A lot of modern games minimize the interaction between players, as well as minimizing randomness. The result is something that a lot of people seem to like: Predictability. Predictability allows for strategy, and moves that consist of executing the strategy you thought of in advance. To me that is often a bit boring, lacking excitement. Dune: Imperium has that excitement, because there is just the right balance between creating a strategy, and having to constantly change tactics within a broader strategy due to the randomness of cards, or the unpredictability of the moves of your opponents.

For example, a good early strategy is to gather enough Solari (money) to buy your Swordmaster, because that enables you to do one more turn every round. Depending on what base game and what expansions you play, there are frequently multiple paths to get there. But you can't just decide on one of these pathways before the game even begins. It depends on where you are in the turn order, what leader you are playing, and what cards you drew. If things work out perfectly, you can buy the Swordmaster as early as the second turn, and can already use that third agent in this second turn, giving you a nice advantage over your fellow players. Ideally you start the game as second player, and hope that the first player doesn't block the space you need; then you'll be first player in the second round and can block the Swordmaster space for everybody else. But of course things can go badly, you don't draw the card you need in the second turn, somebody else gets there before you, and in the next turn your the last player to act, thus at risk of still having to wait another turn or two before you get your Swordmaster.

Another game mechanic full of tension and drama is the conflict cards, especially if the current conflict is about one or two victory points. Not only are there many different options to get troops into the fight, but the reveal turn can give a combatant more power, and then there is still the possibility to modify the outcome with intrigue cards. I had a somewhat painful experience yesterday, where twice in the game I thought I had clinched the victory points, and both times a series of card plays resulted in a draw, giving neither me nor my opponent the win. That makes for really intense rounds.

In your first game, all this appears somewhat random to you. But the more you play, and the better you get, the more you can see the influence of skill. It isn't all pure randomness. As you start with 10 cards and get 5 cards per round, you *know* which cards you'll draw in the second round as soon as you see your starting hand, and can adjust your tactics accordingly. And by buying cards with specific symbols, you can increase the probability of being able to use the spaces that have that symbol, enabling you to plan ahead for a given strategy. Your opponents might be unpredictable, but with time you'll learn what moves other players are more likely to make. You never achieve perfect foresight, but it all makes more and more sense over time. You need to watch what the other players are doing, and that to me is a lot preferable to other games, where you can basically ignore the other players on your race up the victory track.