Mike posted the buildings for Series 5 on MonsterInsider just a few minutes ago. So, very quickly, let’s look over these new smashable delights.
Tokyo Triumph looks to be the new Crystalline Building. While it is a Media Hub, more people will be interested in the Spire and Live Wire combination. Keep a Fire Kami (or other figure with Ignite) nearby and this could prove to be one of the most dangerous buildings on the map.
Tokyo City Center sounds like it might have High Security. Mike confirms it to have 5 Defense and City Hall. (City Hall—If you are securing this building, whenever either player gains 1 or more P-Dice for destroying a unit and the other player has 5 or fewer P-Dice, the other player gains +1 P-Die.) Looks like something useful for those power-hungry players who only want to secure one building. Of course, the Stock Exchange is the natural enemy of the City Center. Look for a special on that on National Geographic later this week.
The third and final Monument, the Pacific Eye, is carrying the highest defense of any building in Big in Japan (presumably 6 or 7). Of course, this building also has the very interesting Roller ability, bringing some new twists to building smashing. (Roller—If a monster hits this building with a brawl attack, move the building a number of spaces equal to the number of strikes rolled on the A-Dice for that attack and then destroy it. This movement must be in a straight line in a direction chosen by the attacker. Crush or destroy any units or buildings the building moves through. If the building comes in contact with a figure it cannot destroy, the building stops and the figure takes 1 damage. Leave this building’s hazard or rubble tile on the foundation where it was originally placed.)
Unlike I Chomp New York, there are going to be a few buildings in this set that you can bring in multiples for your city.
The Defense Contractor has High Security and green Energy Drain, presumably on Blast. For all of you out there with units blasting away, this might be a replacement for the Bank HQ.
Now, if you ever got tired of securing a Radar Array just to extend your range, think about this. A Radio Telescope that not only gives all your figures Green Radar, but it also has an action for your monster. Might we be seeing more Beacon on the board?
For a new trick, the Sewage Plant would like to perform his bar-bending magic, pushing units around with Telekenisis.
Some of you are going to hate this. The Oil Company HQ comes with a Green Ability I personally didn’t expect. Amplify! Of course, every pro comes with a con, while your units are charged up, they’re also unstable, making it very risky to clump them together with this building secured. The Oil Company also has Superstructure, making it a prime target for Destroyers looking for some extra dice.
Finally, Mike teases us by telling us that the Telecom Company has 3 green abilities aside from Media Hub. Logistics and a Self Destruct blast trigger. The third ability is left un-mentioned.
As usual, post your questions for Mike in the comments below. If you want to go ahead and get your orders in for some of these buildings, be sure to check out the new and improved store. Stay tuned next week and we’ll let you know as soon as Mike “digs into” another Series 5 faction.
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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. 
Dear Mike,
One, this all looks awesome. By that I don’t just mean the abilities, but the sculpts are cool.
Two, you guys have done a great job of not making many figures obsolete. The balancing between earlier and later sets has been quite good. This might be the first time, though, that I fear a building will no longer have a purpose. What reason will we have to place Radar Arrays when we now have Radar Telescopes available?
All the best,
JeFF
I too, hate to see escalation but this I don’t mind as much. It seems like a correction actually, creating a building they wish they had the first time around.
My question: Is there any reason privateer press is so “amplify” happy this set? With the hazardous truck AND the oil company, seems like you wanted everyone access to an ability that was rather invader/protector exclusive there.
Good point. They noted at some point that the green abilities were like a lightbulb going on (my word, not theirs) in that the new color would allow them to use fewer abilities (and I think they specifically noted Radar Array vs Green Radar). Still, I can always hope for some reason to keep the oldies around. Then again (again), I’ve only got one, so picking up two Telescopes (one for Kate, one for me) isn’t a bad idea anyway.
Also, I of course meant to say Radio Telescope, not Radar Telescope. Though, if you can figure out what one of those is, it might make a cool building as well.
Are we sure that the Tokyo Triumph doesn’t produce a hazard? That’ll be a 5 damage building if it did. Not that 4 damage is already ridiculous enough.
As for the Pacific Eye’s Roller ability, when you hit that sucker with a brawl you will be moving it at least 6 spaces. Despite it having a low energy stat this could be a pdie producing cow as it rolls over other buildings, monuments, and units! Not only that, it could eradicate a players power base if it is well placed. Looks like a good combination for Alpha Kondo’s Riot….Brawl the Pacific Eye and let it roll in one direction while Kondo Rampages in the other…carnage all over!
Couldn’t the Telecom Company’s Media Hub be green? Though it would only have interesting effects on installations with Invader units…is it possible?
I have a feeling the Sewage Plant will produce a chemical hazard instead of a radiation…despite it “radiating” a putrid smell. There is no Radiation Zone reaction in the NOW rulebook. Unless PP decides to put a rules insert to include Radiation Zone like they did for Deflector Shield and Satellite Support in the Map Pack.
Wouldn’t matter. Only 1 media hub effect per power up, remember? A green version of it would be completely useless.
Which is a shame, I was hoping invaders would be the pD subtraction kings but they lost that to protectors and their very nice power tap.
On top of one Media Hub per power up, Installations and Buildings at large don’t get Green Abilities. So even though I may secure a Green Media Hub, no other buildings on the map will gain it.
Oh yeah…I really want to know the defenses and energy stats of the buildings. That makes a big difference in where a building gets played.
