Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy
Dune: A Game of Conquest and Diplomacy Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Factions
Atreides
On the storm-swept rainworld of Caladan, House Atreides stands as a noble family whose power has always been tempered by mercy. For generations of Atreides, that power was passed down from elder to child, a Great House led by rulers of sincerity, loyalty and compassion.
With huge support among the High Council and respected by both the Landsraad and the public at large, House Atreides comprises the best and brightest of humanity: the most proficient Warmaster, the most deadly Swordmaster, the most psychologically agile Mentat in the Imperium, and the most revered leader: Paul's father, Duke Leto Atreides.
But House Atreides is not without enemies. House Harkonnen stands as its most bitter rival, the dark side of one of the greatest power struggles the universe has ever seen.
Fremen
Although many of the truths of their history remain lost to time, the Fremen are a tribal race of humans that have made the most dangerous planet in the universe their home. The desert world of Arrakis, known colloquially as Dune, is home to hundreds of Fremen tribes, residing in subterranean cities known as sietches, carved into the rocky depths that lie beneath the endless oceans of sand.
The key to their survival is the fluid processing Fremen stillsuit that enables the human body to survive in sun-scorched open terrain for long periods of time, replenishing and recycling the body's moisture into the most precious resource in this hostile landscape: purified water. For the Fremen, water is more than a commodity; water is life.
Harkonnen
On the toxic industrial planet of Giedi Prime, lit by the permanent midnight of a cold blue sun, the most malevolent and power-hungry of all the Great Houses has made its home. Led by the notorious Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, House Harkonnen comprises the Known Universe's most vicious bloodline, steeped in malice and built upon violence. The Harkonnens rule with scant regard for petty morality or ethics; instead they are driven by insatiable greed. To desire is to take. To seek is to steal. To fear is to destroy.
House Atreides and Duke Leto stand as the Harkonnen's ultimate rivals and most bitter enemies. A long history of bloody conflict has created a mutual hatred between these two houses, with too much blood drawn on both sides for either to forgive.
Imperium
Standing at the Emperor's side is the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. This mysterious and secretive order of female consuls and concubines has sworn apparent servitude to some of the most powerful leaders in the Imperium, but behind the curtain of history, the Sisterhood holds true power.
Gifted warriors of both body and mind, the Sisterhood's greatest gifts are the Voice, a mind-bending controlling vocal technique which can issue commands that are impossible to resist, and the Way: dizzyingly fast and intricate hand-to-hand combat techniques that only the most adept sisters can master.
The Sardaukar are soldier-fanatics enacting the will of the Padishah Emperor, the elite swordsman of the Sardaukar are the most bloodthirsty warriors in the galaxy. Driven by religious fervor and an almost fanatical devotion to the Emperor, they prepare for battle by marking themselves in a sacred blood ritual.
Hailing from the Imperial Prison Planet Salusa Secundus, a world so savage and environmentally brutal that it kills six out of every thirteen persons before they reach adulthood. The Sardaukar are trained to fight with no fear of death. Placing no strategic value on self-defense, Sardaukar armor-sets do not include a scabbard - because their blade is never sheathed.
Components
Game Board
The game board is a map of the planet Dune showing four types of territories:
- Sand: Tan with territory name in white.
- Rock: Brown with territory name in white and showing mountains.
- Stronghold: Reddish brown with a double border and territory name in black.
- Polar Sink: Showing ice cap in the center of the board.
Some sand territories are marked with a Spice Blow icon to show the locations of possible Spice Blows.
The map is also divided by longitude lines into eighteen sectors, which extend from the edge of the Polar Sink to the equator at the edge of the board. Sectors show the area covered by the storm as it moves around the board.
The game board also has areas labeled:
- Turns: For tracking game turns.
- Phases: For tracking Phases within game turns.
- Tleilaxu Tanks: For holding faction leaders and forces awaiting revival.
- Spice Bank: To hold spice that doesn't belong to anyone and is not currently in play.
Storm Die
The die has 8 sides: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and a Storm icon.
Four Decks of Cards
- Spice Deck (24 cards): Tells where Spice Blows will create treasure troves of spice, waiting to be harvested, and when the giant sandworms will turn up.
- Battle Deck (24 cards): Provides weapons, defenses and other cards to use in battles, as well as worthless cards that must be dealt with.
- Traitor Deck (22 cards): With 1 card for each Leader Disc.
