Dune: Imperium

This is a worker placement/engine building/deck building game that incorporates the story and themes from Frank Herberts Dune novel. It plays well, has a lot of variety of play, and is pretty captivating. We played once through to learn the rules. Then played through 2 more times after looking up some questions we had that werent quite clear in the rule book. It is a 3-4 player game with rules for solo and 2 player that include card generated rivals to bring to 3 player. We are 2 players and found that the 3rd card generated rival added the right amount of tension and strategic resistance to make the game very interesting. As with most games, the rule book could use an index and a bit better organization, but it is reasonably complete with only a one page errata available online. If I was rating this game on boardgamegeek.com, I would give it an 8. There is plenty of room for expansions and I hope the expansions include more deck cards, combat cards, and leader cards.

This was given as a gift and when opened found that necessary pieces to play were not included, specifically the card decks. Please ship me the card sso I can tell if this is a fun game

As a disclaimer, I must admit that Im a huge fan of Dune, both the movie and the book, so I was excited to play the game just for that. At the same time, I wanted to see whether this is a good deck builder and worker placement game, but how does it stand up in solo play? Well, lets find out! Here are five key elements of the solo mode with their respective ratings: MIX, 3 out of 5: DUNE THEME. I think this point is worth mentioning because the Dune name and brand are so important here. Even though in the end this ultimately is a worker placement game, I think a lot of the things make sense, like the spaces on the board and most of the cards do what you expect them to do, all the main groups of people are well represented, and I like how youre currying favor with different factions. I also like the intrigue and the sudden surprise attacks in the conflict aspect of the game. Its not like this is all extremely exciting and will blow you away, but I can see the thematic idea of each action/each card, so its good for the type of game it is. MIX, 2.5 out of 5: SMOOTH/SWINGY A.I. On the positive side, managing the A.I. is very fast. The entire game, for that matter, is very fast. Once you get it down, you can get through a solo game in about 30 minutes or so, which I think is pretty cool for the epic level of play you can get in a full session. Taking an A.I. turn is as simple as drawing a card, putting their worker on a space, and getting the indicated reward. Thats all well and good really. I dont need a complicated automa with flowcharts here, but the cards are very unbalanced, and by design, some action spaces are ridiculously better than others. This all really doesnt work as intended, especially if one A.I. gets all the good cards and the other gets all the bad ones (in solo, you play with two A.I.s). So overall, the A.I.s can be very unbalanced and super swingy in a way that I dont really enjoy. MIX, 2.5 out of 5: BATTLES/CONFLICTS. I think the core idea of the battles and conflicts is fine, and its interesting tactically because you can sort of see how the A.I. is committing their troops and then you can figure out if its worth it for you to jump in and how much you want to commit. You also dont know how much strength the A.I. will have, so theres some nice tension there with a push-your-luck aspect to it in terms of how much you want to spend. But like with the last point above, in solo play and the A.I., conflicts can just feel too swingy, and not just because of the combat bonus cards the A.I. gets (which could give them nothing or a lot), but also because of the previous swinginess of the action spaces. For example, you could commit a lot of troops and suddenly the A.I. drops in 4 or 5 or 6 troops because of a lucky action space. This could be like a swing of 4 victory points out of 10 to win the game. I dont know, but this just feels too swingy again, at least in solo play. PRO, 5 out of 5: WORKER PLACEMENT. The cool thing is that whenever you place your 2 or 3 workers, you play a card from your hand as well. That cards icons then determine which worker spaces you can go to, which is a super cool concept and something that Ive never seen in a board game before. The deckbuilding aspect will also determine what spaces are available to you and which factions youre focusing on or whether you can get a lot of troops or not. And then the cards will also have bonuses when you play them with the ones you buy. Thats really cool, and theyll have effects on the bottom if you dont use them to place a worker, so you have to kind of consider which cards youll keep in your hand and which ones youll spend. The action spaces themselves also work rather well. You do have the regular assortment of trade this resource for that resource, etc., but I like that some of them let you place troops in the combat zone while others dont, so you have some harder choices to make there. The addition of certain action spaces that increase your influence with one of the factions to help you gain victory points really makes you consider your worker placement carefully and is a great mechanic overall. FULL-ON CON, 1 out of 5: DECKBUILDING. I think this is a better concept in multiplayer rather than solo play, but this game advertises itself as a deckbuilder. Lets start with that fact. At least in solo play, youre going to do so little deckbuilding, which is extremely unfortunate. For example, you might add 6, 7, or 8 cards to your deck (maybe 10 or 11 max), and the thing is that the ones you add in later rounds have a very high probability of never getting drawn into your hand at all. There are only 10 rounds in the game, and you only get 10 chances to buy cards from the market. In the earlier rounds, you usually cant afford to get anything good. So overall, deckbuilding is extremely limited, and the coolest cards will almost never ever come into play, and thats exacerbated by an absolutely insane design choice that I cant believe was made in this day and age of board gaming: In solo play, theres no mechanic for the market to be culled by the A.I. to see more cards. Do you realize just how catastrophically negligent that is? You literally might only see 10 to 15 cards in the entire game! Now to be fair, this is incredibly easy to rectify. Im sure there are fan variants out there to cycle through the deck, but its still frustrating that the designers didnt even think about this point. So as much as I love the cards with their multiple uses, the deckbuilding itself is super anemic. As somebody who really loves deckbuilding, I felt pretty dragged down by how the reality of this game didnt really match up with my expectations. FINAL SCORE: 3 out of 5. Overall, even though this is a solo review and I havent played Dune Imperium multiplayer yet, I get the sense that playing multiplayer would be a ton of fun. I envision it to be a really vicious knife fight of a game where you jockey for position in the worker placement parts, on the faction tracks, and in the combat. But for solo players, I think youd want to look into this one if you like compelling worker placement games because again, the combo of the cards and the spaces are really cool. If you like simple solo A.I.s, this will definitely serve you well. It plays fast and smooth. But on the other hand, you might want to avoid this one if youre looking for an amazing Dune theme. It does a pretty good job, but its not going to excite you. If you dont like swinginess in your solo games, then this is going to hit you hard in a lot of ways, so I might be careful there. And lastly, heres a big warning for you: If youre like me and youre looking for a fantastic solo deckbuilding experience, then steer clear of Dune Imperium. This will absolutely positively not fit the bill, and you should definitely avoid it in that case. Happy gaming! This is Dr. D, and Im out!

