Dune: Imperium
On a past monthly game night, some dear friends of mine and I played Dune: Imperium. This is a very interesting combination of Dominion style deck building and strategic worker placement.
Each player represents some faction from the Dune universe. While the start decks are identical across factions, each faction has a special ability that is activated by one of the cards in the deck, and some start with extra resources or other advantages.
Players initially have two agents whom they place in activities - harvesting spice, rallying troops, building reputation with parties, engaging in galactic politics - to gain resources, e.g., money, spice, troops, intrigue abilities, more agents (temporary or permanent) or reputation. Each of these can be used in various ways to gain points. Whichever player first reaches 10 points triggers the endgame: a final round to close off the game.
The variety of resources mentioned above should hint at the complexity of the game mechanics. Indeed, it’s not easy: there are many different effects to take into account, and a player needs to carefully think ahead to avoid finding themselves stuck in an unfortunate position.
Three of us had never played the game before, but we all got into it quickly in spite of the complexity - a solid reminder that “complex” is not the same as “complicated”. We were playing the German translation of the game and ended up in a hefty dispute about how one of the intrigue cards was to be interpreted. We could resolve this only by looking at the English original of the card, and the conclusion is that the translation of this one really isn’t good. Ah, board game woes.
As mentioned, the game is a combination of deck building and worker placement. It comes with a nice degree of complexity that aptly mirrors the intricate political situation seen in the Dune universe. We really enjoyed playing it. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this kind of game.
Tags: games