Spice Up The ‘Dune’ Board Game With New Expansion
The expansion to Gale Force Nine’s Dune Board Game adds new mechanics and brand new factions.
This second expansion adds new brand-new factions to Dune: A Game of Conquest & Diplomacy, House Richese, and CHOAM. To be clear, this expansion is for GF9’s 2019 Dune board game, not the more recent 2021 version with the movie art.
CHOAM
CHOAM (Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles) is a faction of economic power. Their Charity ability allows them to take 2 Spice for each faction in the game during Choam Charity phase. But, anytime another player take Choam Charity during that phase, they take it from you instead.
But since they control the charity, CHOAM can use their Inflation ability to, once per game, either double or cancel charity for that turn, and then the reverse on the following turn. This could result in massive income if timed just right.
Their leaders are fairly weak compared to the other houses. However, they are able to make use of the Worthless cards that will occasionally junk up a players hand.
Each such Worthless card can be discarded for Spice, or to gain a specific benefit unique to each card. They can also discard any duplicate cards they have for spice as well.
Finally, CHOAM’s advanced rule allows them to utilize their Auditor leader to peek at the cards in a players hand anytime the Auditor enters battle.
House Richese
House Richese are the other new faction in the second Dune Board Game expansion. Like Ixians, they are known for their ingenuity. They make use of their unique Treachery cards by selling them off during the Bidding phase of the game and collecting the payment, instead of the bank or The Emperor.
Additionally, they start with no forces on the board, but when they do start shipping units, they use No-Field tokens instead. Each No-Field token has either a 0, 3, or 5 on the one side, but the value is hidden from the other players until they enter into battle with the token.
Their advanced rule is Black Market. This allows them to sell cards from their hand without revealing it to the other players. This means they can (and certainly will) lie about what card is being sold. So that shiny new poison dagger you’re buying might turn out to be a worthless mule.
New Mechanics
In addition to the new factions, this expansion to the Dune Board Game adds new mechanics. Advanced strongholds and leader skills will give you an edge over your opponents.
Leader Skills offer additional abilities and bonuses to one of your leaders, decided during game setup. These skills offer a variety of options, like economic influence or benefits in combat, and more. Strongholds grant bonuses to the players who control them. Each stronghold offers a different bonus, which typically offer a bonus when engaging in battles there, or shipping forces to that location.
Both of these are advanced rules, but offer even more way for players to customize their faction and eke out every last bit of spice they can.
Fans of this version of the Dune board game must be very happy to know their favorite is not being forgotten not overshadowed by the more recent version that was released. Always nice to see companies taking care of all of their product line.
Dune Board Game: CHOAM & Richese Expansion – $25 – Available Feb 2022
The Herbs Must Ebb.
