Jamey discusses a variety of mechanisms in the deckbuilding worker-placement game, Dune: Imperium. Become a champion of this channel: stonemaier-games.myshopify.co...
Hi Jamie. Thanks for the video. That was a great insight into how Paul Dennen integrates his mechanisms. We just played Dune Imperium for the first time tonight and I found the Mentat was a similar idea to the temporary worker in Viticulture. It also reminded me a bit of Lost Ruins of Arnak with the amalgamation of worker placement and deck building. But I love how you need to have the icon of the board space to spend your agent there, and you really have to think about what cards to draft to make sure you can get into the spots you need to get to as well as considering their bonuses.
I've played a few solo games so far and am really looking forward to some human opponents. I agree with you on all of the interesting game mechanics that make the game very fun to play. It has a good amount of depth without complexity. Jamie, thanks for making your videos. I love how they are a deep dive into a portion of the game you feature.
Can't wait to get my hands on it. You really captured it's essence in the video, but as a hardcore Dune fan I can say that it is much more than that. It has real connection to the first book at least. Each card represents an event or a plot twist from the book so you feel like you are making those plans within plans yourself :)
I really thought this might be an odd game for people who haven’t read the books or seen the movie since the art and theme are directly influenced by the 2021 Dune movie. But I’m very glad to hear from you, Zee Garcia, and Rodney Smith, that you don’t need to know the source material to love this game.
Just played recently and wow! So good. Agree the combat is just so well designed and builds tension as troops muster in the zone throughout the round. Played 2 player with House Hagal as an NPC and it works really well. A thorn in the side of all our best laid strategies!
I finally managed to find a copy of Arnak! I couldn't find it locally, but I bought it from a local game store in NC, and it's on the way to me now. :)
@@jameystegmaier Wow you are really lucky! I'm traveling to the US from Costa Rica tomorrow and Direwolf did an amazing job helping me get Dune, is now waiting for me in the hotel and I can't wait to play it! Arnak will have to wait a little longer 😪. Btw Viticulture is my wife and I favorite game of all time! 😊
I just started reading the books ^^' Been holding back on reading a translated version (which would probably be somewhere in my daddy's extensive SciFi - stack) because I wanted to read it in the original language. So now that I feel confident and fluent enough to read them in English, I'm catching up on this and a whole bunch of other classic reads :3
@@kylesmorgabord5592 Still at it ^^'! I just got through the first 50 pages or something around that (had some busy weeks or else I would have read more by now ;)) I didn't even know nor did I notice there's so many terms based on the Arabic language (though that honorific Princess Irulan uses to refer to Paul's father Leto could have probably given it away, that definitely sounds Arabic) 🤦🏼♀️ That's awesome! And kinda makes sense for a desert planet like Arrakis, doesn't it? Plus, many readers would probably think that an exotic language, so it might be easier to use as source material for a foreign planet's language 🤔 I wonder if they went with the same in the Arabic translation, if there is one...
@@kylesmorgabord5592 Also, I did take a beginner's course in Arabic (just an A1 level one, so really SUPER basic, though) in the last semester at my university, out of pure curiosity, so maybe there's just some dormant basic vocabulary going into that and I'm pretty sure there was a glossary in my copy of the book, so I'd probably not gonna have as much trouble as I had when trying to read Harry Potter in class 7. I practically had to look up every word back then and practically stopped reading after the first page back then ^^'
The second highest faction in the game is the Spacing Guild, not necessarily the military faction. Their thing is that they control almost every space travelling and have a monopoly on using Spice to travel at light-speed. So the reason that they can get you anywhere on the board is obvious and the reason for giving you troops is them shipping them in from outer space.
I received my pre-ordered copy last week. Unfortunately, I have only been able to play it solo so far. I really enjoy the solo game because it reminds of of the solo game in Tapestry where you are playing against 2 AI opponents.
You asked about other games with these mechanisms, arctic scavengers, which was the 2nd deckbuilder to my knowledge used the hand management. There is a fight at the end of every round and cards you dont use for actions go into the fight. It's even more tense than dune because only the first player knows what the reward is.
