The first preview reveals a few things and hints at others:

1) Double spice blows , previously an "Advanced Game" rule, is now the standard . This is interesting. I hope it doesn't mean that Advanced Game's combat rules are being used, as they'd make even less sense in this setting.

2) Emperor gets his optional ability as standard. This could indicate anything. Maybe they thought the Emperor needed more flavor. Maybe everyone is getting their optional rules standard. I hope the other factions have new abilities instead of Avalon Hill's optional abilities, as some were overpowered (Harkonnen) and some were overly complex (Bene Gesserit).

3) There's no alliance ability listed. I had hoped they'd come up with something for Emperor so he wouldn't be the only one without an ability, but this is better than listing an ability like in the original that causes mass confusion as to whether it is an ability at all. It's possible this means no one has an alliance ability, but I highly, highly doubt this.

4) An assumption : If you look at the map, five territories have a red dot and another dot (green?). They are spaced out similar to the strongholds of Dune, so they are likely the strongholds. The green dot probably means an area protected from bombardment, which informs our understanding of the rest of the map.

5) The artwork is super cool.

Can't wait for the next previews, and I'm glad this is still on schedule for first quarter. While the graphic design of the map doesn't appeal to me particularly, the layout seems interesting. I'm thinking there will be more reason to actually move on the map in this game, unlike Dune where, unless you have ornithopters or are the Fremen, you pretty much ship everywhere. Fewer territories (28, I think I counted) means everything is closer together.

Very exciting.

I agree with all of your assessments, and I'm also glad to see some forward momentum on this game (Never doubted guys you, FFG!)

I'm hoping that alliance powers are simply contained on alliance cards and therefore not printed on the faction sheet. I'm also hoping that the Empire gets something useful instead of nothing, as you say. The one point where I disagree is the changing of any faction abilities. I'd like to see the original Dune factions reproduced as faithfully as the new setting will reasonably allow, balanced or not. The Empire certainly seems to be a step in the right direction as far as that goes.

I definitely like the inclusion of double spice blows as a core mechanic. I'm not the biggest fan of Advanced Combat in Dune anyway, so whether its there or not in Rex is no biggie to me. I can see how it would be thematically implemented with "influence" being spent to "support" your troops, though.

The biggest question I have remaining is whether or not the game still uses combat wheels. =D

I have to admit I don't like the board and I also think the artwork is a little bit too much, if you know what I mean.

It looks, as I posted on the news, a bit overdesigned. They tried to make it look really good, but didn't stop when they should have.

As for the board, I prefer areas instead of spaces.

But both points won't stop me from getting this game.

I, like a couple others I've seen, am not overly happy about the Arkaham Horror-ish looking board. Why not hexagons? That would keep it looking more like TI3 in my eyes...

Bear in mind I've never played the old DUNE game so maybe that board looks like the REX board.

Fnoffen said:

No, that board looks nothing like Dune's. I suspect that's part of the reason why so many people are... I think I'll choose the word "surprised."

The connections may well end up making it equivalent to the original in terms of where one can move from each position, but at the very least it looses the sector/territory dichotomy. That was admittedly one of the more confusing aspects of Dune for new players, but I rather enjoyed it, once I figured it out. =P

There are plenty of images of the Dune game board over on BGG, if you're curious.