A New Player's Guide to Dune: Imperium

Whether you skipped the tutorial, have problems beating the AI, or simply want to get better at the game, this guide will explain the rules and nuances to Dune: Imperium.

Introduction

Dune: Imperium is a digital adaptation of the board game designed by Paul Dennen.

If you prefer to read the rules of the game--rather than play the game's tutorial or read this guide--you can download the original rulebook here[dwd-web.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com]. In addition, there is a Player Aid available[dwd-web.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com], which breaks down the various icons and board spaces.

This guide will break down the rules and mechanics, and discuss the implication of each mechanic so that you are able to devise your own strategies and make the best decision possible.

Worker Placement Deck Builder

Fundamentally, Dune Imperium as a game is using two game mechanics.

If you are already familiar with the terms Worker Placement and Deck Builder, you can skip this part. But this is here so that it can provide you with a framework or reference, in the event that you have played or come across other games with this mechanic.

Worker Placement

This is simply a term for games where you have a finite number of workers (in this case, two at the start of the game) and place them on locations on the board--which also happens to lock out that option from other players.

Examples of Worker Placement games on Steam includes Lords of Waterdeep and Stone Age.



In the image above, I've encircled the part of the User Interface (UI) that indicates how many workers (or Agents as they are used here) you have.

Deck Builder

Deck Builders are games where you start out with a sub-optimal deck of cards, draw some of them, and attempt to create a "better" deck by acquiring better cards and/or removing bad cards.

Examples of these games on Steam include Slay the Spire and Monster Train.



In Worker Placement games, there is typically no restriction on where you can send your workers. That is not the case in Dune: Imperium, which is where the Deck Builder aspects comes in.



In the image above, we see your initial starting hand. I've encircled the parts of the card which indicates the spaces the card allows your Agents to travel to. If you want to send an Agent to a specific space, you simply need to match icons (e.g. a space with a Yellow Triangle needs a card that has a Yellow Triangle).



In the image above, we have what is called the Imperium Row and Reserve. This is where you acquire new cards.

The part I've encircled is the Reserve. These two cards, The Spice Must Flow and and Arriakis Liaison, are always available to purchase.

However, the column below it, the Imperium Row, are cards that are limited in supply and disappear when other players acquire them.

Victory Points and Winning

The goal of the game is to acquire the most Victory Points (VP).



In the image above, I've encircled where in the UI that indicates how many VP you have.

If a player acquires 10 VP, the game will end in that round (regardless of whether that same player still has 10 VP or not). This means that while the game has 10 rounds, it's possible to end earlier than that (e.g. the game ends on Round 7).

These are the ways to acquire VP:

• In a 4-player game, each player starts with 1 VP.
  
• Acquiring The Spice Must Flow card rewards you with 1 VP.
  
• Reaching rank 2 in a faction space rewards you with 1 VP.
  
• Attaining a Faction Alliance (usually be reaching rank 4 or higher in a faction space) rewards you with 1 VP. However, this can be stolen by surpassing your current rank, unless you are the first player to reach rank 6.
  
• Some Conflict rewards are VP.
  
• Some Intrigue cards reward VP if certain conditions are met.

In most instances, this typically means that the player who reaches 10 VP wins the game--although it's possible for them to lose if another player acquires more VP at the end of the round.

In case of a tie, the game uses the following resources as a tie breaker:

• Spice
  
• Solari
  
• Water
  
• Garrisoned Troops

10 VP might sound like a lot to new players but please bear in mind that if you reach rank 2 in each of the factions, that's already nearly half of the VP you need to win the game.

Leaders

At the start of the game, you can pick which Leader you get to play with. By default, you get to pick from one of two choices, but there are other game modes which either has you drafting a leader or simply picking one.



Leaders provide you with two benefits.

The first is a special ability that is available to you throughout the game. In the image above, this is the Prescience ability of Paul Atreides.

The second is a unique effect when you play that Leader's Signet Ring card. In the image above, I've encircled the Signet Ring ability. In this case, it's called Discipline, which lets the player draw a card.

When picking Leaders, these are the two factors you need to decide. Do you want a Leader with a useful first ability but a lackluster Signet Ring ability? Or maybe you have a leader that is the opposite, where their Signet Ring ability is powerful but their initial special ability is relatively weak or too conditional.

Some players might have their own tier list of which Leaders are best but please bear in mind these are contextual and subjective.