- Market Deck (24 cards): Tricks and tools to outmaneuver opponents.
Tokens
- 162x Spice Tokens
- 1x Phase Token
- 1x First Player Token
- 5x Stronghold Blocker Tokens
- 1x Turn Token
- 1x Storm Token
Four Player Faction Sets
Each set is composed of three types of components:
- A Faction Sheet: describing the faction's advantages.
- Leader Discs: 5 large discs (7 for the Atreides), each showing a leader and their strength.
- Forces: 20 small tokens called forces.
2-Player Double Faction Sheets
2 Sheets describing the advantages for an Allies 2 player game.
Battle Wheels
The game includes 2 Battle Wheels, which must be assembled and joined with the center pin before you play the game.
Object of the Game
The object of the game is to use your faction's unique advantages to gain control of Dune either by occupying three strongholds at the end of turns 3, 4 or 5, or by having the most points from strongholds and spice at the end of turn 5.
Setup
Place all spice tokens in the Spice Bank.
The Spice Deck, Battle Deck, and Market Deck are shuffled and placed face down next to the game board. Played cards will be piled face up next to the decks as discards and reshuffled to restock these decks as necessary. Players may not search through discards; only the top one is public information.
Players choose factions, dealing out faction sheets randomly. To do this take one Traitor card from each faction, shuffle, and deal one card to each player. Reveal the Traitor cards to show what faction each player is playing, then return the Traitor cards to the Traitor Deck.
Players take their faction components and set up as follows (with exceptions described on their faction sheets):
1- Traitors
Remove the cards for all factions that are not in play from the Traitor Deck. Shuffle the cards thoroughly. Each player (except the Harkonnen faction player) is dealt 4 cards.
Each of those players then secretly selects 1 card to keep. If a player draws any leaders from an opponent's faction, they can choose one to become their traitor. If a player draws one of their own leaders, they may keep that card to prevent that leader from becoming a traitor.
Each player keeps their chosen card face down, returning the others face down to the Traitor Deck. When all unchosen traitor cards have been returned, shuffle the Traitor Deck.
Once this is done, if the Harkonnen faction is in the game, the Harkonnen player selects traitors as described on their faction sheet.
2- Spice
Each player takes their starting amount of spice, as indicated on their faction sheet, from the Spice Bank and puts the Spice in the Spice section on their faction sheet.
3- Forces
If the Fremen are in the game, they place their 5 starting forces in the Polar Sink.
All other forces are placed in the Leader & Reserves area of the appropriate faction sheet.
4- Turn Marker
Place the Turn Marker at 1 on the Turn Track.
5- Phase Marker
Place the Phase Marker on the Storm Phase on the Phase Track.
6- Storm Marker
Place the Storm Marker on the Storm Start sector on the game board.
7- Roll for First Player
Each player rolls the Storm Die to see who goes first. The player who rolled highest takes the First Player marker. Keep rolling in case of ties for first. The Storm icon is the highest value.
Sequence of Play
Dune is played in turns to a maximum limit of 5 turns. After the last phase of a turn, move the First Player Marker to the next player counter-clockwise.
During some phases in a turn play passes counter-clockwise in player order from one player to the next.
Each turn is composed of seven specific phases that must be completed in the exact sequence presented below:
- Storm
- Spice Blow
- Gain Cards
- Revival
- Shipping & Movement
- Battle
- Spice Collection
Phases
Storm
The first player rolls the die and moves the storm that many sectors counter-clockwise. If the storm icon is rolled, the first player may advance the storm any number of sectors from 0-6.
If the storm passes over or stops in a sector of a sand territory with forces or spice, the forces and spice are destroyed (sent to the Tleilaxu Tanks or back to the Spice Bank). Forces that are not in a sand territory find protection from the storm (rock territories, strongholds, and the Polar Sink).
Forces cannot move into, out of, or through a sector in storm. Forces cannot battle if only one player's forces are in storm or if forces are on opposite sides of the storm.
Fremen forces in sand territories are not destroyed by the Storm if it passes over or stops on top of them, however Fremen still can't move into, out of, or through a sector in Storm.
Starter Game - Small Market: First time players may choose to allow only 1 Market Card per player (instead of 3 per player).
Spice Blow
The first player reveals the top card of the spice deck. If it is a spice territory card, put the indicated amount of spice in the two territories shown on the card.
