Incline Dune, best boardgame ever, reprinted by GF9

[Silva]

Yesterday I had an amazing win where I was playing Bene Gesserit and predicted a Harkonnen turn 3 win, allied with said harkonnen player, used his alliance ability to steamroll the rest and totally stabbed him in the back to win the game. That was an amazing conclusion I tell you what..

How long it took from setup to finish? I'll play it next weekend for the first time (assuming no setbacks of course) with a full 6 players roster, and I confess beign worried about it's lenght.

*Ankh's description*

Looks pretty interesting. I'll read more about it on BGG. Thanks!

 

[JamesDixon]

I believe someone made a workshop mod of the game for Tabletop Simulator.

 

[mastroego]

I've seen several versions.
Not that I get to play it

 

[Akratus II]

Yesterday I had an amazing win where I was playing Bene Gesserit and predicted a Harkonnen turn 3 win, allied with said harkonnen player, used his alliance ability to steamroll the rest and totally stabbed him in the back to win the game. That was an amazing conclusion I tell you what..

How long it took from setup to finish? I'll play it next weekend for the first time (assuming no setbacks of course) with a full 6 players roster, and I confess beign worried about it's lenght.

Lately our games last from 15 min to 2 hours until someone at the end of a turn says, 'oh by the way, I have three strongholds (And/or 3 tech tokens).' But today we just had another go and it lasted almost 3 hours. And we got to turn 7.

 

[Silva]

Finally played this.

We were 5 first timers and left the Spacing Guild out. Only I knew the rules. It was a blast, everybody was laughing histerically at the end when the Bene Gesserit player won by prediction on turn 5. In retrospect we probably got lucky in getting what seems the coolest ending possible for a bunch of Dune aficionados, specially so as the BG player really schemed and manipulated people on her way to victory.

We played the "Optional" mode (Advanced sans spice combat) as it seemed the better balance of theme-speed. We also used a couple variants: Alternating spice blows/ single on odds, double on even rounds (felt a good balance for Optional mode, as double would hurt Fremen spice-efficiency, while single spice blow could hurt map presence and nexus frequency); and 1-pass only auction (draws favoring storm order) which again, felt a good theme-speed, as default auction can slow the game too much, and that other, even faster variant where everybody just extend hands and show at same time miss the Atreides bid/tell that gives the phase it's nuance and mind-game IMO). Oh, we also played a 7 rounds max game.

It took ~4h, in great part due to the slow start where we learned the rules. Considering we're all first timers, it felt smooth, with no phase feeling boring or such.

What would think about spice combat? Personally I'm not a fan and would prefer keeping Optional mode, but in name of fairness next time I'll make sure to explain my friends the spice combat rules, discuss it's pros and cons, and go with whatever they decide. Who knows, maybe I change my mind about it.

 

[Riel]

This is a great game, but it is way too hardcore and unforgiving for most players to play well, and as result most of my games have finished in a pitiful battle of about 3 troops vs 1 with one side having no leaders while the axlotl tanks were filled to the brim...

Personally I think REX Last Days of an Empire, a Dune's remake that was edited before Dune license could be reacquired for this game to be re-edited is a far more accessible game, also shorter game length which honestly is big bonus, while basically providing the same experience it is a better game unless you can reliably get 6 people who are willing to sit around a table potentially for close to 5 hours for several games so they become experienced and can truly tap into Dune's unparalleled refined and subtle mechanics. REX is basically the same game but it is a lot more forgiving of mistakes.

 

[DavidBVal]

This is a great game, but it is way too hardcore and unforgiving for most players to play well, and as result most of my games have finished in a pitiful battle of about 3 troops vs 1 with one side having no leaders while the axlotl tanks were filled to the brim...

Personally I think REX Last Days of an Empire, a Dune's remake that was edited before Dune license could be reacquired for this game to be re-edited is a far more accessible game, also shorter game length which honestly is big bonus, while basically providing the same experience it is a better game unless you can reliably get 6 people who are willing to sit around a table potentially for close to 5 hours for several games so they become experienced and can truly tap into Dune's unparalleled refined and subtle mechanics. REX is basically the same game but it is a lot more forgiving of mistakes.

