Is Cthulhu harder, or just longer?

Question

I've got Elder Sign: Omens for the iPad and after resigning my first game halfway through I've won the next six, five of which were on the so-called "hard" difficulty, and all of which were with a random four person party. I was very disappointed that the Azathoth game was basically the same as the Yig game, it just took me a few more turns to amass enough elder signs. (Apparently Azathoth was the original game and Yig was added because other players found it too hard?)

There's a "very hard" Cthulhu expansion available for purchase, and it apparently does switch up the mechanics a little bit with some kind of break in the middle. Is this mode actually harder, or is it essentially like playing the Azathoth game twice in a row?

Answer 1

It is decidedly much harder. The mechanics make it so that you have to spend tokens earned from defeating monsters and succeeding in adventures to locate R'lyeh to win. Plus, there are certain artifacts one must find or spend 15 tokens for in order to avoid penalties when confronting Cthulhu. The adventures tend to have more penalties (like lose 0-3 stamina upon entering or advance the Doom clock) and are often harder to deal with.

It is definitely not like playing Azathoth twice. It does add some needed variety to the mix, and if you like the initial base game, is probably worth buying.