Did I mention that I was excited? Cannot wait to do tonights podcast… Stay tuned!
I don’t think I’ll be able to join you tonight, Zach, but here’s my question:
As has been mentioned, why are they giving everyone access to some abilities that seemed to define certain factions? Power Pod, Laser Knight, Earth Avatar, etc.
Is this the plan for the future? And, by making building abilities so lucrative, are they trying to force a meta that requires powerbase destruction?
I think the primary reason is to encourage people to secure more buildings, though I’m curious about this too.
As far as the concern with everyone getting Amplify, it might still be better to field Power Pods or Earth Kamis instead of securing the Oil Company HQ unless you’re confident that you won’t be seeing your units adjacent much (if ever). On the other hand, Unstable isn’t exactly a bad thing to have if you’re looking at a brawl-happy enemy army.
I’d like to piggyback off this “forcing a meta” question into a related one. If so many factions will have access to so many similar (no, not the same, but similar) abilities, should we expect more themed tournament events coming up? Whereas past Masters are free-form, letting players use whatever appears to be best overall, will future tournaments ask us to participate on premade maps made of all buildings with Spire, for example? I ask because those of us in the casual crowd love having more options – when I’m playing with my wife, we can easily choose to form whatever meta game we want, from handicapping one of us to fully exploring the thematic elements of the game – but tournament players will be looking for the Bigger Better Deal. Singular. Will PP have to step in and explicitly define various meta-games for competitive play?
And yeah, thanks for putting up with very wordy questions from me. I’m in academia – it’s a disease.
I would definitely like to know if there’s a radiation hazard Set 5.
I also think they mentioned something like Synchronized Move on the Tokyo City Center, but what kind is it? Personally, I’m hoping it’s for Brawl.
One more question I’d like to have answered if possible, and this, admittedly, is a little off-topic. I asked this question last week, and I’d really like to get it answered eventually.
What exactly made PP decide to start focusing on lower Defs for monsters in Sets 4 and up?
Thank you TC for giving us these choice opportunities to pick Mike’s brain, and thank you Mike for being gracious enough to endure Zach’s onslaught of questions week after week while posting weekly blogs on MonsterInsider.net.
Those monuments really do look nice. Get’s me even more excited for
Set 5!
Ooh! Oooh!
One more questions that I’d like to have answered if possible please –
What made PP decide to make the three monuments that were chosen? I know some people thought the Cacoon Tower or even Mt. Fuji would be in the set. Were either of those ever considered in the planning period?
Just curious, especially in the case of Mt. Fuji, since I was hoping to brawl around that most renowned of volcanoes.
Mt Fuiji might end up being in the map pack.
But YEAH it would be awesome to get “landmarks” in this game rather than just constructions.
Did someone say Mt. Rushmore?
The Radio Telescope also made me immediately think that the RADAR Array was now obsolete. Jam only affects enemy figures, so Green Rader won’t be blocked any more than RADAR network or whatever it’s called could be.
At the same time, it’s not like my RADAR Arrays are suddenly useless. They still provide a range boost.
As for green Amplify…Power Pods still have the upper hand. You can use PPods whether you’re securing any buildings or not. And you can’t have all your P Pods turned off by a single disrupting unit. It’s a little like Tritons getting Tow on the Spadefin…it’s nice, but it’s not a Pteradactix. It’s slower, doesn’t fly. I’d still rather have a Pteradactix over a Spadefin for any agenda other than Invaders.
The Pacific Eye sounds nasty…but remember that it’s rolling distance is controlled by the strikes on your A dice only. Rolling 8A dice will yield an average of 4 strikes. Sure, it COULD roll 16, but chances are, it won’t roll anywhere near that amount.
I think it’s going to be a very tempting, but risky, option, once I can see using early in the game on the chance of destroying a good portion of the enemy’s building structure. Or just seeing it wobble a few spaces and falling over.
Well yeah, but so will this. It’s like when the GUARD installation came out. Why would a guard player ever include a radar array again? They can get the same benefit + higher def + additional abilities + extra ranged attack.
It’s government building vs Statue of Liberty all over again.
Im liking the fire truck more on more to protect some these buildings
the green amplify is not as good as having actual units with that ability. A power up with this secured and two power zones is 4-5 units required for 5 P-Die. Two units with amplify on a powerzone is a much harder to disrupt 4 P-Die.
In my opinion it is the green unstable that is really good. It turns all your soft disruption and your spawn zone blocking in to deadliness. Good for factions with few red abilities.
If I may throw out a question
What are the rarities of these buildings???
Keep in mind, we don’t know any defense or energy stats… Radar Array may not have Beacon, but it might have better raw stats than the telescope to compensate. Telescopes are fragile pieces of equipment, after all! I run Gov. buildings over SoL for the same reason; 6 defense buildings stick around longer than 4.
And a question that Mike will love to answer: Which new building does he think will benefit Dynasatavus the most?
I think my biggest question for Mike is whether players should feel a little justified in worrying about power creep. All these green abilities could be dangerous.
If I may ask about a previous Insider. I would like to know if Crustaceor has more than this and if so what:
Alpha- Reach, Crunch(Brawl), Hoist, Demolish(Blast)
Ultra- Power Strike(Brawl),Reach, Crunch(Brawl), Jump,
Mega-
I appreciate the backtrack if it is possible
congratulations, excelent!