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Dune: Imperium rules

Deck-building and worker placement for control of Arrakis.

Players
1–4
Time
60–120 min
Ages
14+
Goal
Send agents, build your deck, win conflicts and gain faction influence to score Victory Points. The game ends in the Recall phase once someone has 10+ VP or the conflict deck is empty; most VP wins.

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How to play Dune: Imperium

Setup

  1. Conflict deck: shuffle all 4 Conflict III cards face down, put 5 random shuffled Conflict II cards on top, then 1 random Conflict I card on top — 10 cards. Return the unused Conflict cards to the box unseen.
  2. Cards: shuffle the Intrigue deck and the Imperium deck, each face down; deal 5 Imperium cards face up as the Imperium row. Set out the 3 reserve stacks: Arrakis Liaison, The Spice Must Flow and Foldspace.
  3. Board: put the Mentat on its Landsraad space, an alliance token on each of the 4 faction tracks, and build a shared bank of Solari, spice and the remaining water.
  4. Each player: choose a leader, shuffle your 10-card starting deck and take 1 water (no Solari or spice).
  5. Pieces: 2 agents on your leader, Swordmaster beside the board, 1 cube at the bottom of each faction track, 3 of your 12 troops in your garrison (the rest, and your other pieces, in your supply), combat marker on 0.
  6. Score: VP marker on 1 in a 4-player game, otherwise on 0. Choose a random first player and give them the first-player marker.
  7. Solo or 2 players: also set up the House Hagal cards, following their separate rules sheet.

A round

Each round has five phases:

  1. Round Start: reveal the next conflict card; everyone draws 5 cards.
  2. Player Turns: clockwise, one turn each at a time (an Agent turn or your Reveal turn), until everyone has revealed.
  3. Combat: play Combat Intrigue cards, then hand out the conflict rewards by strength.
  4. Makers: 1 bonus spice goes on each empty Maker space.
  5. Recall: check for the endgame, return agents, and pass the first player marker clockwise.

Agent turns

  1. Play a card with an agent icon, face up.
  2. Send an agent to an empty space with a matching agent icon, paying its cost or meeting its requirement.
  3. Take the effects of the space and the card's agent box. A faction space also gives 1 influence.
  4. Combat space? You may deploy troops recruited this turn, plus up to 2 from your garrison.

Troops you commit early tell opponents how hard they must fight; sometimes it's worth holding your garrison until your last agent.

Your Reveal turn

Take this once you have no agents left, or whenever you choose. After it, you're done for the round.

  1. Reveal the rest of your hand and add up its persuasion and swords.
  2. Acquire cards with persuasion, from the Imperium row or the reserve, into your discard pile.
  3. Strength: 2 per troop in the conflict plus 1 per sword, only if you have a troop there.
  4. Clean up: your played and revealed cards go to your discard pile.

Combat and rewards

Example: Anna has 3 troops and 2 swords (strength 8); Ben has 4 troops (strength 8). They tie for first, so both take the second reward.

Influence, Landsraad & Intrigue

Game end

  1. Game end: in Recall, if anyone has 10+ VP or the conflict deck is empty.
  2. Endgame Intrigue: players may now play any they hold.
  3. Winner: most VP. The tie-breaker is most spice, then Solari, water, and garrison troops.

2 players and solo

Expansion rules

Only needed if you play with the expansion named on each heading.

Rise of Ix Rise of Ix

Bloodlines Bloodlines

Immortality Immortality

All Dune: Imperium rules (96)

Setup

Round

Clarification

Agent Turn

Board

Reveal Turn

Combat

Factions

Cards

Game End

Solo & 2P

Rise of Ix expansion

Bloodlines expansion

Immortality expansion

Expansions covered

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