King of Tokyo at Five and Six: Tokyo Bay and the Big Table

Welcome to Level 3. Everything at Level 2 still holds, but the big table bends it. At five or six players, King of Tokyo is louder, more political, and more dangerous. It is also the count the World Boardgaming Championships uses for every table, as the tournament lesson explains, so it is where an expert’s game is tested.

What the rules change

The current rulebook adds one place and one exit:

• Tokyo Bay opens. With 5 or 6 players, both Tokyo City and Tokyo Bay are used. If Tokyo City is taken and the Bay is empty during your enter Tokyo step, you must enter the Bay. It works exactly like the City: 1 point to enter, 2 for starting your turn there, no healing from Heal results.
• Monsters in Tokyo do not wound each other. A Smash result from the City hits only Monsters outside, and so does one from the Bay.
• The Bay closes. Once 4 or fewer Monsters remain, the Monster in Tokyo Bay leaves at once, or moves to Tokyo City if the City is empty.

The math of two seats

At four players, three Monsters outside aim at one target. At six, four Monsters outside aim at two targets, and every Smash result from outside wounds both of them at once.

That means each Monster in Tokyo faces the full damage of the outside table. Sharing Tokyo spreads nothing. With four Monsters outside each averaging 1 or 2 damage in a normal midgame turn, a Monster in Tokyo can lose 4 to 8 Life before its next turn. Compare that to the midgame lesson, where two Monsters outside left 5 Life fairly safe. At six, 5 Life in Tokyo is a gamble.

The reward side is better too. Two Monsters can each collect 2 points per turn, and a Monster in Tokyo hits up to four others with every Smash result. A good damage card is worth the most here.

Who to hit from outside

Outside, you cannot pick between the two Monsters in Tokyo. Your Smash results wound both. So the real choice is whether to keep Smash results at all, and that depends on what happens next.

• If either Monster in Tokyo will Yield, you must enter whichever place is empty. Ask whether you want that seat.
• If one of them is low, your Smash may knock it out. That shrinks the table and may close the Bay.
• If both are healthy and you are not, let the others do the hitting this turn. Someone else will pay to move in.

The politics

At a table of six, the strongest Monster gets ganged up on, by design. Life, points, and Energy are all open, and everyone can see who is ahead. A few habits help:

• Do not lead too early. A Monster at 14 points with three Monsters behind it becomes everyone’s target.
• Point at the leader. You may say aloud who is ahead. Table talk is part of the game, and getting the table to focus on the right Monster is a skill.
• Stay in the middle of the pack until you can see a path to 20 in two turns.

Eliminations come faster

More Monsters dealing damage means more knockouts, and each knockout changes the board. When a Monster is eliminated, its Keep cards and Energy are discarded, so a rich Monster going out removes a threat from the card row too.

When the count drops to four, watch for the Bay closing. If you are in the Bay when it closes, you lose your seat without being hit, and with it the 2 points you expected next turn. If the City is empty at that moment, you move into the City instead.

Fire Breathing also works differently here. It wounds your two neighbors at the table, even if one of them is in Tokyo with you, so seat position starts to matter.

Survival first

At a big table, there are many ways to go out and only two ways to win. The tournament tiebreakers reward Monsters who are still alive, and so does the game itself: a Monster at 0 Life cannot win anything. The expert move at six is often the dull one. Leave Tokyo a turn early, heal to a safe number, and let two other Monsters take the beating.