Review: Dune – Imperium

Introducción

Arrakis. Dune. The Desert Planet. Raise your banner above the vast wasteland that stretches before you. Now that the Great Houses of the Landsraad are gathering their forces and their spies, whom will you influence and whom will you betray? A tyrannical Emperor. The inscrutable Bene Gesserit. The shrewd Spacing Guild. The fierce Fremen of the Deep Desert. The power of the Imperium can be yours, but war is not the only way to seize it.

This is how Dune: Imperium is presented, designed by Paul Dennen, responsible for the Clank! series, Wild Tiled West, or Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne. First published in 2020 by Dire Wolf Digital in an English version. The illustrations are handled by Clay Brooks, Brett Nienburg, Raúl Ramos, and Nate Storm.

It is published in Spanish by Asmodee (the game is language-dependent, with text on almost all cards, as well as the rulebook). It allows for games of 1 to 4 players, with a suggested minimum age of 14, and an approximate duration of 60 to 120 minutes. The retail price is €54.99. For this review, a copy of the Spanish version by Asmodee was used, which the publisher themselves kindly provided to us.

Importante: si ya conoces el juego y/o sólo te interesa mi opinión sobre el mismo, puedes pasar directamente al apartado de Opinión. Los apartados Contenido y Mecánica están destinados especialmente a aquellos que no conocen el juego y prefieren hacerse una idea general de cómo funciona.

Ir a la Opinión Personal

Contenido

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 30.8×30.8×8 cm (a square box slightly larger than Ticket to Ride, like those of Ex Libris or Embarcadero), we find the following components:

• Main Board (cardboard)
• 15 Water Tokens (wooden)
• 24 Solaris Tokens (wooden):
  • 20 of Value 1
  • 4 of Value 5
• 24 Spice Tokens (wooden):
  • 20 of Value 1
  • 4 of Value 5
• 4 Alliance Tokens (cardboard)
• Mentat Pawn
• First Player Token (cardboard)
• 8 Leaders (cardstock)
• House Hagal Reference Card
• 4 Baron Harkonnen Tokens (cardboard)
• 58 Small Cards (44×67 mm)
• 40 Intrigue Cards
• 18 Conflict Cards
• 162 Medium Cards (63×88 mm):
• 67 Imperium Deck Cards
• 24 Reserve Cards
• 40 Starting Cards
• 31 House Hagal Cards
• 64 Cubes (16 of each color) (wooden)
• 12 Control Markers (3 of each color) (cardboard)
• 12 Agents (3 of each color) (wooden)
• 4 Combat Markers (cardboard)
• 8 Discs (2 of each color) (wooden)
• Rulebook

Mecánica

Dune: Imperium is a game with a core worker placement mechanic, with the twist that a card must be associated with them, which will enable certain action spaces where they can be placed. The game lasts a maximum of ten rounds, in which each player will have as many action turns as pawns they possess, plus a reveal turn in which unused cards are used to apply secondary effects that primarily allow the acquisition of new cards. Through these actions, players can obtain resources, train troops and send them to the combat zone, or progress along various influence tracks. The goal is to obtain the highest number of victory points when the end of the game is triggered (which can happen prematurely if, at the end of a round, someone has reached or exceeded 10 points). At the end of the round, combat will be resolved based on each player’s strength, distributing rewards according to their relative ranking.

Conceptos Básicos

Let’s start with the Main Board. It shows a series of boxes corresponding to different factions with several action spaces. Thus, on the left side, from top to bottom, we have the Emperor’s House, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, and the Fremen. On the upper side, we have the High Council and the CHOAM, and occupying most of the board is the surface of Arrakis, with the four main cities and three spice harvesting areas. In the lower area, we have the space for the garrisons and the conflict zone (with a track of spaces numbered from 0 to 20), an area for conflict cards, and, on the right side, the victory point track. Action spaces have an associated symbol and an optional activation cost.

The players’ goal is to try to accumulate as many victory points as possible. The end of the game will be triggered if someone reaches or exceeds 10 points, with the winner being whoever has accumulated the most points at the end of the round in which this happens. Otherwise, the game will end after ten rounds. To keep track of the accumulated victory points, each player will have a marker cylinder. They will have an additional one to mark that they have resolved a certain action in the Council.

