I have played over a thousand games of Dune Imperium with expansions, both in a competitive environment and more casual with friends, and have played a reasonable amount of Uprising as well. There really is no contest for me. Uprising has some really cool mechanics, that I would like to see in Dune Imperium, but Uprising is an inferior game, partly because of its heavy focus on combat. In Dune Imperium you have multiple ways of winning and can even win the game with a single, or (more rarely tho) no combat wins. If you don't win combats in Uprising, you're always going to have a hard time. I think enabling multiple strategies is more lore friendly and allows for more creative plays. I have recently started playing the 3v3 Uprising with other experienced Dune players and actually enjoy that a lot, but I can honestly say, that if I could get my money back for Uprising, I would.
I'm glad this video is finally out. I haven't played Uprising yet. It makes sense that the 1.5 is preferred by the vast majority of people that compare the two. I did hear elsewhere that Imperium had the edge as a solo experience, but that was before the Imperium app came out, so now people have the option to play 1.0 with a challenge mode full of variants in that. The best Dune game? That's a tough one because the others are hard to get to the table even if you have a copy. Games with the Dune IP compete fiercely with other games to get to the table. Imperium is easy to get to the table, but it still competes with Lost Ruins of Arnak (27) and Endless Winter (277). I should probably say "was" because Uprising (133) is now competing with Dune Imperium (6). Dune (474), the 1979 game that was remade in 2019 with the same name (192) kind of competes with itself the way Uprising does with Imperium. It technically competes with the 2021 Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy mini remake version too, although that's like Twilight Struggle competing with Twilight Squabble. In reality it's competing with 3 hour negotiation games with high player counts. For shorter playtimes that's Rising Sun (126) and Comic Encounter (195). For longer playtimes that's Twilight Imperium (5), Game of Thrones (210), and Diplomacy (784). Even games like Circadians: Chaos Order (2248) from 2022 are fighting for table space against these games. Dune War for Arrakis (1558) is a game I'm passing on for just this reason. The epic hours long duel games fighting for my table space are War of the Ring (8) and Star Wars Rebellion (9). Dune games tend to be games that inflate my ratings for IP games because the mechanisms are usually the things that appeal to me more than the theme.
Thanks BGC! Appreciate the commentary as always. It was clear to us in playthroughs that if you had to buy just one of them, it had to be uprising, as it offers more as a singular experience than Dune Imperium alone and is the more forgiving, slightly more dynamic of the two if you like the deckbuilding side, and has more ways to mitigate worker placement space denial than it's elder sibling. The original Dune. If you have the GF9 copy, you have the better version of the original Dune game. It's an amazing game but it's a git to get to the table due to it absolutely being superior at a 6 player count, but if you can, it's a tremendous game that is extremely thematic! But at this point, I don't see it getting to the table again in the near or possibly even far future. Endless Winter and Lost Ruins of Arnak are absolutely analogous to Dune Imperium, so I can see how they can compete for gaming time. Endless Winter is a much wider game than Imperium. Arnak might be a bit closer to the style but is more forgiving still than uprising. Rising Sun is one of my favourite games of all time. I'm overdue another play of it, so I might suggest it for bank holiday monday... Dune War for Arrakis looks cool, but I don't have room for it, plus I'm moving further and further away from CMON style productions. I think it's getting to the point now where we're seeing a bit of Dune IP saturation in the board game space, similar to how marvel games were EVERYWHERE a couple of years back. How long that will last, I don't know, but with a new TV Series coming and possibly another movie, we haven't seen the last of it.
@@athullnexus5450 They were the BoardGameGeek rankings of the best games of all time as of the date I wrote that. I was just using them as a general indicator of popularity.
Nope, not embarrassed at all, because if you don't own the deluxe upgrade and you buy Uprising, you'll be rightfully confused as to why there are two types which don't match. This is worth pointing out in the review
@@boardstupiduk a clueless buyer might get confused but a board game reviewer shouldn't. Worth pointing out would have been "there are also optional sandworm minis provided to make it compatible with the previous deluxe version". Not "why would they do this??!!" which is what you have here.
