Earlier this year we got the excellent board game Dune: Imperium in digital form, and it seems it was successful enough that we’re already getting more. “More,” in this case, being a digital adaptation of the formerly meatspace-exclusive Rise of Ix expansion, which broadens the game with six new leaders, new spaces on the board, and new tools in your struggle for Arrakis.
Most notable is a new military asset, Dreadnoughts, which let you cement dominance over your enemies. There are also infiltrators, another route to figure out what and why your opponents are doing whatever they’re doing. Perhaps most exciting is the addition of the long-playing Epic game mode—an all-day affair when you’re playing in person, so perhaps a more approachable addition to a digital version of the game where more people will actually find the time to play it.
I’m of the opinion that Dune: Imperium is one of the best things to come out of the modern wave of Dune stuff spawned by the big-budget Denis Villeneuve film adaptations. It’s impressive that it can hold up when compared to the legendary Dune board game from the 70s.
“It’s a fascinating combination of worker placement board game and hidden information achieved via letting you build a deck of orders to draw from each turn,” I said in my impressions piece back at Dune: Imperium’s initial digital release. Having played more since then I really stand by it—especially in digital form.
Developer Dire Wolf has also announced that cross-platform play will be coming to Dune: Imperium later this summer. The Rise of Ix expansion will be released in the second half of July on Steam. You can also find the base game on Steam as well, where it’s 20% off ($18.40) for the Summer Sale.