If a Sandworm card comes up during the first game turn, it is ignored, placed back in the deck and the deck is reshuffled. After that, if a Sandworm card comes up, any spice or forces (except for Fremen) in the territories showing on the top card of the spice discard pile are destroyed and sent to the Tleilaxu Tanks and Spice Bank. If Fremen forces are in the territory they must ride the worm before another spice card is revealed. Then a new card is revealed (discarding any more sandworms) until a new spice territory card is drawn.
For all Spice Blows, the forces of any faction caught in the Spice Blow are destroyed and placed in the Tleilaxu Tanks. Also, if during the game a territory on the Spice Blow card shows a territory that already has spice, before placing the new spice, the old spice is removed to the Spice Bank.
Gain Cards
There are two types of cards players have in their hand: Battle cards and Market cards. Each player gains Battle cards and then Market cards before play passes in player order.
- Battle Cards: Each turn players draw Battle cards into their hands until they have their maximum of four cards.
- Market Cards: Also each turn, players may buy, for 2 spice each paid to the Spice Bank (or the Imperium if that faction is in the game), enough Market cards to bring their number to the maximum of three cards. These must be bought by announcing the amount to be bought for the turn, paying the spice, and drawing the cards. No further cards may be bought that turn by that player. (See also Market Card Timing on page 10.)
Revival
Starting with the first player, each player may revive 2 forces for free, and in addition, for 2 spice each, may revive additional forces and/or revive leaders for their value in spice.
Pay spice for revivals to the Spice Bank. Revived leaders and forces are placed back in your Reserves. A revived leader can be played normally and is still subject to being a traitor.
Shipping & Movement
Starting with the first player, each player may ship forces from their reserves into one territory or stronghold on the planet at a cost of 1 spice per force paid to the Spice Bank (Fremen may only ship 5 forces to the Polar Sink). You cannot ship into a sector in a storm. You cannot ship forces from the board back to your reserves, or from one territory on the board to another territory.
Once you have made a shipment, you may then move as a group, any number of your forces from one territory into one other territory up to 3 territories away with the following exception: if a stronghold already has forces from two factions, that stronghold cannot be entered by another player's forces.
Sectors have no effect on movement distance. Forces can move through a territory ignoring all sectors. Once stopped in a territory, however, forces must be clearly all in one sector. Forces moved must be one group. You may not drop some forces off along the way, nor pick up any of your forces you pass along the way.
As described in the Storm Phase, no force may move into, out of, or through a sector in storm. Many territories span several sectors, allowing you to move into and out of a territory that is partly in storm, so long as the move does not pass through the sector in storm. Note that the Polar Sink is never affected by the Storm.
As with Force Shipment, forces cannot be moved into or through a stronghold if forces of two other players are already there.
Example: The Atreides want to harvest the spice in Broken Land and ship four forces to Broken Land from their reserves, paying four spice to the Spice Bank to do so.
As their movement, the Atreides move their six forces two territories, from Hole In The Rock to Carthag, to try to capture it from the Harkonnen.
Battle
A battle will occur in every territory (except the Polar Sink) that has forces of more than 1 faction (see Battles below).
Spice Collection
Starting with the first player, players with forces in the sector of a territory that contains spice may collect that spice - 1 force may collect 2 spice.
Players may not give their spice to other players at any time.
After Spice Collection, any player with fewer than 3 spice may take spice from the bank as Spice Bank Charity until they have 3.
When all spice has been collected, move the Turn Token to the next position on the Turn Track, move the Phase Token back to Storm, and move the First Player Token counter-clockwise to the next player.
Example: During the Spice Collection Phase the Atreides collect eight spice from the Broken Land territory (two spice for each force) leaving two spice in Broken Land. The collected spice is placed on the Atreides Faction Sheet.
The Imperium have forces in Rock outcroppings, but not in the same sector as the spice, so they do not collect any spice.
Check for Win
If a player occupies 3 strongholds with at least one of their forces at the end of turns 3, 4, or 5, that player wins the game.
If there are no winners after turns 3 or 4, play continues.
If by the end of 5 game turns, no player controls 3 strongholds, each player gets 5 points for each stronghold they occupy, and 1 point for each spice they hold. The highest total wins, and ties share the win.
Battles
Battle Determination
Wherever two or more players' forces occupy the same territory battles must occur between those players. Battles continue until no more than one player's forces remain in each territory on the map with two exceptions:
- Players cannot battle one another in a territory if one player's forces are in storm (and protected, e.g. in a rock territory) or if forces are on opposite sides of the storm. Their forces remain in the same territory at the end of the phase.
