I love how you can make a sudden comeback in the Final hour. Once, I extended the game another round when it looked like I would lose. The last game I had two major battles where I committed heavily (2 point 1st place) thinking I would win easily, didn’t bother to commit all my back up troops, and then she throws down a 7 combat blade intrigue card. I had never even seen this card as I try not to spoil the game by looking at all the cards. I thought a 5 was the best. She managed to tie me twice, denying me 4 major points. In the end I eked out a win by stealing back the alliance token she had previously taken from me. And I only managed that because i got to the 2 water area to draw 3 cards, as I needed a symbol to go to another place, to do still another thing to move up the alliance track. It was a beautiful last minute chain, when it works! Then she was like “I was going to go to the 3 card space, but you beat me to it!” We had a lot to talk about when it was over. Our failed plans, our lucky breaks.
I agree, this game captures the fierce competitiveness of Dune, its not a friendly universe to anyone. I like your rambling into the book reviewer aspect too! Cheers!
Totally agree, really love Dune Imperium. I've played 3x now and it's impressive how it generates a different Dune-y story each time. In one game I was 1 solari short of being able to win outright with a plot card so it went to the second tie-breaker which I lost. In another game one player was crushing it in combat and was about to hit 10vp before being defeated in combat by a surprise Gurney Halleck and an intrigue card that had been stolen from his hand! (the spend 2 spice to get 5 combat power card).
I'm really enjoying this at 2 player--as you said, it's so well implemented. Speaking as another big fan of DUNE, your points about how the game evokes the books' universe in ways both small and grand are spot on!
Great review. Thanks. Your excitement is palpable. It's a good game. Yesterday played a 3p game on TTS. Was 3points behind in the final round. Won a battle (2VP) by playing some intrigue cards to surprise the battlefield and rally all my garrissons, secretly recruit (and deploy) additional troops AND buy a VP during the reveal step with the action on one of my cards. Won on the second tiebreaker: solari! Looking forward playing it again.
Books 1-4 are my favorite BY FAR. I can understand folks having a tough time with the 4th (God-Emperor), but it's probably my favorite. 5 & 6 are fine, but just not quite as good imo. The newer non-Frank books are basically teen fan-fiction though in comparison. And with that said, this game is fantastic.
Such a timely review, literally during watching I got a notification that the game is in a parcel locker. Also I would love to hear Joel talking more about the books.
@@tonybowers9490 I've done it when I'm desperate to go somewhere when I have drawn a terrible hand, hoping I will draw another card that lets me go where I need to
Now you've put me in a tough spot as love the look and artstyle of Arnak much more, but your opinion holds a lot of weight to me since we generally tend to like similar games, so I'll have to at least test Imperium before knocking it, I suppose. :)
I've greatly enjoyed this game, and feel that the solo experience is one of its strongest features (and much appreciated during these difficult times). House Hagal can be quite challenging and the AI forces you to really consider your mid & long-range strategy for scoring enough VP. As an aside, the "horse-pucky" prescience that was sorely overused by Herbert was done more effectively by Asimov in Foundation with the concept of Hari Seldon's psychohistory- the predictive intelligence technique based on advanced statistics and high fidelity sociological modeling. Prescience is a nice dramatic tool that empowers the story's hero, but even Herbert eventually figured out how it could stifle an interesting plot (perhaps that's why he ultimately created the No Ships which first appeared in Heretics of Dune, and where I stopped reading the expanding Dune lore because it had all become a bit too much).
The criticism of the End Game intrigue cards is interesting. There are actually only 3 and of them only 2 that are that impactful really (the third being a tie breaker card). They take work to achieve - so it isn't like 'here is plus 2 victory points' If you are 'lucky' enough to draw one you have to decide if you are in a position to secure them at game end. Other cards are easy benefits that clearly help you with no effort required. Once players know what those end game bonuses are they can keep an eye on the opposition, do they have an intrigue card they are not playing? Are they manipulating the board in such a way that if they have those cards they will get bonus points?
