Dune (board game)
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- Dune was also the title of a 1984 Parker Brothers board game. This article is about the 1979 Avalon Hill game.
Gameplay
Players take on the role of one of the factions in the politics of the planet Arrakis. The game board, which represents the planet, is split into a number of territories, some of which are strongholds. Players move their units from territory to territory, and if two or more players enter the same territory, the contest is resolved using a hidden bidding system. Once one player, or an alliance of players, controls enough of the strongholds, they are the winner.The board is also divided into radial sections, and the planet's permanent storm moves along those sections, destroying any troops in its path. Each turn, two territories undergo "Spice blow" — any units in those sections are destroyed, and an amount of spice is left in their place.
An auction is held each turn in which players can purchase treachery cards - for example weapons (lasers or poisons) and defenses, which can be used later in combat.
Each player has as five hero tokens, of varying strengths. Heroes are used in combat, to lead their units. However, each player has a traitor among the other players' heroes, so using them can be a risk. Heroes can be killed in combat, but players may use spice to buy dead heroes back from the Bene Tleilaxu tanks.
Combat
When a territory is contested, each player chooses in secret to sacrifice a proportion of their troops in that territor; each unit sacrificed gives them a base score of one half. They may expend one spice per unit to double the score of that unit to one.They may also choose to add a hero. If they choose to add a hero, they add its strength to their score. They may also use up to two items with their hero - either weapons or defences.
Once both players have chosen their strategies, they reveal the number of units, amount of spice, hero and items used. If the player has chosen their opponent's traitor, they are defeated. Otherwise, if a player has used a weapon for which the other player has not used a defense, their opponent's hero is killed. If a laser is used against a shield, all units and heroes are killed. Otherwise, the scores are then added together, and the player with the lower score is defeated.
Factions
Each player has unique powers which modify the rules:
- House Atreides
- In many cases when bids are performed blind, the Atreides player may use "prescience" to view the object of the bidding.
- The Bene Gesserit
- The Bene Gesserit player may "coexist" with other players' units without causing a confrontation, and may command other players not to use certain cards during combat. If the Bene Gesserit player correctly guesses who will win, they win instead.
- The Emperor
- The Emperor has five elite units (Sardaukar) worth one base unit each. When the other players buy treachery cards, they pay the emperor.
- The Fremen
- The fremen have three elite units, move faster on the board, are not destroyed by spice blow and only suffer half losses from the storm, which they can predict the movemont of. If no-one has won after fifteen turns, and certain strongholds are unoccupied or occupied by the Fremen, they win.
- The Spacing Guild
- The Guild player receives the payment when other players transport units onto the board. They can choose to play at any point during a turn. If no-one has won after fifteen turns, and the Fremen don't win, the Guild do.
- House Harkonnen
- When the Harkonnen player buys a treachery card, they receive a second one free, and they can hold twice as many. Where the other players have one traitor, they have many.
External links
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