Ha! You make it sound like we're professional. We don't get paid or sent these games for free, we bought them, love games, and gave our impressions. It would have been better to include just wooden ones, and have the sandworms as an upgrade like they did the first time round. These are our honest impressions, and I still feel like "why did they do this" also this information isn't in the rule book.
Interesting to see a redux like this, particularly for what was already a highly rated game. I can't think of many titles that have done this, as opposed to making the changes through an add-on
It's an interesting approach and one that I didn't see coming to be honest. Plus they have a multitude of expansions. I feel like they wanted to capitalise on the amazing success both critically and commercially, and saw an opportunity to tweak the game in advance of part 2, and actually did so pretty successfully!
Nice video. I have both and all the expansions. Uprising is unopened but I feel like combining the cards and using the expansions with uprising...this can be done right? Any guides out there in combining them?
Thank you for checking out the video! Regarding combining uprising with imperium, you are right, check out Page 18 of the Uprising rulebook. This is a good thread on it boardgamegeek.com/thread/3213458/merakons-house-blend/page/1
What about comparing Uprising to Imperium with expansions ? There are many opinion on internet that Im+expansions elevate it above Uprising. Would you agree ? Other side around, biggest complains about Uprising is that worm fighting (double points) is injustice and break a game. I didn't have any of them and wonder if this is better to buy Im+expansions or Uprising (as base game only) ?
Hey Roza, great question! I have imperium plus rise of IX, Matt has Uprising. I think honestly going it to it cold, you can just buy uprising. It is initially more complex, but plays complexity wise kind of like Imperium including rise of ix. If you want a slightly more streamlined, slightly tougher experience, get the original plus Ix. You can't go wrong with either option.
In my country there's only Uprising and Immorality in stock. No Imperium (since Uprising released) and rise of Ix . So i guess go for Uprising and later for Rise X.
I have done a lot of research on this question. There is a serious competitive scene for Dune Imperium, Ix and Imo. The competitive players out there consider Dune Imperium Ix Imo to be more forgiving than Uprising. At expert level mistakes in Uprising do not allow much opportunity to come back. It is a deep game without width, whereas DI Ix Imo is both deep and wide offering more paths to victory. It is not advised to use Ix and Imo with Uprising, for balance reasons. In Uprising you must win battles to win the game at expert level, not so in DI Ix Imo. Of course not all of this holds true at the casual gamer level, Uprising has more thematic coverage of the whole Dune story so far. Also casual players will not see all the nuanced narrowness of Uprising which will manifest as swinginess in battles in the end game. So Dune Imperium Ix Imo is the better balanced wider game, Dune Uprising is the more thematic swingy game. The new expansion Bloodlines will likely make Uprising wider,a good thing,and add more good stuff & mechanics to DI Ix Imo. I have DI Ix Imo and will not be trading it.
If you want to buy the basic game, then buy Uprising. If you're going to play the most exciting and balanced version, buy the original Imperium with the IX and Immortality expansions.
I have played over a thousand games of Dune Imperium with expansions, both in a competitive environment and more casual with friends, and have played a reasonable amount of Uprising as well. There really is no contest for me. Uprising has some really cool mechanics, that I would like to see in Dune Imperium, but Uprising is an inferior game, partly because of its heavy focus on combat. In Dune Imperium you have multiple ways of winning and can even win the game with a single, or (more rarely tho) no combat wins. If you don't win combats in Uprising, you're always going to have a hard time. I think enabling multiple strategies is more lore friendly and allows for more creative plays. I have recently started playing the 3v3 Uprising with other experienced Dune players and actually enjoy that a lot, but I can honestly say, that if I could get my money back for Uprising, I would.
And this is why board games are amazing, thanks for your insight and view on it.
I'm glad this video is finally out.
I haven't played Uprising yet. It makes sense that the 1.5 is preferred by the vast majority of people that compare the two. I did hear elsewhere that Imperium had the edge as a solo experience, but that was before the Imperium app came out, so now people have the option to play 1.0 with a challenge mode full of variants in that.