One of the main ways to obtain victory points will be through Conflicts. At the end of each round, players will compete for the rewards indicated on the Conflict Cards by measuring their strength. In case of a tie for a position, the tied players obtain the reward of the next position. These cards also serve as a control element for the game’s progress, which will end if the deck runs out.

Another main way to obtain points is by establishing bonds with the different factions. For this, Alliance Tokens are available, so that the player who reaches a certain level of influence with that house will claim it and keep it under their control, scoring a virtual victory point that they would only lose if another player accumulated greater influence with that faction.

To mark influence with the factions, as well as to represent troops in the garrisons and in conflicts, each player has a set of Cubes of their color. For the factions, they will simply act as markers on the corresponding tracks, while in the garrisons and conflicts, they will act as troops. Whenever a troop participates in a conflict, it will return to the general supply (unless some effect prevents it).

As players add troops to the conflict from their garrison, their Combat Strength will increase, which is indicated by the Combat Marker. This strength can be increased using intrigue cards and imperium cards.

During the game, players will accumulate various types of Resources. The main one is spice, needed to pay the occupation cost of some action spaces or to be exchanged for solaris. Solaris is the currency in circulation and will be necessary to activate actions in the Council. And finally, water, which will be required to activate certain action spaces, especially those for obtaining spice. At the end of the game, spice will serve as the first tiebreaker.

During the game, players can obtain Intrigue Cards. These offer various types of effects that can only be resolved at specific moments in the game (Plot cards during any of the player’s action turns, Combat cards when resolving a conflict, and Endgame cards at the end of the game).

One of the main elements of the game will be the Agents. Pawns that players can send to the different action spaces to resolve the action described there. Each action space can only contain one agent.

But in order to send an agent, it will be necessary to use an Imperium Card that makes it possible to send the agent to a location in the corresponding area of the board. Each player will start with a basic deck but can shape it to their liking by acquiring new cards from a supply. These cards show on their left side the locations where an agent can be sent, in the top right corner the acquisition cost, and in the bottom bands, against a gray background, the effect applied when sending an agent, and against a dark blue background, the effect applied when performing the final turn of the round (without placing agents). These cards work with the deck-building mechanic, so each acquired card will be placed in the discard pile and, at the beginning of each round, cards will be drawn from the deck until it is exhausted, at which point the discard pile will be shuffled to form the deck again.

As a reward for some conflicts, players will be able to place Control Markers on certain locations, which allow them to obtain benefits every time any player’s agent is sent to that location.

Finally, each player will control a Leader represented on a large card with two effects, one of a general nature and another that will apply when playing a specific card from the starting deck.

With this, we have enough.

Preparación de la Partida

1. The main board is deployed in the center of the table.
2. The Mentat pawn is placed in its space.
3. The faction alliance tokens are placed in their corresponding spaces.
4. The conflict deck is formed by shuffling the cards by level and taking 4 level III cards, on top of which 5 level II cards are stacked, and on top of those, one level I card is placed.
5. The imperium card deck is shuffled and placed to one side, revealing the top five cards to form the supply.
6. Next to it, the three common card decks are placed.
7. The Intrigue Card deck is shuffled and set aside.
8. A general supply is formed with the resources.
9. Each player chooses a leader and a color and receives all their components:
   • 3 Agents (leave one in the general supply).
   • 2 Marker Discs (place one on the score track, on the 0 space in games with fewer than 3 players, or on the 1 space in 4-player games).
   • A combat strength marker that is placed on the 0 space of the combat track.
   • 3 Control Markers left next to the leader card.
   • A deck of 10 basic imperium cards.
   • 16 Cubes (place 4 on the bottom row of each influence track, 3 in the garrisons, and the rest next to their leader card).
   • Each player receives a water token.
10. Finally, the first player is chosen and receives the identification tile.

Now we can begin!

Desarrollo de la Partida

A game of Dune: Imperium takes place over a maximum of 10 rounds. Each round is structured into five phases.

Phase I: Start

Proceed as follows:

• In this phase, each player draws 5 cards from their deck to form their hand. If there are not enough cards left in the deck, draw them all, shuffle the discard pile to reform the deck, and continue drawing until the hand is complete.
• The next conflict card is revealed.