Sad but true. Game length is truly a barrier for many. This is a common problem for many great tabletop games.

 

[Harthwain]

What would think about spice combat?

I'd rather ask about spice collection. I recently read a theory in which you have to be in the same territory AND sector to collect the spice. Frankly, this makes a lot of sense and makes placement of units much more important.

 

[Silva]

What would think about spice combat?

I'd rather ask about spice collection. I recently read a theory in which you have to be in the same territory AND sector to collect the spice. Frankly, this makes a lot of sense and makes placement of units much more important.

This is my understanding and how we played.

 

[Silva]

My crew is warming up for our second game and we want to add the expansion in (Ixians and Tleilaxu). Here is what I'm considering...

1. Allow both factions in the game, as long as the balance between the "map presence" and "economic" factions in the roster is maintained.

Map presence: Atr, Frem, Hark, Ix
Economic: Emp, Guild, BG, Teiilax

So, any combination keeping those two groups on equal footing is good.

2. Leave out the new treachery cards. I see lots of OP stuff here with potential to unbalance the game or inject too much random. I see these more as spice (pun intended) for veteran groups who got tired from the default deck, which is not our case.

Thoughts? Anybody tried the Ix-Tleilax expansion?

Edit: Btw, I see there are other expansions but on a cursory look they don't feel necessary except maybe the newest one for the variant rules (nexus cards seem cool).

 

[v1rus]

Thoughts? Anybody tried the Ix-Tleilax expansion?

Never played Ix/Tleil, nor CHOAM/Richese. Just found out they also popped Ecaz and Moritani. I did play a decent amount of GF9 Dune tho, and in general, lots of heavy board games inspired by it.

My two cents? Hold on till you pop them. Play couple more games vanilla. Many of the hyper-asymmetrical games rely on a "ecosystem" of players knowing what faction can accomplish what. I know its tempting to throw in all the cool shit at once (I was like that too), but trust me, the base game itself offers so much depth that you dont need expansions yet. The whole point is to negotiate and threaten, for everyone to know all the cards and what exactly is possible and at stake.

Dune is an excellent game, but an old, inelegant design (and it shows - compare it to some modern complex games, and you will see how harder its to teach) and while there have been modern games that take the whole "ecosystem of negotiation" aspect to the next level (notably, Root), the Dune base game deserves more than a couple of runs (with the exact same 6 player grpup) to fully grasp all the delicacies. Once again - just play base game Dune for like 4-5 more games (with expert rules if you havent already, obv) let everyone experience the "soft-power" factions (Atreides, Harkonnen and BG) and let everyone fully grasp what each faction brings to the table. Pure power of Emperor/Guild, power of Atreides foresight (A good Atreides knows everything everyone has, thus its almost impossible to beat them at the rock-paper-scissor game), how annoying a well used Treachery it is, the logistical benefits of Freeman and how fucking creepy the BG player is.

Just my two cents. Gl, and enjoy, its an excellent game, that becomes even more impressive once you realise just how old the game is.

 

[Old One]

Thoughts? Anybody tried the Ix-Tleilax expansion?

Play couple more games vanilla. Many of the hyper-asymmetrical games rely on a "ecosystem" of players knowing what faction can accomplish what.

I agree. This game doesn't really start to shine until all the players know what all the different abilities of all the different factions can do. That takes time to learn.

 

[Riel]

The Ixians and Tleilaxu expansion adds two things:

• The two factions
• New Treachery cards
• 3 "technologies"

I like the treachery cards, I hate the factions and the techs. The point is that Ixians have an extra mobile fortress, and having the three "techs" also counts as an extra fortress and the result is instead of fighting over 5 fortresses you are fighting over 7 and this makes it a lot easier to get 3/4 fortresses so winning is a lot easier. It will make a far shorter game for sure... but in my opinion a very underwhelming one.
The treachery cards themselves I like so you can add them and they will spice up combat, but of course if you just ignore them nothing wrong will come out of that.

To be honest Dune doesn't need expansions.