Dune: Imperium

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Details

Sourced from: https://jmo.name/games

Player Aid Author: Jarrod Moore

Description

Influence, intrigue, and combat in the universe of Dune

Expansions in Use

  • Rise of Ix
  • Immortality

  • Prepare game board:
    • Place main board on table
    • Place CHOAM board overlay over top right corner of board to cover original Landsraad and CHOAM sections
    • Place research station overlay over original research station space
  • Prepare Ix board:
    • Place Ix board next to game board
    • Shuffle 18 tech tiles
    • Place in 3 face-down stacks of 6 on marked spaces on Ix board
    • Turn tile on top of each stack face-up
  • Place Mentat meeple in the Mentat space
  • Place 4 alliance tokens on marked spaces of corresponding influence tracks
  • Prepare conflict deck:
    • Separate conflict cards by level (I, II and III)
    • Standard Game:
      • Place 4 random level III conflict cards on marked space of board
      • Place 5 random level II conflict cards on top of level III cards
      • Place 1 random level I conflict cards on top of level II cards
    • Epic Game:
      • Place 5 random level III conflict cards on marked space of board
      • Place 5 random level II conflict cards on top of level III cards
  • Shuffle and place intrigue deck face-down next to board
  • Prepare Imperium deck:
    • Shuffle and place deck face-down near the board
    • Deal 5 cards to form Imperium row
  • Prepare reserve cards:
    • Place cards in stacks by type next to imperium row:
      • Arrakis Liaison
      • The Spice Must Flow
      • Foldspace
  • Prepare Bene Tleilax board:
    • Place 2 spice on 4th space of Tleilaxu track
    • Place Reclaimed Forces card to left of Bene Tleilax board
    • Shuffle Tleilaxu deck and place it face-down above Imperium deck
    • Deal 2 random Tleilaxu cards next to Reclaimed Forces card

  • Each player receives:
    • 1 leader card
    • 1 family atomics token
    • 1 starting deck:
      • Deck contains:
        • 2 x Convincing Argument
        • 2 x Dagger
        • 1 x Diplomacy
        • 2 x Experimentation
        • 1 x Reconnaisance
        • 1 x Seek Allies
        • 1 x Signet Ring
      • Shuffle deck and place next to Deck mark on leader card
    • 1 water
  • Prepare player tokens:
    • Take a set of tokens of the same colour
    • Place 2 of your agent meeples on leader card
    • Place 3rd agent meeple near the board
    • Place combat marker on 0 space of combat track
    • Place marker on 0 space of freighter track
    • Place marker on left-most space of research track
    • Place marker on left-most space of Tleilaxu track
    • Place scoring marker on score track:
      • Standard Game:
        • 1-3P: Place it on 0 space
        • 4P: Place it on 1 space
      • Epic Game:
        • 1-4P: Place it on 0 space
    • Place 1 cubes on bottom space of each faction influence track
    • Place starting cubes in your garrison space (the space closest to you):
      • Standard Game: 3 cubes
      • Epic Game: 5 cubes
    • Create personal supply with rest of player tokens
  • Epic Game only:
    • Draw 1 random intrigue card
    • Do not replace or remove any of your starting cards
    • Place "Control the Spice" card in your discard pile to start game
  • Place solari, spice and water tokens near board
  • Randomly determine a 1st player and give them 1st player marker

