Dune Board Game Review
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Over the past year the popularity of the Dune series has spiked with the upcoming new release of the new Dune movie adaptation directed by Denis Villeneuve. This is the same director that brought us the incredible sequel movie to Blade runner. So what does this rebirth of a game have to offer and should you pick up Dune the board game? Let’s find out!
Dune Board Game History
Dune the board game has been around for over 40 years, seeing reprints as the years go on for the game and rule alterations to make it run more smoothly. The current version of Dune the board game is being printed by Gale Force 9.
The base game currently comes in at around $45 in the US through amazon. the game also am expansion that gives more house choices to the game!
Factions of Dune the Board Game
Players will pick the family or faction that they want to play as for the game. The base game has several factions to choose from each with their own special abilities to play.
Harkonnen, who are mischievous type that play if the form of going back on their own word and receive extra treachery cards in the game.
There is also the Spacing guild that collects spice as players deploy troops to the surface of Arrakas, the planet in Dune spice is harvested from.
There is the Empire, that collects the money from bidding of cards and has a massive amount of wealth.
There is the House Atreides, who is the only class allowed to take notes and see the future of some of the decks of the game and pawn that information off for a price.
There is The Fremen, the natives of Arrakis that have easier movement, protection from the storm, as well as ease of rejuvenating troops.
Finally there is the Bene Gesserit, that are able to take troops down with other deployments as ambassadors and can bet on a player winning on a certain turn to take the win away.
All these factions in the base game make for an interesting and always unique play of this game. be warned though, this is not the 1-2 hour sit down and play game. This game will likely take 3 to 4, sometimes even 5 hours to complete.
Premise of Dune the Board Game
The goal of the game is to meet the winning condition of the game based on your faction that was chosen. Each faction has their own win condition, so be aware that the last step of each round is to check for a win condition amongst the players.
Additionally, controlling 3 cities, or 4 when aligned with another player is a win condition to the game.
There is a set turn amount for the game, once that is met, any player that has the win condition of win by running out the clock will win the game.
How Does a Turn in Dune the Board Game Work?
Turns are divided into several steps that are followed for each round.
Revival, is when players get to revive up to a certain amount of troops from the Tleilaxu tanks where troops go when dead from battle.
The Storm - Each turn the storm will move a certain amount of spaces as drawn from the storm deck provided in the game. Any tokens for troops caught in the storm will suffer consequences such as being wiped out, or being stuck in their region until the storm moves again. additionally Troops cannot be deployed in sections of the map in which the storm is currently occurring.
The Spice Blow - This determine where the new spice deposits are in the game. Since Spice is the currency used in the game, it’s important for some factions to chase after these deposits with their troops and collect it to fund their faction.
The Bidding - The bidding is when treachery cards are bid upon. This bidding is managed by House Atreides. Each player can only have 4 treachery cards at a time unless they are the Harkonnen who are allowed to have 8. As players hands fill up with these cards, less will be allowed to be bid upon. until every players hand is either full or there are no more cards to bid for. Money bid goes to the empire for each card.
Turn order by player - The player orders goes by the player closes to the right of the storm as the storm moves counter clockwise on the board. Each player will get their chance to place troops, move troops and deal with other players. The spacers guild gets to choose when they get their turn during the round.
Combat - The game comes with two combat wheels, these are used to spin up the amount of troop tokens a player is willing to use for their battle. A loss in battle means the loss of all troops despite the amount of troops used on the counter. The winner of the battle also looses an amount of troops, but only the amount that was bid. In addition Players have their Treachery cards that are attack, defense or stand in hero cards that can be used against players to block effects. There are also generals that have their own troop value that get selected in the battle to be used. Finally there are the Traitor cards which are dealt out at the beginning of the game that when matching up to your attackers general can be used to sabotage their attack and force an automatic win of the battle. This is rare, but has happened in several of the games I have played in.
Check for Win Conditions - Once the dust settles players will check to see if anyone has won based on their win conditions. If no players have won the game continues to the next round but not before the collection phase.
Collection - This is the last phase of each round where players collect the spice that was harvested from the planet or their city as well as collect the bribe spice that may be set in front of their player screen as bribe money cannot be used until the next turn.
And that is the turns in a nutshell. If you are playing for the first time, there is much to learn, but if you understand the basic turn structure, any player can become confident in this game in just a couple turns.
Unique Features of Dune the Board Game
This game has a really neat alliance mechanic in which there are no alliances in the game, but once a sand worm appears from the spice deck alliances are formed and these are binding until another worm appears. These alliances allow players to better share abilities, but also allow players to share each others win condition for the game making the game more interactive, but at the same time keeping the game surprisingly balanced.
Often in the games that we play alliances are made and later broken leading to really cool counter alliance play.
Should You Buy Dune the Board Game?
Dune the board game is one of those games that is an all evening playing game that is really designed for the more hardcore gaming group. This game also has flaws even after the 40 years of rule modifications and updates. Turns can become long and grueling. Teaching new players is cumbersome as well. But at the end of the day this game is a blast.
Dune the Board game succeeds in it’s story telling that somehow still feels to line up with the books regardless of the play. There are cool mechanics of card combinations that match book events that are always looming to be played and allows for grim weariness as each player begins to understand what their opponents have against them.
I recommend Dune to anyone looking for that next great complex game that will get several playthroughs with. This game is worth the time and is a great value for what you get.
You can pick this game up for yourself using the Amazon link provided here:
Expansions for Dune the Board Game
There is an expansion to this game as well. This adds more races to play as for the game. Now I personally do not feel that the expansion is quite needed for the game as each time I have had the opportunity to play, there has been new players so adding the extra complexity becomes more difficult.
That being said, Our gaming group is ecstatic to finally pull these new races out and give them a run in the game. As the group currently has the box already.
But none the less, the expansion is a great idea if this is a game that gets pulled out several times a year with your gaming group. You can purchase the expansion for yourself here.
