There are several additional icons in Dune: Imperium – Rise of Ix. This section will reference the Imperium cards in the photo above.

There’s not a lot to speak about components really, everything is roughly the same as the Dune Imperium base game. The cards are of good quality, as are the art and design of the cards. I do wish the Dreadnoughts and markers looked a bit better, especially when playing with the Deluxe Upgrade, the Dreadnoughts look a little basic next to the other Deluxe components. (I am looking forward to upgrading those too, shhh, don’t tell anyone!) Rise Of IX, Final Thoughts! The expansion continues with the same feat that the original game pulls off: presenting the factions and planets in a way that is enriching for fans of the expanded Dune universe, while remaining completely accessible for anyone not familiar with the source material. All you need to know is right there on the table. If you sat down to play and didn’t know that Ix was the most technologically advanced planet in the Imperium, a cursory glance at the Ix game board will make it obvious that if you want the new Tech tiles, you go to Ix. Rally no longer exists, for example, and you can no longer sell spice to CHOAM. Hall of Oratory has been replaced by Tech Negotiator, and no longer grants a troop. This directly changes many of the ways you would go about gathering Solari and Troops, but the replacements serve similar purposes with slightly more depth. Tech Tiles have the ability to influence entire strategies. Restricted Ordinance grants four swords every turn if you have a high council seat for example. While Shuttle Fleet grants two Solari a turn, that’s incredibly powerful if you can grab it early. Other tech tiles have once per round abilities, such as Flagship. Which allows you to pay four Solari for three troops. Many of the new cards have a new twist in the reveal box. We call these cards “Unload” cards, because there are two additional methods for triggering the effects in the reveal box:In the first Design Diary, we took a look at some of the new gameplay ideas that you’ll find on the board of Dune: Imperium – Rise of Ix. This time around we’re looking at how the new cards of the Imperium row expand and deepen gameplay. The real reason I love Rise of Ix has nothing to do with fixing any problems I had, but with what it improves. I said it in my review of the original, and I’ll say it again. Dune is not a complicated game, but it gives me everything I seek to extract from more complex games. Variety, variability, multiple paths to victory, and intense, meaningful strategy. Rise of Ix expands on all of that, in every way.

Two of the largest additions come in the form of Dreadnaughts and Tech Tiles. Dreadnaughts are battleships that count as three strength each. You can only have two of them, but they aren’t destroyed after a battle. If you win a battle, they control an area for a turn. You can even temporarily control a space another player already occupies. Dune Imperium was already one of my favorite games, and Rise of Ix elevated it further. I prefer complex games, and Rise of Ix does add some that I enjoy even more. But it does so in an easy-to-learn and approachable way, assuming that you already knew how to play Dune Imperium in the first place. I particularly like the mix of complexities. Leaders such as Hundro Mortani are simple, he allows you to start with an intrigue card and pay 1 spice to move your Freighter using your Signet Ring. Prince Rhombur simply makes Dreadnaughts more effective, and then on the other end of complexity, you have Tessa. Her Snoop tokens can pay off very well but require you to plan ahead of time to get the most of out them.

That illusion is shattered in Rise of Ix, nothing actually changed in that regard, the game isn’t less tight. It’s just the skill gap will be more obvious due to the expanded nature of the game. Inspired by the Ixian Technocracy who rule on Ix - the ninth planet in the Alkalurops star system based within the setting of Frank Herbert’s series of sci-fi novels - Rise of Ix is an upcoming expansion that will provide players with a collection of new houses to control and leaders to become, as well as a selection of fresh imperium, intrigue and conflict cards to use throughout the game. Instead of using any Conflict I cards, 5 randomly selected Conflict II cards are placed on top of 5 Conflict III cards. Hot take, but that’s a good thing. If you got close by playing poorly, you don’t actually know that you played poorly and can’t improve at the game. You have less reason to re-examine how or why you lost. So I’d put any fears aside about the expansion making the experience less tight.