  • Prepare House Hagal deck:
    • Remove the following cards:
      • 3 "2P" Arrakeen cards
      • 1 "2P" Reshuffle card
      • 2 Hall of Oratory cards
      • 2 Rally Troops cards
      • 2 "2P" Dreadnought cards
      • 3 Carthag cards from the base game:
        • The ones from the Immortality expansion should stay in the deck
    • Shuffle deck and place nearby
  • Choose and Prepare Rival Leader(s):
    • Choose two of the following leaders for your rival players:
      • Prince Rhombur Vernius
      • Viscount Hundro Moritani
      • Earl Memnon Thorvald
      • Glossu “The Beast” Rabban
      • Duke Leto Atriedes
      • Baron Harkonnen
      • Count Ilban Richese
      • Ariana Thorvald
    • Place 1 rival leader card to your left and 1 to your right
    • Place first player token on leader card of rival to your left
    • Place 1 cube on bottom space of each faction influence track for each rival
    • Place 1 marker for each rival on Tleilax Track:
      • Rivals do not use Research track
    • Place two agents on leader card of each rival
    • When playing any difficulty above Novice:
      • Place 5 solari token on Mentat space:
        • This signifies that it costs 5 solari to go to this space instead of normal cost
      • Deal 1 random intrigue card to each rival
      • Place 3 troops in garrison for each rival
    • Place third agent for each rival in prepared conflict deck with cards on top of rival meeples depending on difficulty:
      • Novice: 5 cards on top
      • Veteran: 4 cards on top
      • Expert: 3 cards on top
    • Give out starting resources:
      • Novice:
        • Rivals:
          • 1 water
        • You:
          • 1 water (as received in normal player setup)
          • 1 solari
          • 1 spice
      • All other difficulties:
        • All leaders:
          • 1 water

  • Prepare House Hagal deck:
    • Remove the following cards:
      • 3 "1P" Arrakeen cards
      • 2 Hall of Oratory cards
      • 2 Rally Troops cards
      • 2 "1P" Dreadnought cards
      • 2 "1P" Tech Negotiation cards
      • 3 Carthag cards from the base game:
        • The ones from the Immortality expansion should stay in deck
    • Shuffle deck and place near rival
  • Choose and Prepare Rival Leader(s):
    • Place 1 rival leader card for your rival
    • Place 1 cube on bottom space of each faction influence track for rival player
    • Place 1 marker for each rival on Tleilax Track:
      • Rivals do not use Research track
    • Place three agents on leader card of each rival

Dune: Imperium is played over a series of rounds where players are racing to score at least 10 victory points by the end of the game. Each round consists of 5 phases.

In a 2 player game, a third rival player is used to block spaces on the board and make competition for combat rewards and spaces on the board.

For a solo game, you play against two rival players that behave in a more player-like manner.

  • Reveal a new conflict card and place on its space next to conflict deck
  • Each player draws 5 cards from their own deck
  • All players refresh their tech tiles by flipping them to face-up side

  • Starting with the first player and going clockwise around the table, each player does one of the following things:
    • Take an agent turn
    • Take a reveal turn:
      • Players must take a reveal turn when they have run out of agents
      • After you take a reveal turn, you do not take turns until the next phase
  • Plot intrigue cards may be played on any of your turns during this phase

  • Play 1 card from your hand in front of you
  • Play 1 agent to an unoccupied space on the board whose icon matches one of the icons you just played
  • Immediately pay any costs associated with the chosen space
  • Gain the following in any order you choose:
    • The effect of the board space
    • Any benefit(s) in the grey area of the played card
  • If you placed your agent on a faction space, move your faction cube up 1 space on the corresponding influence track

  • Reveal all cards remaining in your hand:
    • Ensure you keep them seperate from the cards you played this round during agent turns
  • Gain the effects in blue boxes on all revealed cards
  • You may now use Persuasion to acquire new cards:
    • You can acquire the following cards with Persuasion:
      • Any cards in the imperium row
      • Arrakis Liaison reserve cards
      • The Spice Must Flow reserve cards
    • You may buy more than 1 card
    • Acquired cards are placed in your discard pile:
      • Any unused Persuasion is lost at the end of your turn
      • Cards in the imperium row are immediately replaced
  • Set your combat strength:
    • Add combat strength for each of the following:
      • Dreadnought: 3
      • Troop cube: 2
      • Combat symbol on revealed cards: 1
    • If the combat strength exceeds 20, flip the combat marker to "+20" side
  • Finally, put all your played cards in your discard pile

