Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
It’s rare to get an opportunity to review an organizer, and I’m a sucker for a good organization system. Half the appeal of games like Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy for me comes from the insanely sleek storage trays. When PlayMode asked if we’d be interested in covering their new inserts for the Dune: Imperium games, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. Readers may recall that I was very high on Dune: Imperium – Uprising in my review.
The box arrived from PlayMode and took up space on my shelf for a month or two while my busy travel schedule kept me from digging into it. It is, after all, quite the behemoth of a box at first glance, and even starting to figure out how everything fits together is a tall task. Finally, I found myself free on a recent Sunday, and my husband and I sat down. We dumped the contents of both Dune: Imperium – Uprising and its Bloodlines expansion out on our game table and tossed the included cardboard inserts.
Let’s tackle this thing.
Buy the PlayMode Dune Imperium Uprising & Bloodlines Playsystem.
Building the Stronghold
Fresh out of the box, the PlaySystem can definitely take your breath away. We pulled out roughly two dozen individual components, which made the process feel ever-so-slightly overcomplicated. The great thing, though, is that you can scan a quick QR code (printed on the bottom of the player boards) to be taken to PlayMode’s website, where they’ve included both a YouTube video and a schematics PDF to help guide your assembly. I will say, the video is less helpful for your initial setup, as it only shows how to store everything back in the box. The PDF helps figure out where to store things, though each component also has text printed on it to help you figure out where things belong.
The first layer took us a bit to put together, mostly because we had never used certain modules and didn’t know what pieces were being referenced. I had even forgotten there was a 6-player mode included. Some of the sizing felt strange – for example, there’s an entire separate board included for new Bloodlines leader Esmar Tuek, and it has an entire dedicated space in the organizer. “Surely that whole space isn’t just for this one piece?” I thought, but it was. Thoughtfully, they included it near the organizer that contains all the leaders.
As we continued to assemble the layers, we kept noticing more and more thoughtful storage options. Rather than take the easy route and dump all the Imperium cards in one place, there are separate spots to house the Prepare The Way and The Spice Must Flow cards, and starting decks are stored within the player boards (more on that later). The whole thing is just clearly made by people who love this game first and foremost and know the little nuances that make storage easier. Most of the time when I thought, “I wonder where this goes?” the answer was “exactly where you’d expect”, which is a pretty rare find with game organizers. (Looking at you, Frosthaven Laser Ox organizer.)
Forged for Arrakis
Everything in the insert is 3D printed plastic, which does add quite a bit of heft to the game box once everything is assembled. It’s still certainly manageable and weighs less than my home-printed storage solution for the base game of Dune: Imperium. It’s also not just all dull gray or black plastic. Each player board (again, more on those later) is laced with colored filament to match the various player piece colors. The Intrigue cards and technology card holders have white trim around the edge. It just gives the whole thing a little more pop.
The only downsides to the otherwise great quality are that when dealing with 3D printed products… sometimes, there are just production issues that cannot be avoided. I’ve 3D printed tons of things, and there will always be random stringing issues. We had to cut or burn off stringy plastic from several of the included modules. In one case, the plastic alongside one of the player boards was split in half, though that could just as easily be a shipping problem rather than a production one. The insert also advertises that it will fit sleeved cards, but it is a very tight fit in some cases. The leader card sleeves I used were slightly too long, and I had to use scissors to cut them, which is totally fine and something they said ahead of time would be needed, but it did create extra work.
Does the Spice Flow?
Finally, let’s ask the real question. Does this insert actually make it easier to set up and play Dune: Imperium – Uprising?
Yes. Absolutely.
Each player board has a “storage mode” where everything fits nested inside to be stored in the box. But when you’re ready to play, you can simply hand someone their player board and they already have everything they need. They can pull out their starter deck and then pop out the storage tray, which becomes a handy dandy resource tray instead. Their leader card slides into the empty storage space, while their wooden components sit neatly in raised slots at the top of the board.
Everything else helps keep things within reach around the table. The deck holders make sure that the mountain of Imperium cards doesn’t fall over, the resource trays have curved edges to make grabbing resources easier, and the individual trays for the various card types mean you can grab, shuffle, and be done. It keeps absolutely everything clean and organized while playing, which is a feat. The best part is, you can even shuffle things at the end of your play session and put them back in the box to make the setup time for the next game under five minutes from box to table.
Everything fits in juuuuuust right… until you put the manuals in. Without the manuals, there is zero lid lift on the box. With the manuals, though, unfortunately, there are a few millimeters of lift. Granted, PlayMode is very transparent about this on their website. And if you play enough of this game, you probably don’t need the instruction manuals in the box if you never have to reference them. For a hoarder such as myself, I hate to throw things away, so I will just deal with the lid lift.
PlayMode’s organizer ended up being a genuine surprise. Everything feels thoughtfully designed to streamline setup and gameplay. The player boards in particular are some of the smartest pieces of organizer design I’ve seen in a long time. This insert has genuinely made me want to get this game to the table more often, just so I have an excuse to use it.
Dune: Imperium – Uprising details
- Designer: Paul Dennen
- Artists: Clay Brooks, Derek Herring, Nate Storm, Raul Ramos
- Publishers: Arclight Games, Dire Wolf, Geekach Games, Korea Boardgames, Lucky Duck Games, Reflexshop, Regatul Jocurilor, Tabletop KZ
- Release Date: 2023
- Player count : 1 - 6
- Age range : 13+
- Time range : 60 - 120 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Card Play Conflict Resolution, Deck, Bag, and Pool Building, Delayed Purchase, Force Commitment, Increase Value of Unchosen Resources, Multi-Use Cards, Open Drafting, Solo / Solitaire Game, Team-Based Game, Turn Order: Progressive, Variable Player Powers, Worker Placement
- BGG Geek Rating: 8.73216 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 4.5.
- More articles about Dune: Imperium – Uprising.
