Reading the Dune: Imperium Board: Spaces, Icons, and Costs

The Dune: Imperium board looks crowded the first time it hits the table. It is not as big as it looks. The original game has 22 board spaces, and every one of them belongs to one of seven Agent icons. Once you can see the board as seven neighborhoods, every card in your hand tells you exactly where it can go.

This lesson walks the board area by area, using the rulebook and Dire Wolf’s board space player aid.

Reading a card first

Every Imperium card has the same layout. Its name and Faction sit at the top. The Agent icons in the top left corner say where it can send an Agent. The Agent box is what it does on an Agent turn, and the Reveal box is what it does on your Reveal turn. The Persuasion cost in the top right is its price, and some cards have an Acquire box under the cost that pays once, the moment you buy the card.

A card with two icons can go to either area, but one card sends one Agent. A card with no icons can only be revealed.

The seven icons, area by area

The four Factions

Each Faction has two spaces: one with a cost and one without. Every visit moves your cube up one on that Faction’s track.

The Landsraad

Five spaces, all reached with the Landsraad icon, and most of them cost Solari:

• Swordmaster: 8 Solari, once per game, for your third Agent.
• High Council: 5 Solari, once per game, for 2 extra Persuasion on every later Reveal turn.
• Rally Troops: 4 Solari for four troops.
• Mentat: 2 Solari to draw a card and borrow the Mentat as an extra Agent this round, if it is still there.
• Hall of Oratory: free. Recruit a troop, and gain 1 Persuasion on your Reveal turn.

The City

Four spaces on Dune itself, all Combat spaces:

• Arrakeen: recruit a troop and draw a card.
• Carthag: recruit a troop and draw an Intrigue card.
• Research Station: 2 water to draw three cards.
• Sietch Tabr: needs 2 Fremen Influence. Recruit a troop and gain 1 water.

Spice Trade

The desert and CHOAM share one icon.

• Imperial Basin: 1 spice plus any bonus spice.
• Hagga Basin: 1 water for 2 spice plus bonus spice.
• The Great Flat: 2 water for 3 spice plus bonus spice.
• Secure Contract: 3 Solari.
• Sell Melange: pay 2, 3, 4, or 5 spice for 6, 8, 10, or 12 Solari. One sale per visit.

Costs, requirements, and arrows

A cost printed on a space must be paid before anything else happens. If you cannot pay it from what you already hold, you cannot go there. A requirement, like Sietch Tabr’s 2 Fremen Influence, is something you must have but do not spend.

An arrow on a card works differently: it offers a trade you may skip. Pay what is left of the arrow and take what is right of it, or ignore it. The FAQ adds that you may pay it only once per effect.

Combat spaces

Ten spaces show desert art and crossed swords. Seven are on Dune: Arrakeen, Carthag, Research Station, Sietch Tabr, Imperial Basin, Hagga Basin, and The Great Flat. Three sit with the Factions: Heighliner, Hardy Warriors, and Stillsuits. Only on these may you move troops into the Conflict, as the how to play lesson explains.

Three of them also carry a Control flag. Arrakeen and Carthag pay their controller 1 Solari whenever anyone visits, and Imperial Basin pays 1 spice.

What changes on the Uprising board

The Uprising board keeps the seven icons and adds an eighth, the Spy icon, which reaches any space connected to one of your Spies. A few changes to notice:

• Three spaces need 2 Influence: Imperial Privilege (Emperor), Shipping (Spacing Guild), and Sietch Tabr (Fremen).
• Spice Refinery stands where Carthag was and Deep Desert where The Great Flat was. Deep Desert costs 3 water for 4 spice, or two sandworms if you hold Maker Hooks.
• Heighliner costs 5 spice and recruits five troops, with no water.
• Observation posts sit beside the spaces, waiting for Spies.

The full list is in the Uprising rulebook’s Board Space Guide. The Uprising lesson in Level 3 covers the new systems.

A two-minute drill

Hold up any card and answer three questions out loud:

1. Which icons does it have, and which spaces do they open?
2. Of those, which can I afford right now?
3. Which are Combat spaces?

Do this for a game or two and the Board Space Guide goes back in the box. That is the end of Level 0: you can play, teach, and read the board. Level 1 is about playing it well.