What I love about Scythe is the "tension" about possible combats, and when it happens, it's the unknown about what card(s) players will play... here the tension is only palpable in the second aspect (what cards will players play) so it's less predominant, you "know" the combat always happens. Also the public number of exposed cubes is fairly revealing most of the time from what I've seen in playthroughs... I do like the idea of buying cards at the end of the round, but I've also seen games where nobody buys cards at the end of the round (especially near the end), or someone buys a card and reveal a powerful card that the next player can then purchase (always a bummer for the player who just revealed it! maybe that's why players sometimes chose not to buy cards, because they don't want to give gifts to other players!). So I'm not sure I'm sold on the game just yet, plus the worker placement aspect is very basic. I am more intrigued about Arnak, with its variable worker placement spots, its dual system of purchasable cards that interestingly act as timers in the game, its cards with different travelling icons, and its upgradable assistants! It seems better for combos too, I have seen a card for example that allow you to take a card from the bottom of your discard pile, so you can play it right after buying a card to immediately get it in your hand, smart!
@@revimfadli4666 sure: you start the game with 5 fixed WP spots (1 for each of the 5 resources), and as players discover new guardian sites, each site becomes a new WP spot for the rest of game, and each of these spots offers a combination of different resources. When the game ends, depending on the number of players you usually have between 6 and 12 new WP spots available. They are variable between games (no two games will have the same WP spots because there are more guardian site tiles than there are spots on the map).
I really like Dune Imperium. My only problem with the game is with the Market, Turn order, and the Intrigue deck as a whole: randomness that negates all ur hard choices for combat, influence track or endgame just because someone plays a card. Every advantage should be earned as proven by ur foresight/choices not because of luck! Which is why I propose 3 changes: 1) Have the Market be 8 cards instead of 5 OR flip/refresh all unpurchased cards at the end of the round OR both! 2) Fix the Intrigue deck somehow, like drafting display 3 to choose from, so others know what u got, (if they remember), but don't know WHEN you'll play it! OR take out the Endgame VP cards & Plot pay for VP cards (there's only 4) 3) Have a mechanic that allows players to affect turn order! Such as: Have the CHOAM Secure Contract space also have a 1st Player icon meaning u get to give the 1st player coin to ANY player and they immediately become 1st player OR will be 1st player next round. OR each round Player lowest on the VP track goes first then 2nd lowest goes 2nd etc. ties broken per normal endgame rules
Life is random sometimes. I think it would be a huge mistake to have face-up a face-up market of intrigue cards--the entire point of those cards is to give each player some secret information that keeps opponents on their toes. As for the main card market, I think 5 is great--look at any other modern deckbuilding game with variable card markets, and you'll see around 5 cards in almost all of them. As for turn order, sure, I could see the game giving players a little more agency over that, but it's also never bothered me.
@@jameystegmaier Yeah. I can live with the Market and the Turn order. BUT...getting screwed by someone's lucky card just seems like a big middle finger to all ur efforts and all because of luck. And majority of games have been decided by those 4 cards. I'm all for secret information and surprises, which is why my preference is to have the deck face-down but take those 4 cards out (endgame VPs and Plot 'pay for VPs') and keep the intrigue cards for advantages in combat and Influence tracks. FYI, i got the idea of 3 face up drafting from the Rise of Ix expansion which does that for the tech tiles!
@@fan-i-am Definitely, I think face-up markets are good in many circumstances...just not when you're trying to give the players the opportunity to be sneaky. :) I think there may be more agency and less luck with those cards than some may think, as players have plenty of opportunities to draw (or not draw) intrigue cards.
Played it once, even during the middle of my 1st game, I immediately ordered my own copy, it’s that good a game.
Thanks for sharing. Dune is one of my fav reads.
Have the game on pre-order. Even more excited about it now that I know that you enjoy the game play.
Hi Jamie. Thanks for the video. That was a great insight into how Paul Dennen integrates his mechanisms. We just played Dune Imperium for the first time tonight and I found the Mentat was a similar idea to the temporary worker in Viticulture. It also reminded me a bit of Lost Ruins of Arnak with the amalgamation of worker placement and deck building. But I love how you need to have the icon of the board space to spend your agent there, and you really have to think about what cards to draft to make sure you can get into the spots you need to get to as well as considering their bonuses.
I've played a few solo games so far and am really looking forward to some human opponents. I agree with you on all of the interesting game mechanics that make the game very fun to play. It has a good amount of depth without complexity.
