Episode 301 : Dune Imperium: Uprising

Since Dune Imperium - Uprising’s basic mechanics are so similar to the OG Dune Imperium I’ll only give you the briefest of gists on basic game play and an idea of the difference. If you’re interested you can find the Dune Imperium review and Whoop Whoop team Droop’s gist in Episode 186.

In Dune: Imperium - Uprising designed by Paul Dennen and published by Dire Wolf Games you play as one of the many factions in the Dune IP to be the most powerful in the galaxy, something something the spice.

On your turn in Dune Imperium Uprising you’ll play a card from your hand which corresponds to locations on the board that you will send your worker to. The card may have a bonus of some type. Once there your worker allows you to resolve the actions on the spaces provided you can pay for them.

Action spaces generally do a few things: Give one of the three resources (money water and spice), allow you to gain or draw different types of cards, or send troops to the combat area or garrison which is like the staging area for combat.

After all workers are played on your turn (or you choose to end a turn early) you reveal the remaining cards in your hand which usually give you influence and strength for combat. The influence allows you to buy new cards for your deck.

In Dune Uprising, Combat is resolved after the “reveal” phase and is won by who has the highest level of strength in the combat area of the board. Combat strength is constituted of units on the board, cards and any additional influence cards (which are special use cards you collect during the game) that you’d like to play. There is a 1st, 2nd etc placement system in combat that provides rewards based on where you land.

You then clean up and continue play until someone triggers the end game of Dune Imperium Uprising by scoring 10 points (Points are scored in various ways like moving up influence tracks with factions, winning combats etc) or you reach the final combat card of the game.

What’s new in Dune Imperium Uprising, are some new modules that can be added, the addition of spies which can allow you to take an action even though someone has already used that space during the round, sand worms which aid in combat and some enhanced or change action spaces on the board.