Dune Imperium: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Deck-Building, Worker Placement, Area Control
Player Age: 14+ Player Count: 1 - 4 PlayersTime to Play: 60 - 120 Minutes
Game Designer: Paul Dennen
Player Age: 14+
Game Designer: Paul Dennen
Rundown:
Dune Imperium is a stand out hit in recent years with several expansions and a second standalone edition. The player pieces and resources in the images of the game include stickers provided by Levity Games. The game combines two core mechanisms which honestly do not get combined enough, worker placement and deck building. Players will be using their cards to place their workers matching a location symbol on the left-hand side of the card played.
The grey section will award different benefits when the card is played during a turn. This creates an interesting element when players purchase cards they often have to weigh up the benefits of the cards effect vs locations the card can be played to send a worker. If players don't consider this they often can lock themself out of a productive round. Once the players workers are placed they will pass gaining what is in the blue section on the bottom of the cards. This is mainly persuasion (blue diamond) which can be used to add new cards to their deck. The benefits on cards do range between, persuasion, resources (solari, spice, water), swords (attack) and other benefits. This game offers a lot of choice in how players desire to build their deck.
The other main element players are working towards is earning points, the game will end after someone reaches 10 points then whoever has the most points is the winner. The main way players will gain points is by moving upwards on influence tracks or by winning conflicts. Influence tracks will increase whenever players visit one of their two locations, each track can gain every player one point midway and the player who reaches the top first, a second point. The other main way players will gain points is by having the most troops in a conflict where a point is granted to the winning player. Gaining and sending troops is a crucial decision when placing workers in rounds. There is a lot more to understanding about this game, this review is a rapid review so it is going to focus on the key parts, what can be done on a player's turn, the many ways to gain points and the interaction.
Action:
Each turn the active player will play a card and send a worker to a location that matches one of the symbols on the left side of the card. There are the four factions locations on the left side of the board, each of these groups have a different focus, from solari; placement/sending troops into conflict; card manipulation in particular gaining intrigue cards; and water.
There are also several locations matching three colours green, spending solari to gain more workers or persuasion bonus; or yellow that focuses on spice or gaining solari and blue which focuses on card draw and troops.
Any of these locations may have a cross symbol on them. If a player sends a worker to one of these locations they can deploy into the conflict any troop gained this turn and up to two more from their garrison (troop staging area) into this round's conflict.
Playing or not playing a card is an equally crucial decision in this game. Whenever a card is played a worker can be sent to a matching location and the effect in grey is gained. When the player passes any card in the player's hand will now resolve their blue effect. This concept is simply brilliant as it makes the players constantly decide when to play and when their hand is perfect to pass for the round. At this pass stage the passing player will tally up their strength gained now and over the round (with troops) as well as purchase any cards they would like with their persuasion.
Points:
This is a low point scoring game, at first it can take a while to start gaining points, later in the game the points will begin to steam roll. That's due to the fact there are many ways to gain points but all of the methods have a necessary build to the middle of the game. Players can gain one from the midsection of each track and one for the player that reaches the top first.
Players can also gain cards with different ways to purchase a point through the pass phase or by outright buying a "spice must flow" which will immediately grant a point.
The other two methods are through intrigue cards
or through conflict cards.
The game has a great flow of points, the first few rounds let the players build their engine, as the game continues points become more common in conflicts and naturally players gain more points through the other means.
Interaction:
Dune Imperium is a game that allows players to focus on what they want to focus on. It isn't quite a point salad game but players don't need to focus purely on the conflicts. In saying that, the conflicts are a big portion of the player interaction and if not awarding points award other benefits that can be crucial resources/intrigue cards. Players have to have troops in a conflict for any sword to count towards the battle.
So planning the order of placement for workers is crucial, like most worker placement games each space can only hold one worker. This creates a sequence of placing workers puzzle that becomes more challenging with more players, however the conflicts become more crucial with fewer players.
Determination:
- Many ways that aren't conflict based to score points.
- Interesting card composition of worker locations, abilities when played and abilities when passing the round.
As someone who has no connection to the source material of dune. This game is simply brilliant. It is easily getting a Golden Seal of Approval. The combination of worker placement and deck building is an underutilised combination with only a handful of games coming to mind. From the ones I have played I find Dune Imperium has the most thought implemented into how the deck building works. Not only do cards have abilities that activate when played like standard deck builders they also determine where the worker can be placed. If that wasn't enough to consider they also have effects that can be applied when the player passes and discards their hand at the end of the round. These three elements create an engaging puzzle that drives the rest of the game for me. If you are not a fan of deck builders though, there is still an array of resource management, worker sequence planning and area control. Even after playing Dune Uprising (it's standalone sequel) this is still a game that stands on its own. If you're a fan of the mechanisms, or the franchise I can easily recommend Dune Imperium.
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