  • Beginning with first player and continuing clockwise:
    • Each player with at least 1 unit in the conflict may:
      • Play any number of combat intrigue cards:
        • Any combat intrigue cards that say "when you win a conflict" are not played at this time
        • For each played card, adjust combat strength:
          • If a player ends up with 0 units in the conflict, their combat strength is set to 0
      • Pass:
        • You are not required to pass if you have previously passed
    • All players must pass consecutively to end this phase
      • If you have a combat intrigue card with "when you win a conflict", don't play these now.
  • Resolve combat and give out rewards:
    • 1-3P: 3rd place receives no reward
    • A player with 0 combat strength does not receive a reward
    • Ties:
      • Ties for 1st place: Tied players receive 2nd place reward
      • Ties for 2nd place: Tied players receive 3rd place reward
      • Ties for 3rd place: Receive no reward
    • Return all dreadnoughts currently on board to garrison
    • Remove units in combat from combat area:
      • Dreadnoughts:
        • If you won the combat:
          • 1st (or only) Dreadnought:
            • Place dreadnought on one of following spaces:
              • Imperial Basin
              • Arrakeen
              • Carthag
            • You cannot place it on a space that already has a dreadnought on it
            • If your dreadnought covers a control marker, you take control of that space for the next round
          • 2nd Dreadnought:
            • Return to your garrison
      • Troop cubes:
        • Return to your supply, not to your garrison
    • Reset combat markers to 0 on combat track

  • Maker spaces are the following:
    • The Great Flat
    • Hagga Basin
    • Imperial Basin
  • On each maker space that does not have an agent on them:
    • Place 1 spice on designated space:
      • This is in addition to any previously spice placed on space

  • Check if Game End conditions have been met:
    • Standard Game:
      • A player has at least 10 points at the end of a round
    • Epic Game:
      • A player has at least 12 points at the end of a round
    • There are no more cards in the conflict deck
  • Otherwise, do the following:
    • Return Mentat meeple to its space
    • Players recall their agents from spaces on main board
    • Pass 1st player marker clockwise
    • Start next round

Recruiting Combat Units

  • Whenever the cube icon is gained, you take 1 combat unit from your supply and place it in your garrison:
    • Combat units do not get placed directly into conflict from your supply
    • Combat units in your supply are limited
  • When you send an agent to a combat board space, you may deploy combat units from your garrison to the conflict:
    • You may deploy any combat units recruited during your current turn
    • You may also deploy up to 2 additional combat units from your garrison into the conflict

Conflict Control Bonuses

  • Some conflict cards have a 1st place reward that allows you to place a control marker on a space on the board. If you win such a conflict:
    • Place 1 of your control markers on the designated space on the board
  • While your marker is on this space, you receive the bonus shown any time an agent is sent to that space:
    • That includes your own agents
  • When a conflict card is revealed for a space you already control, you receive a bonus:
    • You may deploy 1 troop from your supply to the conflict

Faction Influence Tracks

  • When you reach the 2nd space on an influence track, gain a victory point:
    • If you drop below the 2nd space, this victory point is lost
  • When you reach the 4th space on an influence track, take the bonus shown on that space:
    • If you drop below the 4th space, you do not return this bonus
  • The 1st player to reach 4 influence with a faction earns the alliance token for that faction and 1 victory point:
    • If another player moves to a higher space on that track:
      • The alliance token is given to the player that passed them
      • They then also lose the victory point associated with the token

Intrigue Cards

  • There are 3 types of intrigue cards:
    • Plot:
      • Can be played at any time during 1 of your agent or reveal turns
    • Combat:
      • Can only be played during the combat phase of a round
    • Endgame:
      • Can only be evaluated at the end of the game

Tech Tiles

  • When you take a tech tile, you may pay the cost in spice using the following:
    • Spice you have accrued during the game
    • If you used a space with a tech discount, apply that discount at purchase time
    • Return any number of your negotiator cubes from the Ix board to your supply for a discount of 1 spice each
  • Any tech tiles with an icon showing a flip icon can only be used once per round and is refreshed in the Round Start phase

Shipping Track

  • When triggering a freighter icon, you can do one of the following things:
    • Advance your marker one space on the shipping track:
      • If you are already on the top space, you cannot do this
    • Recall your fighter to the bottom space of the shipping track:
      • Collect all rewards associated on the space your marker is on and each space below that space
      • Return your marker to the bottom space of the track

Research Track

  • When you trigger a research icon:
    • Move one space to the right (up or down if their is a choice)
    • Immediately gain the bonus on the space (if any)
    • Once you reach the column with the single genetic marker at the bottom:
      • Some cards have a benefit conditional on having this marker
      • Any Tleilaxu cards you receive now are placed on the top of your draw deck
    • Once you reach the column with the double genetic marker at the bottom (the last column):
      • Some cards have a benefit conditional on having this marker
      • Any research icon triggered now just means you draw a card