- Players cannot battle in the Polar Sink. It is a free haven for everyone.
Battle Advantage
The first player has Battle Advantage, then Battle Advantage goes in turn order to the next player, and so on until the end of the Battle phase. The player with Battle Advantage wins ties and chooses the order in which they wish to fight their battles if they are in more than one battle. If three or more players are in the same territory, the player who has Battle Advantage picks who they will battle first, second, etc. for as long as they have forces left in that territory.
Example: The Atreides have six forces at Carthag, while the Harkonnen have 3 forces, so they must have a Battle.
Before the Battle Plans are made the Atreides player uses their Prescience faction advantage to see that the Harkonnen are going to use Beast Rabban in the battle.
Both players take a battle wheel and secretly dial the number of forces they want to commit to the battle. The Atreides player dials 4 forces to commit to the battle. These forces will be lost to the Tleilaxu tanks regardless of the outcome of the battle.
They then select Duke Leto to lead the forces into battle, and arm him with a Maula Pistol and a Shield. The Weapon and Defense cards are held secretly behind the Battle Wheel.
Battle Plan
To resolve a battle, each player secretly formulates a Battle Plan. A Battle Plan always includes the number of forces dialed on the Battle Wheel. If possible, the Battle Plan must include a leader. Additionally, it may include Battle cards at the player's discretion if they are playing a leader in that battle.
All of the elements of a Battle Plan (Forces, Leaders, and Battle cards) are kept secret until the Battle Plans are revealed.
Battle Wheel
Pick up a Battle Wheel and secretly dial a number from zero to the number of forces you have in the disputed territory. These are the forces that you are committing to the battle that add to your battle total. Regardless of the battle's outcome, you will lose at least the number of forces dialed on your Battle Wheel.
Leaders
Select one Leader Disc and place it face up in the slot on your Battle Wheel.
- Leaders that survive battles may fight more than once in the same territory if needed, but no leader may fight in more than one territory during the same turn.
- If possible, you must always play a leader as part of your Battle Plan.
- If you cannot play a leader, you must announce so while formulating Battle Plans.
No Leader
A player with no leader must still battle, but they cannot play any Battle cards as part of their Battle Plan. This situation can occur when a player has all their leaders in the Tleilaxu Tanks or their remaining leaders have fought in other territories during that turn.
Battle Cards
Players with a leader may play a Weapon Battle card, Defense Battle card, both, or neither, by holding any played cards against their Battle Wheel with the Weapon card on the left and the Defense card on the right.
Some Battle cards may be played instead of a Weapon or Defense Battle card.
Players may play a Worthless card instead of a Weapon or Defense. This is the only way to discard Worthless cards from your hand.
Faction Advantage Timing
When Atreides and Imperium are in a battle, the player with Battle Advantage must use their faction advantage first.
If the Imperium player uses their faction advantage of the Voice, the opposing player may change their mind about any elements of their Battle Plan (while still complying with the Voice command) before revealing Battle Plans.
Certain cards enable players to make decisions affecting battle results after Battle Plans are revealed. In such cases, if timing conflicts arise, the player with Battle Advantage makes any such decisions first and then the opposing player makes such decisions.
Revealing Plans
When both players are ready, Battle Plans are revealed simultaneously.
Battle Resolution
Winner
The winner is the player with the highest total fighting strength. Fighting strength is determined by totaling the number dialed on your Battle Wheel and your leader's fighting strength.
No Ties
In the case of a tie, the player with Battle Advantage wins.
Weapons and Defenses
If your opponent played a Weapon Battle card and you did not play the proper Defense Battle card, your leader is killed, and their fighting strength does not count toward your total fighting strength. Both leaders can be killed, in which case neither counts in the battle.
Killed Leaders
The winner of the battle immediately receives spice from the Spice Bank equal to the total fighting strength of all leaders killed in the battle (including their own leader, if killed). Then killed leaders are immediately placed face up in the Tleilaxu Tanks.
Surviving Leaders
Surviving leaders remain in the territory where they were used until all other battles have been resolved. They are then retrieved by their owners.
Losing
The losing player loses all of their forces in the territory to the Tleilaxu Tanks and must discard every Battle Card they used in their Battle Plan. Note that the loser does not lose their leader as a result of the battle's outcome; leaders are lost only when they are killed by Weapon Battle Cards.
