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

You have new ‘unload’ cards that give you reveal rewards even if you don’t use them on your reveal turns as long as you discard or trash a card instead. These cards are very powerful and did allow me to create a few little neat combos previously unseen in Dune Imperium.

There are also extra leaders and intrigue cards to spice up the game-to-game shenannigans. All in all, I would say this expansion adds a desert-load of new content, and new systems and adds further wrinkles into every game of Dune Imperium. I also really enjoyed how easy it was to understand it all and add it straight into the base game, nothing is too complicated, even though it adds a fair amount of player choice. There are also a few new cards and rules to have an epic game, which goes up to twelve points instead of ten. All good stuff. Components. You can sit, in intense thought, sweating because each decision you make is crucial. The intensity isn’t because it’s complicated, however, at least in the mechanical sense. But because of the thread that every action weaves, culminating in a woven web of paths. The ripples of which you feel all game. Verdict Dune: Imperium – Rise of Ix expands on the gameplay of Dune: Imperium in a way that is satisfying without being overwhelming. In a couple of the games that I played, I had players that had never played the base game before, yet they didn’t have any problems learning Dune: Imperium along with the expansion added in. It provides new and meaningful choices, making you think a little bit harder as you play, but in a good way. I’d hesitate to call Rise of Ix an essential expansion. However, I don’t personally see playing Dune: Imperium at any point in the future without it. Dune: Imperium – Rise of Ix accomplishes that sublime task of making what was already a really great game just a bit greater.

Many of the new cards have a new twist in the reveal box. We call these cards “Unload” cards, because there are two additional methods for triggering the effects in the reveal box: The game was also nominated for the 2022 Kennerspiel des Jahres award. [6] [7] [8] The jury stated that the game was "a clever enhancement of the classic worker placement mechanic", praising the acquisition mechanism, the player interaction, the theme, and the strategy. [6] The game also placed third place in the Deutscher Spiele Preis. [9] Two of the largest additions come in the form of Dreadnaughts and Tech Tiles. Dreadnaughts are battleships that count as three strength each. You can only have two of them, but they aren’t destroyed after a battle. If you win a battle, they control an area for a turn. You can even temporarily control a space another player already occupies. Thankfully, I still had a Spice left, and used it to grab the Mentat using Calculated Hire. Suddenly, I had an extra agent to take one more Agent turn. However, there were no combat spaces open that I could go to. But thankfully, I also had Infiltrate, which then allowed me to place my Mentat on Arrakeen, where Jonathan’s Agent already was. This allowed me to place the troop I earned from that space, as well as two additional troops from my garrison, into combat. I then immediately moved to my Reveal phase, and when the dust settled, I had 20 combat strength to Jonathan’s 18, securing 1st place and 2 victory points, and (along with one of my Tech tiles) winning me the game. Infiltrating Arrakeen (Tabletop Simulator game pictured). Image by Paul Benson. Rather than returning to your supply they stay on the board forever and can be used to hold spaces on the board if you win, drip-feeding your resources throughout the game. These Dreadnoughts really alter the battles and see’s players rushing to build them and dominate the battlefield.The third mechanic in the expansion is a cycle of cards that have what we call Infiltrate icons. Each of these cards can only send an agent to one type of board space…but you ignore enemy agents when sending your agent!

Hot take, but that’s a good thing. If you got close by playing poorly, you don’t actually know that you played poorly and can’t improve at the game. You have less reason to re-examine how or why you lost. So I’d put any fears aside about the expansion making the experience less tight. One of the reasons why they were an issue is there was a very limited number of ways to gain victory points. An end-game intrigue card essentially flipped the table at the last second. You have many more options in Rise of Ix and that makes them less impactful. I will say this right off the bat, I will never play Dune Imperium again without Rise Of IX. While it does not change too much the things that are added are brilliant. The Tech is exciting and powerful, the Dreadnoughts add a lot to battles and all the new cards and systems add more variety and decision space for very little overhead. The expansion continues with the same feat that the original game pulls off: presenting the factions and planets in a way that is enriching for fans of the expanded Dune universe, while remaining completely accessible for anyone not familiar with the source material. All you need to know is right there on the table. If you sat down to play and didn’t know that Ix was the most technologically advanced planet in the Imperium, a cursory glance at the Ix game board will make it obvious that if you want the new Tech tiles, you go to Ix.

Dune: Imperium is a worker-placement board game that sees one to four players competing with one another to acquire power, wealth and control across the planet of Arrakis. Based on the upcoming movie adaptation of Dune - directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac - Dune: Imperium has players becoming a leader of one of the Great Houses of Arrakis and beyond. Sure it does technically fix many of the issues I had with the first game. End game intrigue cards have less of an impact, and the renewed importance on Spice and Solari passively dials down the perceived strength of the Sword Master and Mentat. From the time you start playing Rise of Ix, those two spaces finally resemble what they always were, an option instead of a must-have.