Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy, a board game published by Gale Force Nine. Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy is a scaled down version of this classic board game of area control and negotiation.

Every game has an intended setting, tone, purpose, and audience. This isn’t to say that a game can’t be played outside of this configuration, but usually when a game meets the designer’s intentions, the theme and mechanisms chart the players through a narrative, social, or strategic challenge. Players should be cautioned against trying too hard to make every game fit every occasion. This is especially true with the epic scope of the original Dune game, first published in 1979 by Avalon Hill. At that time, tabletop gaming was entering a phase with epic stories from all sorts of genres via roleplaying games or the thriving hex-and-counter game scene.

Alas, the pace of gaming back then barely keeps up with the myriad of distractions players are burdened with today. Gaming today, on the whole, is an affair dotted with shorter play experiences. Even games of 120 minutes can seem long to some audiences. And yet, many times, those players crave the feeling that a longer epic title might offer. So, many publishers have tried to redesign and repackage longer games into a shorter space via a card game, roll-and-write, or two-player title.

Likely with this squarely in mind, Gale Force Nine has done the same for the original Dune game. This feat is called Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy. It hits the one hour mark square on the nose. To get this playtime, it reduces complexity and player count while capping the playing rounds from the original. But is it still epic? Keep reading to find out.

The setting of Dune