Winning
The winning player loses only the number of forces they dialed on their Battle Wheel. These forces are placed in the Tleilaxu Tanks (you can still win a battle if you lose all of your forces). If the card text allows, the winning player may keep or discard any of the cards they played.
Notes on Battle Cards
- Weapon and Defense cards come in two basic types: Projectile and Poison.
- Also, three Weapon cards are marked as Special. These can be played instead of a basic Weapon card.
- Worthless cards can only be discarded from your hand when you use them in your Battle Plan instead of using a Weapon, Defense, or both. Some Market cards also allow you to discard Worthless cards.
Market Card Timing
Once a Market card is played, the game is suspended until the effects of the card are carried out. Then play resumes and another Market card may be played.
Market cards can be played during the phases specified on each card. In cases of timing conflicts when playing Market cards at the same time, priority follows turn order.
Example: Once both Battle Plans have been made they are revealed at the same time. The Harkonnen player dialed 2 forces, lead by Beast Rabban armed with a Gom Jabbar and Shield.
The Atreides Shield does not protect against poison weapons, so Duke Leto is killed and his fighting strength is not counted, leaving the Atreides with a total of 4 fighting strength versus the Harkonnen's 7 fighting strength.
Now losing the battle, the Atreides player chooses to play the Counter–attack Market card from their hand, increasing their fighting strength to 8.
The Harkonnen player has no Market cards to play, so the Atreides player wins the battle.
The Harkonnen player now sends all of their troops in Carthag to the Tleilaxu Tanks, discards their Shield and Gom Jabbar, and returns Beast Rabban to their Leaders and Reserves area.
The Atreides player sends Duke Leto (who was killed) and 4 troops (the number they dialed) to the Tleilaxu Tanks from Carthag.
Because they won the battle, the Atreides also gain spice equal to the fighting strength of all the killed leaders, in this case, 5 for Duke Leto.
Traitors
If you are in a battle and your opponent uses a leader that matches a Traitor Card you control, you may call out "Traitor!" and pause the game. The Traitor Card is revealed.
The Player Who Revealed the Traitor Card
- Immediately wins the battle.
- Loses nothing, regardless of what was played in the Battle Plans (even if a Lasgun and Shield are revealed).
- Places the traitorous leader in the Tleilaxu Tanks and receives the traitorous leader's fighting strength in spice from the Spice Bank.
- Keeps their leader and may use them in another battle in this or any other one territory during this game turn.
The Player Whose Traitor Was Revealed
- Loses all of their forces in the territory to the Tleilaxu Tanks.
- Discards all of the cards they played.
Two Traitors
If both players reveal a Traitor Card, both players' forces in the territory, their cards played, and their leaders, are lost. Neither player gets any spice and neither player has won the battle.
Traitors and Market Cards
If you reveal a traitor card, your opponent may not play any Market card for the rest of that particular battle. If you reveal a traitor card in a battle after your opponent has played a Market card in that battle, the Market card is canceled and discarded.
Example: Atreides and Harkonnen reveal Battle Plans. Atreides is winning the battle based on forces dialed and leader strength, with no leaders killed by weapons. Harkonnen plays Poison Tooth to kill both leaders, and will win the battle with a higher number of forces dialed. Atreides decides to reveal that they have the Harkonnen player's traitor card. Atreides now wins, and the Poison Tooth card must be discarded.
Faction Advantages
Atreides
-
Free Revival: 2 Forces.
-
Spice: 13 Spice.
-
Forces: 20 forces start in your reserve area.
-
Leaders: You have more leaders than other factions.
-
Prescience: Before Battle Plans are created, you get to see one part of your opponent's Battle Plan.
Choose to see one of the following:
- Number dialed on the Battle Wheel
- Leader
- Card played on weapon side of the Battle Wheel
- Card played on defense side of the Battle Wheel
Fremen
-
Free Revival: 2 Forces.
-
Spice: 6 Spice.
-
Forces: 15 start in your reserve area. 5 forces Start in the Polar Sink.
-
Storm: When the Storm moves, your forces in sand territories are not destroyed by the Storm.
-
Spice Blow: When a Sandworm is drawn during Spice Blow, if you have forces in either or both of the territories showing on the top face up Spice card, for each Spice territory occupied by your forces, they may "ride the worm."
