you can move them all with Ithaqua for 1 power. This is especially powerful when combined with Independent Great Old Ones, Monsters, and Terrors. The cost to move these extra units keeps them in check for most other factions. Windwalker's power usage, however, is completely unaffected by extra units. A few notable examples include:
  • Atlach Nacha - With a large army able to move with the Spider god for just 1 power, you can place web tokens around the map with better protection than any other faction.
  • Ghatonathoa - When he has his spellbook, whenever you move Ithaqua's army into an area, all cultists there are instantly neutralized. This means your attacks will have maximum devastation on your opponents army and income.
• Ice Age - This is a fantastic tool to frustrate your opponents. It can be used both offensively to prevent your opponent from fortifying an area, or defensively to make it very costly for an enemy to take your gate. Using a Herald of the Outer Gods defensive strategy, placing the Ice Age token in an area requires your enemy to spend at least 2 extra power to take your gate in a best case scenario, it will likely cost much more than that over a series of battles. That extra power will drain your opponent quickly!

Opening Strategies

Windwalker is not the easiest faction to open with. If you look at how you can achieve spellbooks your goal is definitly set on building a gate at the opposite pole you are started at. Maybe and i say maybe early hibernating in the first round can grab you that first player next round but this strategy is quite risky. The downside of early hibernation is that the field is open for the other players the gain ground towards you or even grab some of your cultist. Missing that start player goal will set you trailing other players for big chunks of the game and big change you never catch up.

Opening 1: Grabbing that pole.

Easiest way looks like move 1 cultist 3 times towards the opposite pole and build that gate with your fourth action. Any enemy monster or GOO following your trail just grab that cultist and take that gate for their own good. So you need somehow have to protect and conceal that obvious strategy. But how? Convoying your cultist with a monster will lack you power for gatebuilding. Any other strategy than the straight approach will you be lacking power, making this opening a 2 turn strategy. So move 1 cultist, build gate, build wendigo and additional moves towards the opposite pole is what you can do in turn 1. With a bit of luck you can build that opposite pole gate in turn 2 and a good timed hibernation can bring you at 2 spellbooks at the start of turn 3.

Opening 2: Early Hibernation

Timing when to hibernate is of the essence. If opponents slowly spent power it will need a more patient strategy. First move a cultist to a adjacent area and build a gate, protect it with a Wendigo. You still have 3 power left now. Time to check if Hibernation is a save thing to do at this time. If not build another wendigo and check again.

Which spellbook to pick first? Cannibalism, Howl or Herald of the Outer Gods ''''are the more early game spellbooks. At the moment you can summon Ithaqua the Arctic Wind spellbook will allow you to change your strategy to the offense. The general tips point out clearly what the WW powers are.

Let the walkers ice the world and their will be peace.