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![SandyofCthulhu Avatar](https://lunarcrush.com/gi/w:24/cr:twitter::900868190.png) Sandy Petersen 🪔 [@SandyofCthulhu](/creator/twitter/SandyofCthulhu) on x 41.9K followers
Created: 2025-07-25 22:03:02 UTC

How to balance unbalanced factions in a game.

I cut my teeth making Age of Empires' factions asymmetrical yet balanced. The most fun I ever had was developing Age of Empires III: The Warchiefs, which were also the very most unbalanced factions we'd ever created. I carried this love for asymmetry on after Ensemble Studios went kaput. 

My game Cthulhu Wars is famously asymmetrical. (It's available on shop dot petersengames dot com, Noble Knight, and elsewhere.) The factions have different abilities, spellbooks, ways to win, and even monsters. Cthulhu has shoggoths, starspawn, & deep ones. Black Goat has dark young, mi-go, and ghouls. They don't even get Elder Signs the same way. 

This gives the game a lot more replayability, because if you've mastered the tactics & strategy of, say, Cthulhu, but now ecide to play he Crawling Chaos

1/

![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwu8ccPbgAQD-qb.jpg)

XXXXXX engagements

![Engagements Line Chart](https://lunarcrush.com/gi/w:600/p:tweet::1948866607629123709/c:line.svg)

**Related Topics**
[wars](/topic/wars)
[age of empires](/topic/age-of-empires)
[sandy](/topic/sandy)

[Post Link](https://x.com/SandyofCthulhu/status/1948866607629123709)