To "ride the worm" you move any or all of these forces to any other territory no more than 3 territories away. However, any territories your forces pass through to the new territory must be sand and a Sandworm will never move into or through the Storm.
-
Shipping & Movement: You may bring up to 5 forces into the Polar Sink from your reserves for free. You may not pay to bring in other forces from your reserves. Also, during Shipment and Movement you may move 2 separate groups of your forces up to 3 territories away, or 1 group up to 6 territories away.
Harkonnen
-
Free Revival: 2 Forces.
-
Spice: 15 Spice.
-
Forces: 20 forces start in your reserve area.
-
Traitors: During the game setup, you are not dealt traitors until after everyone else has chosen their traitors and returned the unclaimed traitor cards to the Traitor deck. Then you shuffle the Traitor deck and draw:
The top 8 cards in a 4-player game and keep any 4. The top 6 cards in a 3-player game and keep any 3. The top 4 cards in a 2-player game and keep any 2.
Return the unclaimed cards to the Traitor deck and shuffle it.
In addition, during the battle phase before each of your battles, you may take the top card of the Traitor deck into your hand and then return one traitor card from your hand face down to the bottom of the traitor deck. If you are in more than one battle and choosing battles, you may take your Traitor card before choosing which battle to fight.
Imperium
- Free Revival: 2 Forces.
- Spice: 18 Spice.
- Forces: 20 forces start in your reserve area.
- Market: Whenever other factions buy a Market card, they pay the 2 Spice to you instead of the Spice Bank.
- Voice: During Battles, you may use "the Voice" and tell your opponent that they must play or must not play one weapon type, specifically a poison weapon, a projectile weapon, or a special weapon. That player must comply if possible. If the player cannot comply they may play any card that is appropriate.
Faction Strategies
Atreides
The House Atreides has two advantages that no other faction has. First, there are seven Atreides leaders compared to only five for every other faction. This is particularly useful after several battles result in a few dead leaders in the Tleilaxu tanks and other leaders unable to fight in one territory because they just fought in another one. The other factions in such situations can be forced to battle without a leader, putting them at a serious disadvantage as they will be unable to play Battle cards without a leader. The Atreides, however, have two more leaders than anyone else and can more easily avoid such troubles.
The other Atreides advantage is the battle power of prescience or foreknowledge. Being able to know one aspect of your opponent's Battle Plan gives you a real strategic strength. If you have both kinds of weapon or defense cards you can know ahead which to play to kill your opponent's leader or protect your own. Knowing the leader or number of forces dialed against you lets you gauge the importance of killing that leader versus dialing more forces yourself versus, in the worst case, recognizing imminent defeat and saving good cards or leaders for another time.
Your weakness is that you have no income except spice you can collect from spice blows or as battle booty. Yet you need spice to buy Market cards, increase your revival rate, or ship forces onto the planet. The decision to gain spice versus conquer strongholds will become more difficult as the first two turns pass and anyone can win with surprise stronghold attacks. Will you have enough resources to prevent this by others, and perhaps even to win this way yourself?
Fremen
The Fremen are native to Dune and know the ways of the planet. They have an extra move compared to other factions, are not destroyed by storms, and can 'ride the worm' for even more movement.
This mobility and 'planet craft' generally gives them safe access to risky spice blows and occasional bonus moves via sandworm. They also live on the planet and don't need to pay spice to ship down onto it, so their need for it is less while their access to it can be easier than for other factions.
The Fremen do not have any special abilities in battle, however. Some of their leaders have high battle values, but that is not a lot of help against a well-used weapon or an implanted call to turn traitor at a crucial time. In addition, able to ship only five forces per turn onto the Polar Sink, they cannot suddenly overwhelm an adversary but must instead develop a long term strategy to have forces where needed to prevent an unexpected win by another, or to move into impregnable positions when the time is right and repel all outsiders.
Harkonnen
House Harkonnen is renowned for treachery. In this game that is represented by controlling several traitors who pretend to be leaders of your opponents, but actually are loyal to you. At the beginning of the game you control as many traitors as there are players, whereas your opponents each control only one traitor. When a traitor you control is played against you in battle and you wish to reveal that the leader works for you (you may not want to reveal this right away to lure your opponent into trusting this leader with an important later mission) then you immediately win, losing nothing while your opponent loses everything. You even earn the traitorous leader's value in spice.
