Azathoth (faction)

**Azathoth** {CW-F4} is a faction released with Onslaught One. It is a neutral faction, whose units and spellbooks may be recruited by any player.

## Strategy

### Faction strategy

* **Dimensional Shambler**: Dimensional Shamblers are primarily useful as instant muscle and meatshields. Any faction can use them to interrupt Unlimited Battle, as they can be placed between an enemy moving into an area and their declaration of combat, but they can also be used to back up factions whose playstyle requires them to place their expensive Great Old One into harm's way without a battalion to back them up, including Black Goat with Avatar, Great Cthulhu with Dreams, or Yellow Sign with He Who is Not to be Named. They can also be used for factions whose playstyle stretches them thin across the map, such Yellow Sign with its Desecration Markers.
* **Star Vampire**: Star Vampires are especially potent when used in concert with Opener of the Way's Channel Power.
* **Elder Thing**: Elder Things are great at crippling enemy GOOs. They can be used to nullify the enemy's main methods of Doom and Elder Sign acquisition, such as Crawling Chaos's The Harbinger, Opener of the Way's The Key and the Gate, or Yellow Sign's Desecrate. They can also be used to handicap offensive GOO abilities, such as Great Cthulhu's Devour, Yellow Sign's Vengeance, or Tcho-Tcho's Hell's Banquet, or to remove protection, such as Windwalker's Eternal and Ferox.
* **Servitor of the Outer Gods**: Servitors of the Outer Gods are primarily a handicap for the chosen enemy. They are less effective against factions like Yellow Sign, Sleeper, or Windwalker, who have ways to get their Monsters on the board outside of Summon actions.
* **Azathoth**: Azathoth is an amazing wildcard. Depending on how much your opponents' greed outweighs their caution, his combat could be anywhere from 2 to 36. Nuclear Chaos only increases the chaos by adding gambling to the equation.

### Spellbook strategies

* **Shriveling**: This spellbook can be used to snipe your opponent's toughest units. It's not often worthwhile unless that unit is being used as a solitary meat shield for a high-value target, or provides some sort of secondary effect beyond its presence—for example, units like Formless Spawn or Dark Young that increase the combat roll of other units in addition to their own. This tactic can be risky unless used to deal a significant blow to the opponent, as freeing up the Power invested in that unit can often benefit them.
* **Recriminations**: This spellbook is used to replace single-use Spellbooks such as Dragon Ascending or Dragon Descending once they have been used—note that these spellbooks remained flipped even if chosen to be re-earned. It can also be used to combo with Tcho-Tcho's Hierophants, freeing up one of the used Spellbook slots to be re-earned, granting another free High Priest.
* **Stars Are Right**: This spellbook is useful for any faction that focuses on obtaining Elder Signs, such as Black Goat or Yellow Sign. It's best saved for the final rounds, as it reveals exactly how much of a threat you are to your opponents.
* **The Mao Ceremony**: This spellbook is most useful with factions that have ways to recruit Cultists cheaply; with other factions, it is mostly a tool to reposition Acolytes when moving them would be inefficient. Black Goat can use it to refund Acolytes for Power to use for up to three Ghroth actions, so that even if Ghroth fails it will recover half of the Acolytes. Similarly, Windwalker can cash in its Cultists for Power and then return them to the board via Cannibalism. The most efficient combo for this spellbook would be Mother Hydra's The Zygote, which allows the player to place all of the Acolytes in its Pool for only 1 Power, resulting in a max profit of 5 Power.
* **Umr at-Tawil**: This spellbook is useful for factions like Yellow Sign or Black Goat that have Monsters of cost 2 or less, as the cost reduction means that the player can afford to both build two Gates and summon 2 Monsters in the first round. It is vital for Opener of the Way, whose "12 Gates exist on the map" Spellbook Requirement is often daunting.
* **Undimensioned**: This spellbook is vital for regrouping or transporting armies on the cheap, and is most useful with factions that have some way to sneak a unit deep into enemy territory—Black Goat's Avatar and Necrophagy, Great Cthulhu's Dreams, Opener of the Way's They Break Through, or even a Flying Polyp with Flight and Invisibility to keep itself safe. Great Cthulhu can also use it to regroup its forces for a Submerge, while Yellow Sign can use it to deposit Acolytes at each Desecration Marker held by a Byakhee, freeing them up to be used for Battle via Shriek of the Byakhee. The most universal combo for this spellbook is by using Dimensional Shamblers once you have unlocked Unlimited Battle—the Shamblers can be placed as an outpost, then the rest of the army can be cheaply brought in for a massive assault.

## Story

Epilogue
*"Everything you've been told about the nature of the universe is a lie. There was never any intent behind the formation of the constellations, nor placing Earth among them. Neither are the cold physics of the Big Bang Theory accurate. The truth is somewhere between, yet having little to do with either.
When well-meaning physicists begin talking about cycles of expansion and contraction, they draw near the truth. Theologists have a nugget of understanding when they discuss an all-knowing, all-caring 'god' (or 'gods') responsible for the formation of matter. But both are yet off the mark.
At the center of the universe is indeed a consciousness; an impossibly vast, monstrously cruel force that at once creates, and yet does not understand creation. It sloughs off galaxies to fend for themselves. It shudders, and suns dim. When it dreams, worlds die in holocausts of madness and terror.
It is the center of all things, it is the creator and destroyer of reality. It is Azathoth.
Madmen and sorcerers call out its name in reverential fear. They reach out to the Blind Idiot God, hoping for secrets of power, immortality, wealth. What they receive is petulance, rage, and nightmares made real. They listen to the piping of the cavorting demons, hoping to hear a whisper of Azathoth's truth, and come away mind-blasted shells.
Still, Azathoth plays on. Unknowingly it creates universes, and moments later destroys them. Moments of its unquenchable insanity have no corresponding measure in our own time. Then there's the real secret. The universe we inhabit, the reality we think we know... it's not even the first one. Countless times has it been created and resorbed by Azathoth. Countless times have beings warred, battled, loved, died. Has it been the same universe, created and destroyed over and over? Have you lived this same life a million times?
Made the same mistakes throughout eternity?
No one knows. Except Azathoth, who cares not."
—Ben Monroe*