Isgur Rules The Dune Imperium!

This was the third year for the Dune Imperium tournament at WBC and the event continues to be popular among players. Attendance rose from 93 last year to 98 entrants and drew fresh players hoping to plot a path to victory through a field of scheming faction opponents. The format remained as before - Heats: Most Wins-Points using a GM tiebreaker of Most Victory Points. The number of qualifying Heats was expanded from two to three. The third Heat was the least attended but still managed to field 12 tables of 3- or 4-players games while the earlier Heats drew enough players for 16 and 17 tables of 4-player games.

Other changes to the event this year included a new GM (Tom Cannon), a continued standardization toward all games using the Rise of Ix expansion, the addition of the Family Atomics rule from the Immortality expansion, and a new Leader Selection rule based on starting turn order. The Rise of Ix expansion offers players added variety in leader choices, strategies, and cards. In addition, the final match was played using the Epic format from Rise of Ix.

Top Players

Congratulations to the 2024 Champion – Ben Isgur for defeating his field of opponents with an undefeated record of 5-0 across five rounds of play. As champion he took home the WBC plaque along with an extra prize – a 16 oz. pint glass with the map of Arrakis etched around it.

The top laurelists for the event had no repeats from last year.

The remaining Semifinalists in alphabetical order are: Eric Alexopoulos, Michael Assante, Curtis Beatovich, Josh Broley. Tom Cannon, Elihu Feustel, Jerry Del Guercio, Christian Kasilag, Cary Morris, and Nick Pei.

Special thanks go to the following players who volunteered to be assistant GMs for those rounds when the GM competed in the event. This gave me the opportunity to play my favorite game with many new players in a competitive environment and I really appreciate their willingness to assist.

Hats off to Eric Engelmann, Bowen Niu, Christian Kasilag, Randy Williams, and Eric Alexopoulos!

Just the Facts…Please

Here are some highlights from a review of the game score cards collected during Heats 1 to 3 (Total of 45 games played). Reminder - the leader pool for selection during Setup was randomized for every game resulting in a mix of six leaders to select from out of the total 17. Every game is likely to have a different mix of which leaders could have been selected during that game.

Top Selected Leaders:

1. Helena Richese – 21 games
2. Duke Leto – 20 games
3. Baron Harkonnen – 16 games
4. Count Richese – 16 games

Leaders with Most Wins:

1. Beast Rabban – 7 wins
2. Duke Leto – 6 wins
3. Yuna Moritani – 6 wins

Leaders with Best Win Rate (Win Rate = Percentage of Games Won divided by Games Selected):

1. Yuna Moritani – 60%
2. Beast Rabban – 47%
3. Viscount Moritani – 45%
4. Prince Rhomber – 40%
6. Duke Leto – 30%

Starting Turn Order Impact on Wins

• 1st Player – 13 wins
• 2nd Player – 13 wins
• 3rd Player – 15 wins
• 4th Player – 4 wins