Rex: Final Days of an Empire

[JayMata]

Rex: Final Days of an Empire is the title of FFG's re-theme of the fabled Dune boardgame to their Twilight Imperium setting. What we know so far (GenCon news, source BGG)




-The game takes place 2000 years before the Twilight Imperium board game, during the fall of the Lazax Empire.

-The gameboard will depict the gigantic capital city of the Empire, Mecatol City, as opposed to the planet itself, Mecatol Rex (where the name of the game comes from).

-Based on the box cover art, the playable races are the Lazax, the Universities of Jol-Nar, the Emirates of Hacan, the Federation of Sol, the Barony of Letnev, and the Xxcha Kingdom. This falls in line with the TI narrative, which indicates that these races were integral members of the rebellion.

-No indication has been given as to which Dune faction is represented by which TI faction, except for the Federation of Sol, which have been revealed as the Fremen.

-The "Sandstorm" mechanic has been replaced by "Sol Bombardment". The Fremen's immunity to sandstorms is now Sol's ground forces being aware of the exact targets of their orbital strikes, so they can avoid the effects.

-According to the prologue given in the Twilight Imperium rulebook, the fall occurred 3000 years ago. Not sure if this was changed or if Christian remembered a different timeframe.

SPECULATION (however certain it might be...)

-The Sol Bombardment mechanic is most likely what the mounted ship on display at the FFG booth @ GenCon is for; its base has a hexagonal curved shape to it, as if to suggest it should be placed on a border (such as the edge of the map)

-There's some different guesses as to which race is which, but it's a foregone conclusion that the Lazax are House Corrino, and the Barony of Letnev is House Harkonnen, due to the incredible similarities in their backstory and descriptions.

[Talismanic (Mark)]

Check out the ships.

[Sexy Bro]

Ugh. This is thematically terrible. I'm sure the TI universe has a lot of good things going for it and this reimplementation gives a lot of us a chance to try "Dune" out, but there goes the hope for a real reprint of Dune.

[JayMata]

Ugh. This is thematically terrible. I'm sure the TI universe has a lot of good things going for it and this reimplementation gives a lot of us a chance to try "Dune" out, but there goes the hope for a real reprint of Dune.

True. But it's the best we can hope for. FFG did attempt to get the Dune license but to no avail. The Herbert estate is notoriously difficult to deal with in terms of their IP. The fact that FFG could get the Star Wars license (The holy grail of IP) and not Dune says a lot about the tight grip on the Dune license

[Sexy Bro]

I suppose one up side to this is that there'd be less metallic underwear jokes in this version.

[maskmanjoe]

looks painful

[Talismanic (Mark)]

looks painful

and chafing 

[Gaebril]

I'm with the Bro on this one. I don't doubt that FFG is capable of doing this well, but I'm still leaning towards making my own PnP Dune build. Having gone through the components and rulebook, the theme really makes the game.

[Adrian (the other one)]

There were a couple of important rules we missed during the play-through of Rex at All Aboard:

1.  More than 2 factions are allowed to battle in a single space.  In case of 3 or more factions, battles are resolved in turn order, until only a singe player is left.  Note, allies still can't battle other allies.

Note: This would have made the Triumvirate (Lazax. Xxcha, and Jol-Nar possibly win on turn 7).

2.  Lazax is allowed to give influence once PER player per turn (not only once per turn for all players), during the bidding round.

3.  Xxcha free deployment is still triggered even with Sol Deployment.

4.  Weapon and Defense cards must be simultaneously chosen AFTER the dials are revealed, or any traitors declared.  So plans can still change after leaders and faction size is seen.  Note, you still cannot violate what the Jol-Nar saw, or what the Xxcha asked you NOT to use.

5.  Traitors who die do not give influence to the winner.

6.  A Sol Offensive card does not destroy Sol troops in non-shielded areas.  Though the regular bombardment fleet can destroy Sol troops if it passes them over in non-shielded areas.


And there is an ongoing debate about the Xxcha predictive ability.  Some say the Xxcha should only be allowed to predict REGULAR VICTORIES (and not the special victories at the end of game, i.e. Sol or Hacan).

[psycnarf]

1.  More than 2 factions are allowed to battle in a single space.  In case of 3 or more factions, battles are resolved in turn order, until only a singe player is left.  Note, allies still can't battle other allies.

Note: This would have made the Triumvirate (Lazax. Xxcha, and Jol-Nar possibly win on turn 7).

But allies cant end movement/deployment at the same space, except the GC

[Adrian (the other one)]

1.  More than 2 factions are allowed to battle in a single space.  In case of 3 or more factions, battles are resolved in turn order, until only a singe player is left.  Note, allies still can't battle other allies.

Note: This would have made the Triumvirate (Lazax. Xxcha, and Jol-Nar possibly win on turn 7).

But allies cant end movement/deployment at the same space, except the GC

is this Francis?

You're right, allies cant end move/deploy in the same space. 

But you recall the tactical move that Jay (Letnev) did on Turn 7, which was to attack his non-ally Aerol (Hacan aka Lolcats) to prevent the Unholy Alliance (Xxcha, Lazax, and Jol-Nar) to attack that one last stronghold?  With this corrected ruling, the Lazax (EJ) could still have entered that stronghold and taken it, even if Aerol and Jay were already fighting.

[psycnarf]

yup its me.

But EJ an Jay would end up fighting 1st(based on turn order). There will be losses before Aerol gets in the fray. It wasn't a total cockblock tactic, but still it was optimal during that turn.

[Talismanic (Mark)]

I suppose one up side to this is that there'd be less metallic underwear jokes in this version.

Die Atreides! I will shock you to death with my bizarre fashion and semi nekkidness!