Dune: Imperium is a game that finds inspiration in elements and characters from the Dune legacy, both the new film from Legendary Pictures and the seminal literary series from Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson.As a leader of one of the Great Houses of the Landsraad, raise your banner and marshal your forces and spies. War is coming, and at the center of the conflict is Arrakis – Dune, the desert planet.Dune: Imperium uses deck-building to add a hidden-information angle to traditional worker placement.You start with a unique leader card, as well as deck identical to those of your opponents. As you acquire cards and build your deck, your choices will define your strengths and weaknesses. Cards allow you to send your Agents to certain spaces on the game board, so how your deck evolves affects your strategy. You might become more powerful militarily, able to deploy more troops than your opponents. Or you might acquire cards that give you an edge with the four political factions represented in the game: the Emperor, the Spacing Guild, the Bene Gesserit, and the Fremen.Unlike many deck-building games, you don’t play your entire hand in one turn. Instead, you draw a hand of cards at the start of every round and alternate with other players, taking one Agent turn at a time (playing one card to send one of your Agents to the game board). When it’s your turn and you have no more Agents to place, you’ll take a Reveal turn, revealing the rest of your cards, which will provide Persuasion and Swords. Persuasion is used to acquire more cards, and Swords help your troops fight for the current round’s rewards as shown on the revealed Conflict card.Defeat your rivals in combat, shrewdly navigate the political factions, and acquire precious The Spice Must Flow cards to lead your House to victory!

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Featuring the co-operative game system used in Portal's award-winning Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Dune: House Secrets delivers a deeply thematic experience that drops one-to-four players in the middle of the highest stakes unfolding on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis.In this story-driven adventure game, players take on the roles of rebels who must solve a series of challenging missions with a finite amount of time and resources. Players cooperatively make decisions on how to progress the story as they decide to explore different regions of the world, follow leads, leverage allies, and overcome opposition of all kinds. During gameplay, players use a variety of physical and digital game components — a deck of cards with essential clues and plot twists, a dozen physical handouts, and a dedicated website with additional resources — to steer the narrative in fun and surprising directions for a truly immersive experience.Beginning with an introductory prologue designed to get players acquainted with the massive Dune universe, the game then continues with three big adventures, each taking roughly two-to-three hours to play. During each episode, players can earn experience points to level up their characters in between missions and unlock new options in future gameplay. Each adventure can be played separately as standalone episodes, yet should players complete all three episodes, they will unravel a master game narrative with an epic climax and unforgettable resolution with lasting impact on the future two games in the trilogy.—description from the publisher

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Arrakis: Dawn of the Fremen is a brutal, cutthroat game about tribal control of Arrakis, more than a hundred generations before the Atreides come to Arrakis.In the game, you control a tribe of Fremen warriors who are struggling to gather the scarce resources of Arrakis, develop the weapons and sietches you need to survive, and harness the power of sandworms for battle. Gameplay is split into three sections: Harj — the final part of the game set-up in which players jockey for position Initiation Cycle — the first cycle of the game, with a few restrictions to ease into gameplay Cycles — each cycle is split into several phases, with cycles continuing until the game is wonYou can conquer Arrakis two ways, by controlling the winning number of sietches at the end of the action phase or by unanimous decision of the council when all players agree that you cannot be prevented from winning...—description from the publisher

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The evening dragon shows are a definite highlight of the annual fair! Players must decide which dragons they want to perform in their shows. It’s not an easy choice. Each performer comes with its very own special skills and features. There are also some goblin helpers amongst the dragons, who can help with preparations for the show. Putting on the best dragon show needs forward planning and the right strategy. The player who has been able to attract the most spectators by the fifth evening show wins the game.With a fun twist on card drafting, Dragondraft is the perfect way to introduce some strategic drafting to your family game night.—description from the publisher

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After the great success of Dorfromantik: The Board Game, the next part of the Dorfromantik world is no longer about working together, but about friendly competition. The basic principle of the Spiel des Jahres 2023 is retained, but now both sides continue to expand their own landscape with the tile they have just revealed. Two new types of assignments also come into play with double and all-around assignments, which can also be combined with Dorfromantik: The Board Game. Two independently playable modules also provide more challenge, more variety, more interaction. Four of the new special tiles can also be integrated into Dorfromantik: The Board Game and played cooperatively.Dorfromantik: Das Duell allows two players or two teams to compete. And with two copies even up to four people can play. Who will create the most beautiful world of hexagonal landscapes? Who will be better at fulfilling the villager's orders while also mastering the challenge of new assignments?—description from the publisher

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Rippling rivers, rustling forests, wheat fields swaying in the wind and here and there a cute little village - that's Dorfromantik! The video game from the small developer studio Toukana Interactive has been thrilling the gaming community since its Early Access in March 2021 and has already won all kinds of prestigious awards. Now Michael Palm and Lukas Zach are transforming the popular building strategy and puzzle game into a family game for young and old with Dorfromantik: The Board Game.In Dorfromantik: The Board Game, up to six players work together to lay hexagonal tiles to create a beautiful landscape and try to fulfill the orders of the population, while at the same time laying as long a track and as long a river as possible, but also taking into account the flags that provide points in enclosed areas. The better the players manage to do this, the more points they can score at the end. In the course of the replayable campaign, the points earned can be used to unlock new tiles that are hidden in initially locked boxes. These pose new, additional tasks for the players and make it possible to raise the high score higher and higher.—description from the publisher

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Don’t the fall for the fake answers to avoid the drop! Players form into two teams and take turns guessing which 5 of 11 items on a list are actual examples of a category on the card (e.g., Bears, Best Picture Oscar Winners, McDonald’s Menu Items). They pull a tab that keeps the answers hidden. If they guess right, the other team takes a turn. If they get one wrong, the tab will reveal a color that matches one of the planks they need to remove from a cardboard cube tower full of 21 wooden cubes. Any cubes that fall from the plank drop are collected by the team who removed the plank. Whichever team collects 11 cubes loses.

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