Immortality – Dune: Imperium Expansion

An Array Of Arrakis

2020’s Dune Imperium seems to have unlocked the world of Frank Herbert’s Dune unlike any game before it. Apart from the classic 1979 epic Dune game, reimplemented in 2019 by Gale Force Nine, the sci-fi intellectual property was fairly untapped. Now there seems to be shelves of games that are keen to tap into the success of the recent movie series. Dune Imperium however is the one that has taken the world by a sandstorm.

Along with The Lost Ruins of Arnak and the recently released Endless Winter, Dune Imperium mixes worker placement with deck building to create a really tight and interesting gameplay. Simply place workers to gain resources. Whether Solari (money), water (essential on a desert) or the all important spice, resources are everything. They will open up trading with factions allowing you to build alliances. All of this, with the purpose of being the first to reach ten victory points. As you gain influence you can build you hand of cards, adding more and more powerful options to you turn. When this game came out it soared to the top of the Board Game Geek top 100, now sitting at a strong 12 overall. So it was inevitable that an expansion was going to be released.

In comes 2022’s Rise of Ix, which added a whole array of technology tiles to the game, giving players ongoing powers. Expansions, as we know, can be hit or miss but Rise of Ix hit, and hit hard! So, not even a year later and designer Paul Dennen has sent the newest expansion into the world. Dune Imperium: Immortality.

Tleilax Tracks

For anyone who knows the books, The Bene Tleilax is a much awaited faction to join to world of Dune Imperium. This powerful race has two major elements that make up their society. The first is the ‘face dancers’. This genetically manufactured race of servants can change their appearance to mimic any human. Here they are represented by more imperium cards that can be added into the main deck. The second however, and the most important element is the axlotl tanks and the creation of ghola’s. In Dune lore, the Tleilaxu can create clones of people from the smallest bit of DNA and grow them in tanks.

Usually, this is a means of warfare or espionage for the highest bidder. This is where the new mechanisms come in. The biggest addition is the Science Track. This board, placed alongside the main board shows a series of spaces that you can move along in order to gain powerful research rewards. Some will give you the opportunity to place your troops into the axlotl tank in order to spend them later on (something I will come back to).

Others will allow you to move up a the Tleilaxu Track in order to gain victory points. This new mechanism does a few exciting things. It gives you more options on what is already a very tight worker placement and so it creates a much ‘thinkier’ game. Victory points are so hard to get in this game so ignoring that Tleilaxu Track feels foolish. However, it takes you away from building your alliances which can in turn lead to victory points of their own. It also means keeping track of the other players becomes harder and so that race to ten points becomes a lot more exciting. It also gives you another place to put your troops. Troops are a closed economy.

If playing with both expansions, you now have three different places they can be. If you spread too thin then you won’t have enough to go hard on combat, but if you don’t diversify it feels like you are missing out on other upgrades. This whole new mix is a brilliant addition and creates such an interesting puzzle without adding to much to the difficulty of the game.

The Cards Must Flow

As well as coming with more imperium and intrigue cards Dune Imperium: Immortality also adds a whole new market row for this new faction. This is where those troops you placed in the axlotl tanks earlier come in. Whenever you see a green cube action, you can place a troop into the tank. You then leave them there to accrue until, much like the tech track in Rise of Ix, you can spend them. The new market row can only be bought during a reveal phase and only using your accrued tank of troops.

These cards offer powerful benefits, the main being the new ‘graft’ action. When you have a graft card in you hand you can play two cards together during your agent phase. Any card played with a graft card is considered attached to it. This means that you can now place in any of the agent locations shown and also receive double the boon for doing so. Paired with the right cards, these can create super powerful moves. But, many of these will ask you to trash that paired card so be careful you don’t end up with too thin a deck to do anything.

Spicy Spice

This new expansion comes with the same great component quality and same artwork as Dune Imperium. I really dislike games that use screen grabs from movies but this original art has the look of the film but also a completely unique style. There are plenty of new cards to add to the imperium deck which means that even without the expansion, graft options will appear in the standard market row.

Whereas Rise of Ix didn’t add much, instead replaced elements for a different game play, it feels that Dune Imperium: Immortality is adding a lot. This will appeal to those who have played a lot of the base game and are keen to spice things up a bit. However, for those fairly new to the game, this expansion may be a little too much to get your heads around. The final question on most fans’ lips is does it all fit in the main box. The answer is yes. The base box will hold both expansions fairly easily. Even the juggernaut deluxe box will just about fit everything (including when sleeved). This means that there is a whole universe of play in just one pretty small box, and you can’t ask for more than that.

Editors note: This post was originally published on Jan 12th 2023. Updated on Feb 28th 2024 to improve the information available.