I totally agree with you, but I can see the angle of someone gets a bad feel when losing that way. The only one card I actually give credence to is the one that gives you extra points for having faction influence across the board. It's kind of a "win more" card. If you have the other one for getting points from the Spice Must Flow... good luck on that. That's the toughest path for points I think, so a little bonus there can be a nice balance... Also it's super obvious once someone starts going that way. :)
Obviously you like this game more because of the theming, but I am wondering if you have thoughts on the comparison between this and Ruins of Arnak, have been being compared due there there similar combination of deck building and worker placement.
I agree with you on so many points Joel! I love this game!!! I also enjoyed how you went into the The thematics of some of the different cards and spaces!
Sounds interesting, I like the theme and am generally up for some backstabbing, but I worry about the deck building element. I get easily frustrated with shuffle-and-draw deck building. With a lot of deck builders, I feel like I can have my deck mostly where I want it, but get completely ruined by a couple of bad draws. So, my question is: how important is the luck of the draw in this game?
I would say there’s a little bit of that, but your deck doesn’t get so big in this game, so if you have to take a turn off, it’s mostly OK because next turn you know what’s coming. Since the deck never gets huge, the spaces that allow you to draw more cards are actually extremely useful as well.
We are having a blast with this game. Played 3 times already and it’s always close, two player. We don’t care about dune at all and it makes no difference. Might even beat lost ruins of arnak.
@@DriveThruReview with arnak, I don’t see the replay value being that high, or as high as dune. only played twice, so we’ll se how that goes. Something about the AI player in dune really helps it, especially using the app.
Interesting review, Joel. I have a tricky question. Looking at the game and how it’s played, it seems very mechanical. Worker placements to gather currencies, deck-building to access different spaces to access different combinations of currencies, etc. Would you say the secret sauce that makes it feel like more than a euro-style mishmash of mechanisms is all in the conflict stage of each turn? Or are there other flavorful elements not as obvious from the review, like cards that change things up a lot? It’s hard to see what makes this game special from the basics of gameplay.
there is a lot of flavorful stuff in the way the cards work and how the ressources are connected to the places. But what let´s you totally forget the mechanisms is the heavy interaction between the players. one of the rare worker placement games that make me sweat between turns because the tension is so high. It feels like Tyrants of the Underdark on crack. Please don´t play Tyrants of the Underdark on crack. That would be a terrible idea.
The movie is a beautiful interpretation of the novel. The scenes sacrificed gave room to a deep world full of nuance, detail and intensity. A profound visual and auditory experience on iMax.
@@DriveThruReview Hopefully you saw it on iMax as it was meant for that audio and visual experience (designed for that screen aspect ratio and the dolby surround).
Really that surprises me. I don't see a better way of doing it. If you don't have that third entity mixing it up in the action spaces and the conflict, it would either people extremely dry or end up being very fiddly.
What do they not like about 2p? I am struggling to find what you are referring to. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the AI doesn't earn points in a 2p game. I houseruled it so that the 2p AI operates just like one of the solo AIs and it works just fine. I like the added pressure of the AI potentially winning in a 2p game but I can see why others might not like that.
@@jartree I guess I was a bit dramatic... Maybe nobody "hates" DI at 2P (I really don't know), instead, some people find the 2p experience lacking or not enticing enough... Anyway, your variant sounds cool. Do you have it written down somewhere to check it out?
Solo mode's good? Sold! Cuz lockdown. I was waffling on the revisionist history elements then realized I played all the old Westwood RTS games and the CCG - didn't seem to have a problem back then...
I had a lot of fun with the RTS and then whatever that other game that came after it was with those cinematic moments. Never played the CCG. Wonder if that's worth tracking down.
Just to make sure it's clear, you can get the base game here and the deluxe edition is actually just a box of miniatures that you add to the components you see here :)
@@Bandit-137 knowing the publisher that maybe a wrong call. Plus Joel's solo recommendation means you don't need a group. Not to mention that the rules are really well done, playing with a spouse seems to be a good option. 😏
Great game! played all player counts. 4 player took 2+ hours but it was such a battle of a game. great with 3. one of the best games for 2020. i think this game will be around for a while, BGG 100
I'm not really a fan of games that need an app. I will play this only solo. I've been on the fence with this since it was released and have been a little scared that I would end up dumping it. Hmmmmmm "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
You don't NEED the app here. The deck of "AI" cards in the game is fine, but the app just has an extra feature that I think improves on it. Definitely viable to play with just the deck of cards though.