Jamie, thanks for making your videos. I love how they are a deep dive into a portion of the game you feature.
Can't wait to get my hands on it. You really captured it's essence in the video, but as a hardcore Dune fan I can say that it is much more than that. It has real connection to the first book at least. Each card represents an event or a plot twist from the book so you feel like you are making those plans within plans yourself :)
I love how this video discusses almost all the mechanisms of the game, showing this truely is a great game.
And the expansion even makes it better.
I really thought this might be an odd game for people who haven’t read the books or seen the movie since the art and theme are directly influenced by the 2021 Dune movie. But I’m very glad to hear from you, Zee Garcia, and Rodney Smith, that you don’t need to know the source material to love this game.
Got to play this game yesterday with friends and MAN they loved it, I thought the game was great had amazing depth.
You're enthusiasm for this game is contagious! I ordered my own copy, I can't wait to try all these mechanisms out.
Just played recently and wow! So good. Agree the combat is just so well designed and builds tension as troops muster in the zone throughout the round. Played 2 player with House Hagal as an NPC and it works really well. A thorn in the side of all our best laid strategies!
I'm really looking forward for this game and Lost Ruins of Arnak, both look really fun to play! Love your videos and your games!
I finally managed to find a copy of Arnak! I couldn't find it locally, but I bought it from a local game store in NC, and it's on the way to me now. :)
@@jameystegmaier Wow you are really lucky! I'm traveling to the US from Costa Rica tomorrow and Direwolf did an amazing job helping me get Dune, is now waiting for me in the hotel and I can't wait to play it! Arnak will have to wait a little longer 😪. Btw Viticulture is my wife and I favorite game of all time! 😊
God damn can't wait to get this and the cosmetic upgrade!
Our friends (who live round the corner) have this game, and even so after playing it once I am strongly considering getting my own copy!
I just started reading the books ^^' Been holding back on reading a translated version (which would probably be somewhere in my daddy's extensive SciFi - stack) because I wanted to read it in the original language. So now that I feel confident and fluent enough to read them in English, I'm catching up on this and a whole bunch of other classic reads :3
Awesome! How was reading it in English? I feel like that’d be difficult since there are so many made up words and Arabic inspired terms.
@@kylesmorgabord5592 Still at it ^^'! I just got through the first 50 pages or something around that (had some busy weeks or else I would have read more by now ;))
I didn't even know nor did I notice there's so many terms based on the Arabic language (though that honorific Princess Irulan uses to refer to Paul's father Leto could have probably given it away, that definitely sounds Arabic) 🤦🏼♀️ That's awesome! And kinda makes sense for a desert planet like Arrakis, doesn't it? Plus, many readers would probably think that an exotic language, so it might be easier to use as source material for a foreign planet's language 🤔 I wonder if they went with the same in the Arabic translation, if there is one...
@@kylesmorgabord5592 Also, I did take a beginner's course in Arabic (just an A1 level one, so really SUPER basic, though) in the last semester at my university, out of pure curiosity, so maybe there's just some dormant basic vocabulary going into that and I'm pretty sure there was a glossary in my copy of the book, so I'd probably not gonna have as much trouble as I had when trying to read Harry Potter in class 7. I practically had to look up every word back then and practically stopped reading after the first page back then ^^'
The second highest faction in the game is the Spacing Guild, not necessarily the military faction. Their thing is that they control almost every space travelling and have a monopoly on using Spice to travel at light-speed. So the reason that they can get you anywhere on the board is obvious and the reason for giving you troops is them shipping them in from outer space.
I love dune! And i really want to get this game
I received my pre-ordered copy last week. Unfortunately, I have only been able to play it solo so far. I really enjoy the solo game because it reminds of of the solo game in Tapestry where you are playing against 2 AI opponents.
Pretty sure that's the most excited I've seen you be about a combat mechanism.
It's right up there with Kemet!
You asked about other games with these mechanisms, arctic scavengers, which was the 2nd deckbuilder to my knowledge used the hand management. There is a fight at the end of every round and cards you dont use for actions go into the fight. It's even more tense than dune because only the first player knows what the reward is.
