One of the biggest games of 2020, hitting during the pandemic lockdowns but still going strong, was Dune: Imperium from Dire Wolf Digital. It was just phenomenally well-received, so much so that over time it has creeped its way...
One of the biggest games of 2020, hitting during the pandemic lockdowns but still going strong, was Dune: Imperium from Dire Wolf Digital.
It was just phenomenally well-received, so much so that over time it has creeped its way up to near the top of the Boardgame Geek rankings.
It’s currently at #7.
It was only natural that eventually an app would come out, and since Dire Wolf Digital has done many excellent apps, it would make sense that they would produce it too, right?
And they have!
(Now where’s the Clank app, eh?)
The game was designed by Paul Dennen with artwork by Clay Brooks, Brett Nienburg, Raul Ramos and Nate Storm. Dennen is the king of deckbuilders with extra stuff added, of course.
The Dune: Imperium app just hit Early Access on Steam a couple of weeks ago, so of course there will be bugs to work out and changes made.
Don’t be surprised if some things I mention here aren’t actually in the app if you’re reading this review 2 years from now.
That being said, it’s looking pretty good.
How good?
Let’s get started.
If you already know how to play, click here!
Players in Dune: Imperium are one of the leader characters from the book movie (the artwork is based on the movie), and they are on a quest to be the first player to gain 10 victory points to trigger the end of the game (though being the first doesn’t mean you’re the best!).
(I’ll use a picture from the actual game for the leader you might play)
You begin the game with a deck of 10 cards and two agents. On your turn, you will either send an agent to a space using a card from your hand, or you will “reveal” and gain whatever benefits the rest of the cards in your hand give you as well as being able to purchase new cards from the market.
If you go to a space, you play a card with that space’s symbol on it and place your worker there.
Hey! Duncan looks like that guy from Game of Thrones!
Nobody else can go to that space in this round.
The Duncan Idaho card above will let you go to the spaces with the purple circle on them only.
With Duncan, you can go to any of the purple spaces in the middle of the board.
When you do an agent turn like this, you also get the benefit in the top row of the card. Duncan let’s you spend a Water token to get a Troop and draw a card.
You can see the greyed out areas above with agents on them. They’re greyed out because they’ve already been used.
If you don’t want to send an agent out, or if you don’t have any left, you can Reveal. This lets you play the rest of your cards out.
You will get the benefits on the bottom row of the cards you play.
In this case, the Spice Hunter gives you a Persuasion (which you use to buy new cards) and a sword for the Skirmish (more on that later).
If you’ve played a Fremen card previously, you will also get a Spice.
During your turns, you’re going to be wanting to get Troops into your barracks and out into the battlefield, because each round will have a Skirmish.
Whoever has the most strength (both deployed Troops and Swords) will win the Skirmish, getting the top reward. Second and third place are awarded as well.
This can be a good way to get victory points, depending on the Skirmish card.
This one will give the winner a VP, with 2nd place getting an Intrigue card and 2 money. The 3rd place (if there is one) gets just 2 money.
Play continues, round after round, until somebody triggers the end game by reaching the 10 VP level.
At the end of the round, whoever has the most VP wins the game!
There are also neat Intrigue cards that can be played at various times in the game depending on what they are.
Some Plot ones can be played at any time.
This one lets you spend a Water and a Spice to draw 3 cards.
Others are Skirmish cards and may help you win the Skirmish (or let you get a VP in some other way, like losing 3 of your troops).
There are also 3 endgame cards that will give you a point (or maybe give you a point if you have a bunch of Spice) that are still being debated on BGG.
Is Dune Imperium a desert jewel with beautiful creatures and a pleasant tourist attraction? Or is it a wasteland where nobody would ever want to go?
Let’s talk about the game first, and then I’ll get into the app review itself.
The game itself is well worth it’s position so high up in the BGG Top 100. It’s an excellent mix of deckbuilding and worker placement that Dennen does so well.
Clank in Space, anyone?
