Pug's Guide to Dune - Bene Gesserit Strategy
Let me begin by giving you a frame of reference. I play with the Basic Rules plus Optional Rules – no Advanced Rules and no expansions. If you play by a different ruleset, then what I have to say may or may not be helpful – but if you play with different rules then you’ve got bigger problems than the details of my little strategy article!
The Bene Gesserit is the most difficult faction for new players to play (and can even give experienced players fits). Requiring subtlety, patience and careful planning, the BGs can easily fall into crushing pitfalls, but they can also be one of the most fun and rewarding of the factions.
The Bene Gesserit’s main disadvantage is lack of spice. Unlike the Atreides and Harkonnen who start with enough spice to buy cards and take a shot at the spice blows (or the Fremen who expend no resources to speak of to pursue spice) the Bene Gesserit start with little spice and so are ill-advised to start chasing it right away.
However, the advantages of the Bene Gesserit are:
- The Voice (the Bene Gesserit can command their opponents to play or not play particular cards in battle).
- Co-existence (the Bene Gesserit may occupy the same space as an opponent without combat).
- Spiritual advisors (the Bene Gesserit may send a token to accompany any token shipped to the planet by an opponent).
- No useless cards (the Bene Gesserit may use any Useless treachery card as a Karama card).
- Great leaders (every Bene Gesserit leader is a 5).
- Guaranteed income (the Bene Gesserit may call for CHOAM charity every turn, regardless of spice-in-hand).
Awesome abilities. So why don’t the Bene Gesserit win more often? The short answer is that I really don’t know – but it is probably because of hesitation and lack of focus.
SETUP Yeah, yeah - you have one whole token to deploy at the beginning of the game. All I can say is that you should put it in a stronghold and not the Polar Sink. I don't care which one, and if you are in a quandry then you are really over-thinking this minor detail.
HOW TO BEGIN
Buy some cards.
The Bene Gesserit are brutal in combat, but pathetic if they don’t have any
weapons or defenses. After all, what good is the dreaded Voice if you don’t
have the cards to capitalize on your control? So the first priority is to grab
as many weapons and defenses as possible. Once this has been achieved, the Bene
Gesserit will have the freedom to enter battle with relative impunity.
While building up your hand you should be accompanying tokens to every stronghold
your opponents ship to. Almost all shipping goes through strongholds, so almost
all shipping is useful to you – at least in the first couple of turns.
ADVICE ON ADVISORS
Most Bene Gesserit players take advantage of the Spiritual Advisor rule to a fault.
They drop a token everywhere they can and this can lead to the BG player spreading
himself too thin.
There should be BG tokens in every stronghold – but concentrate more on some locations
than others and hold some tokens in reserve. Having all tokens deployed to the map can
make your play too predictable and your forces too small to do what you need them to do.
Obviously Carthag and Arrakeen are the plums worth picking and so represent a greater
payoff for larger numbers of tokens, but they also represent the greatest danger.
Lasgun/shield explosions are more common in these two strongholds, and if the shield
wall is blown the storm won’t respect your decision to co-exist.
PATIENCE WITHOUT TIMIDITY
Of all the factions in Dune, only the Bene Gesserit can truly pick their battles.
The co-existence rule allows the Bene Gesserit player to deny combat anywhere at any
time, meaning that they can weather the lean times without fear of a giant hammer
dropping on them at an inopportune moment.
Unfortunately, the warm, cozy, safe feeling that the Bene Gesserit derive from their
co-existence advantage often leads to complacency. They tend to hide and wait too
long before they actually do something. The most dangerous and terrifying Bene
Gesserit players that I’ve encountered are those who have attacked aggressively
(after getting a good hand of cards). Few things are more terrifying than seeing
the Bene Gesserit ship a pile of tokens into a stronghold – because you just know
that they’re planning on dishing out some punishment, and as the joke goes.....”Doctor
says you’re gonna die”.
The BGs are not particularly effective early in the game, in spite of their
devastating abilities. The early game should be spent gathering resources and
carefully deploying Spiritual Advisors. As the other players begin to hammer on
each other, the Bene Gesserit need only do what’s necessary to prevent the win.
Once a few other factions have waned in power, the BGs are ready to move. Particular
emphasis should be given to Carthag or Arrakeen. If the Bene Gesserit can manage to
get their hands on Ornithopters and Harvesters, they’ll have the mobility they need
to strike at the entire board with devastating effectiveness.
KNOW THY ENEMY
The Bene Gesserit, more than any other faction, profit from their knowledge about
the treachery cards of others (yes, even the Atriedes). Every faction should endeavor
to know what cards their opponents are holding, but the deterministic nature of the
Voice allows the Bene Gesserit to capitalize on the information in a devastating
fashion.
