Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics slithers into stores on October 4th

I'm no expert on eldritch elder fiends, but I'm pretty sure that you'll need more than a WW2 SMG to bring down a Shoggoth - maybe the troopers in Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics know better, though. It's a superficially XCOM-ish tactics game based on Modiphius's Call Of Cthulhu spinoff RPG setting, building on the old trope that the Third Reich were dabbling in the occult. Stands to reason that they'd try to summon everyone's favourite squid-faced alien sea-god. Developed by Auroch Digital, it was Kickstarted in February and launches on October 4th. Below, the launch trailer.

As with earlier Lovecraftian tactics game Call Of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land, Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics appears to be a purely tactical game, rather than strategic. Rather than build a team of your own and lead them in a dynamic campaign through random maps, the missions here appear scripted and story-driven, while your squad is a Hellboy-like band of larger-than-life monster hunters. There are some light RPG elements, letting you specialise your supernatural squad between missions, and what the game lacks in strategic breadth, it looks to make up in its tactical focus.

The game uses an action point system, letting you mix movement and attacks in a given turn. There's the concept of light and darkness too - fog of war is more literal here, with flares and light sources exposing enemies that are happier to lurk in the shadows. Completing objectives and killing enemies also refills your Momentum, which can be spent on special abilities, spells and similar. Of course, being a Cthulhu game, there's a sanity system too, with monsters and poor fortune capable of causing psychological problems, as if the Nazis weren't bad enough.

Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is out in just two weeks, launching on October 4th, published by Ripstone - you can find it on Steam here. No price has been announced, but judging by the Kickstarter, somewhere between £20 and £30 seems likely.