Science Fiction · 2023

Dune: Imperium — Uprising

Worker placement and deck building on Arrakis: send agents, fight conflicts and win alliances before the conflict deck runs out.

1–6 players
60–120 min
3.5 / 5 · Medium

Set up the game

0 of 8 steps

Tick each step as you complete it.

1Put the board in the middle with the Uprising side face up. Place the Shield Wall token on the marked area below the Spice Refinery space: while it stays there, no sandworm can reach Arrakeen, Spice Refinery or Imperial Basin.
The board and the Shield Wall
2Place the four Alliance tokens on the marked spaces of the influence tracks (Emperor, Spacing Guild, Bene Gesserit and Fremen). They are not starting bonuses: whoever reaches 4 influence with that faction first takes the token.
Imperium card
Imperium card
3Build the Conflict Deck. Separate the cards by back and shuffle each group on its own: the four Conflict III cards go face down at the bottom, five of the nine Conflict II cards on top of them, and one of the three Conflict I cards on top. You now have a ten-card deck. Return the unused conflict cards to the box without looking at them.
Conflict card
4Shuffle the Intrigue Deck and leave it face down. Shuffle the Imperium Deck, leave it face down and deal five cards face up to form the Imperium Row. Next to the row, put the two Reserve stacks: Prepare the Way and The Spice Must Flow.
Reserve card
5Each player takes a ten-card starting deck, shuffles it and leaves it face down to the left of their Leader. Everyone has the same deck: two Convincing Argument, two Dagger, one Diplomacy, two Dune, the Desert Planet, one Reconnaissance, one Seek Allies and one Signet Ring.
Starting deck
Signet Ring
6Set up the bank: Solari tokens (large worth 5, small worth 1), spice tokens, the twenty water tokens, the sandworms you chose to use and the four Maker Hooks. Each player takes one water and keeps it in their supply.
The bank
7Each player picks a colour and lays out their components: two Agents on their Leader and the third (the Swordmaster) next to the board, one disc on the score track (space 1 in a four-player game, otherwise 0), the combat marker on 0, one cube at the bottom of each faction track and three troops in the nearest garrison.
Your supply
8Shuffle the five Objective cards and deal one at random to each player, first removing the ones marked for other player counts. Each player keeps theirs face up in their supply. Whoever holds the Objective with the First Player symbol takes that marker and opens the first round.
Objective card

What it is about

Uprising is the second entry in the Imperium line: the same spine of worker placement and deck building, but with Arrakis in open war. Each round reveals a conflict, each agent unlocks a space and each purchase changes the deck you will take into the next round. The tension comes from everything competing for the same turn: troops you do not deploy never fight, and Persuasion you do not spend is lost.

The game closes at 10 victory points or when the Conflict Deck runs out. In between, influence with the four factions is the other road to points: at 2 you gain a point, at 4 a bonus and the Alliance, which can be taken from you if someone passes you. Most points wins; ties go to spice, Solari, water and troops in garrisons.

BGG page Official rulebook

Source note

Base game guide written from the 20-page first-edition rulebook. It does not cover the CHOAM module (p. 16), the 1–2 and 6-player supplements, or the per-space detail that lives on the separate Board Space Guide sheet. Images are cropped from the rulebook; the cover is Dire Wolf material.

Dune: Imperium — Uprising, official rulebook (Dire Wolf Digital, 2023) · Reviewed: 24 Oct 2026