DUNE – 26 March 2008 – four player
A foul wind blew across Arrakis, foretelling a coming evil.
The Fremen deployed their forces evenly across Sietch Tabyr, False Wall South and False Wall West. Did they smell it in the air, or were they just playing it safe? In either case, their efforts would do little to prepare them for the coming storm.
Turn 1 - The calm before the storm
The Atreides were interested only in spice. They shipped troops through Tuek’s Sietch to the spice blow in Cielago North. The Emperor was close behind, closing the door behind the Atreides by shipping a small force into Tuek’s Sietch. The Harkonnen did nothing but plot treachery while the Fremen reinforced their troops in Sietch Tabyr.
This was the only peace that Arrakis was to see.
Turn 2 - All hell breaks loose…
The Emperor took the initiative by dropping troops into the still-empty Habbanya Ridge Sietch. The Harkonnen,
feeling ornry, shipped troops through Arrakeen, moving them up to the spice blow in the Broken
Land – all but one, that is. One was left behind to stick its finger in the eye of the Atreides.
Fremen forces, intent on keeping the spice out of the hands of
the Harkonnen, marched to the Broken Land.
The Atreides, not wanting to be outdone by their Harkkonen nemeses, shipped troops through
Carthag and up to the Broken Land, making sure to leave one behind to harry Carthag. A spiteful
move that was to backfire horribly.
The Baron was the aggressor and he selected Carthag for his first battleground. Just as the
blood-enemies were preparing for battle, the Harkonnen played a Karama card to swap cards with
the Atreides, thus ensuring that the Atreides leaders would be incapable of defending themselves.
Oh, the treachery!
The single Atreides token in Carthag was swept aside while Umman Kudu murdered Doctor Yueh. Yueh’s
not-so-classic Jubba Cloak/Kulon defense availed little against Kudu’s poisoned weapon.
The Baron stole a leader from the Atreides and moved on.
Next was Arrakeen. Captain Nefud raised his projectile weapon to shoot Duncan Idaho in the head
before being crushed by the massive Atreides force, but then the Baron reminded him that Duncan
was a Traitor! More Harkonnen treachery! Another dead Atreides leader and another stolen.
The Harkonnen then turned their sights on the Fremen in the Broken Land. Lady Jessica (now
working for the Harkonnen) used her snooper to avoid the poisoned weapon of Stilgar, while making
him face her Gom Jabbar. She left him face-down in the sand and returned to the Atreides camp as
if nothing had happened.
Finally, the Harkonnen fought in the Broken Land against the decimated faction of the Atreides.
The Beast Rabban showed up to shoot the purple-stained lips right off of a defenseless Thufir Hawat
and then the last Atreides leader was stolen.
Mayhem aplenty, but all of it one-sided. The early treachery of the Harkonnen allowed them to skate through four battles without contest, as attested to by the fact that in two of the four battles he dialed ‘0’. The net result: The Baron Harkonnen sitting pretty with a hand full of good cards, three enemy leaders and 15 spice from battles (plus three harvested). The Fremen had lost their cards and two leaders and the Atreides had no cards, no leaders, no strongholds, no tokens on the map and 14 tokens in the tanks. It would take days for Paul Atreides to remove the Harkonnen bootprint from his face.
The Emperor alone stood between the Harkonnen and a turn 3 victory.
Turn 3 - The stars align
The Harkonnen luck overflowed as their single token in Arrakeen is locked in by the storm. What a tremendous boon this turned out to be!
Harkonnen troops, bloated on their recent kills and overconfident as all hell, dropped into Tuek’s Sietch to challenge the Imperial forces. One lone token wandered from Carthag to Sietch Tabyr. The Fremen, fearing to make a real move, reinforced Sietch Tabyr again while the Atreides shipped one lone token through Carthag into the Imperial Basin. The Emperor dropped a strength 13 force into Carthag to teach the Harkonnen a harsh lesson.
The first battle took place in Tuek’s Sietch, where Aramsham poisoned the Harkonnen Cheap Hero and drove them from the Sietch. The second battle took place in Carthag. Nine strength of Harkonnen took on thirteen strength of Emperor – and this is where the Emperor’s luck had fallen short.
If the Emperor had managed to pick up a projectile weapon, or if the storm had moved less than six, or if the Emperor had only one more token to put into Arrakeen (or probably if the Harkonnen hadn’t pulled the Beast as one of their traitor picks) then the Emperor would have snatched victory from the Harkonnen in this battle and won the game. However, it was not to be and the Emperor (who would have lost his leader anyway) played a Cheap Hero against the Beast and lost the tie due to the Harkonnen remaining the aggressor.
The final battle was in Sietch Tabyr where the Harkonnen were driven out by the Fremen, but the single Hark token managed to drag 9 Fremen tokens into the tanks with him. An amusing punative move.
Turn 4 - The Harkonnen war machine grinds on
The storm continued it’s annoying trend by moving one space to lock in Carthag. The Atreides blew the shield wall, so Carthag is cleansed of its Harkonnen stink, but it sat empty for this turn.
The Emperor prepared for another turn of dealing harshly with the Harkonnen in a desperate stalling tactic, but didn't have the initiative. The Fremen, in what was a random and costly move, took the opportunity to deliver a crushing force of 13 into Habbanya Sietch to kick the Emperor while he was down. The Atreides did nothing while the Emperor shipped a small harassing force into Arrakeen and prepared for the inevitable invasion of Tuek’s Sietch. The Harkonnen invasion force of 7 followed immediately.
The first battle was between the Fremen and the Emperor in Habbanya Sietch. Otheym (clearly a traitor in the service of the Harkonnen) led his force to victory against Captain Aramsham. Fremen and Imperial resources that could have been used to blunt the Harkonnen advance were flushed down the proverbial toilet and the now-cardless Emperor went on to lose both battles against the Harkonnen in Arrakeen and Tuek’s Sietch, setting up the Baron for an easy win.
Turn 5 - The Fremen stand alone
The Fremen drunk on their token victory in Habbanya Sietch and having taken the Emperor out of the game, were all that stood before the Harkonnen Juggernaut. With few resources of their own they stood no chance at all.
The Atreides and Emperor, both with nothing to say about events, did nothing.
The Harkonnen shipped three tokens into the empty city of Carthag and moved one over to reinforce Arrakeen. The Fremen, finding themselves with no other option, moved their three mewing kittens to face the snarling Harkonnen pit bull in Arrakeen.
Predictably, the Harkonnen (led by the Beast Rabban) treated the Fremen force like Ned Beatty in Deliverence, and...
Dune fell beneath the hobnailed boot of the Harkonnen.