Each player has two agents that they can send out to different spaces and I like how the cards you have in your hand dictate where you can go.
Your starting deck does have a good mix of space symbols so you can usually go where you want to go on your first couple of turns.
As you buy more cards, though, you may be focusing on one or more areas at the expense of others.
If you concentrate on getting enough money, you can eventually hire a third agent as well.
The Skirmish idea is really cool too as it gives you a goal for the round, but something you can also prepare for ahead of time. It’s always good to have troops in your barracks ready to deploy in case the next Skirmish is a really good one.
In my current asynchronous game, I haven’t had troops in my barracks for a while. I’ve only been using ones I gain that turn.
That’s not a recipe for military success.
Each round, you have to decide how important the Skirmish is to win, or at least participate in (though you should always at least participate or you won’t get anything).
The tracks are on the left side of the board.
There are also faction alliance tracks that can get you VP, allow you to do things on the board (like one of the spaces requires you to have 2 influence on the Fremen track).
You can go to the spaces (if you qualify) to earn one level on the track, or some cards will let you move on the track.
The one main negative about the game, which apparently has been somewhat addressed in at least one of the expansions, is that there isn’t a really good way to thin your deck of the bad starter cards so you can have the higher-power cards you buy come into your hand more often.
Otherwise, the game is phenomenal and I wish I could get it to the table more.
Now, how about the app?
The app has the typical Dire Wolf polish without the bad agent placement that marred Everdell when it first came out (that game was terrible for making sure you put your worker out in the right space, though I understand it has improved since my review).
The spaces are nice and large and you just drag your agent to the space you want to go to.
The layout of the board is great, with everything front and centre along with the leaders and other players’ information showing on the top left, easily accessible.
The card market of available cards to buy is on the right, but when it comes time to Reveal and actually buy cards, the market expands really nicely.
It’s obvious how much Persuasion you have to spend and the cards are quite large. You just drag the card you want over to the “+” symbol (which is also where you see how much Persuasion you have left).
You can still hover your mouse over a card to make it even larger.
When you are deciding whether to Reveal or not (or when you don’t really have a choice), the app tells you what you will have if you Reveal this turn, which is a nice touch as well.
I also like how the Skirmish is shown on the board. You can clearly see how many Troops each player has out, and their total strength.
If you have an Intrigue card that can be played, it’s lit up so you know it’s possible to play it. If it’s a Skirmish one and you’re not in the Skirmish yet, it’s not at all.
In addition to that, the Skirmish results are pretty cool.
I’m sure there are still some bugs in the game, and I think a friend of mine encountered one, but so far as I can see from my plays and my limited plays of the boardgame itself, there don’t appear to be many of them.
There haven’t been any crashes, or weird graphical glitches or anything like that.
Even if there are, that’s what Early Access is for!
Finally, I have to say that the tutorial is excellent and not really that annoying like some tutorials can be.
Sure, the writing can be a little “oh, I’m trying to be funny,” but I think that’s common with many tutorials.
This tutorial does a great job of explaining the game if you’ve never played it before.
The game comes with both solo play and online multiplayer. The online multiplayer can be synchronous or asynchronous, as with most Dire Wolf apps.
The asynchronous works really well, giving you a review of everything the other players have done before getting to your turn. It shows you what card they purchased or where they went and what they did.
When you open the game, if you have a turn waiting, it will pop up immediately. I don’t know if there’s a “next game” button if you have more than one game going, but there should be if there isn’t.
That’s imperative.
Online games can be done by invite if people are on your friends list or you can do a password-protected one.
Or you can do an open game, allowing anybody to join!
All in all, Dune: Imperium is a great game that I hope to play more often. And the app is very well done and will probably be getting a lot of plays from me as well.
It’s well worth checking out, even in Early Access.
It will supposedly be coming to iOS and Android once it’s out of Early Access, just like all of the other Dire Wolf apps.
Give it a try if you can, especially if you’re already a fan of the game and want to play with some remote friends!