In addition to controlling more traitors, every time the Harkonnen player is involved in a battle, they get access to more Traitors. This enables them, as the game proceeds, to know more and more about which leaders are not traitors and which may be, and to refresh their selection of traitors as some may be exposed and/or killed during play. Encountering one of your controlled traitors in battle is so overwhelmingly to your advantage that you should generally try to get into as many battles as you can, not risking high numbers of forces or important leaders if you can avoid it, but probing the leaders put up against you by factions whose leaders you control. As the game progresses more traitors are bound to show up and give you powerful victories.
You experience the same need for spice as the Atreides, and you need to factor collecting spice into your strategy.
Imperium
The Imperium has a significant income, as opposed to the other factions, from the purchases of Market cards by their opponents. Depending on the strategies of those opponents, the Imperium may have the best chance to win by amassing spice in the fifth round.
But they are also well situated to win by military means. In addition to their wealth, the Imperium has the ability to use the mind-controlling "Voice" developed over generations by the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, which can force or forbid the use of a specific weapon by their opponent in battle. This requires or prevents the use of a poison, projectile, or special weapon – if possible – by the opponent. If the opponent cannot comply with the Voice, however, they are free to do as they wish regarding choice of weapon.
Depending on Battle card defenses, wise use of the Voice can usually safeguard the Imperial leader. Even without any defensive cards, though, the Imperium can sometimes successfully bluff an opponent into not playing a weapon by using the Voice to forbid one type and acting prepared to defend against the other type.
Two Player Games
A two-player game is simply a game where only two factions are played, each by a different player.
Players can either agree between themselves which factions they want to play, or choose randomly. To do this take one Traitor card from each faction, shuffle, and deal one card to each player. Reveal the Traitor cards to show what faction each player is playing, then return the Traitor cards to the Traitor Deck.
Possible match-ups are:
- Cousins - Atreides vs Imperium
- Quarrel - Atreides vs Fremen
- Kanly - Atreides vs Harkonnen
- Desert Rats - Harkonnen vs Fremen
- Suspicion - Imperium vs Harkonnen
- Opposites - Imperium vs Fremen
Four Strongholds
Two player games use only four strongholds.
Players can either decide which stronghold they want to cover, or select which stronghold to cover randomly.
To determine which stronghold will be covered in sand, roll the die;
- 0 = Carthag
- 1 or 2 = Sietch Tabr
- 3 or 4 = Habbanya Sietch
- 5 or 6 = Tuek's Sietch
- Storm icon = Arrakeen
Cover the stronghold rolled with the appropriate Stronghold Blocker tokens. Note, the stronghold you cover is now a sand territory. All other rules remain the same.
Allies—2 Player Game
Players can also have a double faction 2 player game, with each of the 2 players playing an alliance of two factions: Atreides & Fremen vs. Harkonnen & Imperium.
Certain special rules are necessary for this option:
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Forces: The Harkonnen & Imperium player takes 20 Harkonnen force tokens and places them in the force area of their double faction sheet and the Atreides & Fremen player takes 20 Atreides force tokens and places 15 forces in the reserves area of their double faction sheet, and 5 forces in the Polar Sink.
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Leaders: The leaders of each double faction are combined and enough are randomly drawn using the traitor cards to create a blended set - 7 for Atreides & Fremen and 5 for Harkonnen & Imperium. Each player now takes the leader discs that match their blended set and places them in the force area of their double faction sheet.
The remaining leaders are not used in the double faction game. Put the unused traitor cards and matching leader discs for those leaders back in the box.
Players may either announce the leaders in their faction's set or both keep their faction leaders secret.
Both players return the active traitor card sets to the board and shuffle them together to make the traitor deck.
The game is now played in the normal way, go to Traitors in the Setup section above.
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Faction Abilities: Each blended group uses a mix of their faction abilities as described in the Allied Faction rules below.
Atreides & Fremen: Allied Advantages
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Free Revival: 2 Forces.
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Spice: 6 Spice.
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Forces: 15 forces start in your reserve area. 5 forces start in the Polar Sink.
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Leaders: You have more leaders than the Harkonnen & Imperium double faction.
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Storm: When the Storm moves, your forces in sand territories are not destroyed by the Storm.
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Spice Blow: When a Sandworm is drawn during Spice Blow, if you have forces in either or both of the territories showing on the top face up Spice card, for each Spice territory occupied by your forces, they may "ride the worm."