You're absolutely right! I have a video about that game too, and I think that was my favorite mechanism in it. :)
@@jameystegmaier yeah it's really good. I still have my copy with all expansions
"For the Baron!"
What I love about Scythe is the "tension" about possible combats, and when it happens, it's the unknown about what card(s) players will play... here the tension is only palpable in the second aspect (what cards will players play) so it's less predominant, you "know" the combat always happens. Also the public number of exposed cubes is fairly revealing most of the time from what I've seen in playthroughs...
I do like the idea of buying cards at the end of the round, but I've also seen games where nobody buys cards at the end of the round (especially near the end), or someone buys a card and reveal a powerful card that the next player can then purchase (always a bummer for the player who just revealed it! maybe that's why players sometimes chose not to buy cards, because they don't want to give gifts to other players!). So I'm not sure I'm sold on the game just yet, plus the worker placement aspect is very basic. I am more intrigued about Arnak, with its variable worker placement spots, its dual system of purchasable cards that interestingly act as timers in the game, its cards with different travelling icons, and its upgradable assistants! It seems better for combos too, I have seen a card for example that allow you to take a card from the bottom of your discard pile, so you can play it right after buying a card to immediately get it in your hand, smart!
@@revimfadli4666 sure: you start the game with 5 fixed WP spots (1 for each of the 5 resources), and as players discover new guardian sites, each site becomes a new WP spot for the rest of game, and each of these spots offers a combination of different resources. When the game ends, depending on the number of players you usually have between 6 and 12 new WP spots available. They are variable between games (no two games will have the same WP spots because there are more guardian site tiles than there are spots on the map).
Hi. Did the intrigue cards in combat remind you of blood rage?
Maybe a little bit? But I liked combat in Dune Imperium SO much better than Blood Rage.
I really like Dune Imperium. My only problem with the game is with the Market, Turn order, and the Intrigue deck as a whole: randomness that negates all ur hard choices for combat, influence track or endgame just because someone plays a card.
Every advantage should be earned as proven by ur foresight/choices not because of luck! Which is why I propose 3 changes:
1) Have the Market be 8 cards instead of 5 OR flip/refresh all unpurchased cards at the end of the round OR both!
2) Fix the Intrigue deck somehow, like drafting display 3 to choose from, so others know what u got, (if they remember), but don't know WHEN you'll play it!
OR take out the Endgame VP cards & Plot pay for VP cards (there's only 4)
3) Have a mechanic that allows players to affect turn order! Such as: Have the CHOAM Secure Contract space also have a 1st Player icon meaning u get to give the 1st player coin to ANY player and they immediately become 1st player OR will be 1st player next round.
OR each round Player lowest on the VP track goes first then 2nd lowest goes 2nd etc. ties broken per normal endgame rules
Life is random sometimes. I think it would be a huge mistake to have face-up a face-up market of intrigue cards--the entire point of those cards is to give each player some secret information that keeps opponents on their toes. As for the main card market, I think 5 is great--look at any other modern deckbuilding game with variable card markets, and you'll see around 5 cards in almost all of them. As for turn order, sure, I could see the game giving players a little more agency over that, but it's also never bothered me.
@@jameystegmaier Yeah. I can live with the Market and the Turn order. BUT...getting screwed by someone's lucky card just seems like a big middle finger to all ur efforts and all because of luck. And majority of games have been decided by those 4 cards.
I'm all for secret information and surprises, which is why my preference is to have the deck face-down but take those 4 cards out (endgame VPs and Plot 'pay for VPs') and keep the intrigue cards for advantages in combat and Influence tracks.
FYI, i got the idea of 3 face up drafting from the Rise of Ix expansion which does that for the tech tiles!
@@fan-i-am Definitely, I think face-up markets are good in many circumstances...just not when you're trying to give the players the opportunity to be sneaky. :) I think there may be more agency and less luck with those cards than some may think, as players have plenty of opportunities to draw (or not draw) intrigue cards.
I asked Santa for Dune 😁. Still searching for a game better than Scythe and Blood Rage, haven't found it yet. 👍
Have you played Kemet?
@@jameystegmaier yes and strangely don't like it at all.
@@svendhondt5352 Nothing beats Scythe ;-) Have you tried Inis?
@@gaillardlionel YES, I love Inis, also one of my favorites!