An example is that someone might evaluate Glossu Rabban as extremely good, but another person might evaluate them as too conditional or inconsistent (i.e. they are powerful when the game is very Conflict-centric but underwhelming in other situations). Or that their one-time bonus is relatively weak in comparison to what other Leaders provide, but for some players, the early-game lead is good enough.

First Player Marker

At the start of the game, one player gets the First Player Marker. This means that they get to act first.

On succeeding rounds, this gets passed in descending order (e.g. the 4th player passes it to the 1st player, the 1st player passes it to the 2nd player, etc.).



In the image above, I've encircled what the First Player Marker looks like. Be sure to monitor this, as determining who acts first in the succeeding round can mean the difference of whether you get blocked from a space or whether you get to block others. (Similarly, it also determines who gets to purchase first from the Imperium Row.)

Resources

There are a lot of resources in the game and the key to executing a good strategy is knowing the value of each resource and when (or when not to) acquire them.

Spice, Solari, and Water

In the image above, you can see the symbols for Spice, Solari, and Water respectively.

Spice is perhaps one of the most versatile resources in the game. It can be exchanged for almost everything else in the game, from Troops, Solari, Water, Intrigue Cards, and Cards.

Solari is important in the early to mid-game, and drops off towards the end-game unless you are able to acquire cards that let you use it.

The most important use for Solari is acquiring the High Council and Swordmaster upgrades. Once you've acquired those two upgrades, the only other spaces where you can spend Solari are on the Rally Troops and Mentat spaces, which can be limiting.

Water is perhaps the least flexible resource because it plays an important role. Two out of the three spaces that provide Spice requires Water.

Three Cards for two Water or two Troops for one Water also has its uses.

Persuasion

Persusasion is important as it determined what cards you can acquire.

At the end of each round, you acquire [Persuasion] depending on the cards remaining in your hand.



This is also why the High Council upgrade is important: it's virtual Card advantage as it's providing you with 2 Persuasion in addition to what's in your hand.

On the Imperium Row, the top right corner shows you how much Persuasion it costs to acquire them.

Cards

Cards are also a resource (more on this under Card Anatomy).



The more Cards you have, the more Agents you can send out and the more resources you generate.

Troops and Strength

These are used exclusively for Conflict.

Each Troop is worth 2 [Strength].





For example, in the image above, Blue has 3 Troops deployed, giving them a total of 6 Strength.

Intrigue

The effects of Intrigue vary but they can be summed up in one of three ways:

• They generate resources (Plot).
  
• They help you with Conflicts (Combat).
  
• They provide you with VP at the end of the game (Endgame).

Agents

And lastly, there are your Agents. You only get two per round, until you obtain the Swordmaster upgrade (in which case you have three).



All the other resources needs to be compared to Agents. You are basically expending one Agent to acquire some combination of the resources above.

However, this also isn't the be-all and end-all of resources. Some players are able to win games even without the Swordmaster, so just because you have more Agents does not guarantee they translate to tangible advantages.

Using more agents for example leads to less resources generated at the end of the round.

The Board Spaces

At first glance, the game board can be overwhelming because of all the options available.

However, the game board can be broken down into three separate sections:



You can view it as the Red area, the Green area, and everything else.

The Faction Spaces

In general, you won't be able to travel to these spaces at the start of the game.

The reason for this is simple: you don't have many cards that let you go to these spaces in your starting deck. Out of the 10 starting cards, you only have two cards which lets you travel to these spaces, and one of them gets Trashed after use.

However, these spaces are powerful, provide unique benefits, and improve your relationship with that faction.

Try to at least progress in two ranks for each faction, as that's a guaranteed 1 VP for each faction (4 VP total).

Similarly, Cards from the Imperium Row that lets you travel to specific faction spaces can be key cards in your deck, as it gives you some consistency.

It's also important for you to attain two ranks in the Fremen faction because this enables you to access the Sietch Tabr space (see image below).

The Landsraad Spaces

The spaces that require the green pentagon icon are called the Landsraad spaces.

In the early game, they are important. Two important upgrades, High Council and Swordmaster are located here.

(Tip: Some guides advice players to get Swordmaster as soon as possible. This isn't necessarily good advice. Obtaining Swordmaster early puts you in a bad position in the early game because you will not be generating enough Persuasion to acquire new cards and you will be last to purchase cards from the Imperium Row because you have more actions. However, during the mid- to late-game, where purchasing cards isn't as important, then this is when Swordmaster is a worthwhile upgrade, as you tend to benefit from taking more actions.)

The other three spaces are less optimal.

Rally Troops helps you convert Solari into Troops (although how to deploy them is another matter) while the two other spaces are very situational (or only useful in very specific use-cases or if you have nothing else to do).