This is the first game I have ever played solo. I’m not really a solo gamer but I thought it would help me teach my friends. I played it solo just with the cards not thee app and it was awesome! I do prefer it with 3 or 4 players but really enjoyed it solo. It has actually caused me to consider what other games might also be good solo, especially with the COVID situation.
I love how you can make a sudden comeback in the Final hour. Once, I extended the game another round when it looked like I would lose. The last game I had two major battles where I committed heavily (2 point 1st place) thinking I would win easily, didn’t bother to commit all my back up troops, and then she throws down a 7 combat blade intrigue card. I had never even seen this card as I try not to spoil the game by looking at all the cards. I thought a 5 was the best. She managed to tie me twice, denying me 4 major points. In the end I eked out a win by stealing back the alliance token she had previously taken from me. And I only managed that because i got to the 2 water area to draw 3 cards, as I needed a symbol to go to another place, to do still another thing to move up the alliance track. It was a beautiful last minute chain, when it works! Then she was like “I was going to go to the 3 card space, but you beat me to it!” We had a lot to talk about when it was over. Our failed plans, our lucky breaks.
I agree, this game captures the fierce competitiveness of Dune, its not a friendly universe to anyone. I like your rambling into the book reviewer aspect too! Cheers!
Totally agree, really love Dune Imperium. I've played 3x now and it's impressive how it generates a different Dune-y story each time. In one game I was 1 solari short of being able to win outright with a plot card so it went to the second tie-breaker which I lost. In another game one player was crushing it in combat and was about to hit 10vp before being defeated in combat by a surprise Gurney Halleck and an intrigue card that had been stolen from his hand! (the spend 2 spice to get 5 combat power card).
Love your reviews, pal! Thanks for another one!
The spice must flow and my wallet becomes lighter..
Billy has called a big one, again it is the legend.
*queue 80s guitar rock*
Shai-Billy-duhd
DAAAA DA DAA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I'm really enjoying this at 2 player--as you said, it's so well implemented. Speaking as another big fan of DUNE, your points about how the game evokes the books' universe in ways both small and grand are spot on!
Great review. Thanks. Your excitement is palpable. It's a good game. Yesterday played a 3p game on TTS. Was 3points behind in the final round. Won a battle (2VP) by playing some intrigue cards to surprise the battlefield and rally all my garrissons, secretly recruit (and deploy) additional troops AND buy a VP during the reveal step with the action on one of my cards. Won on the second tiebreaker: solari!
Looking forward playing it again.
Oh, man...Now I want both Dune games...
Books 1-4 are my favorite BY FAR. I can understand folks having a tough time with the 4th (God-Emperor), but it's probably my favorite. 5 & 6 are fine, but just not quite as good imo. The newer non-Frank books are basically teen fan-fiction though in comparison. And with that said, this game is fantastic.
I also love 1-4. After that, the story just runs on the same loop.
From talking with other Dune fans the 4th book seems to be regarded as the best and I would agree.
Such a timely review, literally during watching I got a notification that the game is in a parcel locker. Also I would love to hear Joel talking more about the books.
I don't know. I'd have to read them again I think :)
@@DriveThruReview third time? Impressive, I only read the first 3 books, only the first twice. But the game is a good motivation to reread it.
Sold! I get my copy Tuesday
The Mentat space is genius. At first I didn’t get it. But did after I realized the benefit in going last for combat.
took me about 5 games to get to that point :D
@@hesy8049 I know. Spend $$ and use an agent to get another ‘agent’? Why do that?
@@tonybowers9490 I've done it when I'm desperate to go somewhere when I have drawn a terrible hand, hoping I will draw another card that lets me go where I need to
What's another great deck buding game with worker placement or just a great deck building game all by itself? Thanks! Love this game!!
Thank you for another excellent review! :)
If you were pushed to decide between this and Lost Ruins of Arnak, which one would you keep?
This one no question. I still really like Arnak though.
