League of Legends now boasts over 100 million monthly active players worldwide. Image Source: Geek & SunDry

The American game developers at Riot Games have finally come up with a new title inspired by the worldwide successful ‘League of Legends.’ However, it is not a video game, but a tabletop experience called ‘Mechs vs. Minions.’ The board game will be out next month exclusively on the studio’s official Merch Store.

The upcoming tabletop game was developed by a small, in-house team at Riot Games. Their efforts began nearly two years ago and passed through several development stages with lead producer Chris Cantrell at the head of the project.

The ‘Mechs vs. Minions’ team has stated that they intend to provide not only fun, new board game but also a complete experience set on the ‘League of Legends’ universe. The game comes out on October 13 and will cost $75.

‘Mechs vs. Minions’ brings strategy and storytelling to tabletops

First off, it’s worth noticing the creators of ‘Mechs vs. Minions’ are avid fans of board games. This fact, in combination with the new wave of board games and its following scene, makes a well-thought and dedicated title from Riot Games.

The setting is this: several ‘League of Legends’ champions meet for some new challenges when things quickly go south, and they have to band together to fight off an impending threat. In this case, the champions featured on ‘Mechs vs. Minions’ all belong to the Yordle race, a small species of beings native to the lands of Runeterra.

The champions Corki, Heimerdinger, Tristana, and Ziggs, meet Rumble to become the first pupils in his top-rated academy.

However, their classes soon halt as minions overrun the school and the Runeterra territory. Players will have ten different missions and storytelling elements included in the box to add more replay value to the engaging game.

How do we play ‘Mechs vs. Minions’?

“MECHS VS. MINIONS IS AN ENTIRELY COOPERATIVE TABETOP GAME FOR 2-4 PLAYERS. USING PROGRAMMATIC MOVEMENT FROM A SHARED DRAFT, TEAMMATES WILL GROW IN PROWER AS THEY FACE OFF AGAINST ARMIES OF MARAUDING MINIONS,” the Riot Games team stated on its official site. 

What do they mean by programmatic movement? The board game is card-based, so each player gets a ‘Command Line’ in which to input the Mech commands. Said orders come in the form of different cards that specify movement, effect, and attacks that the Mech-riding Yordles can perform.

Players can combine and replace different cards to make their characters fight off the minions in the most efficient way. Cards come in different categories and players must think carefully to articulate their movements before building up a command or replacing a card in the command line.

The box includes four miniatures for the main playable characters as well as different card decks and 100 minion figurines. Other contents of the ‘Mechs vs. Minions’ box have been kept under wraps, but the creators have teased that players will find exciting new elements that add more to the game’s story.

‘Mechs vs. Minions’ will be available in English and Simplified Chinese starting October 13 on the Riot Games Mech Store for $75.

Source: Riot Games