Overview & How to Play

At first, we felt little reason to cover this Dune Euro. What’s new or special about it? Couldn’t find anything substantial after some initial research.

But my gosh, Dune Imperium just kept getting praise, and kept shooting up the BGG Top games of all time rankings!

So of course, we had to cover this worker placement, where you take turns by choosing a card to play from hand, which will tell you where you can place a worker, and in turn, also giving you a card benefit combined with the space’s on the board’s.

You’re doing this all to get 10 victory points, as you amass troops to fight on the planet itself to fight over round by round conflicts for said points. Or, curry favor with the factions on the left side of the board to get victory points. Combine these sources of points with being able to nab points through deckbuilding or playing secret intrigue cards, and we have ourselves set up for a decision-filled game.

Pros

First things first, this game has this great muted look, that’s all heavily inspired by the new 2021 Dune movie. Wooden components are excellent- how about tear shaped water?

Replay value is also clearly fantastic, with 8 different characters, tons of cards to deckbuild with, and all sorts of ways to change the game’s pacing with different Intrigue cards and conflicts.

One of the best things about this conflict, is that it really matters for a Euro. Troops are expensive, and take time/resources to accumulate, so you’re always figuring how many to put in, or what sneaky intrigue cards people may have to swing the conflict. Or they can have ‘Daggers’ on some of their cards to boost combat values.

So do you go hard on conflict now, or prioritize the other stuff on the board, like getting points via the factions on the left? Or how about just saving your army for the next round, where there’s potentially even more points or resources at stake? Either way, you can’t completely ignore the conflict, because the point payouts from it are too good.

Then there’s the point payouts from the faction tracks, which lead into a tense race. See, players get a point from getting to the 4th place in a track, getting an official alliance- but that can get taken away if another player surpasses them! That leads to a worry of people overtaking you for a 2 point swing, as you lose a point, and they get a point.

And remember, you were deckbuilding this entire time! Its identity will really be based off of what cards you are able to buy first, combined with your character ability, then combined with what intrigue cards you’re drawing. Deckbuilding has you account for your opponents motivations as well, and the general pacing of the game, so you can see if building an engine is even worth it.

Cons & Nitpicks

Dune Imperium’s cons start to come in with the randomness said before: specifically an Intrigue called Plans with Plans’’ that is just too easy to use to get points, without spending anything! One has to be careful about giving out points based off of prerequisites in a tight Euro.

But really, besides that, things aren’t that concerning: like the confusing 1-2 player rules, or FAQ mostly online, or leaders not being all that interesting to play—these are all totally fine.

Like sure, the deckbuilding CAN stagnate through people not buying cards if they’re too expensive, or too low value to worth buying, but the ‘firm’ stance on not constantly deckbuilding in Dune Imperium goes to show how you should be thinking of ALL the ways to get advantage, not just through card play.

Even in moments you can deckbuild, one of the coolest decisions to make was deciding when to not buy- when to not clog up your deck, since the game doesn’t have dropping cards left and right, like in say, Dominion.