The best Dune game? That's a tough one because the others are hard to get to the table even if you have a copy. Games with the Dune IP compete fiercely with other games to get to the table.
Imperium is easy to get to the table, but it still competes with Lost Ruins of Arnak (27) and Endless Winter (277). I should probably say "was" because Uprising (133) is now competing with Dune Imperium (6).
Dune (474), the 1979 game that was remade in 2019 with the same name (192) kind of competes with itself the way Uprising does with Imperium. It technically competes with the 2021
Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy mini remake version too, although that's like Twilight Struggle competing with Twilight Squabble. In reality it's competing with 3 hour negotiation games with high player counts. For shorter playtimes that's Rising Sun (126) and Comic Encounter (195). For longer playtimes that's Twilight Imperium (5), Game of Thrones (210), and Diplomacy (784). Even games like Circadians: Chaos Order (2248) from 2022 are fighting for table space against these games.
Dune War for Arrakis (1558) is a game I'm passing on for just this reason. The epic hours long duel games fighting for my table space are War of the Ring (8) and Star Wars Rebellion (9).
Dune games tend to be games that inflate my ratings for IP games because the mechanisms are usually the things that appeal to me more than the theme.
Thanks BGC! Appreciate the commentary as always. It was clear to us in playthroughs that if you had to buy just one of them, it had to be uprising, as it offers more as a singular experience than Dune Imperium alone and is the more forgiving, slightly more dynamic of the two if you like the deckbuilding side, and has more ways to mitigate worker placement space denial than it's elder sibling.
The original Dune. If you have the GF9 copy, you have the better version of the original Dune game. It's an amazing game but it's a git to get to the table due to it absolutely being superior at a 6 player count, but if you can, it's a tremendous game that is extremely thematic! But at this point, I don't see it getting to the table again in the near or possibly even far future.
Endless Winter and Lost Ruins of Arnak are absolutely analogous to Dune Imperium, so I can see how they can compete for gaming time. Endless Winter is a much wider game than Imperium. Arnak might be a bit closer to the style but is more forgiving still than uprising.
Rising Sun is one of my favourite games of all time. I'm overdue another play of it, so I might suggest it for bank holiday monday...
Dune War for Arrakis looks cool, but I don't have room for it, plus I'm moving further and further away from CMON style productions.
I think it's getting to the point now where we're seeing a bit of Dune IP saturation in the board game space, similar to how marvel games were EVERYWHERE a couple of years back. How long that will last, I don't know, but with a new TV Series coming and possibly another movie, we haven't seen the last of it.
What do all the numbers next to the names mean? I get it’s a code but for what website is it for?
@@athullnexus5450 They were the BoardGameGeek rankings of the best games of all time as of the date I wrote that.
I was just using them as a general indicator of popularity.
@@BoardGamecommentsah. Thanks a lot.
Sandworm minis were included for people who had the deluxe version of dune imperium to match the troop minis :)
Ahhhhh well that makes a little sense.
You must mean it makes _a lot_ of sense and you are somewhat embarrassed that you complained about the minis in the review? 🫣
Nope, not embarrassed at all, because if you don't own the deluxe upgrade and you buy Uprising, you'll be rightfully confused as to why there are two types which don't match. This is worth pointing out in the review
@@boardstupiduk a clueless buyer might get confused but a board game reviewer shouldn't. Worth pointing out would have been "there are also optional sandworm minis provided to make it compatible with the previous deluxe version". Not "why would they do this??!!" which is what you have here.
Ha! You make it sound like we're professional. We don't get paid or sent these games for free, we bought them, love games, and gave our impressions. It would have been better to include just wooden ones, and have the sandworms as an upgrade like they did the first time round. These are our honest impressions, and I still feel like "why did they do this" also this information isn't in the rule book.
Wonderful analysis and comparison between the 2 games. Just what I need!
You got a new subscribed!
