League of Legends meets meatspace with board game crossover

The video-game-to-board-game community gained another member on Monday with the announcement of the first League of Legends board game. Titled Mechs vs. Minions, the $75 game will launch exclusively through Riot Games’ own Web store on October 13.

If you’re looking for a board game that replicates the “MOBA” game genre with elements like lane control and creep management, don’t get your hopes up too highly. Mechs vs. Minions appears to be more of an “inspired by” product, as it eschews LoL‘s mechanics in favor of a “programmatic card deck” movement and battle system. Players control one of the series’ four “yordle” characters—small, dwarf-like people who ride giant machines—and team up in a cooperative campaign against dozens of board-controlled bad guys.

If you’ve seen Avalon Hill’s classic game Robo Rally, you know the drill. You’ll draw from a deck of movement cards, then set those down to play out in order during your turn—and hope that your preselected movements match up with how everything else on the board eventually moves. Unlike Robo Rally, your MvM deck will also contain attack cards, along with the ability to stack matching cards for stronger movements and attacks. This stacking mechanic destroys whatever movement series you’d already established in your previous turn, so you’ll need to find matching colors and stack at strategic times to make the most of the game’s mechanical systems.

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Source: Ars Technica – League of Legends meets meatspace with board game crossover