Mech Command Real Time Strategy Game

We don’t typically share information about future board games.

However, when they get as good of a reception as the one we played yesterday, we’ve got to share it.

For our monthly Guys Game Night last night one of the games we played was a prototype of a board game called Mech Command RTS.

It’s a real time strategy game where players maneuver their mechs around a 3D city board to accomplish different objectives — such as damaging opponent mechs or retrieving goods.

And there are only 3 days left on the Kickstarter campaign.

They’ve already exceeded their funding goal — which means the game is definitely going to be published — and have also met stretch rewards.

So if you pledge now, you’ll get in on all the stretch rewards achieved as well.

 

What the guys loved about Mech Command RTS

It’s hard to know which aspect they liked the most, but one leading element is the simple nature of the real time playing.

Players don’t wait to take turns in Mech Command. Instead, everyone simply goes to work simultaneously.

With everyone going at once, it may seem a bit chaotic, but it also feels like video game battles guys love to play. In those games players don’t wait for others to take a turn moving and then make their own moves. But rather, all players run around looking for others to attack of materials to pick up.

That same feeling is captured in Mech Command RTS as players move around the board peeking out from behind some of the buildings to shoot, or dodging behind them before they can be spotted.

The catch is that players must place gems on their player board to activate parts of their mech. And they can only use one hand to do so. Which means they can’t just keep moving all the time. Their mech will pause on spots here and there as they activate a weapon or pick something up — which also makes them vulnerable to be shot.

But players may not want to use all of their gems in moving and shooting. Because there’s also a damage stage. At some point, everyone will stop and assess the number of hits they’ve taken. When this happens, they can use remaining gems on the defensive equipment of their mech to negate some of those hits.

As a mech takes damage, the player places a damage cube on a spot on their mech board. Once a limb of their mech is full of cubes, they can no longer use that limb (nor any equipment associated with it).

Players can also dodge being hit is by boosting up on top of the buildings on the board. Mechs can’t fire between levels, so going up or down can help protect a mech for a while.

Another element the guys loved was the LED lights in their mech miniatures.

The colored light in each mech shines on their targets. So it’s easy to see when they’ve got someone in their sights. If they’re lit up, you can hit them.

It’s like the mechs are running around spotlighting each other. While we didn’t try playing in the dark, we can imagine that might be a fun way to play.

While we only played on mission, the full game will have many missions and plenty of objectives to accomplish. In the one we played, there were 3 objectives to the mission. The first team to complete 2 of the 3 objectives would be the winner. Which in our case was the orange and green team.

Only 4 guys played the game, but everyone else stood around watching. With all the real time action and shouting going on, no one was interested in playing other games.

We also noticed that it was hard for the players to remain in their seats. The quick action keep them very engaged. And there was plenty of laughing. Everyone playing Mech Command RTS gave it a big thumbs up.

If you’d like to pledge or check out additional information, head on over to the Mech Command RTS Kickstarter page!

(Note: Since there are only 3 days left in the Kickstarter campaign, we wanted to get this info up as soon as possible. We also are editing video we took of the game in action and will post it once it’s ready.)