Dune: Imperium
Introduction
Published by Dire Wolf, Dune: Imperium has become increasingly popular with the tabletop community since its release in 2020. In the same year, it won the Best Card Game award at the Golden Greek Awards, and in 2022, it took home the Tabletop Game of the Year award at the SXSW Gaming Awards.
Furthermore, Dune: Imperium features two board game expansions and a stand-alone sequel. In 2022, the Rise of Ix expansion won Best Board Game Expansion at both the Golden Geeks Awards and the Dice Tower Awards. The second expansion, Immortality, enhances the gameplay by providing further deck-building capabilities. The stand-alone sequel, Dune: Imperium Uprising, expands on the core mechanics of the original. Perfect for a fan who loved everything about Dune: Imperium but wants more!
This article contains an in-depth overview of the gameplay, the differences between these titles, and how it all fits together!
Gameplay Overview
Dune Imperium's main gameplay mechanics center around deck-building and worker placement. However, the game allows for many versatile play styles. The primary objective is to attain 10 Victory Points. Victory points can be obtained by buying cards, winning a conflict, or by gaining influence with one of the four factions. Each player chooses a leader from one of the noble houses, is given a 10-card deck, and is provided with 2 agents. Disks, cubes, and markers are also provided to the player for counting, combat, and control.
The Board and Cards
In summary, the board contains faction, planet, CHOAM, and Landsraad spaces. Each space on the board provides different resources, and some spaces actually require payment to allocate an 'agent' there. Another interesting facet of agent placement is that once a player occupies a space, another player can not occupy that space for the rest of that round. Agent placement has a lot of nuances, so I would strongly suggest looking over each space's utility before playing. A counter on the right keeps track of each player's victory points, and a counter on the bottom keeps track of strength scores during combat.
Imperium comes with six different sets of cards:
- Each player starts with the same 10-card deck
- A conflict card is flipped at the start of each turn. The card itself shows the rewards for placing in the conflict that round. Each couple of rounds, conflict cards provide increasingly valuable rewards.
- Intrigue cards are used to turn the tides in unexpected ways
- Plot intrigue cards can be played during an agent or reveal turn
- Combat intrigue cards can be placed during combat
- Endgame intrigue cards can be played if a player is about to win the game
- Cards that are rotated into the market come from the imperium deck.
- While supplies last, reserve cards are always in the market
- Hagal cards are used to control AI opponents, allowing for solo play.
The effects of each deck card are divided into two sections. One effect is activated if the card is played during an agent turn, and another is activated if the card is played during a reveal turn. Plot intrigue cards can be placed at any time during these turns.
Agent/Reveal Turns
At the start of each round, a conflict card is played, and each player draws five cards. Then, each player chooses to take either an agent or a reveal turn. Players generally try to occupy spaces on the board during an agent turn. Some spaces provide resources, while others offer troops. Troops can be placed into the conflict or the troop reserve. During each agent turn, players can also put two troops from their reserve into the conflict.
During a reveal turn, the player reveals their hand and activates the reveal action from each card. At the end of the reveal turn, the player discards their hand. Once a player chooses to take a reveal turn, they are skipped for the rest of the round.
Combat System
The combat system is exciting because players never know what cards their opponents have up their sleeves. Whichever player contributed the most troops wins the conflict. However, cards can be used to bolster the strength of the player's numbers. Each player has the opportunity to place combat intrigue cards during the combat phase. The phase continues until each player chooses to skip their turn in one full rotation. Players may skip a turn and then play an intrigue card once the table returns to them. This system allows players to fight or reserve their forces for later.
Based on each player's strength score, rewards are allocated to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place players. Ties always leave both players a rank lower, and if no troops were contributed, no rewards can be reaped.
A phase is used to replenish spice on the board.
The recall phase is the final phase of a round. Players return all agents to their appropriate leaders, and all cards played during the turn go to each player's discard pile.
Endgame
If a player has ten or more victory points at the end of a turn, they win the game. However, if one of the other players has an endgame intrigue card, they can make a hail mary to victory. After the endgame intrigue cards are resolved, whoever has the most victory points wins.
This is by no means an extensive introduction to the game, so I strongly suggest reading the entire rule book before you play!
Conclusion - Dune: Imperium
What really makes Dune: Imperium such a fun game is that it gives players a lot of options. Players are often given the choice of fight or flight. The intrigue cards can turn the tide when the opponents least expect it. The available market cards are at the whim of the shuffle. The choice of leader and preferred factions play a huge part in player decisions. Every game played develops completely differently, so each new playthrough is a fresh adventure.
