Loved Dune Part II? You'll soon be able to get one of the best Dune board games on Gamefound

Dune: War for Arrakis, the board game based on the science fiction franchise, will be available for players to get once again via a new crowdfunding campaign.

Originally crowdfunded via a campaign that closed on Kickstarter in September 2022, Dune: War for Arrakis is a board game that has players competing against each other as two warring houses. War for Arrakis is based on the fictional world created by Frank Herbert in the author’s series of sci-fi books, before being adapted multiple times - including the film adaptations directed by Denis Villeneuve, with Dune: Part II having been released earlier this year.

Designed to support up to four players, War for Arrakis - which was co-designed by Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello - takes place on the desert world also known as Dune, with players taking control of either the Atreides House or the Harkonnen House. In a two-player game of War for Arrakis, each player commands their own house’s troops, whilst a three or four person game has players forming teams with each other. Each house’s victory goal is unique, with the Atreides looking to gather together their Fremen allies to take out the Harkonnen operations, whilst the Harkonnen players will be aiming to collect as much Spice - the valuable resource found only on Arrakis - as possible to send to the Empire.

Besides a unique victory goal, the houses in the Dune board game have their own troops, cards and gameplay mechanics that are entirely specific to them.

The Harkonnen House has control of Spice Harvesters that they can use to gather the precious resource - which they will need to win the game. As the Harkonnen House collects Spice, the player/s can spend it to unlock new abilities and advantages. However, not successfully collecting Spice will cause the Harkonnen players to become locked out of certain options until they do. Harkonnen players will need to protect their Spice Harvesters with their various troops and vehicles, as well as route out the Fremen outposts hiding in the sand.

Meanwhile, the Atreides House will need to utilise their teams of Fremen troops in order to halt the Harkonnen Spice trade and, eventually, remove their base from the board. Players will be able to place and trigger their caches of Fremen troops against the Harkonnen troops and Spice Harvesters, removing them from the board. Besides ground troops, Atreides players will be able to call on the aid of Sand Worms to defeat enemy units and advance on the Harkonnen base.

Apart from giving players who may have missed out on getting Dune: War of Arrakis during its first crowdfunding campaign - especially since the release of the popular Dune: Part II - the next crowdfunding campaign for the title will also feature a new expansion called Desert War. The upcoming game expansion will contain additional units for both the Atreides and Harkonnen Houses that will further reflect the “harsh reality of the conflict fought on the burning surface of planet Dune.”

The crowdfunding campaign for Dune: War for Arrakis and Desert War will be launched by publisher CMON - also known for releasing the Zombicide series of board games - on Gamefound some time in the near future.