To "ride the worm" you move any or all of these forces to any other territory no more than 3 territories away. However, any territories your forces pass through to the new territory must be sand and a Sandworm will never move into or through the Storm.
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Shipping & Movement: You may bring up to 5 forces into the Polar Sink from your reserves for free. You may not pay to bring in other forces from your reserves. Also, during Shipment and Movement you may move 2 separate groups of your forces up to 3 territories away, or 1 group up to 6 territories away.
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Prescience: Before Battle Plans are created, you get to see one part of your opponent's Battle Plan.
Choose to see one of the following:
- Number dialed on the Battle Wheel
- Leader
- Card played on weapon side of the Battle Wheel
- Card played on defense side of the Battle Wheel
Harkonnen & Imperium: Allied Advantages
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Free Revival: 2 Forces.
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Spice: 15 Spice.
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Forces: 20 Forces start in your reserve area.
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Traitors: During the game setup, you are not dealt traitors until after your opponent has chosen their traitor and returned the unclaimed traitor cards to the Traitor deck. Then you shuffle the Traitor deck and draw the top 4 cards and keep any 2.
Return the unclaimed cards to the Traitor deck and shuffle it.
In addition, during the battle phase before each of your battles, you may take the top card of the Traitor deck into your hand and then return one traitor card from your hand face down to the bottom of the traitor deck. If you are in more than one battle and choosing battles, you may take your Traitor card before choosing which battle to fight.
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Market: Whenever your opponent buys a Market card, they pay the 2 spice to you instead of the Spice Bank.
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Voice: During Battles, you may use "the Voice" and tell your opponent that they must play or must not play one weapon type, specifically a poison weapon, a projectile weapon, or a special weapon. Your opponent must comply if possible. If they cannot comply they may play any card that is appropriate.
Winning The Game
Control of Dune, the goal of the game, can be established in one of two ways – military or economic. The contending factions have five turns to do this.
Turns 1 & 2, Development
During the first two development turns, while no faction can win, players have a chance to build their strength. Gaining spice is crucial as it is required to make useful card purchases at the Market, to revive killed leaders and extra force tokens, and for the off-planet factions (Atreides, Harkonnen, and the Imperium) to pay to ship forces onto Dune. But establishing early control of strongholds is also important. Generally factions will occupy strongholds early to prevent opponents from dominating too many strongholds by the third and fourth turns.
Military Victory
Once turns three through five arrive, sudden military wins are possible and players who ship and move last can take advantage of any positional weakness they find. The player hoping to win will, if moving early, anticipate possible end-of-turn stronghold invasions by making pre-emptive attacks. If moving later, they will look for weaknesses left by their opponents and forcefully exploit them.
Economic Victory
It often happens, however, that good players cancel each other out in fighting to control strongholds. In turn five this leaves an opportunity for players to win by an entirely different route – by amassing spice. If no faction has won the game by controlling three strongholds by the end of the battle phase of the fifth turn, spice is collected for that turn and then the player with the most spice (including each stronghold still controlled counting as 5 spice for the occupant) wins the game. In the case of ties, wins are shared.
Glossary
Dune is set in a vast universe with advanced races and technologies.
- Crysknife: The sacred knife of the Fremen, manufactured from teeth taken from dead sandworms.
- Gom Jabbar: A poison needle tipped with meta-cyanide.
- Hajr: A desert journey.
- Maula Pistol: A spring-loaded gun for firing darts.
- Ornithopter: An aircraft capable of sustained wing-beat flight similar to the mechanics used by birds.
- Spice Bank: The official place where spice storage and management is controlled.
- The Nexus: A planetologist survival station that acts as a haven from the dangers of Dune.
- Tleilaxu Ghola: Manufactured clones created by Tleilaxu technicians (a race of humans dedicated to genetic engineering) using cells collected from deceased humans.
- Tleilaxu Tanks: The place where dead leaders and forces wait for revival.
Credits
Producers: Peter Simunovich, John-Paul Brisigotti. Game Design: Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge, Bill Eberle, Greg Olotka, Jack Reda. Genuine Entertainment Producer: Joe LeFavi. Graphic Design: Casey Davies. Cover Design: Vicki Tunkel. Games Design © Gale Force Nine 2021. TM & © 2021 Legendary. All Rights Reserved. Gale Force Nine is a Battlefront Group Company.