Dune: Imperium (2020)

Overview
How to Play
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About the Game

Dune: Imperium is a game that finds inspiration in elements and characters from the Dune legacy, both the new film from Legendary Pictures and the seminal literary series from Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson.

As a leader of one of the Great Houses of the Landsraad, raise your banner and marshal your forces and spies. War is coming, and at the center of the conflict is Arrakis – Dune, the desert planet.

Dune: Imperium board game | Source: ign.com

How To Play Dune: Imperium

Dune: Imperium uses deck-building to add a hidden-information angle to traditional worker placement.

You start with a unique leader card, as well as a deck identical to those of your opponents. As you acquire cards and build your deck, your choices will define your strengths and weaknesses. Cards allow you to send your Agents to certain spaces on the game board, so how your deck evolves affects your strategy. You might become more powerful militarily, able to deploy more troops than your opponents. Or you might acquire cards that give you an edge with the four political factions represented in the game: the Emperor, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, and the Fremen.

Unlike many deck-building games, you don’t play your entire hand in one turn. Instead, you draw a hand of cards at the start of every round and alternate with other players, taking one Agent turn at a time (playing one card to send one of your Agents to the game board). When it’s your turn and you have no more Agents to place, you’ll take a Reveal turn, revealing the rest of your cards, which will provide Persuasion and Swords. Persuasion is used to acquire more cards, and Swords help your troops fight for the current round’s rewards as shown on the revealed Conflict card.

Defeat your rivals in combat, shrewdly navigate the political factions, and acquire precious cards. The Spice must flow to lead your House to victory!

How To Play Dune: Imperium | Source: direwolfdigital.com

Dune: Imperium Review

“Dune Imperium is the perfect storm of mechanisms that take a large number of commonly used board game aspects and makes them shine in the best possible way. The worker placement is tight, deliberate, and combines with deck building where every single card choice matters. In the center of it all is a conflict that is affected by all of it. And it still somehow manages to grant a wide variety of victory paths that can be pursued.”

gideonsgaming.com

“Overall, Dune Imperium does a really good job of capturing the feel of Dune, especially when you’re talking about the new film version, which this game shares its artistic style with. The comparisons with Arnak are inevitable really, given the mass appeal of both, the shared mechanisms, and the close release dates. While I’ll still always happily play Arnak, I’d prefer to play Dune Imperium, if I had the choice. There feels like there’s more variety in the game, and the games feel closer, more tense.

Fans of the franchise will eat this game up, and fans of good board games will really enjoy it too. If you fall in the middle of the intersecting circles in that Venn diagram, Dune Imperium is a must-buy.”

punchboard.co.uk

“There is quite a bit more to Dune: Imperium and, just like the novel, the game focuses a lot more on intrigue and espionage than combat. What makes the game so enjoyable is the fact that there are just so many options open to a player. It can feel a bit overwhelming but, after a few playthroughs, you’ll get to grips with the mechanics quite easily.”

Deville Louw, fortressofsolitude.co.za

The content of this article is originally from Board Game Geek. For more information and a better understanding of the game, you can watch the videos below.