Tleilaxu Track

  • When you trigger the Tleilaxu icon (the yellow beetle one):
    • Move your token one space to the right on the track
    • Immediately receive the bonus (if any) on the space
    • The first player to reach the first victory point space will also receive the 2 spice placed on the space during setup:
      • All other players will just receive the victory point when they reach this space

Tleilaxu Cards and Specimens

  • Tleilaxu cards can be acquired during reveal turns just like Imperium cards:
    • Their purchase cost is specimens, not persuasion
  • When the "Reclaimed Forces" card is used, it is not removed from the Tleilaxu row:
    • "Acquiring" this card means to take one of the two benefits on the card without actually taking the card
  • Specimens can be accrued on board spaces and card bonuses:
    • When a specimen cube icon is being triggered:
      • Take a troop cube from your supply and place it in the Axolotl tanks area of the Tleilaxu board
  • Specimens can also be used to pay for the effects on some cards
  • Whenever a specimen is spent, return the cube to your troop cube supply
  • You may return any specimens on the Tleilaxu board to your troop cube supply at any time:
    • You may need to do this to recruit troops when none are left in your supply

Grafting Cards

  • Some cards have "Graft" written on them above the Agent rewards box area on the card:
    • To play this card, you must choose a second card in your hand and play the two cards together in the same turn
    • You may play a second "Graft" card with your first "Graft" card, but you do not graft a third card to these two cards
    • You may use an agent icon from either of the two cards played on this turn
    • You receive the benefits on both cards played in addition to any effects from the board space the agent is sent to
    • Graft cards played during a reveal turn act as normal cards

Family Atomics

  • A Family Atomics token can be spent during a player's turn to remove all cards from the Imperium row:
    • A new Imperium row of 5 cards is then dealt out

Solo Mode

In solo mode, the rival players play more in the style of another player to emulate actual players that you play against.

Rival players never build a deck or have a hand of cards, but they do receive the following:

  • Resources
  • Influence with factions
  • First and second place combat rewards:
    • They never receive the third place combat reward
  • Control of board spaces after combat:
    • They also receive the one troop bonus when the revealed conflict card is over a space they have control of
    • They also receive the bonus for a space they control when any agent goes to that space
  • Victory points
  • Intrigue cards
  • The mentat meeple (if they visit the Mentat space)

When a rival player gathers the following, they instantly trade it in for a victory point:

  • 3 intrigue cards -> 1 victory point
  • 3 water -> 1 victory point
  • 7 solari -> 1 victory point
  • 7 spice -> 1 victory point:
    • This trade only happens when the conflict card for the current conflict is a level 3 conflict card, otherwise it stockpiles spice to buy tech tiles

Two Player Games

In a two player game, the rival player will never receive any of the following:

  • Any resources
  • Any cards
  • Any combat rewards
  • Any victory points

It purely serves the role of getting in the way of human players to make combat and competition for spaces and resources on the board tighter.

Rivals take only Agent turns (i.e. No Reveal turns) as they don't ever have cards.

When an agent takes a turn, turn cards over from the top of the deck until a card showing a space that the rival can visit is revealed. Usually this requires that the space is empty, but an agent with the Invasion Ships tech could avoid being blocked. The rival then receives the benefit shown on the card, not the benefit shown on the space visited. Then place a rival agent meeple on the space.

If the House Hagal deck is ever empty, or if the reshuffle card is revealed, shuffle the House Hagal cards to form a new deck.

The rival makes use of its leader's Signet Ring ability when the ring icon is shown on the activated House Hagal card but will never use the other abilities the leader has.

