I finally changed my stance on the whole 'queuing' house rule

Our group always played with the standard turn order in Dune Imperium, and I was dead set against that 'queue up actions' variant everyone talks about... didn't want to mess with the game's flow. We were at my buddy's place in Austin last Saturday, and after the third time someone got blocked because a card was taken literally one second before their turn, I finally gave in and we tried the queue rule for the second half. It smoothed out the whole game, but now I'm wondering if we lost some of that cutthroat tension - has anyone else found that compromise changes the feel too much?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan_patel1mo ago

Nah man, you traded one kind of tension for another... now you get to agonize for ten minutes straight about whether to grab that High Council seat or snag the swordmaster, instead of just cursing the guy next to you for beating you by half a second. We tried the queue rule last month and my buddy Dave spent two whole turns staring at his cards like he was solving a Rubik's cube while the rest of us just sat there waiting. Honestly I kind of miss the good old days of yelling "you thief!" across the table when someone sniped the last spice must flow card.

tylerw721mo ago

Nah, the queue rule is better. You just gotta play with people who can make a decision in under a minute instead of space cadets like Dave. The old way was just speed reading the board and hoping your hand didn't shake when you reached for the card. Now you actually have to think about what you're doing instead of rewarding the guy with the fastest reflexes. Plus, nobody's getting their feelings hurt over a tiebreaker anymore, so maybe your buddy Dave just needs to learn how to read his cards before his turn starts.