in this video i'm going to discuss the opening 

moves of the board game Dune Imperium with the  

Rise of IX expansion included. If you watch 

this video through to the end you should have  

a decent idea about how to play the first few 

turns of your next game. This video is aimed

at beginner to intermediate play so if you're a 

grand master already it may not help that much.  

In the late game say turn six and onward you'll 

have a lot to do. Isn't this video supposed to  

be about the opening moves? yes. So why are you 

talking about the late game I mean we have a script  

why don't you read it? well I can't talk about 

openings without describing a few things about  

the late game. yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. so as 

I was saying you're going to have a lot to do  

in the late game. For example on any given round 

you should score an alliance put some troops into  

the battle draw an intrigue card put some more 

troops into the battle score an alliance and put

a lot more troops into the battle buy 

a card: the spice must flow buy another card: chaom directorship

and of course, to do all this you will need

to produce copious amounts of spice and solari  

so you'll need to visit the shipping track 

and harvest tons of spice... Wait a minute,  

how are you doing that how many agents do you have? uh 19.
19 agents, why do I only have two? 

It's my leader see. That's not a real leader you can't play with that!
Oh let's compromise, I'll keep, what do you say  

15 agents? No. You're being unreasonable, what 

about I keep 5 agents? Absolutely not!  

You get two just like everybody else. How am I supposed 

to do all this cool stuff with two lousy agents?  

Forget it this whole video is out the 

window. Nobody can do all this stuff with

two agents. You're gonna have to make choices. 

What do you mean? For one thing you could focus  

on a single area of the game. Maybe you should 

concentrate on the influence tracks, or you could  
concentrate on winning conflicts, either way I 
think some rounds you'll just gather resources  

to support your next turn. That's not fun, there 

must be some way I can get more agents... There is...
the swordmaster.

SWORDMASTER... awesome! It must 

go all obi-wan on your opponents or something  

if you strike me down Darth I will become 

more powerful than you can ever imagine...

No actually it's just another agent. Yeah 

right, I bet it wanders into the conflict and  

knocks your opponents into the abyss! No. Well it 

must be different than an ordinary agent somehow...  

There is one thing... Yeah? Your regular agents 

are free, whereas your swordmaster costs you  

eight solari and an action. What a rip-off! I'm 

not getting one. Fine, but during the critical  

actions of the late game your opponent 

will have fifty percent more actions than you  

and every other round they'll go both 

first and last. Yeah, I see what you mean.  

So uh where do I get eight solari? Finally we're 

back to the topic of the video: opening moves.

The easiest way to get eight solari is to start 

by going to smuggling where you will get one solari
and move one step up the shipping track.

Then on your second turn go to wealth where you'll

get two more solari.

Then in the second round you go to smuggling 

again where you can down-ship on the shipping track  

to get five solari, with a tip of one solari

to your friends. At that point you'll have

everything you need to get your swordmaster

in the second turn of the second round  

what's better is you can use your swordmaster 

right away still have one turn in the second  

round to do whatever you like. Well that's 

about it that's the end of the video cue outro  

Wait a second that's never gonna work.

Sure it is, what's the problem?
Well your opponents aren't idiots

they'll just want to do the same thing and you won't 

be able to go to smuggling on the first round  

unless you're first to act. But then since the 

first player marker moves between turns you  

won't be able to go on your second turn because 

someone else will go to smuggling before you do  

And what about the wealth space? Don't 

you think anyone else might want to make  

friends with the Emperor? It's a pretty good name to 

drop when you're wandering around town...

Yeah that reminds me of something the Emperor

told me when I was at his private residence last week.  

Simple solution: only play with 

people who don't learn very quickly.

Most people who play games of this weight they 

learn pretty fast. I know one opponent who is

guaranteed to never learn anything. Who? 

I hope I don't know them. House Hagal, of course.

The opening I described will work pretty well in 

a solo game assuming you draw the cards you need  

and House Hagal doesn't draw the wrong ones, but 

admittedly in a multiplayer game against humans  

there's likely to be a line at smuggling.

Even so, if you're first act you might want to take smuggling anyway.

Why would you do that? We already know

you won't be able to down-ship in the second round

If I'm first to act and I don't take smuggling,

the second player probably will. And then  

the first player token passes between turns 

and they'll be first to act on the second round  

So they'll be able to take smuggling 

again and they'll be in a great position  

to get their swordmaster in the second 

round. Great, so now I'm rushing to get solari  

in the second round not because 

I'm actually gonna get them but  

just to keep someone else from getting them. 

That's about it. It's one of the reasons why  
games among experienced players aren't always 
shorter. People start blocking each other in ways

that aren't immediately apparent it's rather 

thematic to the Dune books if you think about it.

Yes but what does it mean for the game if 

I'm first player? I'm motivated to go to  

smuggling assuming I have the card but what does 

my opponent do? They have options. 

They might take wealth with an eye toward going to smuggling later. 