Now you've put me in a tough spot as love the look and artstyle of Arnak much more, but your opinion holds a lot of weight to me since we generally tend to like similar games, so I'll have to at least test Imperium before knocking it, I suppose. :)
I've greatly enjoyed this game, and feel that the solo experience is one of its strongest features (and much appreciated during these difficult times). House Hagal can be quite challenging and the AI forces you to really consider your mid & long-range strategy for scoring enough VP.
As an aside, the "horse-pucky" prescience that was sorely overused by Herbert was done more effectively by Asimov in Foundation with the concept of Hari Seldon's psychohistory- the predictive intelligence technique based on advanced statistics and high fidelity sociological modeling. Prescience is a nice dramatic tool that empowers the story's hero, but even Herbert eventually figured out how it could stifle an interesting plot (perhaps that's why he ultimately created the No Ships which first appeared in Heretics of Dune, and where I stopped reading the expanding Dune lore because it had all become a bit too much).
Foundation is probably my second favorite sci-fi series. I still say it's horsepucky. Mother Nature has a way of always holding the winning hand :)
The criticism of the End Game intrigue cards is interesting. There are actually only 3 and of them only 2 that are that impactful really (the third being a tie breaker card). They take work to achieve - so it isn't like 'here is plus 2 victory points'
If you are 'lucky' enough to draw one you have to decide if you are in a position to secure them at game end. Other cards are easy benefits that clearly help you with no effort required. Once players know what those end game bonuses are they can keep an eye on the opposition, do they have an intrigue card they are not playing? Are they manipulating the board in such a way that if they have those cards they will get bonus points?
I totally agree with you, but I can see the angle of someone gets a bad feel when losing that way. The only one card I actually give credence to is the one that gives you extra points for having faction influence across the board. It's kind of a "win more" card. If you have the other one for getting points from the Spice Must Flow... good luck on that. That's the toughest path for points I think, so a little bonus there can be a nice balance... Also it's super obvious once someone starts going that way. :)
Nice review -- thanks! This one's been on my radar for a while now.
Obviously you like this game more because of the theming, but I am wondering if you have thoughts on the comparison between this and Ruins of Arnak, have been being compared due there there similar combination of deck building and worker placement.
Nevermind I saw you mention this below in the comments, missed it sorry
@@whiteknight4040 No worries :)
I agree with you on so many points Joel! I love this game!!! I also enjoyed how you went into the The thematics of some of the different cards and spaces!
Thanks Roy. Glad you like it!
Sounds interesting, I like the theme and am generally up for some backstabbing, but I worry about the deck building element. I get easily frustrated with shuffle-and-draw deck building. With a lot of deck builders, I feel like I can have my deck mostly where I want it, but get completely ruined by a couple of bad draws. So, my question is: how important is the luck of the draw in this game?
I would say there’s a little bit of that, but your deck doesn’t get so big in this game, so if you have to take a turn off, it’s mostly OK because next turn you know what’s coming. Since the deck never gets huge, the spaces that allow you to draw more cards are actually extremely useful as well.
We are having a blast with this game. Played 3 times already and it’s always close, two player. We don’t care about dune at all and it makes no difference. Might even beat lost ruins of arnak.
That's good to hear. It's hard for me to separate Dune from it. But, this definitely replaced Arnak for me. (I still really like Arnak.)
@@DriveThruReview with arnak, I don’t see the replay value being that high, or as high as dune. only played twice, so we’ll se how that goes. Something about the AI player in dune really helps it, especially using the app.
@@shatnershairpiece Ya, it's pretty fun when a friend curses my phone :)
Thanks for sharing. It’s my current favorite. Like solo a lot, although I rarely win.
Interesting review, Joel. I have a tricky question. Looking at the game and how it’s played, it seems very mechanical. Worker placements to gather currencies, deck-building to access different spaces to access different combinations of currencies, etc. Would you say the secret sauce that makes it feel like more than a euro-style mishmash of mechanisms is all in the conflict stage of each turn? Or are there other flavorful elements not as obvious from the review, like cards that change things up a lot? It’s hard to see what makes this game special from the basics of gameplay.
