The Dune: Imperium Midgame: Deck, Tempo, and Conflicts

The middle rounds of Dune: Imperium are where the Conflict II cards arrive, the Imperium Row gets expensive, and every Faction track has a race on it. The opening was about building your own engine. The midgame is about everyone else’s: what they need, what they can still do this round, and what you can take from them.

Your deck is an engine; tune it

Your starting cards do not get better. Every one you trash makes your strong cards show up more often. The Bene Gesserit space Selective Breeding trashes a card and draws two, and many Imperium cards trash too. Our guide to engine building games explains why a lean engine runs faster.

But do not overdo it. Karlis Povisils, the first North American champion, warned in his interview with Dire Wolf that trimming a deck too hard can backfire. A deck with too few cards can run out of Agent icons, Persuasion, or swords on the round you need them.

Agent order is a weapon

Every space you take is closed to everyone else this round. That gives your Agent turns an order of priority:

1. The space someone else needs most. A Maker space with a big pile of bonus spice, the Swordmaster when a rival has 8 Solari, the Faction space that would give someone an Alliance.
2. The space you need most. If nobody else can use it, it can wait.
3. Everything else.

Blocking costs you nothing extra when the blocking space is also useful to you. That is the best kind of turn.

When to reveal

Once you take your Reveal turn, your turns are skipped for the rest of the phase. Reveal early and everyone else sees your strength while they still have Agents to answer it. Reveal late and you see theirs.

This is where a third Agent pays twice. It is one more action, and it usually means you are among the last at the table to reveal.

Read the Conflict before you commit

Before you deploy, count each opponent’s ceiling:

• Troops already in the Conflict: 2 strength each.
• Agents left: each one could reach a Combat space this round.
• Garrison: up to two troops per Combat-space visit, plus anything they recruit there.
• Hand and Intrigue: unknown swords and Combat Intrigue cards. Count how many cards they hold.

An example. A rival has 2 troops in the Conflict, 3 in her garrison, and one Agent left. With two more troops from her garrison she reaches 8 strength, before recruiting anything or revealing a single sword. If you are at 8, you are not safe.

The rulebook’s tip applies here too: the longer you wait to commit, the more you know.

Choose your prize

Every Conflict card has more than one reward, and the top one is not always worth chasing. Second place often costs a fraction of the troops.

Ties matter too. If you tie for first, nobody wins the Conflict and each tied player takes the second reward. Matching the leader’s strength can deny them a Victory Point even when you cannot beat them.

If you hold Control of Arrakeen, Carthag, or Imperial Basin and a Conflict for that space comes up, you may deploy one troop from your supply for free. Defend the spaces that pay you.

Alliance races

Four tracks, four Alliance tokens, and every one can change hands. Watch who is at 3 when you hold 4, and who is at 4 when you hold 5. Dire Wolf’s designer diary on politics points out that some cards jump two steps on a track at once, so a one-step lead is not a safe lead.

Sometimes the right move is to let an Alliance go and take two steps elsewhere. The endgame lesson does the math, and the Influence lesson covers the races.

Intrigue as a threat

Champion Povisils also said that holding Intrigue cards matters even when you do not play them, because it keeps opponents unsure what you can do in Combat. Just do not let it climb to four. The Secrets space takes one at random from anyone holding four or more.

Uprising: the midgame changes

Worms and the Shield Wall. While the Shield Wall stands, sandworms cannot fight at Arrakeen, Spice Refinery, or Imperial Basin. If you have Maker Hooks and your rivals do not, blowing up the wall at Sietch Tabr opens every Conflict to your worms. If a rival has hooks, the wall protects you. Removal is optional and permanent.

Worms double rewards. One sandworm in the Conflict doubles most of what you earn, Victory Points included, though not Control or battle icons. A small Conflict won with a worm can beat a big one won without.

Spies beat blocks. A Spy on a post connected to a space lets you Infiltrate it, sending your Agent even when another Agent is there. A blocked space is only blocked if nobody has a Spy watching it.

Battle icons. When you win a Conflict, you take the card. If its battle icon matches one on another face-up Conflict card or your Objective card, flip the pair and score a point. Know which icons you hold and which Conflicts would complete a pair.

Reading the whole table

Each round, ask three questions before your first Agent goes out:

1. Who is closest to an Alliance, and on which track?
2. Who can win this Conflict, and with what?
3. What does each player need this round that I could take first?

The answers tell you where to send your first Agent. For a wider look at why games like this reward planning, our worker placement explainer is a good companion.