Dune: Imperium

To set up Dune: Imperium, place the main board in the center and position alliance tokens, the mentat, and shuffled conflict decks. Set up the reserve and imperial deck with face-up market cards, and create banks for water, solari, and spice tokens. Each player selects a leader, takes matching player components, arranges starting decks, and sets up two agents on their leader mat with the swordmaster nearby. Track cubes are placed on the bottom row of each influence track, and players take initial resources and a first player token.

The main objective is to outmaneuver your rivals and earn the most victory points by the end of the game. Victory points are tracked on the score board and are gained through faction influence, military conflicts, specific card acquisitions, and end-game intrigue cards.

The game spans multiple rounds, each starting by revealing a conflict card and drawing a hand of five cards. During the player turns phase, players alternate taking agent turns by playing a card to send an agent to a matching board space, paying costs, and collecting resources or triggering effects. Alternatively, players take a reveal turn to reveal remaining cards for persuasion to buy new cards, calculate military strength, and end their turns for the round.

Points are scored throughout the game by reaching specific milestones on faction influence tracks, buying special market cards that award points, and placing high in the end-of-round military conflict phase based on total strength contributed by troops and card icons.

The game concludes at the end of any round where at least one player has accumulated ten or more victory points or when the conflict deck runs completely out of cards. Players then resolve any end-game intrigue cards to finalize scores, with tie-breakers resolved by remaining resources and troops.