Dune Imperium: Uprising Review

Dune Imperium: Uprising is a standalone sequel to Dune Imperium designed by Paul Dennen. It’s a deck-building and worker placement for 1-4 players. There’s also a 6 player mode where groups play in teams of 3. Naturally it’s based on the world of Dune and the intergalactic combat and politics that takes place there. I’ll admit, it’s a bit foreign to me but I’ve been using Star Wars as my loose reference (I’m not saying they’re the same though!).

Dune Imperium: Uprising is a heavy game, there’s no denying that and there are some people who will never be able to play this due to its complexity. However, it could be a real treat for heavy gamers who love the theme and want to crunch. As someone who falls somewhere in the middle, I’ve found there are lots of interesting components to this game that keep me coming back.

Welcome Back To Dune

To some, a lot of the gameplay mechanics will be familiar due to playing the first game. I will be approaching this from a newbie standpoint (as I am one) and I think it’ll be helpful to give a rundown of all the things that are happening (and there are a lot of things).

In order to win the game, you need to have the most victory points. Simple enough. It gets more complicated when it comes to how you earn those victory points (and potentially lose them too). The game ends either when someone reaches 10VP or the conflict deck has run out (which is composed of 10 cards). Every round you flip a new conflict card to see what rewards you can gain. The conflict cards are one of the ways you earn VP. If you’re able to match two objective symbols on the cards, you flip them over for a point.

On the left hand column of the board there are four factions. If you visit those spaces you gain influence points with them. Over time these factions benefit you more and more, both directly through points or through spaces on the board that you can only access when you have enough influence. Once you reach four influence points with a faction you form an alliance with them. However, if someone else gains more influence than you in a faction, you have to give the alliance token (and point) over to them.

The game is made up of rounds composed of:

• Drawing a deck of five cards
• Agent/reveals
• Conflict
• Maker
• Resetting

Every player starts with a deck of the same ten basic cards. These will allow you to travel, gain conflict power and have persuasion. They can either be used for agents or reveals.

Agents and reveal turns are a substantial part of the game. At the beginning of the game you have two agents. You’re able to buy a third Swordmaster at the space when you have enough money (it’s the most expensive for the person who gets there first).

Each round you’re only able to have a maximum of three agents to do your bidding, which generally involves collecting resources and gaining influence. In order to place an agent you need to have a card with a matching symbol on the board to travel there, i.e. in order to move to the Hagga Basin which has a symbol with a yellow triangle, you’ll need to use a card with a yellow triangle to get there.

Players take it in turn placing their agents until they can’t anymore or don’t want to (but you’re probably going to want to). Only one agent can be on each spot unless you use your spies (a new feature in Uprising). It’s nice that spaces that seem impossible to reach in the early game are actually really accessible by the late game because of the acceleration of the accumulation of resources.

Then you take reveal turns, you can take them whenever you want as it could give you more persuasion to purchase a really good card from the Imperium row. Persuasion is currency in this game and the cards are worth different amounts of persuasion. In the same way as Clank, this currency will only last this round so you better spend it while it lasts. You can also gain extra combat points in the reveal phase as well. So reveals are how you improve and grow your deck and strengthen your troops.

Next we go into conflict, one of the best ways to gain resources, influence and points in the game. You and your opponents know what you’re fighting for before the round starts and you can decide how much resource you want to commit to the fight. You can use your agents to recruit troops to your garrison and if your agent is in a conflict zone you can send troops there. From a combination of revealed swords, troops in the conflict and conflict intrigue cards, you determine your strength and see who wins the top prize.

Sandworms are a new part of the game, they are a military unit in themselves worth 3 military points and if you win with them in your army, your reward is doubled. It definitely adds a little extra bit of strategy of when to deploy sandworms and when to double your payout. If you gain control of an area, every time someone visits the area, you get an extra little bonus. And any time the area’s possession is in contention, you get to recruit a troop to the conflict for free. The sandworms are a nice addition as someone who’s behind can actually catch up.

You have to be tactful with your troops as after they’ve fought you have to take them back. You can save troops in your garrison for the future but they don’t fight unless they are in the conflict zone.

The Maker round gets you to add spice to desert spaces without agents on them and then you reset your army, reclaim your agents and draw another hand of five for the next round.

Another important part to mention are spies, everyone gets three and they basically allow you to access a space that’s occupied by another player’s agent. You can either withdraw a spy to remove another person’s agent so you can place your agent there instead. Or you can use a spy to gain another card to your hand. It’s another interesting dynamic that prevents major blockages.

Those are the key components of each round. As you gain more resources you’re able to do more on the map, which means by the time you’re on Conflict III cards you have lots of interesting choices you could make. I think having three agents is a nice amount of actions as while analysis paralysis can still happen for some, there’s only so much you can do so you have to prioritise.

The game also includes the CHOAM module which adds another layer to the game. Normally a contract is 2 solari but the CHOAM module allows you to add a variety of new contracts which you can take and gain rewards if you complete them. For example, getting some spice if you travel to the Deep Desert. It’s another way to add depth and variety to the game if you’re looking for something extra.

Sand, It’s Coarse And Rough And Gets Everywhere

Something I like about Dune Imperium: Uprising is that it’s tight. You only have 2-3 agents to make your moves so you have to make them count. You also have to decide where your priorities lie, is it with building alliances? Or is it with gaining military strength? Or gaining resources? They are good dilemmas to think about.

There’s also hand management as you decide which cards to use for your agents and which cards to use for persuasion currency to buy better cards. As you play more, you learn the cards you want to be buying. It’s also satisfying to be able to use your cards to move and to buy things.

In terms of competitive components, there are a few and they are fun. Of course there’s the direct conflict, and you can always see when people are adding more troops and when people really want a specific reward. But there are also the faction tracks and the alliances you can form and steal. There are a relatively limited number of spaces and more importantly only one agent can be there at a time. This means there’ll definitely be speed runs to the most desirable locations. In Uprising, the spies and sandworms are nice additions as it prevents lockouts and allows for people to capitalise on the rewards they want.

In my opinion you might be better off playing with 2-3 players for a tighter game. 4 players can be fun if everyone knows the game, but you just could be there for a long time. The 6 player variation is nice if some people would like to be guided and provides a bit of team camaraderie like on a spaceship (or at least what I imagine that to be like).

There are lots of different routes to winning which I can see a lot of people enjoying as they go more in depth with the game. While the conflicts seem like the obvious route (and they are), there are lots of resources and intrigue cards you can use to get ahead. The intrigue cards can have end game scoring that could be the key to victory.

Just like its predecessor, Dune Imperium: Uprising is very brown and visually won’t be for everyone. But the components continue to be lovely; the solari, spice and water tokens are just nice. You have the option to play with the wooden or plastic sandworms (I prefer wooden). Everything just has a nice feel to it. The player boards are perhaps a little flimsy but nothing that would majorly take away from the game.

In the end, the game is fun! I can see the hype around the series. It’s really cool seeing the different chains you can pull off and how it evolves throughout the game. There’s also a lot to learn to become a pro at the game. Aside from the spaces, there are the faction benefits, the intrigue cards and the imperium deck. There is so much depth to get stuck into here. If you have a group of heavier gamers, you could all have a great time getting really competitive with this. Both the competition for spaces (and prioritising your agents), favour in factions and actual conflict and fights. If you really love Dune Imperium I still think there’s something here with the sandworms and spies. Though I reckon most people won’t need both. As someone new to the series I think it’s excellent and I was more than happy to dive into the world of Dune with Uprising.