Simulating Imperium Row Churn

At the end of a rival player's turn, roll two dice (not included with the game). For each dice, depending on its value, do the following:

  • 6: Do nothing
  • Any other value: Count that many cards from left to right in the Imperium row and trash that card

If you roll a double, treat it as if you only rolled one die (i.e. only trash one card if a double is rolled)

Solo Mode

  • The first player token cycles between you and the two rival players as it does in a normal game
  • Rivals take agent turns in turn order until all of their agents have been placed out on the board

Two Player Games

  • The turn order marker cycles only between the two human players
  • The rival takes turns immediately after whichever player has the first player marker:
    • This means that in some rounds it is possible that different numbers of turns depending on whether the first player has received their third agent meeple or not

  • When the rival advances on the shipping track, they will always go up the track until the second space. Instead of moving to the top space, they will then cash out with the following benefits:
    • Recruit 2 troops
    • Gain 1 influence in track in which rival has lowest influence
    • Gain 5 solari:
      • All other players gain 1 solari

Any time a rival goes to a combat space, it will send whatever combat units it recruited in the current turn and up to two combat units from its garrison if they are available (even if it recruited no combat units that turn).

Rivals will always prefer to recruit dreadnoughts over troops and will deploy them whenever they can.

  • When a rival wins a conflict with a dreadnought, they will place their dreadnought using the following logic:
    • Always cover an opponent's control marker if possible
    • Avoid placing dreadnought on their own control marker
    • If multiple options still exist at this point, place according to this priority list:
      • Imperial Basin
      • Arrakeen
      • Carthag

Solo Mode

  • Rivals can only acquire a tech tile if there is a small blue logo in the bottom right corner of the tile:
    • If none of the tech tiles on offer have this logo, trash the tile on top of the stack with the most tech tiles in it until you have at least one with that logo on it:
      • Trash from the topmost stack in cases where multiple stacks have the same number of tiles
  • Rivals will not spend 7 spice for a victory point unless the current conflict card is a level 3 conflict card
  • If a rival goes to Tech Negotiaton and cannot afford any of the tech tiles on offer, they instead place a negotiator to reduce the cost of future tech tile purchases
  • A rival will always choose to purchase the most expensive tech tile it can afford
  • Tech tile clarifications:
    • Detonation Devices:
      • A Rival will always gain a Victory Point when it can
    • Flagship:
      • Whenever a Rival sends an Agent to a Combat space, if it has 4 Solari (and at least three troops in its supply), it will spend that Solari and flip this tile to recruit and deploy three troops
    • Holtzman Engine:
      • This tile is worth 1 Victory Point to a Rival at Endgame
    • Invasion Ships:
      • A Rival flips this tile when needed to avoid its Agent being blocked. It does so without having to pay the discard cost
    • Sonic Snoopers:
      • A Rival will draw an Intrigue card when acquiring this, but it will never trash the Tech tile
    • Spy Satellites:
      • If a Rival has 3 spice on its turn, it will spend that spice to trash this tile for a Victory Point
    • Training Drones:
      • A Rival will flip this during its turn at the first opportunity each round, including immediately when it acquires the tile
    • Troop Transports:
      • A Rival will always deploy to the Conflict all troops it recruits from the Shipping track (unless you’re using the Expert Troop Deployment rule)

Two Player Games

The rival player does not interact with tech tiles at all.

When combat begins, the rival players, in turn order, draw a single card from the House Hagal deck and add the number of swords on the bottom row of the card to their combat strength. Ignore everything on the card in this step except for the bottom row of the revealed card and add the number of revealed sword icons to its current combat strength. Just like human players, if a rival has no combat units in the conflict, its combat strength is 0.

After the rival players have evaluated their combat strength, human players may then play combat intrigue cards in the usual manner before resolving the combat.

Just like human players, rivals only receive bonuses from a combat in which it has at least one combat unit in the conflict.

Two Player Games

Since the rival in a two player game cannot receive combat rewards, it also cannot take control of any locations on the board. If it does win a conflict for a board space and a human player controls that space, the human player's control marker for that space is removed.

The game ends when one of the following conditions is met:

  • Standard Game:
    • A player has at least 10 points at the end of a round
  • Epic Game:
    • A player has at least 12 points at the end of a round
  • There are no more cards in the conflict deck

Players then evaluate all endgame intrigue cards that they still have in their hand

The player with the most points wins.

Tiebreakers are:

  • Spice
  • Solari
  • Water
  • Most units in garrison

Thumbnail courtesy of BoardGameGeek and the respective publisher.