That is the most beautiful looking box I have ever seen.  If the board looks half as good as that box, I may just have to take it out and stare it whenever I'm not playing it.

Sounds like the story fit the game perfectly.  From the description page, it can pretty easily be gathered which factions correspond with the old factions:

Lazax: Emperor
Sol: Fremen
Jol-Nar: Atreides
Hacan: Guild
Xxcha: BG
Letnev: Harkonnen

I hope they focus on the changes to the game next time, though, as so far it sounds very much like they just chose different words and pictures to dress up the same game.  I am glad they seem to be implementing the common house rule (or was it a revised rule in later editions?) that winning in an alliance has tougher conditions than winning solo.

I hope this is received well by the Twilight Imperium community.  It seems like a hopeless cause to some of the more stubborn Dune fans, but as far as I'm concerned, mix two great games and you're likely to get one even greater.

Adam said:

I agree.  The best outcome would have been a proper reprinting of Dune, but since FFG can't (legally) give us that, this looks like the next-best possible product.

Adam said:

That rule was official as of the Descartes French version of Dune, anyway.  I don't know if it was officially introduced earlier than that.

Adam said:

I too hope that it is well received.  I KNOW it will be well received in my house, at any rate.  It won't be the same as Dune, but I think this setting can hold its own as a perfectly worthwhile game.

I'm potentially interested in this game (I take it is a standalone/different game that doesn't need Twilight Imperium Game).  In a youtube video I remembered they mentioned that there was a game similar to Dune in play that was set in the Twilight Imperium background.  Is this the game they were talking about?  If so, I never played Dune.  How was the game mechanics for it?  And what makes it a such good game system (based on the video I saw)?

Thanks

You do not need Twilight Imperium.  This game is entirely separate.  It is a standalone as of now, though I very much hope for expansions down the line if it is half as good as it looks.

Yep, this is a reimagining of the old Dune game, the same game you heard about.  Dune is a classic with a lot of interesting game mechanics:

1) The spice economy is pretty tight.  You fight over random spice blows that appear on the surface of the planet each turn, and spend that spice to revive your lost troops faster, ship your troops to the planet (paying the Guild faction, now the Hacan), and purchase new combat cards (payable to the Emperor, or the Lazax faction).  It seems that spice will now be called influence and may be gained in new ways, and perhaps used for other means, too.  You can also bribe players with spice, one of my favorite parts of the game, at any time for any reason and even keep secret from others how much you gave or why.

2) The combat wheels.  Each wheel has a dial of 0-20 which you use to secretly note how many troop tokens you're going to use in your battle.  However many you use, that's your strength (plus your leader's value, also chosen secretly), but you also have to lose that many tokens whether you win or lose.  The problem is, if you lose, you lose all your tokens anyway, so it's always a gamble.  You can play weapons and defenses to try to kill and protect leaders, and in the beginning of the game you secretly obtain a traitor from among your opponent's leaders.  If your traitor is revealed in combat against you, you win the battle automatically!  Lots of intrigue and bluffing and second guessing makes each conflict rather nerve wracking.

3) Sometimes a giant sandworm would appear to devour all tokens at the previous spice blow unless the tokens belonged to the Fremen or their allies.  It's unclear if there will be something similar in this game, but probably not.  However, it was also at this time when you could forge alliances (for some reason... never really explained well thematically despite all the praise the theme gets), which is integral to both versions of the game, from what we've read so far.  In an alliance you can use one facet of your ally's ability as printed in their faction text, and you could win together if you are still in an alliance when you've met victory conditions.

4) There is also a storm circling the board, destroying nearly everything in its path unless in protected areas.  The Sol bombardment replaces this function in Rex.

That's the gist of it.  There are a lot of optional rules for the game, and the bribery rule allows for all kinds of intrigue and upsets.  Most love the game so dearly though because of how well it represents the theme.  If you've read the original Dune novel, one read of the faction abilities and you will be eager to play as the Harkonnen and betray each of your friends turn by turn.  

