The Triassic 5 are out for pre-order this week, and we all want to know what they’ll bring to your ring. So let’s have a rules deep dive!

If your Cold Bloods need a little new blood, look no further! The Triassic 5 are almost here, and they bring with them a whole bunch of new and useful skills.

But why exactly should you care? Other than having awesome models, what we need to know is rules!

Well, the Triassic 5 have three WEIGHT 1 characters and two WEIGHT 3s, which means they’re an all or nothing sort of force!

The Cold Bloods are a super user-friendly team. With plenty of +1s on their stats, and Crowd Pleasers that up those stats for the round, they’re all very reliable. The Triassic 5 take that idea and roll with it! You’ll find plenty of reliability, but all of their roles are a little more focused.

Gekko Firebreather

Starting with one of the most offensive WEIGHT 1s around, the Firebreather is a little lacking in its stats, although more than makes up for it in its special abilities.

Its Firebomb is a very handy way to get access to DEVASTATING, doing a very nice 3 damage to everyone in base contact.

Or you can go with a Flame Breath attack. It hits everyone in a straight line up to 3 squares away, so if you get in quick, you can put a lot of damage onto your opponent at the very start of the game while they’re all in their corner. Although only 1 Damage, it has BLEEDING (which is actually them being on fire!), so a potential extra point as well. Get the Firebreather’s Crowd Pleaser going and that’s upgraded to 3 Damage each wrestler! Ouch!

Pterodacrobat

The flying wonder! The Pterodacrobat isn’t especially fast on the floor, but can easily get from one side of the ring to the other. The Flying Wing Smash has JUMP and ROCKET, which means you’re able to move from one rope to the other rope, ignoring anyone in the way. This is one wrestler who will never be penned in.

Of course, the Shooting Star Slash is the main event here. A Pterodacrobat is best when gliding round the ring, leaping off the turnbuckles. 2 Damage is pretty standard for a Turnbuckle attack, but Range 7 certainly is not! In addition, any enemy wrestler the Pterodacrobat moves over to get to its target takes 2 Damage as well, with no chance to defend! Although its a relatively small amount, you can potentially chain 2 of these moves together in a single round, and that starts to add up.

Axolotl Cutie

Now onto my favourite wrestler of all time. The Axolotl Cutie is aptly named – just look how cute it is in the lovely art! So cute! How could you punch it??

Well, that was our thought when designing the Cutie’s rules! The Axolotl’s Too Cute to Punch ability means that anyone hitting it gets a -AP counter every time they try! So it’s super annoying to take down.

“Oh I’ll just ignore it then” I hear you warm bloods calling out. Well, good luck! The Cutie has two particularly annoying skills. The first is a Love Lock, which – while very weak – puts a couple of -AP and minus -MP counters on the target. It also heals 1 Stamina, so it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Super Tight Hug meanwhile is all about friendly wrestlers. The Cutie squeezes a little too tight and takes 1 Stamina away. But it’s such a good hug that they get +1 AP! Add in a Crowd Pleaser that heals friendlies, and you’ll be thinking twice about whether you want to punch this Cutie or not!

Stubby Dunker

Here we go, onto the heavyweights. Stubby Dunker (named after their stubby dunker) is a truly immovable wrestler.

Look at those stats! With 2G+1 DEF, this might be the hardest to hurt wrestler in the entire game! What’s that? The Yeetle is just as tough? Well, what if I tell you that Armoured Shell lets you re-roll DEF rolls, and Stubby Dunker can’t be Shoved, and a successful Crowd Pleaser gives Stubby an extra +2 DEF?! Definitely the toughest wrestler in the game.

Stubby’s Iron Claw Slam is a decent offensive move, giving easy access to KNOCKDOWN, with 2S+1 GRP as well.

If you can get The Wall off well, you’ll do 2G+1 ATT and 3 Damage to two enemy wrestlers, which can single-handedly turn the tide of the entire game (I’ve seen it happen).

T-Flex

Finally we have one of the biggest wrestlers we’ve ever released. It’s a literal T-Rex! She’s huge, she’s tough, her ATT is one of the best around (I can’t think of anyone outside of a Superstar that matches it), and she’s fairly DEXtrous too. One glaring problem though: 1C GRP. Her arms are just too tiny to grab anyone!

Luckily enough, she can defend in other ways. Once per round you can use her ATT when defending against a Grapple attack. Use it wisely, as that can turn a sure-thing for your opponent into a bitter Reversal.

Combine Razor Sharp Teeth with her Crowd Pleaser, and you have Brawl attacks that can get up to 3 Damage, which isn’t too shabby! Start with a Cretaceous Kick to get a free Crowd Pleaser attempt, and you’re golden. She really is a force to be reckoned with!

So there we have it! Some real crazy wrestlers there!

The Triassic 5 adds 4 entirely different new ways to bring a huge amount of damage dealing to your team. Oh and a tiny cute Axolotl who dishes out plus and minus AP counters all over the place. What’s not to love?!

The Triassic 5 are going up for pre-order this Friday, so make sure to head over there and check them out when they go live (usually around 3pm, but we’ll have all the info for you here as well!).