Gale Force 9 - Dune: Special Edition - Board Game,GFNDUNE01SE

Engaging world. Fun to play. Plus a great first person simulation of the first Dune novel.

This is a pretty good game. The factions are all different, and play differently. Special abilities allow unique advantages.However, it is a frustrating game. You need to be patient. It is easy to blow it in the first couple of turns, and spend the rest of the game trying to recover. The Fremen start very powerful, but if they use that power early, it hurts them later.Another frustration: GIVE ME SPICE. It is ridiculously hard early in the game to get spice, unless you get special income (like the emperor or spacing guild).If you're patient, and willing to think in terms of the long game (and this game will force you to, or frustrate you to no end), this is a good game. In fact, two factions have special win conditions at the end of the game if no one has conventionally won by then - which is a neat twist.Good game to practice and learn patience, and thinking beyond the present into the future.

Ordered the special edition because I wanted the 3 miniatures for $20usd extra. I'm dumb like that. And I received the regular version. Not worth the Hassel to return since Amazon takes well over a week to deliver anything these days and game night is tomorrow.Also. I would like to let you know this is not a review of the game itself. This game is the bomb. I have been playing the original since the 90s. It is awesome. With all 6 players it is perhaps the greatest game ever made. Just wanted the new one because my friends keep spilling soda on my sweet classic version with the sting cover.

The Special Edition Version is supposed to come with 3 miniatures, hence the higher price. Have ordered this version twice and no miniatures in it.

This version does not contain any extra miniatures from special edition

This game had a formidable reputation, cultivated by a fanbase that kept playing the game for decades while it was out of print. This is the shiny new version with decades of balancing, errata and good optional rules built in. I bought it off the recommendations of the fanatics, and was not disappointed. The game is extremely thematic, but it still plays with the ruthlessness of a knife fight. It really rewards strategic thinking. Act too slow, and you can find yourself outmatched and in a bad position, act too fast, and you can find your efforts wasted. The shield turns the fast blow, admits the slow kindjal! This is very much not a carebear game, play it if you want to get a visceral feeling for the realpolitik intrigue and brutality of the Dune Universe. The factions all have something to recommend them, and all can feel "overpowered" when played to their strengths, but there's counterplay for almost any strategy.I came in with high expectations, and the game matched them. That's unusual and laudable.