I personally appreciate the theme but love it mostly for the game mechanics, in which a lot of the strategy derives from the social aspect of the game (and seeing as you're a fan of the Game of Thrones board game, this may well appeal to you, too) rather than just going it alone the whole time and trying to play it like a no-frills war game.  The game is from the makers of Cosmic Encounter and shares many little similarities while being overall more of a strategy game.  

I will certainly welcome it with open arms.

I just hope it comes out before my birthday. Not much hope there though; two and a half week seems a bit too speedy...
But if it comes before christmas I'd be happy too. 

 At Gencon they had the box on display with a little note about the game ending in "Christmas 2011."  

There was also a picture of the Federation ships that perform the bombardment, the only part of the actual game revealed so far.

 Where are the Jol Nar?  The image from the cover art shows what appears to be a Hylar, and on the info page below the heading "Negotiation, Betrayal, and Warfare" there is another.  But in the description of the races they Jol Nar are not there.  Are they in the game?

BetaMale said:

If the OP is properly informed, it looks like the Jol Nar are taking the place Atreides held in Dune.

Personally I would be inclined to save them for use as an Ix-replacement in an expansion, but I don't know who else would fit Atreides's role.

You can see all 6 factions in Rex on this page:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=178&esem=1

The Universities of Jol-Nar are definitely Atreides, given that description.

Since Ix and the Bene Tleilaxu never were properly added to the Dune game, I don't expect FFG to try to add their analogues to Rex.  Rather, I'd expect them to add more TI-specific factions in expansions, assuming there are some left out of the base game.  (I don't know the TI setting from a TI calculator, honestly.)

I don't know anything about the Dune version this is being modeled after.  However, at the outset, I am hoping that the game can somehow be versitile enough to work as either stand-alone or optionally as an expansion to the larger galactic conquest game; perhaps most easily by enhancing the Shards of the Throne--Fall of the Empire scenario game, which uses all the same races (minus the full 7-player setup which also includes the bugs (Sardakk N'orr)).  Since this game is set in a universe made famous through a cherished series of board games, this seems like an opportunity that really shouldn't be overlooked.

Those of you who have experience with any games this is being modeled after-- do you think the two games could be meshed into something even more epic, or would it just make for a huge mess?

BetaMale said:

Hylar is the name of the race living on their homeplanets Jol and Nar. Aka the "Universities of Jol-Nar".

Hugesinker said:

It probably could be done, but it would be messy.  You'd have to introduce the entire Rex game as a new Phase to be inserted somewhere in the larger TI3 game.  Everyone does Strategy Phase, Action Phase, Rex Phase, Status Phase, or some such.  You'd also need to remove S.O.s and any other objectives that require control of Mecatol Rex.

I don't even want to think about how "influence" in one game would relate to influence in the other.  Probably best to keep the two things separate.

Even then, the games aren't really meshing so much as being played concurrently.  Also, this is going to make a game which is already known for being ridiculously long take FOREVER.  Set aside a long weekend before trying it out. =P

I suppose one could probably make some house rules for using REX as a battle-board for invasion combat.

Say you make one GF-plastic become ten army markers (or whatever REX uses) and one MI-plastic = 10 of another colour.

1: Attacker secretly chooses a part of the board to bombard (if any) and where to land his/her forces. (coordinate system? 10 in G6, 5 in G5 and so on)

2: The defender then sets up his/her forces.

3: Bombardment area is revealed and all defending forces in those areas die horribly.

4: Landings (with each PDS hit killing 10 army markers of the defenders (attackers?) choice) and invasion combat ensues.

5: Take turns moving the forces say one space each. Maybe two spaces for MI?

6: Whenever the army markers meet, a skirmish ensues.

7: To the victor go the spoils.

Just an idea if you desperatley want to make a game of TI last longer and/or get a more tactical deapth to GF combat.

Adam said:

From the description page, "...the humans alone boast protection against the constant bombardment of their orbiting fleet."

If the Sol = Fremen, then I would guess that the sandworm and duststorm are both being combined into the bombardment that the Sol are going to be immune to.

The Fremen were partially immune to the storm in the optional rules, which is I believe is the source for that ability.  It's a possibility though. 

So excited!!!  That will be all :)