Riot Games, known for globally popular MOBA League of Legends, is venturing from its flagship title with the surprise announcement of Mechs vs. Minions, an expansive physical board game featuring Runeterra’s most adorable inhabitants, the Yordles.
The overview video describes Mechs vs. Minions as a “programmatic, cooperative, campaign-based tabletop game meant for two to four players;” and the cute tutorial delves a little into the background story and explains some of the gameplay mechanics.
Mechs vs. Minions follows Yordles Heimerdinger, Tristana, Corki and Ziggs, learning to control mechs, as they fight a minion horde. The box includes five game boards, four painted mech miniatures, 100 unpainted minion miniatures, a custom sand timer and a long list of much more, including some secrets meant to go unopened until needed while playing. Each of the ten missions included in the story-driven campaign will offer different objectives and challenges.
Riot has already released the Mechs vs. Minions rulebook and some of the digital soundtrack on its dedicated webpage. The two released tracks, Lava Cave and Green Battlefield, are atmospheric tunes complete with sound effects expected of their namesakes, reminiscent of tracks a Dungeon Master would use for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
Though Riot only just officially released the news of this kept-under-wraps project, a premature post on SU&SD revealed photos of the box of Mechs vs. Minions and its contents in all of its pre-painted glory a full week ago. User Unubore saved the images of the post before it was taken down, which we’ve included below.
From Polygon’s interview with producer Chris Cantrell:
“We are really fortunate here at Riot to have a moderately-sized player base with our video game. My thinking was if we could introduce this new hobby to some of them, they would fall in love with it the way that we did.”
There will initially be 30,000 English copies of Mechs vs. Minions. But considering League of Legends’ massive fanbase with more than 100 million monthly players, the first run may very well sellout fast.
You’ll be able to snag a copy of Mechs vs. Minions on Riot Games’ official merch site on Oct. 13, 2016 at 11 a.m. PST for $75 USD plus shipping and handling.
