top of page
Writer's pictureAthena

Let the spice flow

Dune: Imperium is a 1-4 player worker placement and deck building game in which you play as one of the factions that fight over the precious spice resource on planet Dune. Pre-orders from the Direwolf Digital website open tomorrow, October 29, and the game will ship to the US and Canada in December. There is no information regarding availability in the rest of the world yet.


Image source: BGG

At the beginning of the game, you will first select the leader you are going to play as. Leaders come in three levels of complexity, so if you want to play Baron Harkonnen, for example, it's best to wait until you gain some familiarity with the system. You will get a hand of 10 cards and two workers (agents) of your colour.


Each round consists of 5 phases. In the Round Start phase, you flip over a card from the Conflict deck and check the rewards given to the players if they engage in combat this round. Then, you draw 5 cards from your deck.

Image source: Direwolf Digital website

In the Player Turn phase, you will choose a card from your hand to play. Most cards have symbols on them. You can place one of your agents to any spot on the board that matches the symbol shown on your card, unless that spot is already taken. When you do, you receive the rewards shown both on the card you played and the spot you placed the agent on. If you place a worker on a combat spot, you will select the troops (cubes) you want to use and put them at the centre of the combat ground. If you choose to place a worker in one of the Houses (Bene Gesserit, Fremen etc.), you increase your influence over them and gain victory points.


If you don't have any more workers to place, you must take the Reveal action: you reveal all the cards you haven't played, resolve their 'reveal' effects and purchase cards from the market with any 'persuasion' points the cards give you.


In the Combat phase, troops you sent in the combat ground will fight. You can play any Intrigue cards you have gained to increase their strength. If your troops are the strongest, you gain the top reward from the Conflict card of that round. In the final two phases, you collect any spice found on specific spaces on the board that you have a worker on, and proceed to cleanup for the next round.

Image source: Direwolf Digital website

In the solo mode, you play against two rival faction AIs that use their own action deck. The AIs gain resources which they then convert into victory points, and also gain points if they win any conflicts. If you prefer, you can use the companion app to run the AI actions instead.




304 views4 comments

Recent Posts

See All

4 Comments


Cadet Stimpy
Cadet Stimpy
Feb 28, 2021
•

I played this last week with my Gamin' Pal, who owns the game. I really liked it! I haven't, but she's played it Solo several times and really likes it. It's currently her favorite game, (which changes frequently). 🙂


I don't think I'm that good at judging Theme, but I'm gonna say the game is pretty thematic. Water is important, but scarce, e.g. Good Deck-Building (which I like) and Worker-Placement (which I also like). I think I'm gonna buy it soon. 🙂


FWIW, in a Four Squares Video on BGG (with Tom Vasel, Zee Garcia, Roy Cannaday, and Mike DiLisio), they averaged a 9.0 Rating for the game.


P.S. It's currently $50/€41.4/63.7CAD at GameNerdz (twice that on Amazon).

Like

frankd9009
frankd9009
Oct 29, 2020
•

How could've I planned that he'd learn to ride the sand meeples and turn the planet against me? Arrgh! My death is near. As I drift away, I can feel the Dice draining between my fingers...

Like

Athena
Athena
Oct 29, 2020
•

Withdraw your troops, evil Baron! The Dice belong to JW Atreides, don't make him turn the giant sand meeples against you...

Like

frankd9009
frankd9009
Oct 29, 2020
•

The Dice Melange! He who controls the Dice controls Solitairetimes. My house must gain control of the Dice, but the sand meeples are ferocious and make mining the Dice a dangerous endeavor.

Like
bottom of page