CMON Annouces a new DUNE based boardgame for control of Arrakis!
Arrakis – a desert world seemingly dead and barren. Yet, here lies the most important resource in the galaxy: Spice. Without Spice, space travel is impossible, and humans become little clusters on isolated planets. The noble House that controls Arrakis and the production of Spice wields great power — the Emperor gave Arrakis to House Atreides, but then he conspired to replace them with their old rivals, House Harkonnen. Baron Harkonnen crushed the Atreides in a treasonous attack, and now rules the planet with an iron fist. But Paul and Jessica, heirs to House Atreides, are alive, and are mounting a rebellion with the aid of the formidable Fremen, the mysterious inhabitants of the barren expanses of Arrakis.
Only one House will emerge victorious from the coming struggle, while the other will be lost in the desert sands. It’s into this grim reality that players will be thrust in DUNE: WAR FOR ARRAKIS, the strategy board game set to launch on Kickstarter in 2022.
In this asymmetrical strategy game, players fight for the control of the planet, maneuvering troops like the Fremen, the Fedaykin and the fearsome Sardaukar, while sending Spice Harvesters into the deep desert, daring to challenge the great Sandworms. Renowned creators Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, designers of the best-selling WAR OF THE RING strategy game, are reteaming to create a brand-new tabletop experience powered by an action dice system and featuring numerous event cards that will enable players to retell the Dune saga differently with each playthrough. The game will be a new, grandiose entry point for gamers into the vast Dune universe.
Nepitello, who also serves as CMON’s Head of IP and RPG, said, “Dune: War for Arrakis has allowed Marco and me to once again do what we love the most: look at a story in-depth to find the best way to capture its spirit and put it into a game. And we’ve been able to do it at a grand scale befitting the source material, working with the best developers, artists and producers on the market. We aim to provide an epic experience, while still putting a spotlight on the many individual characters found in the Dune universe.”
The game will feature scores of new pieces of art and sculptures based directly on the book’s text, and it will bring many of Dune’s characters to the tabletop for the first time.
CMON’s VP of Crowdfunding & Production, and producer on the game, Thiago Aranha, said of the project, “Working on Dune has been an absolute dream come true, as this series has captured my imagination like no other ever since I devoured the original book as a young teenager. To bring these iconic characters to life and see them clashing on the desert board is a very special thing I am very excited to be able to share with the fans. From art to sculpts to design, I don’t think there’s ever been such a large undertaking to bring the world in the books to the tabletop.”
CMON obtained the worldwide rights in a sub-license agreement brokered by Joe LeFavi of Genuine Entertainment, who is serving as a producer on the game and managing the master tabletop gaming license for Dune in partnership with Legendary Entertainment, Herbert Properties LLC, and Gale Force Nine. It covers the full scope of the Gale Force Nine master license, which includes the films and TV series from Legendary, as well as the classic literary series from Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson.
Stay tuned for more information about this exciting new game. And remember, fear is the mind killer.
