I can’t express how excited I am to finally get some inside information on the Tritons coming in Series 5. Wow is all I can say… Wow.
Crustaceor is our mysterious lobster friend (I was still hoping his name was Lobstor the Destructinator as suggested in the image here). He’s packing Reach and Crunch, along with Power Strike and Hoist. Unfortunately, we’re not given much information on which forms have which abilities and if any of them are red or blue. However, Hoist will make those Steel Shell Crabs much more menacing.
Along side Crustaceor is Leviathron. With Armored, Power Drain, Pathfinder, and Hasten (again no hints as to which colors or forms we’ll be seeing) he should prove to be an interesting opponent. I’m already excited at the idea of Spiral Relays moving to critical locations on the board with 7 Speed.
Almost more exciting for me than the Monsters is the units that are previewed. Maco Hunter Sub is reported to be using the same propulsion systems as the Nautilus Blaster, meaning it’s likely Amphbious instead of Hovering. However, it is supposed to have boosted laser blasts with Disrupt, making it a worthwhile addition to the already formidable Nautilus Blaster. Between the two, it’ll have Disrupt and Power Gorge on Blasts and Armor Piercing on the attack, making any enemy monsters think twice before going into their Hyper form early in the game.
Finally, the Psi-Eels just made my day. With Hazardous and Unstable, they’re your typical sacrificial unit. However, they’re also supposed to be as fast as the fastest Triton sea craft (6 Speed). Not only are they a huge boost to the mobility of the Tritons, with Anglax’s Command, they’ll almost always be in a position to allow for some extra damage.
As usual, post your questions for the Team Covenant podcast with Mike later tonight. I know I’ve got a few questions for him and hopefully we’ll get some solid details about the monster forms and the stats on these amazing sea-bound figures.
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Philip is a gamer, programmer and longtime friend of the Covenant Team. When he's not spending time with his family, his job, or the general business that is life, he's working to make the Covenant TCG site the best site on the web for gamers. 
Now I can finally recreate the greatest movie of all time!
“Jaws 4: The revenge”
(yep, you know I’m going to be using that as a title for a lot of armies)
The tritons are really coming together as a faction!
Those eels make Anglax way better. You’ll be smoking me in no time, Phil. Our games are already down to the wire WITHOUT the eels giving you bonus damage.
Looking forward to it, Steven. And I have to say, the Maco Subs will be perfect fire support for the Nautilus Blasters. I’m just hoping they have 5+ Speed, though I’d settle for 4.
Forget steel shell, Hoist means you’ll pretty must always be power attacked by this guy…
I thought it was clear from insider that hasten was on the ultra form (probably blue, otherwise it would be “motivator”)
You also realize that with pathfinder, he has a 50/50 chance of clearing your screens? Tritons just became the power attack kings! (kraken-pus was already contending the title with towing meddlesome units out of the way)
Kraken-who? It’s all about Anglax, man. Of course, screen clearing isn’t his specialty, but with Command and those Eels, he’s about to get a whole lot meaner.
Anglax is nice – don’t get me wrong, but don’t underestimate the squid.
Anglax just got really good.
Yes, Crustaceor is a screen-clearing machine. This meta just KEEPS evolving. Incredible!
We start with blasters being supreme, then Now! contained great high DEF brawlers, making blasters less superior. Screening used to guarantee that you were safe, but now in the next set plenty of monsters can dismantle it. When the field gets this varied, Monpoc takes on a whole new level of awesome.
I’m already in love with Crusty; he does everything I like to do. He brawls for 2 from behind a screen! He eliminates the enemy’s screens to get in for Power Attacks! He does p-dice denial! Also, if I read the blog correctly, he has Jump on the Ultra (“In the video, the menacing lobster monster changed from a pinkish tint to a glimmering yellow and then leaped from the ocean waters toward the shore.”) Hoist is cool, but I had hoped that the Hoist on the Triton ref sheet was on the Installation… there’s still hope!
As terrifying as the thought of Ceolocanth-Megalodon hybrids are, I’m still not sold on Leviathron until we get some more stat info. How fast is “fast”? If he doesn’t have a movement ability (which is status quo for Triton monsters thus far), then 7 or 8 speed really isn’t going to help when buildings get in the way.
