Dune Imperium Uprising - One of Many Dune Games

I came into game night thinking I was going to be playing Shikoku 1889, or teaching and playing Root. But it turns out that I was going to be learning to play Dune Imperium - Uprising. A pleasant surprise. Even though I have never seen any of the movies or read any of the books. I am always down to play a game that I have never played before or do not own.

What is Dune Imperium - Uprising?

Dune Imperium - Uprising is one part worker placement other part deck building game set in the Dune universe. Each turn players play cards, place their workers/agents on the board, pay costs and reap rewards, and purchase more cards to further strengthen their decks. At the end of each round, a battle between all consenting players will lead to more rewards. The first player to 10 victory points wins the game.

In-game thoughts and experience

While playing the game, the first couple of turns definitely were very abstract. Players were playing cards that I had never seen before and using abilities that I have never heard of. The cards in my hand were perplexing at best, but as the game progressed, things began to fall more and more into place. The deck building aspect of the game definitely lead to the most amount of unknowns. Who knew what kind of cards were in the deck? Who knew what kinds of strategies was possible. We just knew that the decks that each player started with were garbage to use and that anything on the market was better than what we all started with. This lead to some turns being more explosive than others, but because every one else at the table was new to it, surprises were fun and exciting.

Things that caused confusion

There were some elements in the game that did not make much sense. More because there was variance in the way that the game itself could be played, and we may or may not have mixed some single player components with the base game.

Things I would do differently next play through

• Optimize my decks. I was buying random cards on the market for essentially what I could afford. This led to the inclusion of suboptimal cards that I would later on regret.
• Pursue victory points earlier on. I was essentially dillydallying for a good chunk. I knew that I needed more currency and spice, but those paths clouded my judgement on what the game was truly about: getting to ten victory points.
• Use my character's innate abilities more. I gained a bonus when I utilized sand worms in battle, but I did not attempt to gain sand worms at all.

Would I Play Again?

Yes! After doing some more research, this game in the Dune universe of other games is highly regarded. It was fun to play, and I look forward to playing it again. 8/10