Phase II: Actions

In this phase, starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, players alternate action turns. On each action turn, the player can:

• Send an Agent to the Board. The player plays a card from their hand and sends an agent to an open location on the board enabled by the card played, paying any potential placement cost. Before this, they apply the agent effect of their card and then resolve the effect of the action space. If it is an action space of one of the factions, the player will advance their influence marker one space up, which may result in obtaining a victory point or even successfully forming an alliance with that faction (which also grants a temporary victory point). Whenever an action allows deploying troops to the conflict, as many cubes can be moved from the garrisons as those obtained through the action, plus two additional ones.
• Reveal. The player reveals all their cards and applies their reveal effects (typically advancing their strength marker by the number of swords shown, provided they have at least one troop present in the conflict). After this, the player can acquire one or more cards from the supply using the persuasion points accumulated from cards and other effects (immediately replenishing the space created if it is not a common card) and places them in their discard pile. Finally, the player discards all cards played during the turn.

After this, the turn passes to the player on the left.

Phase III: Combat

First, players will have the option to play combat intrigue cards. Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, each player with at least one troop in the conflict may play a combat intrigue card (applying its effect) or pass. This step does not end until all players pass consecutively (you can pass and play a card later).

After this, combat is resolved, rewarding players according to their relative ranking based on their strength markers. In case of a tie for a position, the tied players receive the reward for the next position, and subsequent players drop down a spot.

Phase IV: Makers

In this phase, a spice token is placed on each open space with a Maker symbol (without agents), regardless of whether there was already accumulated spice on them.

Phase V: Recall

If no player has reached or exceeded 10 points and at least one conflict card remains in the deck, proceed as follows:

• The Mentat is returned to its position (if anyone had used it).
• Each player recalls their agents from the main board.
• The first player token is passed to the player sitting on the left.

After this, a new round begins.

Fin de la Partida

The game ends at the end of the tenth round or at the end of the round in which at least one player has reached or exceeded 10 points. The winner will be the player with the most victory points. In case of a tie, the following criteria are used:

• The player with the most spice.
• The player with the most solaris.
• The player with the most water.
• The player with the most troops in the garrisons.

Variantes

House Hagal. It is used in one- or two-player games, acting as a virtual player. These cards show an action space where the virtual player will place one of its agents. On the bottom band, a combat effect appears that will be applied if the virtual player has at least one cube present in the conflict. The virtual player acts after each agent turn of the first player.

Opinión Personal

Today it’s time to analyze one of those games that seemed to be more of a marketing product than anything else, capitalizing on the expected draw the Dune saga would have with the release of the new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve.

A game with deck-building and area control mechanics that, a priori, didn’t sound too enticing. However, the fact that the design was signed by Paul Dennen, responsible for the Clank! saga (here is the tocho-review of the first game in the series), gave us hope.

And the design caught on with the general public, receiving a large number of nominations and awards, notably the 2020 Golden Geek or the 2022 As d’Or in the expert category. So, taking advantage of the release of the second installment of what will be a trilogy, we are going to list the virtues and defects of this Dune: Imperium, but not before thanking Asmodee for providing the copy that makes this long spiel, which has already begun, possible.

In Dune: Imperium, we are going to put ourselves at the head of one of the famous houses of the universe imagined by Frank Herbert, embodying one of its famous characters, each with a pair of unique abilities. Our goal? To achieve supremacy on Arrakis. To do this, we will have to form alliances with the different factions or manage to prevail over our rivals in the conflicts that will be resolved in each round. With this, we will accumulate victory points, trying to be the one who has accumulated the most when the end of the game is triggered, either at the end of the tenth round or because the sudden-death score has been reached before that round.

As core mechanics, as we have already mentioned, we have worker placement mixed with deck-building. The imperium cards we acquire to build our deck will allow us to do three things. On one hand, they will enable the action spaces on the center board to place our agents (the workers) and, in most cases, enjoy an additional effect. On the other hand, if they are not used to place an agent, we can reveal them in the final turn of the round to use alternative effects that appear at the bottom of the card (usually persuasion points to acquire new cards).

In this way, players will take turns in which they will seek, on one hand, to accumulate enough resources to be able to resolve more powerful actions (water is needed to get spice, spice is needed to get solaris, and solaris is important to be able to resolve actions in the Council, especially obtaining the third agent), and on the other hand, to increase their military presence on Arrakis by adding troops to their garrisons and deploying them to the conflict that will be resolved at the end of the round.

