Four detailed miniatures replace the cardboard Faction Alliance tokens. Three combat-ready Sardaukar represent the Emperor, a Guild Heighliner represents the Spacing Guild, and a Bene Gesserit and a Fremen represent their respective factions. Each of the models has sculpted onto their bases the symbol for their factions. The First Player coin. 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 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. 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

Despite all the hold ups, cancellations and delays that have been the underlying theme of 2020, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune has been a beacon, something to… oh wait, that’s been delayed too. Well, that really is a mind-killer. 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. They 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.

Similarly, players will replace their wooden cubes with 12 small plastic Troop miniatures. These are molded in the player colors, with a different sculpt for each color. The new Mentat. Image by Paul Benson. 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. If I have one negative to bring to this Dune Imperium review, it is the components – not the quality, that is fine, but the design of them. Your troops are cubes, your agents are uninspiring and the board could look a tad better. There is a deluxe component upgrade, which I have bought, but you should not have to do that. Don’t get me wrong, the game functions and is a lot of fun, there is nothing wrong with the components, but they could be a little bit snazzier. The card tray has space to hold all of the sleeved cards from both the base Dune: Imperium as well as Rise of Ix. Additionally, you can also store the new technology tiles from Rise of Ix. The leader tray. Image by Paul Benson. 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.Removing the top tray, you’ll find several smaller trays below. The clear tray lids form a picture of a sandworm. The card tray. Image by Paul Benson. 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.

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. Sleeving game cards is a surprisingly divisive practice in the board gaming hobby. There are some people that sleeve their cards religiously, and others that absolutely hate the feel of holding those plastic sleeves in your hands. The battle is determined by the conflict card, drawn at the beginning of the round. These range from basic skirmishes and raids to full out battles for locations on Dune. The spoils can be very beneficial, giving a player control of locations on the map, but the consequences can be costly as all troops are lost in the battle. Direwolf have also promised an app-based AP to confound your plans – there aren’t any details of how this will work as yet, but they are wanting to make it as intelligent and involved as possible. A Last View from the Shield Wall

A Note On Sleeving

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. Certainly, if a game has cards that see a lot of use, like in Dune: Imperium, then card sleeves will extend the lifespan of your game. You also get a tray of miniatures that replace your troops with, unique for each player, to do your combat-based bidding. You are also treated with very detailed miniatures for your three agents, the mental and a miniature for each faction. These miniatures, unlike the smaller troop ones, are begging to be painted and I have added them to the never-ending list of board game stuff I need to paint. Now you don’t need to be a mentat to realise that there is already one Dune game available. Gale Force Nine re-released 1979s classic Dune, a game of strategy, intrigue and betrayal, at the tail end of 2019. This was very well received as many of the gaming community had heard of it but never actually seen it. It was also a game designed to be played best with the full complement of six players – which is why I haven’t been able to play my copy yet this year. You can optimise your hand by sending an agent to Selective Breeding or with Fedaykin Death Commando, Gene Manipulation, Guild Administrator, Seitch Reverend Mother Tip 7 (Easy) – Acquiring Your High Council Seat

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.

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Note: These are to replace misprinted cards; you should only have two copies of Missionaria Protectiva, not four.