Review Cardboard Mutilation: Dune

[Trash]

Tags: Avalon Hill; Dune; Fantasy Flight Games

Knowing that the spice must flow and that fear is the little mind-killer are just a few of the things Ulminati has learned from playing the magnificent classical boardgame Dune. Seeing your best friends being backstabbing bastards is apparantly another one of those things. Check out our latest edition of Cardboard Mutilation.

This is the core of what makes Dune such a popular game more than 30 years down the line. The asymmetrical nature of the factions means that every player’s strategies depend on who they are playing as well as the respective strengths and alliances of the other factions. The political factions in Frank Herbert's masterpiece were all scheming bastards. If your friends are scheming bastards too, this game allows you to play out your Machiavellian power fantasies. While the game is light in rules and the mechanics dealt with fairly quickly, the game is rich in decision points, every one of which could potentially win or lose you the game depending on the scheming of your so-called "friends".

Read the full article: Cardboard Mutilation: Dune

 

[SCO]

http://www.[url=http.com//www.tacticularcancer.com/content.php?id=3886

 

[Trash]

Yikes. Thanks for that. Fixed now.

Very fitting avatar btw.

 

[SCO]

Also Atreides is consistently misspelled as 'Atreidies'
and Bene Gesserit as Bene 'Geisseret'

Also, funny enough 'The Jews of the Dune universe' are ... the Jews. Not that i expect you to change that.

 

[Ulminati]

Also Atreides is consistently misspelled as 'Atreidies'
and Bene Gesserit as Bene 'Geisseret'

Also, funny enough 'The Jews of the Dune universe' are ... the Jews. Not that i expect you to change that.

I blame OpenOffice.org's spell checker.

 

[Gragt]

I spotted another mistake: Dune is called a science-fiction masterpiece while it clearly isn't.

 

[SCO]

I spotted another mistake: Dune is called a science-fiction masterpiece while it clearly isn't.

Good thing there are no science fiction masterpieces

 

[Gragt]

Edit: oh yeah, nice articule.

 

[Sranchammer]

Let's begin a forum game

 

[Tzaero]

Let's begin a forum game

How would one go about setting it up?

 

[Eyeball]

Man, I'd really like to play this game, but I sure as hell don't have 14 hours in a row to play it in or 6 friends deeply enough into board games to play it with me.

 

[Jugashvili]

Count me in

 

[Sranchammer]

How would one go about setting it up?

It would need either 6 with a gamemaster to regulate the board or using vassal

 

[Destroid]

I didn't read the article but Dune is one of the best boardgamer ever made. You can play with 4 players just fine (although it's a rather different game - much more direct and less political), 14 hours is only for the really huge games with 8 players or more.

 

[Eyeball]

For those who've played the game: are the factions you can play balanced well or is there one faction that usually comes out on top? Any factions that consistently lose? Or doesn't the faction special abilities matter that much compared to player ability?

 

[Sranchammer]

Emperor/Harkonnen typically have the best chance to win early-game. That will decrease as time goes on, however. BG and Fremen are hardest to play but with advanced rules it's a lot more balanced.

 

[Destroid]

Bene Gesserit actually won a little more frequently with our group, while the Guild won a little less often than you would expect. No glaring issues with balance. My group always played with the advanced rules, with some simplification for 4 player games (mainly no spice support for troops). We also had a LOT of house rules, and some custom factions.

If you want to play this physically your best bet these days is to pick up Rex, which is a retheme to Twilight Imperium with some streamlining applied, having read the rules the changes look very positive, especially for eliminating ambiguity and making the game end faster. I've been planning to pick up a copy for my boardgame group.

 

[Eyeball]

What custom factions could you put into a Dune game? Bene Tleilax? House Ordos? Starship Enterprise?

 

[Destroid]

Eyeball We had Landsraad, Bene Tleilax and maybe Ix. It's about 10 years ago when I was playing a lot of Dune.

 

[Destroid]

Harkonnen are my favourite faction though. All those traitors and treachery cards really put the fear into people.

Ulminati a few rules errors in your review: The Guild are the default out of time winners, the Fremen have some additional conditions to fulfil to override the default Guild win. The number of sietchs required for an alliance victory is 3 + 1 for each additional member in the alliance after the first, to a maximum of 5. Publicly announced deals are in fact binding, only secret deals can be broken.

 

[MicoSelva]

I was going to complain that the game is out of print and almost completely unavailable outside the US, but since you did mention Rex in the review, it's ok.

The board game is probably the best way to get entertainment from Dune universe, btw. Largely superior to books and movies.

EDIT: bonus KKKs for having Mission Red Planet on the shelf.

 

[Trash]

It's out of print but there are some cut-it-out yourself fanmade versions out there afaik.

Always wanted to give one of those big ass convulted and atmospheric boardgames a try. Unfortunately none of my rl friends gives a shit so I'm stuck playing Catan with them. Would love to try out some Dune or The Republic of Rome. Both look awesome. Perhaps I can trick my gf into trying out Legends of Andor.

 

[Destroid]

It's out of print but there are some cut-it-out yourself fanmade versions out there afaik.

Always wanted to give one of those big ass convulted and atmospheric boardgames a try. Unfortunately none of my rl friends gives a shit so I'm stuck playing Catan with them. Would love to try out some Dune or The Republic of Rome. Both look awesome. Perhaps I can trick my gf into trying out Legends of Andor.

My current group started with Catan, and played only Catan for a year or more. In time it will grow very tedious, and they will thirst for something more.

 

[Irenaeus]

I was going to complain that the game is out of print and almost completely unavailable outside the US, but since you did mention Rex in the review, it's ok.

The board game is probably the best way to get entertainment from Dune universe, btw. Largely superior to books and movies.

EDIT: bonus KKKs for having Mission Red Planet on the shelf.

 

[Sranchammer]

Yes, it's better than that