Dune War for Arrakis Board Game: Rules, Rounds and Background

Setup

1. Join the two board sections. Shuffle the 8 sietch tokens and place one facedown in each marked area. Only the Atreides player can look at them.

2. Place 1 Atreides starting deployment token and 1 Naib leader in each area with a sietch. Keep the shuffled standard deployment tokens facedown beside the Atreides player.

3. Place the six Harkonnen settlements (four Pyon Villages, Carthag and Arrakeen). Put 2 facedown Harkonnen starting tokens on each, then flip them and swap in the matching figures.

4. Place the six ecological testing stations facedown in their marked areas, 1 per area.

5. Set the three prescience markers and the supremacy marker to 0. Shuffle the prescience cards into a deck and the 16 wormsign tokens into a pool.

6. Each player takes a dashboard and places the named leader cards marked in play at the start faceup on it. The Harkonnen player also takes the Spice Must Flow board, with the 3 Imperium markers at the highest step.

7. Shuffle the four planning decks separately. The Atreides player draws 1 of 6 secret objective cards, keeps it hidden from the Harkonnen player and starts with 1 Bene Gesserit token.

Turn by turn

• Action dice

  Both players roll action dice and slot them on their dashboards. The Atreides always roll 4. The Harkonnen roll depends on the Spice Must Flow board, which blocks some dice. Results are strategy, leadership, deployment, mentat and house. Any die can also pay for a planning card.

• Moving legions

  All units and leaders in an area make up a legion. Strategy and leadership actions move legions to an adjacent free area, and a leader must travel with at least 1 unit. The Atreides can sandride across areas with wormsign or sandworms. A Harkonnen ornithopter lets a legion move up to 2 areas away.

• Battles

  Each side rolls 1 combat die per unit, plus 1 per planning card discarded, up to 6 in total. A defender in a settlement adds dice equal to its rank. Compare hits, shields and leader results, then remove casualties. The attacker may continue, but attacking a settlement costs 1 hit. The defender may then retreat.

• Wormsign and storms

  During desert hazards, the Atreides place a wormsign in each desert area with a Harkonnen legion or harvester, then flip the tokens. Each shows sand (nothing), a sandworm, or a burrowing sandworm that counts only in deep desert. A sandworm destroys a lone harvester unless a carryall saves it. If a Harkonnen legion is there, it must retreat, or the sandworm attacks if it cannot.

• Coriolis storms

  After the wormsigns, the Atreides roll 2 combat dice for each Harkonnen legion in a vulnerable plateau, minor erg or desert area. Terrain determines how many hits a roll can inflict. Deep desert is the most dangerous.

• Spice and Imperium bans

  Each harvester collects 1 spice in desert or 2 in deep desert. Spend 2 spice to keep an Imperium marker in place, or 3 to raise it one step. If neither happens, the marker drops a step and activates a ban that restricts the Harkonnens until the next harvesting phase.

• Prescience

  The Atreides advance three prescience markers by claiming up to 2 prescience cards a round, taking ecological testing stations and destroying Harkonnen settlements. At step 3 on a marker, Chani, Paul-Muad'Dib or Reverend Mother Jessica arrives; step 6 brings Alia, and step 8 lets the Atreides detonate the Family Atomics.

End of the game and scoring

Key rules

• Asymmetric factions

  In a two-player game, each side leads a faction with an ally: the Atreides with the Fremen ally, the Harkonnens with the Corrino ally. In three- and four-player games, players form two teams and split the four powers.

• Hidden Atreides

  Atreides units enter as facedown deployment tokens. Reveal them when the area is attacked or scouted by an ornithopter, or choose to reveal them with guerrilla training.

• Regeneration tank

  When a named leader is removed, it goes to the regeneration tank on its owner’s dashboard instead of leaving the game. Spend a die to move it one slot forward. It returns after leaving the last slot: 3 slots for the Atreides and 5 for the Harkonnens.

• Settlements

  Settlements muster new forces, and destroying one affects both sides’ victory chances. An undefended settlement falls automatically when attacked, but you still need a legion to attack it.

• Bene Gesserit tokens

  Each player can spend 1 Bene Gesserit token per round as a temporary action die. The Atreides start with 1 and gain 2 more as the supremacy marker advances.