Set thousands of years in the future, Dune the boardgame is based on the Frank Herbert novels about an arid planet at the heart of the human space empire's political machinations.
Designed by the creators at Eon of Cosmic Encounter fame, some contend that the game can best be described as Cosmic Encounter set within the Dune universe, but the two games bear little in common in the actual mechanics or goals; they're just both set in space. Like Cosmic Encounter, it is a game that generates a lot of player interaction through negotiation and bluffing, but that can be said of numerous unrelated games.
Players each take the role of one of the factions attempting to control Dune. Each faction has special powers that overlook certain rules in the game. Each turn players move about the map attempting to pick up valuable spice while dealing with giant sandworms, deadly storms, and other players' military forces. A delicate political balance is formed amongst the factions to prevent any one side from becoming too strong. When a challenge is made in a territory, combat takes the form of hidden bids with additional treachery cards to further the uncertainty.
The game concludes when one faction (or two allied factions) is able to control a certain number of strongholds on the planet.
[b]2nd version of this file[/b]
Francesco Neri had posted a version of the Dune board that was a visual feast. http://boardgamegeek.com/image/495528/dune
Unfortunately, it contained a large number of typos and Rim Wall West was mistakenly shown as desert territory.
With my wife's help - we've proofed the map and fixed everything we could find. (Including the Arrakeen typo and the Habbanya Erg one contained in my original upload)
The overall design is what carries the day for me. Neri's choice to have the territory labels face outward (rather than towards a single player) reminds me of Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boards. Egalitarian, and attractive.
The choice to make like territories appear the same makes this a more usable board than the original. If a design similar to Neri's...
Reference sheet useful for quick referencing and provides a structured summary for teaching the game.
See the At the Gates of Loyang game entry if you are interested in ref sheets for other games that I’ve made. If you do not have Microsoft Powerpoint, a PDF version is also available there.
My army counter sheet I quickly whipped up. 1/2" squares in appropriate faction colour, with the faction initial in the "Orthodox Herbertian" font.
The file is set up so that you can print it twice and have double-sided tokens (as such, there are 20 standard tokens for all factions, in addition to the Sardaukar and Fedaykin tokens)
This aid makes keeping track of which faction has which treachery card -much- easier. Just put a checkmark down if they have a card, and erase it when it's discarded.
This can be especially useful for new players, allowing for accurate tracking as well as speedier play.
Here are the player aids I made for my set. Once card for each faction, along with turn order and special faction abilities (and which phase they apply to). Be aware that I took some liberties to streamline the game and make it easier to teach and play; so they may not jive 100% with the original rules, as detailed in the first post:
My custom leader cards. I like old AH images so I included them in my cards. Format of pdf is A3 and cards are 5.6cm x 8cm big.
This file contains leader cards for Atreides, Emperor, Fremen, Guild and Bene Gesserit.