Thank you so much! Welcome aboard dude! Appreciate it
Interesting to see a redux like this, particularly for what was already a highly rated game. I can't think of many titles that have done this, as opposed to making the changes through an add-on
It's an interesting approach and one that I didn't see coming to be honest. Plus they have a multitude of expansions. I feel like they wanted to capitalise on the amazing success both critically and commercially, and saw an opportunity to tweak the game in advance of part 2, and actually did so pretty successfully!
Excellent review
Thanks so much!
Nice video. I have both and all the expansions. Uprising is unopened but I feel like combining the cards and using the expansions with uprising...this can be done right? Any guides out there in combining them?
Thank you for checking out the video! Regarding combining uprising with imperium, you are right, check out Page 18 of the Uprising rulebook. This is a good thread on it boardgamegeek.com/thread/3213458/merakons-house-blend/page/1
@@boardstupiduk thanks!! i hadnt opened my uprising copy yet so great tip!
No worries dude!
since i have NOT played the original and plan to buy it. and i also for now at least dont intent to buy expansions. which is the safest pick?
Uprising, that's our view.
@@boardstupiduk awesome! with blackfriday around the corner it will be a good pick up
@@alexandrosvezyropoulos2344 it's a tremendous game mate! Fingers crossed you get a great deal on it and can enjoy playing it very soon :)
found one for 42 euro ! so i think its as good as it will get ! thank you for the replies !
@@alexandrosvezyropoulos2344 Any time! Thanks for checking the video out :)
What about comparing Uprising to Imperium with expansions ? There are many opinion on internet that Im+expansions elevate it above Uprising. Would you agree ?
Other side around, biggest complains about Uprising is that worm fighting (double points) is injustice and break a game.
I didn't have any of them and wonder if this is better to buy Im+expansions or Uprising (as base game only) ?
Hey Roza, great question! I have imperium plus rise of IX, Matt has Uprising. I think honestly going it to it cold, you can just buy uprising. It is initially more complex, but plays complexity wise kind of like Imperium including rise of ix. If you want a slightly more streamlined, slightly tougher experience, get the original plus Ix. You can't go wrong with either option.
Uprising> Imperium . House rules for worms to balance them : Victorious players get base rewards+ 3rd place . 1+3 2+3 3+3 .
In my country there's only Uprising and Immorality in stock. No Imperium (since Uprising released) and rise of Ix . So i guess go for Uprising and later for Rise X.
You think the rules need balance? I think you're in the minority there.
I have done a lot of research on this question. There is a serious competitive scene for Dune Imperium, Ix and Imo. The competitive players out there consider Dune Imperium Ix Imo to be more forgiving than Uprising. At expert level mistakes in Uprising do not allow much opportunity to come back. It is a deep game without width, whereas DI Ix Imo is both deep and wide offering more paths to victory. It is not advised to use Ix and Imo with Uprising, for balance reasons. In Uprising you must win battles to win the game at expert level, not so in DI Ix Imo. Of course not all of this holds true at the casual gamer level, Uprising has more thematic coverage of the whole Dune story so far. Also casual players will not see all the nuanced narrowness of Uprising which will manifest as swinginess in battles in the end game. So Dune Imperium Ix Imo is the better balanced wider game, Dune Uprising is the more thematic swingy game. The new expansion Bloodlines will likely make Uprising wider,a good thing,and add more good stuff & mechanics to DI Ix Imo. I have DI Ix Imo and will not be trading it.
If you want to buy the basic game, then buy Uprising. If you're going to play the most exciting and balanced version, buy the original Imperium with the IX and Immortality expansions.
Probably a fair take! Thanks for the insight
Very helpful thanks
You're very welcome! Thanks for watching!
obvious cash grab, this game has no reason to exist
Which one? Dune imperium is a spectacular game, dune imperium uprising is even better, certainly one of the best games released in the past 5 years.
@@boardstupiduk uprising i meant
For someone who did not own dune yet this is great!
Ah ok, yeah a little bit. It IS however an improvement over the first one, but the short release makes it feel that way, I get you.
If you don't own either, it's probably the one to get!