Two-Player and Solo Dune: Imperium: Beating the Rivals

Dune: Imperium plays one to four, and Uprising one to six. At one or two players, an automated opponent driven by House Hagal cards fills the board, so spaces still get blocked and Conflicts still have a fight. This lesson covers how those opponents work in each version and how to play against them. Our article on two-player board games and our solo games guide have the wider view.

The original: House Hagal at two players

The rulebook’s House Hagal sheet adds a third house that plays the spoiler.

• It acts after each of the first player’s Agent turns, as long as it has an Agent left. So it takes more turns in some rounds than others, depending on who has a Swordmaster.
• It flips a card to choose a space. If that space is taken, it flips again until it finds an open one. It ignores the space’s costs and effects and takes only what its card shows.
• It fights. At a Combat space it deploys the troops its card recruits plus up to two from its garrison. At the start of Combat it flips one more card and adds that card’s swords to its strength.
• It does not collect resources, build a deck, earn rewards, or score. It cannot take Control, but if it wins a Conflict for a space someone controls, that Control marker comes off.
• It climbs Influence tracks and takes an Alliance if it can, though it earns no track bonuses.

That last point surprises new players. House Hagal can take an Alliance token away from you, which costs you a point. Watch its cubes on the tracks like any rival’s.

The original: solo

Solo play uses two Rivals, each with a Leader whose Signet Ring ability it uses. They take Agent turns in sequence with you, gain first and second place rewards from Conflicts, collect resources, spend them for Victory Points, and gain their Swordmasters when a set Conflict card is revealed. Either Rival can reach 10 and beat you.

Four difficulty levels, Mercenary, Sardaukar, Mentat, and Kwisatz Haderach, change starting resources, Rival troops, how soon the Rival Swordmasters arrive, and more. At the top level, you cannot gain a Swordmaster at all. The rulebook recommends Earl Memnon Thorvald and Glossu “The Beast” Rabban as Rivals for a first solo game.

Uprising: Rival cards

The Uprising Rules Supplements replace the original’s approach with Rival cards. Each lists a Swordmaster value, a Signet Ring ability, a Scheme ability, and a Faction priority order.

• Rivals gather resources from House Hagal cards and Conflict rewards, not from board spaces. They save toward their Swordmaster value, then spend resources on Victory Points.
• Rivals fight with worms. With Maker Hooks, a Rival summons sandworms at Hagga Basin and Deep Desert, and collects doubled rewards.
• Rivals use Spies differently. They never Infiltrate or Gather Intelligence. When a Rival places its third Spy, it recalls the other two and triggers its Scheme.
• Rivals score and can end the game.

Two players face one Rival as a shared opponent. It always sits between the two humans in turn order and never holds the First Player marker. For a first two-player game, the supplement recommends the Streamlined Rivals variant, which uses one of two Rival cards that cannot win the game.

Solo uses two Rivals and the same four difficulty names. The supplement suggests Rivals with a Swordmaster value of 8 or higher for a first game.

Strategy against the deck

House Hagal does not plan, so you can.

• Learn its targets. The deck sends Agents to a known mix of spaces. If your plan depends on a space it often takes, go there early in the round.
• Fight with a cushion. It adds swords from a random card at the start of Combat, so you never know its exact strength. Leave room above its troop count.
• Guard your Alliances. It climbs tracks and takes tokens. A one-step lead over it is no safer than over a person.
• Use its blocks against your opponent. In a two-player game, a space it occupies is closed to both of you. Sometimes the best turn is the one that leaves your opponent the space it is about to take.

Expert tools

Both versions offer harder variants. The original’s Expert Troop Deployment makes a Rival stop deploying in Conflict I and II fights when it already leads, and the FAQ sets that lead at 4 strength. Uprising’s Expert level adds Smart Politics, Brutal Escalation, and Expert Deployment. Brutal Escalation, which adds the swords from two House Hagal cards in Conflict III fights, is in Uprising and in the original’s Rise of Ix expansion.

Dire Wolf’s Game Room companion app can run House Hagal for you in the original, which speeds play.

Why this matters for competition

Two-player and solo games are not the tournament format, which seats three or four. But solo play is a fast way to practice openings and deck building, and a hard Rival punishes loose Conflict play. The next level turns to the full table.