Alternately they could visit foldspace to start

building a relationship with the spacing guild.

If they can get to the second level of influence

with the spacing guild

they can access interstellar shipping

and bypass the line at smuggling

Or they could get some water. Water?... Well while 

everyone else is rushing around for solari  

and getting in each other's way, spice will 

be accumulating in the desert. So you might  

want to get some water on your first turn and 

then either save it to visit the great flat  

on the second round or use it to immediately 

raise a small army during the first round  

If you follow that second course of action 

you get a point for influence with the freman  

and you have a decent chance of winning the 

conflict too, which might give you another point  

or a chance to make friends or even... Wow! That's 

the same icon you get for going to smuggling and  

you get a spice too. Exactly! And even second place 

rewards can be pretty helpful if you find all your  

preferred moves blocked for one reason or another 

you might just visit carthag for an intrigue card  

and push a couple troops in for second place. 

Wait a minute, every time you show us your hand  

there are different cards in it. You're cheating 

aren't you? Everyone starts with the same 10 cards  

but depending on which ones you draw in the first 

round, your strategic options might be limited  
For example you cannot visit both fremen spaces

unless you draw both of your influence cards

in the first draw.

If you don't draw any cards with yellow triangles

you won't be using smuggling etc  

One thing to notice, based on what you have in 

your first draw, you know what you'll have in

in your second draw. So if you have both daggers and

your signet ring in your first draw, you won't have  

any green tags in the second round so you won't be 

buying a swordmaster. On the other hand, if you have  

both daggers in your first draw this might be 

a good time to get a few troops in the conflict  

Make sure and watch your opponent's reveal 

turns too. If they don't reveal any dagger cards

in their first turn, you know they'll 

have two next time. That might help you assess  

whether or not to invest in the 

conflict in the second round

Speaking of reveal turns, what cards 

should I buy out of the display?  

It depends. Accurate and yet useless... you really 

ought to look for a career in technical support.  

Thanks.

Okay okay... but still, what cards should we 

buy out of the display? Well as I said earlier  

you're going to have to make choices. You can't do 

everything in Dune Imperium. If you want to play an  

influence heavy game and pick up some points by 

buying the spice must flow, then you'll need to  

buy cards with the necessary tags and lots of 

influence. If you want to focus on the conflict  

you'll need to buy cards that help with conflict. You

have to watch for cards that synergize well together

or that are simply awesome regardless of 

your strategy. In any case, it hardly matters.

What? After all that you say it hardly matters?

Well, in the early game you only have five cards to  
look at anyway, and you won't be able to afford 
most of them. So a lot of times you're faced with  

a few cards that you don't want, but because those 

cards are still better than the cards in your deck,  

you probably want to buy one.

Shouldn't I just skip buying

a card to keep my deck lean?

Sometimes it's that bad, but you don't get that

many chances to buy a card in Dune Imperium   

and you don't cycle your deck very often,

and you don't have many chances

to get rid of cards you don't want. So unlike a

lot of other deck building games,

I'd say go ahead and buy a card if you 

can. Okay that's a lot to think about.

What should I do in the mid game?

That's where it gets too situational to say much.

If you want to win a lot of conflicts,

I'd say get both of your dreadnoughts.

If you want to win on influence points,

you're going to need to keep building your deck

In either case I'd say keep an eye out for useful

technologies, and when possible score points!

Very helpful I'm sure, and yet also too 

non-specific to be of any real help.

Sometimes in games it's better in the mid game to

focus on building up your strength instead of scoring 

but in Dune Imperium points are really tight.

And if you get a chance to score a point on an

intrigue card, or you get a chance to buy a spice must 

flow card, or you get a chance to get a point off of

a technology, you probably want to capitalize 

on that right away. My point is you don't

win the game by having your swordmaster, or having a 

seat on the council, or by having a pile of spice 

You win the game with points and in 

Dune Imperium they're hard to find

So why did we make this video? We're gonna get 

get rich and be famous, right? No. There's literally
zero percent chance that we'll get rich on this video. 
In fact even if we ever see a cent of revenue  

we'll never pay off the camera equipment. Maybe 

we just wanted an excuse to talk to ourselves  

without anyone calling a shrink. That could be it, 

but I was thinking maybe we wanted to stimulate  

discussion about strategy in modern board games. 

But discussion requires more than one person  

two people, ten maybe, who all have ideas and 

share them and argue about them. That's discussion  

So I'm sure this video isn't the 

last word in Dune Imperium strategy  

not even close. Leave your ideas in the comments, 

or make your own video, or post a thread somewhere,  

That'd be great. That'd be cool.

Are you sure you want that?

People out on the internets can be pretty mean...  

Hey even hate posts are engagement. Heck

they might subscribe just so that
they could hate on us again next time! 

I hope this was useful, or maybe just 

entertaining. Thanks for watching.

... SWORDMASTER ...