I talked a bit about it in the review section, but those mechanics create lots of plotting and "sneaky" stuff.
there is a lot of flavorful stuff in the way the cards work and how the ressources are connected to the places. But what let´s you totally forget the mechanisms is the heavy interaction between the players. one of the rare worker placement games that make me sweat between turns because the tension is so high. It feels like Tyrants of the Underdark on crack. Please don´t play Tyrants of the Underdark on crack. That would be a terrible idea.
The movie is a beautiful interpretation of the novel. The scenes sacrificed gave room to a deep world full of nuance, detail and intensity. A profound visual and auditory experience on iMax.
Totally agree. I’ve seen it twice so far :)
@@DriveThruReview Hopefully you saw it on iMax as it was meant for that audio and visual experience (designed for that screen aspect ratio and the dolby surround).
@@baraka99 No just a normal theater (great sound though), and then again at home. We don’t have IMAX around here unfortunately.
I'm glad you didn't struggle through the extra books beyond the first 6
Haha. Honestly after book 4, the story just starts to loop.
Excellent analysis of the books - few gamers totally get it. Great review just bought the game myself
Thanks Jesse. Hope you enjoy it!
Enjoyed the review and enjoyed seeing why you like it so much but sadly after 3 plays this one just doesn’t do anything for me.
Awesome review, thank you!
I was very exited about it but then I saw a lot of people hating the 2p implementation on BGG... this review is pushing me into it again...
Really that surprises me. I don't see a better way of doing it. If you don't have that third entity mixing it up in the action spaces and the conflict, it would either people extremely dry or end up being very fiddly.
What do they not like about 2p? I am struggling to find what you are referring to. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the AI doesn't earn points in a 2p game. I houseruled it so that the 2p AI operates just like one of the solo AIs and it works just fine. I like the added pressure of the AI potentially winning in a 2p game but I can see why others might not like that.
Interesting. I might have to try that. I think it’s fine as is, but that might be worth a shot.
@@jartree I guess I was a bit dramatic... Maybe nobody "hates" DI at 2P (I really don't know), instead, some people find the 2p experience lacking or not enticing enough... Anyway, your variant sounds cool. Do you have it written down somewhere to check it out?
@@PeIon316 Its pretty simple. I just use the rival rules from the solo game in the 2 player game.
Solo mode's good? Sold! Cuz lockdown.
I was waffling on the revisionist history elements then realized I played all the old Westwood RTS games and the CCG - didn't seem to have a problem back then...
I had a lot of fun with the RTS and then whatever that other game that came after it was with those cinematic moments. Never played the CCG. Wonder if that's worth tracking down.
Epic review! I’m holding out for the deluxe version. 😁
Just to make sure it's clear, you can get the base game here and the deluxe edition is actually just a box of miniatures that you add to the components you see here :)
I have no gaming group right now (like most peeps) so not in a big rush atm. Would rather get it aaaaalllll at once!
@@Bandit-137 knowing the publisher that maybe a wrong call. Plus Joel's solo recommendation means you don't need a group. Not to mention that the rules are really well done, playing with a spouse seems to be a good option. 😏
The Butlerian Jihad supplement will probably feature a great app
Nice :D
Great game! played all player counts. 4 player took 2+ hours but it was such a battle of a game. great with 3. one of the best games for 2020. i think this game will be around for a while, BGG 100
Aww... I NEEEEED this game! lol I had a feeling you would love it. :-) Just more fuel to make me want it even more. heh
Looks interesting!
I love dune! I love board games! I love solo! So? Order already
Get to it! :)
I'm not really a fan of games that need an app. I will play this only solo. I've been on the fence with this since it was released and have been a little scared that I would end up dumping it. Hmmmmmm "I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
You don't NEED the app here. The deck of "AI" cards in the game is fine, but the app just has an extra feature that I think improves on it. Definitely viable to play with just the deck of cards though.
This is the first game I have ever played solo. I’m not really a solo gamer but I thought it would help me teach my friends. I played it solo just with the cards not thee app and it was awesome! I do prefer it with 3 or 4 players but really enjoyed it solo. It has actually caused me to consider what other games might also be good solo, especially with the COVID situation.