The Cthulhu Wars: The United States' Battles Against the Mythos

Osprey Adventures

by Kenneth Hite, Kennon Bauman, Darren Tan (Illustrator)

Welcome to the War on Horror! This unique book reveals the secret and terrible struggle between the United States and the supernatural forces of Cthulhu. Immortal wizards worship other-dimensional entities and plot to raise an army of the dead. Incomprehensible undersea intelligences infiltrate and colonize American seaports. Alien races lurk beneath the ice of Antarctica, while others wait behind the mountains of Afghanistan. From the Patriots' raid on the necromancer Joseph Curwen to the Special Forces assault on Leng in 2007, this book presents the story of those clandestine battles alongside threat reports describing the indescribable - humanity's deadliest foes fighting under Cthulhu and the Great Old ones.

Strange times are upon us, the world is changing and even death may die - but until then, the war continues.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Alternate History, Role Playing Games, Cthulhu Mythos, Lovecraftian, Ebooks

80 pages, Paperback

First published June 23, 2015

About the author

Kenneth Hite (born September 15, 1965) is a writer and role-playing game designer. Author of Trail of Cthulhu and Night's Black Agents role-playing games, Hite has been announced as the lead designer of the upcoming 5th edition of Vampire: the Masquerade.

Reviews

[Jonathan Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the moment I'm running a Call of Cthulhu (4th Edition) game for my local gaming club. It's set in the late 1920s and there's already been an arctic expedition, a brush with some Mi-Go and some zombified human constructs, a bit of a clash back at Arkham and a dead-but-not-dead incident on a train across the USA from Boston to San Francisco. Nobody's dead or insane yet, so they're either being incredibly good players or I've been an exceptionally bad GM.

As some of the players are new to the Cthulhu Mythos there has been a lot of questions about what it all means, and as I don't want to give too much away I'm building up to an incident where they can find out more by reading the report of a man who had done his own research, namely the Lovecraft story 'The Call Of Cthulhu'. Just by reading this story they should have a much better understanding of what is going on.

It was great fielding these questions, but one that came up was 'What do the government know?' which was a question I could not answer because they still had a lot of research and adventuring to do before they found that out, and mainly because I didn't really know myself.

So that got me asking the question; what do the government know about the cosmic horrors that plague the world? As if my mind had been read - as if the stars had aligned and the power of the Great Old Ones had ordained it to be - three days later a book landed on my doorstep, and this book was 'The Cthulhu Wars'.

Weird.

This 80-page colour softback book details the United State's struggle with dark forces from 1585 onwards. The fact that it's just from the point of view of the USA works for me, even though realistically the conflict is world-wide, because the United States is always the starting point of my own Call of Cthulhu roleplaying campaigns; for me, Cthulhu is all about New England in the 1920s, so this is just fine.

This isn't a proper, fully-fledged sourcebook per se; you won't find stats or hints for any of the Cthulhu games be it RPG or boardgame, but what you have is an entertaining read that takes you from the very early records of the first settlers having issues with these monsters, through the better known mythos stories such as Innsmouth, through the use of nuclear weapons in 1962 (which is, in a word, epic) to more modern conflicts. The book is written as a document, intertwining fiction with historical incidents and figures, as if you've either just joined the ranks of the people fighting the danger and you've been given this book to orient yourself with the fight, or if you've received this to learn the horrifying truth from a conspiracy theorist.

It's also written as if Lovecrfaft wrote his stories not as macabre tales, but as memories of things that happened, and that he himself was privy to the truth. Indeed, the introduction by Kenneth Hite reads as if he has researched the book and fears for his life in doing so, and then this is followed by Kennon Bauman explaining how he's completing Kenneth's work as a tribute to the man. That's brilliant, and it adds a whole new level of reality to the book.

The artwork and images in the book support the text really well, from period images to eerily doctored photographs, to some fantastic art from Darren Tan that really helps sell the story. Even the 'Sources' section at the back of the book, which talks of where the information came from, helps with the overall atmosphere. It's a great read, and the suggested reading, games and fiction was helpful as it pushed me in the direction of some films I'd not considered before.

Ultimately, how useful was it? From a gaming perspective I can see it being quite useful but only for small pieces of background and inspiration across several campaigns in different ages. Right now I'm in the 1920s, and it gives me some idea of what was going on but, to be truthful, I have my original Lovecraft stories to give me the background and atmosphere I need. If I ever decide to run a game in the present day, during the Cold War or during World War Two, I can see this being really helpful, and it's already given me a couple of great ideas regarding special units in the ETO.

Overall, this is an entertaining book. It really tries to sell the reality of the war against the Mythos as fact and in this it succeeds very well. This would be a great addition to the collection of Lovecraft fans and gamers alike.

Recommended.

[Ronald Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining book about the covert struggle with Necronomicon Related Entities and human helpers. More needs to be released to public.

[Sotiris Kosmas · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a die-hard Lovecraft fan I expected so much more from this book. As a supplement to a Call of Cthulhu Rpg it can be useful as a source of ideas for campaigns ( after all the author is the writer of the Trails of Cthulhu rpg). However, it felt like a very dry historical account with interesting tidbits here and there. If only it had expanded more on the operations conducted instead of them being just mentioned in brief

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice, short collection.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good and the way the mythos is weaved together with reality and across the many stories of Lovecraft is impressive. I also liked the accompanying art and pictures which complimented the text well.
Whilst the writing is very good, parts of this were a bit too dry for my tastes and so I found some of this quite hard going.
Overall a decent book and if you're into Lovecraft and his mythos you'd probably enjoy this.