If you like worker placement, deck building, and plotting massive attacks, this is the perfect game for you!
Dune Imperium Board Game
Dune: Imperium - Uprising
Introduction
In the wake of Dune: Imperium's success and the newly released Dune: Part 2 movie, Dire Wolf created the stand-alone sequel Dune: Imperium - Uprising. The designer of the game, Paul Dennen, designed the sequel to build upon the major mechanics of the original and to add new and interesting mechanics. Many of the new game mechanics mirror plot points in the new movie, a depiction of the second half of Frank Herbert's original novel Dune.
Gameplay Overview
Dune: Imperium - Uprising is able to be played completely separately from its predecessor but builds off of many of the mechanics created in the original. The sequel is still heavily focused on worker placement and card building. Interestingly, cards from the original can be used in Dune: Imperium - Uprising; however, Dune: Imperium - Uprising cards cannot be used in the original game. This is largely due to the new mechanics in the sequel, with which many of the new cards expound upon.
New Board and Cards
The new board is similar to the original. Spaces are laid out across the board and include many of the same faction and planet spaces. The game also comes with 8 new Leaders, a bunch of fresh deck-building cards, and conflict cards. Furthermor, spies, sandworms, and contracts are also new components included with the game.
Spies
Spies were added to the game primarily in place of a popular mechanic, infiltration. Small circular observation decks are connected to spaces across the board. If a player has a card to place a spy, then the player can do so at one of these observation locations. Having a spy connected to a space helps the player to secure a location, ensuring that they can place an agent there later.
While a spy is connected to a space, the owner of the spy can do one of two things: infiltrate or gather intelligence. If a spy is recalled from a space where another player's agent is present, the owner of the spy can ignore the other player's agent and infiltrate the space with their own agent. If a player places an agent in an empty space and also has a spy connected to that space, the spy can be recalled to draw a card.
Spies are an interesting edition that really shakes up the logistics of worker placement.
Makers Hooks and Sandworms
By gaining influence with the Fremen faction and placing an agent in certain spaces, a player can obtain a maker's hook. This gives the player the ability to contribute sandworms into conflicts. The game includes 8 tokens to represent sandworms.
A sandworm troop is worth +3 points in combat. Furthermore, when a player has at least one sandworm involved in a conflict, then their reward for placing in the conflict is doubled. This is particularly useful late game, when conflict III cards begin to be played. The one disadvantage of using sandworm troops is that they cannot contribute to conflicts protected by the shield wall.
Nonetheless, adding worms to the game introduces a whole new weapon to the combat system.
Contracts
Dune: Imperium - Uprising also comes with an optional module called the CHOAM module. The module includes a hero, cards, and tokens called contracts. The rulebook suggests playing without this module first and adding it later when the game is well understood.
Contracts can be obtained as a reward for visiting certain spaces, and each one has a reward for completing a task. The task may include placing an agent at a space, acquiring a certain card, or harvesting spice. Some contracts provide an immediate reward.
The contracts taken are visible to all players until they are completed and flipped over. In a way, this forecasts a player's plans to the other players at the table.
Contracts are a great way for players to acquire the resources that they need for their plots.
Conclusion - Uprising
Despite the popular opinion that Dune: Imperium - Uprising was nothing more than a cash grab, many have found the new gameplay mechanics to be worth the addition to their collection. Interested players can skip the original game, but some have found Uprising to have a slightly larger learning curve compared to the original. Expansions in this collection work with both Dune: Imperium, as well as the sequel Uprising.
Besides the changes/additions of mechanics, Dune: Imperium - Uprising also offers the ability to play with six players. Furthermore, Uprising is able to be played in teams. This certainly caters more to larger friend groups.
Dune: Imperium - Uprising Board Game
Final Conclusion
Though the sequel can be played as a stand-alone, I strongly encourage everyone to try both games! The art and plots of the games are parallel to the recent movies, and what better way to experience the Dune universe than by being a political player yourself?
If I were to choose between having only one game or the other, I would likely choose to purchase Dune: Imperium - Uprising. The additional mechanics certainly add depth to the game despite the larger learning curve. However, if you already know that you are going to enjoy these tabletop games and continue to pursue them, I would suggest starting with the first game. Then, when you are ready to twist things up, purchase the sequel. Or better yet, one of the award-winning expansion packs.
I hope you enjoyed my content and have a better grasp of the differences between these two tabletop board games.
Till next time. Bye now.