I told myself I wasn’t going to back any more games on Kickstarter, I have too many, and I end up getting rid of half of them because I don’t have the time to play them all. So when I heard about CMON’s War for Arrakis It took a lot of willpower not to back it… I lasted a full couple of weeks until I gave in and did. Stupid CMON and your stupid pretty things.
I did play it though and here’s what I thought.
Components
From the board, cards and tokens to the beautiful Sandworm sculpts and miniatures, Dune War for Arrakis oozes quality and is exactly what you would expect from a CMON game. There is something about those chunky spice harvesters and the massive sandworm models which are just satisfying to place on the board and really get you thinking… I could totally paint those.
Complexity
WFA is surprisingly straightforward to learn and play and after a read you should be able to grasp the basics pretty quickly. The rule book is well set out and you don’t seem to find yourself flicking back and forth in the rules to figure out ambiguities or rules questions; which is great.
How long does it take to play?
This is not a long game, myself, and my brother from opening the box and learning the rules finished it in about 3.5 hours. A time that could be reduced to about 2 hours if you knew what you were doing, with the potential for maybe a little bit more length if you added in the expansions. So a lot shorter, than I was expecting to be honest.
Gameplay
Obviously, as it is made by the same guys who created War of the Ring; Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, there are similarities in the way the game is played. Mainly in that one side heavily outweighs the other in sheer numbers and secondly the way combat resolves and actions are taken.
In the case of War for Arrakis, if you play as House Harkonnen you will have more military units, more activations and more blunt force trauma than of House Atreides who have fewer units and fewer activations but can win in different ways using their prescience cards. Similar to how War of the Ring plays out between the endless hordes of Mordor and the finite and fractious Free peoples. There are also similarities to how Star Wars rebellion is played, with the Empire being militarily superior and the Rebels relying on subterfuge and swift calculated attacks to win the day.
War for Arrakis is broken down into 4 phases:
The Setup phase – Where the House Harkonnen player places their Spice Harvesters, Carryalls and Ornithopters on the map.
The Action phase – Each side roll their action dice and place them on their respective action boards to show what actions they can carry out and then turn about each side carries out an action. Be that a move, an attack, drawing a card, recruiting units or placing worm sign tokens (House Atreides).
Desert hazards phase – as House Atreides you don’t have as many action dice but what you have to make up for this is the ability to place desert hazards, which allow them to move faster around the map, they also allow them to, on this phase, to place hazards on Harvesters around the map. These tokens are then flipped and if a Sandworm pops up then the harvester is gone (unless the opposition has a carryall) and a Sandworm is placed on the board.
Also in this phase, you resolve Coriolis storms, where in any HH units not on a plateau take damage. This evens up the military disparity between the two houses a bit.
Spice harvest phase – This phase is where House Harkonnen tally up their spice tally to pay off the specific guilds. They need at least 2 spice for each or they move down the Spice track. This has a double-edged sword for the HH player who might get more harvesters and ornithopters to place BUT, they lose an activation dice for each step down and if they hit the bottom of the ladder they start taking imperial bans. It is therefore important for HH to keep it as high as possible and HA to try and diminish it by disrupting spice harvesting.
Victory!
To win the game there isn’t much difference than most games of its ilk. In that you have victory points and the winner is the first person to get to the top of the victory track. Points are rewarded in different ways depending on what house you are. Be it taking out settlements/testing stations or achieving objectives and these points can wrack up quickly so you always have to be aware of where your opponent is on the track and act accordingly.
When myself and my brother played it was pretty close but he left two of his settlements pretty open and I was able to use some cards and an ornithopter to take advantage and win the game. As a HA player you are aware of the point values for each settlement and so need to defend them, all the while without giving too much away.
Verdict
Dune: War for Arrakis is well-made, easy to learn and provides a good challenge and depth for players without being too convoluted and complicated. Combat is easy to pick up and the road to victory is varied. It also has the benefit of having multiple expansions available (and in the works) to extend your gaming experience. Granted it won’t be the longest conquest game you’ll ever play but it has enough to keep you interested and engaged to make it worth it.
A welcome addition to Gaming Shelf and a must-have for all you Dune nerds out there.