[Miguel Ángel Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es entretenido pero no tiene ese ambiente tan atractivo de horror cósmico que tiene el mundo de los Mitos, es más bien una lucha contra extraterrestres malignos.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cthulhu Wars: The United States Battles Against the Mythos
Author: Kenneth Hite, Kennon Bauman
Publisher: Osprey Publishing / Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publishing Date: 2016
Pgs: 80
Dewey: HITE CTHU
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus
Inter Library Loan - St Johns County Public Library, St Augustine, FL
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*not associated with the Cthulhu Wars tabletop game by Petersen Games, LLC; PetersenGames.com
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
Necromancers and Special Forces. A war of cultists and massive creatures. Other dimensional entities. Undersea intelligences. Subsea colonies. Submarines, soldiers, seaman, nuclear weapons. Constant vigilance and violence insure the survival of the race of men. Threat reports, after-action reports, battles, and a secret history. Cthulhu and the rest of Great Old Ones are awakening. Strange times are upon us, the world is changing, and even death may die.
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Genre:
Role Playing Games
Secret History
Alternate History
Horror
War


Why this book:
Cthulhu and Lovecraftian horrors at war with history.
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The Feel:
Love the “this is a true story and history” aspect of this.

Favorite Scene / Quote/Concept:
This alternate history’s use of the colonization of America era and the interactions with the First Peoples is awesome.

The rooting out of the Curwen sect was well written. Very interesting. Loved the inclusion of Paul Revere, Aaron Burr, and George Washington.

Hmm Moments:
Great worldbuilding built on the foundation of real history and the Lovecraftian mythos.
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Pacing:
Great pacing.

Last Page Sound:
No payoff, but cool nonetheless. The war continues.
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[Nathan Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if the horrors of H.P. Lovecraft were real, there's a secret government department fighting it, and it's all being covered up? Beginning with cleverly Lovecraftian epistolary introductions by the authors, they proceed to weave Lovecraft's mythos with real history in a way that's often hard to tell where they converge, with a few requisite nods to UFOs and Bigfoot. The book includes a number of photographs, a few of them obviously altered. I highly recommend that readers be familiar with both the Mythos and real history. I thought it was an entertaining take on the whole "Men in Black" and "There are things that go bump in the night, we bump back" angle, with a nod to "It tells me that someone really wanted their initials to spell SHIELD."

[Geekster · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cthulhu Wars is een vreemd boek, en dan laten we zelfs buiten beschouwing dat het vertelt over de oorlog tussen Amerika en de tentakelmonsters. Het leest niet erg vlot en voelt meer aan als een geschiedenisboek, wat ongetwijfeld het opzet van de schrijvers was. Wellicht bijzonder inspirerend voor Cthulhu-based roleplaying games, maar ontspannende lectuur kan je het bezwaarlijk noemen.

https://www.geekster.be/books/the-cth...

[Ken Feucht · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting concept, but not one that works particularly well. The Mythos is based on dread of the unknown, and there is understandably none of that in this outside retelling of "historical" events. This would have worked better with some oral history stories thrown in to try and capture the actual feel of the Cthulhu Mythos.

[John Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a blast!

I loved this! As soon as I stumbled onto this & saw Kenneth Hite's name on it (author of "GURPS: Cabal"; my favorite role playing game supplement of all time), I had to have it. If the "Lone Gunmen" from The X-Files television show were to publish a conspiracy - theorist 's expose' on the deep state government's encounters with the Mythos, it'd look like this. Kenneth, if you and your pal who wrote this happen to see this, thank you for this! I hope this isn't the last we hear of the "mysterious Mr. Hite's clandestine deep-dives into these dark secrets. :-)

[Joe Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great pseudo-history research of the US war against the Cthulhu Mythos.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of plot hooks, nice pictures. But sort of peters out at the end.

[Eric Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as much fun as the Rome book but still a quick and entertaining read.

[Christopher Trader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like a silmarillion for Lovecraft, but 10x as dull.

[Jesse Dauby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun but very short

[Michael Haspil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun fictional history written in the style of Osprey's historical books.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Osprey, the people who publish those wonderful military guide books come a rather unusual venture, a guide book on the us armies counter offences against the mythos.
A well researched book almost worthy of the Osprey name. Using original and slightly but expertly modified images showing how the US along with other nations have been keeping back the forces or Necronomicon Related Entities (NRA) from wiping the human race from the earth.
If you enjoy Lovecraft and have a interest in military history this is a fun read.

[Iván Giménez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sigo con mis lectruas de los libros de Osprey dedicados a los Mitos de Cthulhu. El principal divertimento es buscar las referencias a los relatos de Lovecraft como El Caso de Charles Dexter Ward o La Sombra sobre Innsmouth, o como se ligan algunos eventos reales con la lucha contra los seres de los mitos. Lectura fácil y muy disfrutanle si eres fan de este universo.

[Eric Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alt-History with an Occult theme. If you are really into H.P. Lovecraft's works, specific the Cthulhu Cycle, you may or may not like this little book. I did like it, but I'm also a military history buff. If you are not familiar with Lovecraft's most famous creation don't bother, as this assumes at least some prior knowledge.

[Mercurybard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting a novel. Instead, I got a very thin, very well-illustrated psuedo-history book detailing MAJIC (and its predecessors) vs. the Mythos.

Much, much too short, though very clever. I currently have approximately nine Wikipedia articles open for further reading on events mentioned.