(Photo courtesy of CMON Games)
Written by Ed Carter, Staff Writer
Dune: The War for Arrakis
1-4 players
2 hours
Area control, dice, card playing, war game
One of the most popular recent IPs in gaming is Dune; with the 2 movies and the ever-growing collection of novels. For those not familiar, it’s an epic science fiction saga by Frank Herbert that encompasses a world of political intrigue, and religion set on a desert planet where the most valuable thing in the universe is found, the spice melange. This is key to interstellar travel and without it, the ability to fold space is impossible.
The first game came out in the 70’s and Gale Force Nine has re-released an updated version. Dune Imperium is another great game set in the world of Dune, and I have a full review of that you can read. This time, it’s CMON‘s recent release, Dune the War For Arrakis.; an epic take on the battle for the planet between the Atreides and their allies the native Fremen of the planet versus the brutal Harkonens and the Emperor who want to rule the planet with fear and brutality.
He will know their ways: Basic gameplay
For those familiar with the epic War of the Ring, (WOTR) this game is going to look very familiar; as it shares two of the same designers and several mechanics. Unlike its predecessor, this one is much easier to follow and play. It comes with some nice player boards that help with the gameplay that War does not have. This game also only has 2 opposing forces: Where WOTR has each region in Middle Earth, with soldiers from Gondor, Rohan, the dwarves, elves, etc. Similar is the use of action dice, planning cards, and leaders who work in the same way as WOTR.
The setup is very extensive and is covered in the rule book. One thing to note is that the Atreides forces start hiding with the use of deployment tokens while the Harkonens are already on the board.
The game is played in rounds with 6 phases. This game is highly asymmetrical, as each faction has its own unique path to victory. The Harkonen’s path is simpler; destroy 10 points worth of the Atreides forces settlements (sietch’s) marked in supremacy points and they win. The Atreides victory involves a combination of achievements tracked on a prescience track with markers (Jihad, Kwisat Haderach, and sand dwellers) Each game the Atreides player draws a secret objective card that shows a score needed on the prescience track of the three markers; if they meet or exceed that score, they win. Prescience scores are earned by completing objectives on prescience cards and destroying the ecological stations abandoned by the Imperium.
Plans within plans: A game round
Each round starts with each player drawing 2 planning cards, one from each of their faction’s decks. Next, the Atreides player reveals up to 3 prescience cards: the goals they need to achieve to earn prescience.
- The next step is vehicle placement, in addition to destroying the sietchs of the Fremen, the Harkonens need to harvest spice in order to meet the demands of the imperium. Failure to do so, results in sanctions and loss of resources needed to secure the planet. The Harkonen’s achieve this by placing harvesters to collect spice. They also have carryalls to help protect their harvesters and Ornithopters to move troops and scout. The number of vehicles that they can use on a round is found on the Spice Must Flow board. That level is determined using the amount from the lowest group of the 3 who demand spice in the Imperium ( CHOAM, The Landsraad, and The Spacing Guild).
After the vehicles are placed, each player rolls their action dice; these determine what actions they can take during the round. The Harkonen’s start with 8 while the Atreides have 4. While the Atreides have less, they have a free action called Desert power which permits them to use the strength of the desert to their advantage. They can use the Desert power as long as the Harkonen’s have more action dice than they do.
The actions available include moving forces, deploying units, and drawing and using planning cards. Each dice symbol indicates a different action. Before actions are taken, each player is given Bene Gesserit tokens (basically a free action) The Atreides start with one. There are specific rules as to where these are placed. After assigning action dice to their corresponding actions, starting with the Atreides, players take turns using their action dice. Each side starts the game with named leaders, who are key characters from the Dune Universe. More become available from achieving levels along their appropriate victory tracks and planning cards. In addition, each side has generic leaders as well. Leaders are assigned to Legions (groups of units) that move and combat with the opponent’s forces.
Moving forces allow a player to move from one space or more to another unoccupied space. The Atreides can move across multiple spaces by sand riding on worms while the Harkonens use their ornithopters. Most of the Harkonen’s settlements are protected by impassible mountains so their Ornithopters can fly them out into the desert where the Fremen settlements are found.
A deployment action lets a player use deployment tokens to place units and leaders in settlements allowing them to increase their legions. Legions have size restrictions; standard rules say a maximum of 6 units, but this does not include leaders. Leaders provide an extra action and named leaders may provide one or more. Units are either, regular, elite, or special elite. Elites can be reduced to regular when damaged and special elites will automatically cancel a shield in combat. The Atreides can also reveal their starting deployment tokens at any time discarding them and placing the designated units in their place. This is a free action called Guerilla Training.
Legions attack opposing legions or settlements. The Atreides legions can also attack harvesters.
After players take all their actions, the desert hazards are determined. The Atreides player places wormsign tokens in each desert space where the Harkonens have harvesters and Legions. These tokens will indicate if a sandworm appears or not. Sandworms will destroy unprotected harvesters and force legions to retreat. A harvester can be saved by using a carryall.
After revealing the tokens, each Harkonen legion in the desert may suffer from the Coriolis storms. For each legion in the desert, the Atreides player rolls 2 attack dice and for every dagger, a unit is eliminated. The special symbol’s damage is based on the location of the legion (desert or deep desert)
The Harkonens then collect spice from each remaining harvester. The amount of spice is determined by the location the harvester was in, again deep desert or desert. The Harkonens can use the spice to meet the Imperium’s demands or gain Supremacy.
At the end of the round, refresh all named leader cards, remove the wormsign tokens, return them to the token pool, and begin another round until one player achieves victory
May your knife chip and shatter: Combat
Since attacks are such a major action and involve several steps, I wanted to dedicate a whole separate section to this action.
To attack an opposing legion, declare an attack to an adjacent legion, and determine the number of combat dice (1 die for each unit, this does not include leaders) players can discard planning cards to get extra dice. Roll the dice and determine results based on the die faces, (daggers, shields, or special) Daggers cause one point of damage, shields prevent one point of damage, and the special’s results are determined by the leaders involved in the attack. Unnamed leaders cause one point of damage and named leaders have their abilities indicated on their card
Once the results are determined any daggers not prevented by shields, cause a casualty. Players can assign their damage to a regular unit, or remove an elite or special elite and reduce it to a regular unit. The players can choose to retreat or continue the combat. If one side is defeated, then the victor can advance into their area and attack any settlements there. This will destroy the settlement and reward points based on the type and amount.
Arrakis, Dune, Desert Planet: Final thoughts
Since I play WOTR the concept of action dice is familiar and what I really like about this game is the player board. It has slots for each action die, shows the symbol, and says what it can do. I wish they had this for WOTR instead of a full-page player aid. This tool makes that mechanic less challenging, for sure, and since it is the main part of the game that is crucial to enjoying it. That alone, makes this one so I much more accessible to play.
This game is highly Asymmetrical, with unique winning objectives and ways to achieve them. It is balanced with the number of actions because of the desert power-free action and the Benne Gesserit tokens. The combat is streamlined and easy to do.
The game is highly thematic: from the components to the board, it really feels like the world of Dune. The miniatures are highly detailed as typical from CMON, giving a wonderful table presence.
In my collection of wargames, this one can hit the table much easier as you can even play it solo. This is a very challenging mode with a strong AI that is based on several priorities indicated in the rules that determine their actions. The game, however, really shines as a 2 player like WOTR and Star Wars Rebellion.
As a fan of the IP, this was a no-brainer to want this one but for gamers not familiar with Dune, this is a strong wargame on its own and one definitely worth looking at.
Written by Ed Carter
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