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63 About this deal
In December 2020, Dire Wolf Digital released Paul Dennen’s Dune: Imperium, which I reviewed on GeekDad. I awarded it with a GeekDad Approved badge, and it went on to be my favorite game of 2021. I wasn’t alone in my enjoyment of the game; it went on to win several awards, including our own GeekDad Game of the Year. Protect your game with 75 gorgeous full-art sleeves for use with Dune: Imperium or other card games. Arrakis sleeves featuring the iconic desert planet. Dispatch cunning agents to further your plans. Send loyal troops into battle on Arrakis. Employ the Mentat to outsmart your rivals. Claim the Alliances of the most powerful factions in the Imperium. With 65 beautifully sculpted miniatures figures and a hefty coin to bestow upon the first player, your game will be fit for an Emperor. A slim tray holds all of the leader cards from both the base game and the expansion. As you can see, there’s room even if you’ve sleeved those cards. The resource tray. Image by Paul Benson. Protect your game with 75 gorgeous full-art sleeves for use with Dune: Imperium or other card games. The Spice Must Flow featuring the fearsome sandworms of Dune.
I split the game up into 3 main phases; the opening (first two rounds), mid-game (all subsequent rounds up to the Conflict III rounds), and the endgame (the Conflict III rounds). This is largely due to the acceleration of victory points after the first few rounds, once you start to consistently draw the new cards you have bought, and the 2VP rewards in most of the Conflict III cards. The Opening Everything in this deluxe upgrade screams quality. From the detailed miniatures to the branded card sleeves. The storage solution and box are much improved over the base game and boy does it give the game a much better look on the table. It’s very helpful to be able to pull out some of the trays from the game and put them on the table for use during play. In my last game, we simply drew cards directly from the card tray, and resources from the token tray.
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Conflict spreads across the Imperium inDune: Imperium – Rise of Ix, the first expansion to the award-winning board game. The last component from the top tray, this bas-relief metal coin replace a cardboard token as the First Player marker. The bottom level of trays. Image by Paul Benson. The box itself(as pictured above) is much deeper than the box for Dune: Imperium. This is because it can store both the old components and new ones from the base game, as well as all of the components from the Rise of Ix expansion. When you open the box, you’ll find two layers of component trays. The top component tray. Image by Paul Benson.
Yes, I know this is not required to enjoy Dune Imperium and its price point may be very high, but I really enjoy what it brings to my copy of Dune Imperium. The box is a beautiful storage solution for both the game and the first expansion and doubles up as a resource tray. You should also focus on getting at least two spaces ahead or to the top of any factions you have an alliance with, as this VP can be vital in securing victory. Tip 15 (Moderate/Hard) – Acquiring The Right Cards For Your Strategy The deluxe upgrade looks fantastic (shown below) replacing everything with miniatures and giving players a new box to keep it all in, but when you have forked out for an already quite expensive game, you should not have to hand over another bag of coin for ‘better’ components. That being said, I cannot wait for mine to turn up; they are arriving in March apparently. So, overall, the components are serviceable but nothing to write home about. The cards are nice though, using art from the upcoming Dune film, due this year. You may even recognize some of the people on the cards. My son said, “Isn’t that Drax, dad, from Guardians of the Galaxy?” Yes, son, yes it is. Maybe it’s down to my explanation, but it does sound complicated on the surface. However, even my son loves the game. Once you know the basics, everything fits together like a well-constructed sci-fi jigsaw. All the symbols are easy to recognise, the board is laid out well and the cards all make sense. It is an easy-to-play game, full of options and rewards for you to manage. I love the game arc too. It starts out slow to earn victory points but, as the battle rewards ramp up towards the end, it really ends in a nice crescendo of players trying to wring out every victory point they can. Dune Imperium: Final ThoughtsThey have also made the Emperor, the Spacing Guild, the Fremen and the Bene Gesserit elements something that all players can have access to, rather than separate players. Player characters are based around four houses of the Landsraad – so far we know that House Atreides and House Harkonnen will be present, and a third ‘automated’ house, House Hagal, has been mentioned, but whether House Ix or House Tleilaxu appear remains to be seen. To get you started, here is the movement of the Dune Imperium starting cards: 2xNone, 2xYellow, 2xGreen, 1xBlue, 1xYellow/Green/Blue, and 2xFremen/Bene Gesserit/Space Guild/Emperor Tip 3 (Medium) – The Third Agent Note: These are to replace misprinted cards; you should only have two copies of Missionaria Protectiva, not four. Instead of colored wooden meeples, each player will now get 3 miniatures for their Agents, marked with plastic rings in the 4 player colors. The miniatures are all nicely sculpted, and faithful to the designs from the recent Denis Villeneuve film adaptation of Dune. The tiny Troop miniatures. Image by Paul Benson.
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