I hate to say this about a major studio release, with all the great indie games out there, but this game rox.

Still enjoy the game after playing for more than 20 times.

Dune Imperium is incredibly fun and replayable. I have nearly 300 games logged at this point - it’s truly an addiction. The clever combination of deck building with worker placement, the variety of cards, the conflict system, the alliances - it all makes for some beautifully tense and satisfying matches. Rise of Ix expansion is a non-negotiable. You need to get it to enjoy this game to its fullest. Immortality which recently released is another very solid expansion I would recommend. Can’t go wrong with this one. Relatively simple to learn and it can provide hours and hours of the best that board gaming has to offer.

Let me just start off with my negative is the sheer mehness of several of the faction leaders. Ones like Paul, very useful but a couple of others are their big bonus is a one time thing that just is flat overall and generally unimpressive and feels awfully weak. Beyond that, you are what you buy concept is fantastic. Water is important but not the end all be all. Many ways to Victory, combat surprisingly is a very secondary way of winning. The group consensus was that the combat wasnt important at all (except i will argue for 3 missions in the second round and our games have never lasted until the 3rd combat tier, anyways) and just something to do to get some stuff. What is important was the Faction side of it for the easy 4 VP then getting your 1-3 alliances you can do for more victory points. With the Drawing power of several locations being the best way to win when combo with the right card from the Market. So yes typical flaws of the deck building, but a very well done game overall that makes worker placement games actually enjoyable in this version.

If you like Euro-style games this is an interesting one and would recommend giving it a try. It does a good job of balancing worker placement and deck builder. I didnt think it was hard to learn, but if this was a first game to pick up, it may seem overwhelming at first. I also think it is only giftable to someone who really likes either worker placement or deck builder. For worker placement, think Lords of Waterdeep and the deck builder is like Clank.

Gift was appreciated and enjoyed.

A worker placement/resource management/deck builder game based on the new DUNE movie. This is easily a top ten game for me now. It just has that perfect balance of depth and playability. Games run pretty short (an hour…not 20 minutes), set up doesn’t take too long and it’s pretty easy to teach. The game comes with a deck of cards (or, use the free app) for solo/2 player games but we play two player all the time WITHOUT the AI deck. I really don’t think it’s needed. It may add a bit of uncertainty and/or excitement if that’s what you feel might be missing from the 2 player experience but for us, the pacing, board space selection…it’s good enough. Each player chooses a character (1 of 8) from the DUNE universe. Each has an ability that’s usually ongoing but then another that can only be activated when you play a certain card. Players start with the same 10 card deck that they randomize and draw five from. These cards have special markings on them that unlock spots in the board for you to place an agent (meeple) on. Card doesn’t show an orange triangle? Then you can’t put an agent on any of the orange triangle spaces. Each of the spots grants resources and/or some minor action like unlocking your third agent (you start with only two). To me, this is all very reminiscent of Lords of Waterdeep - one of the best games ever made, IMO. Cards may also have additional bonuses like drawing a card, etc. that happen in addition to allowing you to place an agent. The nitty gritty however, is in the THIRD spot of the cards that can only be used when you pass for the rest of the round and “reveal” what’s left in your hand. These bonuses might be income (to buy additional cards in the market place - the deck building aspect of the game), combat strength or a combination of other things. Do you use a card to place an agent or do you save it because it will grant combat strength when you reveal? Tough choices! At the end of the round comes the “combat” which is basically just how many troops (cubes) you’ve committed to the current combat round, plus those additional combat strength cards plus special, “Intrigue” cards you can play (they are earned from spots on the board) for that extra, “ah HA!” Moment. …and so much more. You have influence tracks that you need to move up on in the hopes of acquiring victory points…but wait! You need Spice first! No! You can’t get the Spice without paying Water…and you don’t have enough water. No no no!!!! Your opponent just went to the spot you wanted!!! This is a great game and I’m glad it didn’t just turn out to be a money grab coasting off of the hype/popularity of the new movie. An absolute must buy in this veteran board gamer’s opinion.