Dune: Imperium rules – how to play and how to score

Dune: Imperium quick rules

The goal

Each player leads a Great House seeking power over Arrakis. Victory Points are earned during the game, on the Score track: through combat, the favor of four Factions and some cards. You send your Agents onto the board and gradually improve your deck. The most points wins.

A round

Flip a Conflict card, which announces the round’s battle and its rewards, and everyone draws five cards. In turn, each player takes an Agent turn or their Reveal turn, once per round. When everyone has revealed, resolve the battle, add one Spice to each Maker space left empty, everyone takes their Agents back, and the First Player marker passes left.

The Agent turn

Play a card from your hand: its icons show where it can send you. Place an Agent on a free space with the chosen icon, paying its cost if it has one. An occupied space, even by you, is closed until the end of the round. You gain the space’s effect and your card’s Agent effect: Solari, Spice, Water, cards or troops.

The Factions

The Emperor, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit and the Fremen each have an Influence track. Each Agent you send to a Faction moves your cube up one space. At 2 Influence, you gain a Victory Point, which you lose if you drop back down; at 4, a bonus. The first to reach 4 also takes the Alliance token, worth one point, but an opponent who climbs higher takes it from you.

The troops

The cube icon recruits a troop: it moves from your supply to your garrison, where it doesn’t fight. To fight, your Agent must go to a Combat space, marked with two crossed swords. You then place in the conflict zone the troops recruited this turn, plus at most two troops from your garrison.

The Reveal turn

When you have no Agents left, or if you’d rather stop, show all the cards in your hand and apply their Reveal effects. Persuasion buys cards from the Imperium Row or the Reserve; they go to your discard pile, and unspent Persuasion is lost. Your strength is 2 per troop in the conflict zone, plus 1 per revealed sword; with no troops, it’s zero.

Combat

After all the Reveal turns, players with a troop in the conflict zone may play Combat Intrigues, until everyone passes. The strongest takes the first reward, the second the second reward, and the third the third reward with 4 players only. If there’s a tie for first, each tied player takes the second reward. The troops involved then go back to their supply.

The end and the final count

At the end of a round, the game stops if a player has 10 Victory Points or more, or if all ten Conflict cards have been played: you always finish the current round. Everyone can still play their Endgame Intrigues, then whoever is highest on the Score track wins.

Beginner traps

Playing all your cards as Agent turns, leaving nothing to buy with at your Reveal. Buying cards without looking at their icons, which open the Factions. Forgetting to keep Water for the desert, or the Swordmaster, a third Agent for 8 Solari at the Landsraad. And underestimating your opponents’ Intrigues, which often turn a battle around.

How to score Dune: Imperium

Victory Points

Read them on the Score track: all points are scored during the game. With 4 players, everyone starts at 1.

Influence

1 point per Faction where you have at least 2 Influence; you lose it if you drop back below 2.

Alliance tokens

1 point per Alliance token you hold at the end; it changes hands if an opponent climbs past you on the track.

Conflicts and cards

Points from Conflict rewards, The Spice Must Flow (when acquired), Intrigue and Imperium cards, and some Leaders.

Spice, Solari, Water and garrison (tie-breaker)

No points: on a tie, the most Spice wins, then the most Solari, then Water, then troops in the garrison.

Worked example

With 4 players, Emma starts at 1 point. She has at least 2 Influence with three Factions (3), holds two Alliance tokens (2), earned 3 points from Conflicts and bought one The Spice Must Flow (1): 1 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 1 = 10 points, which triggers the end at the end of the round.

Common mistakes

• Stopping the game as soon as someone reaches 10 points: finish the current round first, and everyone may play their Endgame Intrigues.
• Keeping the Influence point after dropping below 2: it’s lost.
• Keeping an Alliance token when an opponent climbs past you: they take it, with its point. A tie isn’t enough.
• Forgetting that with 4 players, everyone starts at 1 point.
• Breaking ties at random: it’s Spice, then Solari, Water and troops in the garrison.

How to set up Dune: Imperium

With 3 or 4 players, follow the first three parts; with 2, add House Hagal; for solo, add the Rivals. Draw lots for the first player, who takes the First Player marker.