At the same time, it is beneficial to resolve as many actions as possible with the four factions, as this will increase our influence level with each of them, which can translate into accumulating up to eight victory points: four permanent ones obtained upon reaching the second level of influence, plus another four that we will keep under our control as long as no one surpasses us in influence once a certain level has been reached.

And there isn’t much more to it. A game with very atomic actions (I pay one thing and get another) that stands out for a growing tension when resolving action turns, whether it’s to take positions in the conflict that is about to be resolved shortly, or for that long-distance race that is the accumulation of victory points.

Back in the year of its publication (remember, 2020), I commented after playing a first game on the similarities that this Dune: Imperium shared with another of the year’s big hits, namely, Lost Ruins of Arnak (here is its tocho-review). Both featured the blend of worker placement with deck-building and a main objective of progressing along tracks.

But, in the small battle that both games waged, for me the winner was the game published by CGE because it showed a more original and more “euro” approach. On one hand, the worker placement and deck-building had original details, such as the two types of cards to acquire (some were placed under the deck and others were activated upon purchase, but to reactivate them you had to incur an additional cost) or the uncertain action spaces, since at the beginning of the game we only have the five basic ones available, while the others will be revealed by the players as they go.

Dune: Imperium was defeated by these small details, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t also think it was a good design, albeit a more conventional one. It shares with Arnak the need to use cards as an enabling element for action spaces, which creates great hesitation when resolving turns, since, on one hand, we will want to execute certain actions, but on the other, we will want to keep certain cards in hand to be able to acquire new cards.

But beyond this detail, the worker placement and deck-building aspects are quite traditional, with fixed action spaces from one game to the next and a deck-building mechanic with a variable supply and the drawbacks usually associated with it, especially the impact of luck when trying to shape the deck looking for certain synergies between cards. If you don’t get cards that combine well, all you can do is complain to everyone.

Where Dune: Imperium does stand out over Lost Ruins of Arnak is in its level of interaction. In addition to what is associated with the core mechanics—that is, timing management in occupying action spaces as well as drafting from the card supply—players will be in a constant fight on two fronts. On one hand, the speed in successfully forming alliances with the different houses, which forces players to take defensive actions so as to not lose their influence advantage. For example, if a player has just formed an alliance with the Fremen but a rival matches them in influence, the player with the established alliance will have to try to resolve an action with the Fremen as soon as possible so as not to lose that alliance and, with it, the associated virtual point.

On the other hand, the conflicts. Every round will be geared towards trying to win the biggest possible prize in each conflict. Here, how each player approaches the round will depend on the available rewards. There will be conflicts where the prize will not be as substantial as in others. Obviously, when victory points are at stake, everyone puts a knife between their teeth and goes all in. In this sense, I like that the conflict deck is structured, so that the game builds in tension as the rounds progress.

Some might say that this is quite predictable given the available actions. And the truth is, to a certain extent, it is. But that’s when intrigue cards come into play, which, depending on the lens through which you analyze them, can be a great solution or a problem. For me, they fulfill the role of adding uncertainty to the game, so that battles cannot be calculated in advance, generating a quite satisfying tension (especially when you take first place). On the downside, they add an element of luck that can sit very poorly with control freaks, as there are even cards that provide victory points in the final scoring, in the pure style of Pan Am (here is its tocho-review). It’s something you have to come to terms with.

I also want to highlight the weight of deck-building compared to Lost Ruins of Arnak (I apologize in advance if I have drawn too intense a comparison between both titles, but I believe it is highly appropriate). Here, the deck is key. First, because of the matter of enabling action spaces. Every time a card appears that allows resolving actions with one of the four factions, it will be very difficult to resist the temptation to acquire it if we have enough funds. To this, we add the synergies between some cards, especially those related to the factions, which will cause our strategy to focus on boosting certain factions over others.

That’s why it’s not a good idea to buy cards just for the sake of buying; you have to fine-tune things when crafting the deck for it to be effective, especially since there will be few opportunities to cull cards from the deck, and we already know what happens when it grows too fat—namely, that the probabilities of two specific cards appearing in the player’s hand will keep shrinking.