For the reasons mentioned above, Cards with the green pentagon icon aren't as valuable the later in the game--at least if you are using them as your Agents.

Everything Else

The rest of the spaces use either the blue circle icon or the yellow triangle icon.

Just watch out for their requirements, as some might require Spice or Water before you can use those spaces.



For the desert spaces, if no Agent was sent there during the current turn, an extra spice is added there to incentivize players to go there in succeeding rounds.

Deployment and Control

Some spaces will have Deployment icons and Control icons. These will be discussed in the Conflict section.

Card Anatomy

Below is an image taken from the rulebook, which best explains the parts of the card.



To keep it simple, in general, there are four things you should keep in mind:

• B: When using the cards as Agents, this determines what synergies they might have with other Cards. (Otherwise, you can ignore this part.)
  
• C: When using the cards as Agents, this determines which spaces you can them to.
  
• D: When using the cards as Agents, this determines what special effects they might have.
  
• E: When not using these cards as Agents, this determines what special effects they might have during the Reveal turn.

Occasionally, some cards will have G but this is the exception rather than the norm.

Evaluating Value

When deciding which card to acquire, these are some of the questions you should ask:

Is the value of the card when I acquire it?

Sometimes, the Acquire Effect is significant enough that the rest of the card is not great. One example of this is The Spice Must Flow, as most of its value is upon its acquisition. Some might even consider Trashing it after purchase.



Is the value of the card when I use it as an Agent?

For several of the cards, their value is when you play them as Agents. Take for example Bene Gesserit Initiate. It has three Agent Icons and has a useful Agent Box. Their Reveal Box is okay but not great.



Is the value of the card when I Reveal it?

Some cards are only useful during the Reveal stage. One example is Convicing Argument, as it is completely useless otherwise.



Is it good all the time?

And there are a few cards that are good regardless of the situation. Much of the value of Lady Jessica (as can be seen in the example at the top) is it gives you a little bit of everything.

Your Starting Deck Sucks

You start the game with 10 Cards and unfortunately, most of them are terrible.

Compare Arrakis Liaison for example to most of the cards in your deck.



Unlike Convincing Argument for example, it's useful as an Agent.

However, cards like Signet Ring and Diplomacy retain their value throughout most (if not the entire) game.

How to Build a Good Deck

In general, there are two routes to compensate for your starting deck.

One is to Trash your suboptimal cards.



However, there's also a time and place for trashing cards, and determining which cards to Trash requires some analysis.

Convincing Argument for example retains its value as a Reveal card throughout the entire game, while a card like Dagger isn't as useful once you've gotten your essential upgrades or if you have other Cards that generate Strength.

Conflict

Conflict occurs at the end of each round but this game mechanic pervades the entire game--even if you don't necessarily need to emerge victorious in every fight to win the game.

Conflict Cards

At the start of each round, a Conflict Card is drawn from the deck and it determines where the Conflict takes place.

This determines what the prizes are. (In a 3-player game, there is no 3rd prize.) In case of a tie, both players split the next prize (e.g. if two players are tied for 1st place, they each get the rewards for 2nd place).

There are three types of Conflict Cards:

• Conflict I
  
• Conflict II
  
• Conflict III

Conflict I has the least rewards, while Conflict III has the most rewards.

A Conflict I card is used on the 1st round.

Conflict II cards are used for the 2nd until 6th round.

Conflict III cards are used for the 7th round onwards.

Deployment

In order to participate in a Conflict, you need to Deploy Troops.

This can be done by going to spaces that have the Deploy icon.



The number of Troops you can Deploy is 2 plus the number of Troops you acquired that turn (a combination from both the board space and/or Cards).

Control

Some spaces have Control icons.



At the start of each round, if a Conflict takes place in an area that a player has Control of, one Troop is automatically deployed.

If a player goes to a space that the same player or a different player has Control of, the controlling player gains the corresponding resource (either Solari or Spice as per what's depicted on the board).

At the end of a Conflict, if the 1st place reward was Control of that space, then that player now Controls that space.

Balancing Everything

At the end of the day, there are multiple ways of winning in Dune: Imperium.

There's seldom a "you should always do this" advice and instead, everything must be evaluated on a case-to-case basis and factors like who your Leader is and how your opponents are acting must be taken into consideration.

[pimus]

Many thanks

[muttsnutts]

Made sense, thank you

[Faraday]

Thank you for this guide. It was much clearer than the tutorial.

[Mydas]

Congrats on a great article!