In short, if the Bene Gesserit can determine that an opponent lacks either a
particular weapon or a particular defense then they can Voice the other aspect
of the battle plan and be guaranteed a 5 point swing in the battle by ensuring
that their leader lives and the leader of their opponent dies.
So stay alert, pay attention, and keep track of those treachery cards!
THE BENE GESSERIT PREDICTION
This is a total shot in the dark. Don’t count on it for anything.
Was that clear enough? Okay, then let me step back from that a bit and say that
there is a useful purpose for this rule. You can give yourself a safety net. This
will vary widely from group to group, but try to pick the most dangerous player at
the table and an early-ish turn. Most crazyness happens in the early turns and your
prediction can cover your butt in case of an unexpected early win.
If you are careful, you can even precipitate the win, especially if you are in one
of the last battles against someone going for the win. Throw the battle and win the
game! If you get caught while attempting this nonsense though, you’ll give away your
prediction and no one will fear it for the rest of the game.
What is really cool is when another player fails to go for the win on a turn that you
didn’t predict, simply because you seem a little too eager for them to win on that
turn. Use this to your advantage and mess with their heads whenever possible.
TREACHEROUS WHISPERINGS
Useless cards – No cards are useless to the BGs, which gives them total freedom
in their bids. Not only are Useless cards very useful for you, but you will often
get them for a song (if the Atreides make it obvious that they aren’t interested).
Don’t hold them in contempt, though. Many BG players use their Useless cards in
truly useless fashion, failing to realize the power that they grant.
If the Bene Gesserit are in need to weapons or defenses, then Karama/Useless cards
should be used to auto-buy treachery cards until the problem is solved. Apart from
that, at least one Karama/Useless card should be held for treacherous
opportunities.
Stopping the win – No one is in better position to stop a win than the
Bene Gesserit. With a few tokens in every stronghold, their declaration of
non-coexistence at the beginning of the movement phase is enough to lock a
stronghold and prevent pesky factions from trying to sneak in for the win.
When the BG turn rolls around they are free to move some or all of their tokens
out of the stronghold (depending on if the culprit has already moved or not),
and the devastating BG combat ability will often allow them to make a deal
with the terrified resident faction – sometimes actually profiting from the
conflict.
Further, the Useless card advantage means that the Bene Gesserit are much more
likely to be holding a Karma card than any other faction at the table. This can
allow them to manipulate game events to make winning much harder on other
factions - especially when cancelling Prescience or starred token advantages.
Attacking for spice – The Bene Gesserit faction is the most brutal assassin
at the table. With at least one weapon and a defense or two, the BGs can maraud
around the table murdering enemy leaders at their whim and collecting spice for
it to boot. Don’t forget about this important income stream.
HOW TO WIN
Dune is a game of opportunism, and nothing is a sure thing, so there’s really
no way to make grand strategies. Everything depends on the moves (and especially
the mis-moves) of your opponents. Learning to stalk your prey carefully and
striking when the time is right is the most important (and difficult) thing
that you will learn in this game.
The Bene Gesserit need to exercise patience early on, making sure to buy some
weapons and defenses (and maybe holding onto a nice Karama/Useless card) and
deploying troops across the board (but holding some in reserve).
Moving against Carthag or Arrakeen is a terrific move as it provides mobility
that the Bene Gesserit lacks and Harvesters as a bonus. Attacks in spice blow
territories become a win-win as the death of enemy leaders will provide spice
and even if there are few BG tokens left over from the fight, they will each
harvest 3 spice each. This added mobility also gives you the freedom to drop
Spiritual Advisors into the Polar Sink instead of the territories your opponents
ship to, and then move them almost anywhere on the planet.
Pick fights you can win. Spice is precious to the Bene Gesserit and cards lost
may not be recovered for many turns.
When the table is weak, you are king (or queen, depending on how in-character
you are). Wait until two or three factions have been hurt and then move in for
the kill. It’s truly surprising how devastating the Bene Gesserit can be when
they are prepared and start to move against a weakened table.
IN SUMMARY
- First priority is buying cards.
- Bide your time.
- Keep some tokens in reserve.
- Try to hold Carthag or Arrakeen.
- Remember that battles are a good source of spice.
Note: This strategy article is intended primarily for new-ish players. The game is far too fluid to allow any definitive statements on strategy, and it may vary a lot depending on the group you play with. Experience is the best guide (as the old timers will tell you), but I just wanted to point the newbs in the right direction.