Up to this point, we have more or less talked about the virtues of this Dune: Imperium (although we have raised a few caveats). However, the biggest flaw I find in the game is that, even with a relatively high level of interaction, worker placement takes center stage, and in this sense, the game can feel slightly flat, as the patterns of play are relatively obvious.

One of the short-term goals for players is to try to accumulate as many solaris as possible to, on one hand, get their third agent and, on the other, place their marker in the Council to have greater room for maneuver when acquiring new cards (especially to compensate for that third card that they won’t be able to use during the reveal turn).

And the loop to get solaris is very direct. I must obtain water to be able to acquire spice at a higher ratio, and use this spice to get solaris. The existence of this pattern of play within a relatively small set of action spaces can be slightly disappointing for fans of this mechanic. Fortunately, this feeling is diluted by the other fronts that players have to pay attention to.

Another aspect where I think the game falters slightly is the setting. Yes, everything makes sense and is more or less well-woven with what happens in the novels, whether it’s the factions, the locations, or the conflict theme. But the reality is that it’s difficult to generate a narrative due to having a relatively procedural development in each round. And of course, fans of Frank Herbert’s universe might not fully connect with the game. It’s not enough to throw in characters from the series for them to magically allow players to construct an immersive story.

But come on, this is like if they released a version of Agricola (here is its tocho-review) set in Tatooine, Anakin Skywalker’s home planet, where players become managers of a moisture farm on the desert planet, being able to take on the role of any of the famous locals. It would still be a game of worker placement and farming. The fact that these take place in a famous location of a well-known universe would have a narrative impact tending toward zero.

The last problem that Dune: Imperium has, stemming from its slightly above-average level of interaction, is that it doesn’t scale very well. It’s a game best enjoyed at four players. With each missing participant at the table, the tension will be reduced. De hace, at two players, it is necessary to use a virtual player via a deck of cards so there aren’t so many free spaces available. It doesn’t work poorly, but the competition between the players is total, as this virtual player acts randomly.

I’m getting ahead of myself, because this will be the subject of another analysis, but, while it is a good game, it improves significantly with its first expansion, Rise of Ix, which nips that monotonous loop we mentioned in the bud by modifying quite a few actions (it’s no longer so easy to get solaris) and, in addition to adding many cards, introduces elements that give players momentum. That’s why, from my point of view, Dune: Imperium is perhaps held in too high regard in the gaming scene. I’m not saying it’s a bad game, but for me, it falls short of excellence.

As for replayability, it’s a design that hits the table easily thanks to the interaction and the variable supply of the deck, as the game doesn’t leave you much room for maneuver when acquiring cards, leaving a high percentage of the deck unrevealed in each game. Something similar happens with the intrigue card deck. Furthermore, it’s one of those games where there isn’t too much downtime since you are constrained by your hand of cards when placing workers, so, in general, it maintains a good pace.

Let’s move on to the production quality. In general, quite decent finishes, with relatively conventional wooden components of an acceptable size and good density, cardboard elements of appropriate thickness and pressing, and cards with a decent weight, passable snap, and a smooth texture (sleeving, as with any deck-building game, is mandatory). The rulebook is structured in a somewhat peculiar way, and sometimes it’s hard to find a specific detail, such as the tie-breaking criteria at the end of the game. But, overall, it doesn’t leave much room for doubt.

On a visual level, we have a clear inspiration from the new movie saga. The graphic design is correct and the iconography leaves no room for doubt, but as far as the illustrations are concerned, for my taste, everything is a bit too crude, especially the imperium cards (the leader cards have a bit more detail). Here, it is clearly noticeable that it was commissioned work.

And let’s wrap this up. Dune: Imperium is a game that successfully blends deck-building with worker placement. To the virtues of both mechanics, we must add a slightly higher level of interaction than in most eurogames, as players will compete for various elements that will generate growing tension until the final resolution, which is usually quite exciting. As for the flaws, the main one is a relatively clear decision-making pattern which, although heavily modulated by player interaction, leaves a slightly bittersweet aftertaste due to it being more or less clear what needs to be done on many turns (something the game’s first expansion addresses). It’s also true that luck can have a significant impact on the course of the game, but I’m one of those who believe that this is something that benefits the design, since without that touch of uncertainty, the endgame would be less interesting. For all these reasons, I give it a…