Whether you’re a new fan because of the 2021 film remake or you’ve long been a reader of the original novels, you’re going to have a great time playing Gale Force Nine’s Dune board game, which they reissued in 2019 — 40 years after the original edition was published.

This modernized version of the classic strategy game has you leading one of six powerful factions taken straight from Dune lore, each vying for control over melange (aka spice), the universe’s most valuable resource found only on the barren planet Dune.

The factions are:

• House Atreides
• The Bene Gesserit
• The Padishah Emperor
• The Fremen
• The Spacing Guild
• House Harkonnen

If you opt for the expansion set as well, you gain access to two more factions not found in the original game:

• The Ixians
• The Tleilaxu

Whichever family, guild, society, ruler, or religious order you choose to lead, you will need your political A-game to gain control over as much Dune territory as possible — and thus, control over the spice itself — by making alliances with other players and committing acts of treachery (so your allies don’t become too strong, you understand).

During all of this, you must deal with military invasions, sandstorms, giant sandworms, and yes, backstabbing plots against your own leaders.

I recommend reading this review on BoardGameGeek to get an idea of what the game holds in store for you and your fellow players:

Once, I won a session by breaking an alliance I had made just a round earlier, because my ally’s position was weaker and I saw a path to me getting three strongholds, but not the two of us getting four of them. If I had kept the alliance, I wouldn’t have won that session, at least not at that point.

[…] The game is an entity unto itself, and it will turn on players capriciously. If you forget that fact in your schemes, you’ll probably be on the receiving end of a particularly nasty beat.

Get the Gale Force Nine Dune board game for $44 on Amazon.

Posted By Chris Gonzales