Dune: Imperium Rise of IX

Product Information

Place the CHOAM board overlay on top of the game board, covering the original Landraad and CHOAM spaces. Place the Ix board next to the game board. 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]

For example, buying a council seat is a heavy cost that you have to count on paying off later. Having four swords every single round simply for having the seat, thanks to Restricted Ordinance, makes the seat much more appealing. 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! 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 All of the new mechanisms slot into solo mode nicely, complete with new House Hagel cards. The solo mode retains the same feeling of completeness that the original had and is every bit as easy to run, with very little overhead. It’s a bummer that the House Hagel AI can only play as two of the new leaders, but that’s my only complaint.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. 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. 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. Treachery shows an Unload icon in the Reveal box. You may take the shown action as normal if played during the Reveal phase. However, the Unload icon means that you would also gain 2 troops and deploy them to the Conflict should you either discard or trash Treachery. There is also a new Epic variant, that extends the game to 12 victory points and alters the beginning of the game. You start with a bigger garrison for example and replace a Dune The Desert Planet Card with a new Control the Spice Card.

The expansion adds two boards, which replace some of the worker placement spaces found in Dune: Imperium. The CHOAM board overlay. Image by Paul Benson. This is a new mode for players looking for a longer and more intense game. It is played to 12 Victory Points instead of 10. In addition, these other changes are made during setup: The base game had several ways to trash cards, so that last option is fairly achievable. But what about discarding? Only a couple cards in the base game – Test of Humanity and Reverend Mother Mohiam – could force an opponent to discard, which would make it somewhat difficult to trigger such effects. 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. As well as the sought-after tech you can also commission Dreadnoughts to fight in your battles. They add a combat strength of three to your battles and are much more agile than your ground troops.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. Between the board additions and new cards, one thing is certainly true. Both Spice and Solari have far more uses than before. Plus, the gathering and usage of either require you to plan multiple turns in advance. This is a wide economical change for the game, but it’s for the better. Granting players more options and adding value to strategies outside of rushing the Swordmaster. New Cards Rise of Ix is an improvement on Dune Imperium in nearly every way. I know there are a lot of concerns that it makes the game swinger and that games won’t be as close. I’ll let you in on a secret, Games are neither more or less close in Rise of Ix, because that was an illusion in the first place. Dreadnoughts are worth 3 strength in combat. If you win a Conflict, you take control of one of the board spaces where a Control marker can be placed. The space can have someone else’s Control marker on it; you control the space until the end of the next combat. If you lose the Conflict, instead of being returned to your supply, the Dreadnought is returned to your garrison. Some of the new Imperium cards. Image by Paul Benson. Other New Icons You commission a dreadnought when you trigger the Dreadnought icon on the board or a card. You take one dreadnought from your supply and place it into your garrison. You may only have a maximum of 2 dreadnoughts.