Dune: Imperium

How are they going to use it? Who's waiting for what tile and stuff? So, yeah, great, great points.

The one, the question that I'll throw to Brayden, being someone who I know is, because one of my reference games here is Dune Imperium, and you being a Dune, big Dune fan, is how do you personally feel? But overall, how do you, like, what do you think about this topic in terms of is it affected by a game that is you know only you only need 10 points to win versus a game that the scores are going to be in the 400s and i'm going to use the example like fea swamp i played recently the winning score was 400 some the last place score is 200 that's a very very big gap to have to do calculations from versus a game like dude imperium you're making a decision saying i need two points how do i get those two points right

I think, obviously, the ones where there are fewer points available, you're going to be scrapping and clawing your way to really trying to achieve those versus... thinking of the design space when it comes to um higher point games let's say you might be just getting points all along the way right so kind of like little either dopamine breadcrumbs that take you right you're like oh i get two points here you get two points there i got five points oh i got six points on my turn my goodness look at me right like there are these all these options here too um So, you know, it depends on what a game wants to make you feel, right? Like with Dune, there are these battles that happen after every round, right? And they all feel very important because you're trying to battle for that one, two points.

If they were just for, you know, if they were like for a point, but then you also got like three points elsewhere and four points, you're like, okay, I guess we'll just add up the battle at the end of this.

So having...

Having those moments throughout, whether it's a few points here or many, many points, I think is important for the game to keep you going, keep you pulled along in some ways.

I'd say if we thought of Dune Imperium as a wave, there'd be higher spikes and then it would come down, whereas something like So Sardinia or Fea Swamp would kind of just kind of be like this constant, like slow rise in points.

And the spike might not even come until the end.

yeah yeah

i don't know what spoilers are talking about the mechanics look really interesting they've got a one versus many format uh they've they've offered up a they changed basically they're offering up a tile to replace one of the spaces in the original dune game to match the dune imperium uprising sword master space yep So the Dune Imperium, the base Dune Imperium game, that space will now be exactly the same as the Dune Imperium Uprising space, which has to do with the cost of buying

the third agent.

Which gives you a discount for the second through fourth players.

I don't want it all from the start.

Speaking of expansions, have you seen the new Dune Imperium expansion, Dune Conspiracy? I have seen it.

I think for Dune, I love Dune Imperium.

I love it.

I'm maybe at the point where I don't really need more expansions for it.

Like if a friend wants to buy it, I'll gladly play it for sure.

But I can get so much game out of the game that I already have.

I still have just the original Dune Imperium.

And I'm thinking about, for example...

Dune Imperium or Clank, other games where the basic mechanism is you collect up these cards, they give you certain resources that let you buy other cards and upgrade, but that happens on a regular basis, either at the end of your turn or at the end of a round, et cetera, et cetera.

The thing that made Drillers more interesting in a way was that The resources that you had, there were four of them, basically.

There was energy, which made you able to play your cards.

Here's the real answer here, Adam, and that is that any game where you're playing out a handful of cards on your turn, they're all long bound time.

Every single deck builder suffers from this.

The games that have actually fixed this are the games that are more bigger euros with deck building, like Lost Ruins or Dune Imperium, where you're only playing one action per turn and then you move to the next player.

Star Realms, if you play this on the table, can suffer from this on a bigger turn.

I don't know why that is the case, but I never get tired of this game.

So that's my number one, Dune Uprising, with the first expansion,

Bloodlines.

There we go.

It is a fantastic game.

I just haven't tabled it for so long.

And only recently we re-watched the two Dune movies, one and two, ready for the third one to come out.

And it is one of those things where...

And so we have this, I'm hesitant to use the word innovative, but I do truly believe it's unique, where we have this deck plus tableau building system, where you're going to be building your deck.

And it's a little bit of a lighter one, maybe like Lost Ruins of Arnak, Dune Imperium, kind of in that vein.

And you're going to have your deck, you're going to have your hand of drum cards.

So the music of the ritual.

I actually don't know how I heard this.

That he was like a mega fan of Dune Imperium.

And so we were on set filming a video in the middle of North Carolina on his compound where we had set up this... 20 teams were gaming playing modern warfare 4 and jimmy mr b's first name uh is like running around filming this video making this video for us it's a big partnership it's a big ado and then he comes over to talk to us afterwards and i just pull him aside and i'm like let's talk about dune imperium and

i'm glad you were confident that you actually had that information correct

Totally.

And it was like, we talked for like five to 10 minutes, like in the middle of the night in North Carolina to the point that like some of my coworkers like took a picture of me.

They're like, what were you guys like taught? You know, it wasn't just like a hello, take a photo.

It's like, he said he had like thousands of hours of doing Imperium online and that he hosts like tournaments and that every year he like flies out the best Dune Imperium players to play with him.

Robin Hood.

I do not think, to be clear, that's not me saying I think Right now, looking at it through, you know, 2026 lens and how we played it, it is more complex, necessarily, than Vaginagara or Buss or Dune Imperium.

Yeah,

I'd probably give it, like, a 2.3, 2.4.

So I think that is the reason to put it higher and to, I think, maybe... not wait as heavily, the fact that you can only fully experience the season once, because it's one experience over 12 to 24 games.

Yeah, so it still gets a lot of play.

To answer your question, for me, games I've played and put more hours and game time into that are above it, definitely Root, probably Arx, definitely Dominion, not brass not twilight struggle because i don't play we don't play brass or twilight struggle enough or at least i don't i played more nemesis i have not played as much dune imperium but i could maybe i have not played as much barcelona because of lack of access to it it's not on any digital clients

yeah