Divinity: Dragon Commander and the Board Game That Helped it Come to Life

Polygon has a brief piece on Divinity: Dragon Commander, or, rather, on the board game that will come with its Collector’s Edition, and that helped prototyping the gameplay during the very first stages of development of the title. Here’s an excerpt:

The player begins with an empty map, a factory to themselves, and some gold. Gold is used to buy various units, which will allow them to conquer other hexes and receive the special properties associated to them. With every turn they receive a card which represents factions met in the Dragon Commander universe, and give certain abilities to the player and their units. The lizard card, for example, allows the user to teleport all units within one country to another, which can have dramatic results in combat.

Combat itself is a dice throw. The attacking units will enter a hex of another player. The attacker will throw “attacking dice” which is countered by the “defending dice” of the attacked units. This determines who will win.

“We had quite a lot of fun making this one and playing it,” said Vincke. “We’re not finished with it yet, so it’s possible that the rules will change and you will see different things when it finally ships but thiswill give you an idea of more or less the type of game that Dragon Commander: The Board Game is going to be.”