I didn’t think about the Mako Subs having Amphibious… I just assumed “same propulsion system” meant 3 speed. I like your analysis better! Definitely something Anglax is in the market for.
I’m all for more Hazardous units!
And STILL no info on the moles! C’mon Mike, we Fiends are dyin’ over here! D:
I think that Mike actually mentioned that Crustaceor (not a fan of that name) would have Crunch and Reach in both forms, and Leviathron (like that one though) would actually have Armored in both forms too.
Both monsters sound like they’ll be fun to play.
Now, let me think of some questions…
Is it true that Leviathron’s sculpt looks like the buck-toothed lovechild of a beaver and a fish?
That’s one of the things I’m most worried about, due to that fuzzy pic we got on the side of the monster booster.
Also, I think I caught that Crustaceor has Jump in his Ultra. I’d be interested to know why PPS chose Jump for the Lobster, instead of Burrow, for instance. I’m not complaining or anything, just wondering.
I’m also kind of curious – Does PP figure an overall theme for each faction before they start creating monsters and units for the faction?
That way they know what direction to go in.
Or does PPS just kind of go with the flow and factions build up a theme over the process of creation?
I’d like it if you could also ask Mike what he thinks the Triton’s theme would be, too. Is it healing, moving, brawling, blasting, or an eclectic mix of two or more?
In other words, what makes the Tritons Tritons.
Looking forward to the interview.
Two more things.
Does Leviathron have super damage in some form?
And does the new vehicle unit have an inherent B-die?
The last part is a question for one of my friends. He is determined to play only mono-faction Tritons, but so far he’s been bummed that the Tritons don’t have a worthy trade off for Vanguard.
Yeah, thanks again guys! Can’t wait for the blog!
Shame they changed the names, Lobstor and Megachompadon were much better. Or they could call the shark Dopefish.
Amen to that! The ultimate goal should be that every game comes down to dice, that there is no “insta” win with one monster against another (though you will always have paper-rock-scissors a bit with these games)
I too would like privateer press to just demonstrate with a single monster the creation process from vague idea to final released form. Do drawings come first than rough stats/abilities? Do they figure out what they want stat wise than ask the art department to draw it?
(i’m especially curious if my theory about Kondo’s 5 def is true…)
While I was reading the Monster Insider blog the Crustacean monster seemed to change color does that mean it’ll have some form of cloak?
Can’t wait for the Interview guys!
Scott,
I think that was alluding to the “hypering up” process.
Dear Mike,
You talked last week about the playtesting process you go through. I was wondering if you’ve been having fun playtesting same-agenda but cross-faction. I want to know if my Zor-Magna will want to screen with Mecha Chompers for extra range, if Phobos-7 will want disintegrate all buildings and then use Psi-eels to control where extra damage can be dealt, if Zach’s Sky Sentinel has a new best friend or just another unit in Air Kamis. I want to know if you’ve run Shadow Gates with Mechacthugrosh, and pick any other fun Rise/Chomp/Base units to pair with Now/Japan monsters. It’s not just the new faction pieces, but how they play with the old factions that I’m excited by.
All the best,
JeFF
Having Armored in both forms is going to help Leviathron immeasurably, if that’s actually the case. On a map with very few hazards, he can get up and personal without fear of the counter-attack. In theory, he wouldn’t actually need to screen, since power attacking is really no better than a brawl…
Starting to like him more…
While these fish are cool, I’m looking more twoards the next blog, of which the clue was practicly as blunt as they get. I expect the Subterran Uprising will be next week’s blog subject
Can’t wait to interview Mike this week. We’ll do our best to make great and get as much info as possible. Post your questions asap!
Figuratively and now literally my Zors can jump the shark.
I thought it was interesting how colors were mentioned in the blog so prominently with Crustaceor changing from a “pinkish tint to a glimmering yellow.” No doubt this refers to him flexing forms which leads me to the question: Will he have a low hyper cost?
“Figuratively and now literally my Zors can jump the shark.”
Thank you so much for that Kevin.
I like that Lobstoc (I’m gonna keep calling it that) has jump in the hyper. I wonder if it has any movement options in the alpha.
I’ve been looking for a website exactly like this for a while now. Thank you for taking the time to create and maintain this…never easy when you have so much to do.
You know… once the spam bots start being able to appropriately refer to the actual content in the post… we’ll be in serious trouble.