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WELCOME TO DUNE: The Board Game
After some chats in the dune thread, I've decided to run an LP of the Dune board game. Mostly in the hope of getting people to see this amazing game, and recapturing some of the glory of the long lost Twilight Struggle LP from 6 years ago.
The Rules, or Plans within plans
Dune is a strategic game for 6 players and in my opinion only 6 players. It involves a struggle for control of the planet Arrakis.
The game is divided into 9 (really 6) phases, which I will go into depth in the second post. The winner must control 3 of the 5 strongholds on the surface of Dune, which are in clockwise order: Carthag, Arrakeen, Tuek's Sietch, Habbanya Sietch and Sietch Tabr. If an alliance is formed, the alliance must control 4 of the 5 strongholds instead. The Map looks like so:
Game Phases and brief description:
1. Storm Phase - In this phase, the Fremen player will reveal the storm's movement (a number between 1 and 6) and move the storm that far. Any units not on Rock are destroyed by the storms passing, and units cannot be shipped into an area covered by the storm.
2. Spice Blow/Nexus - The top of the spice deck is revealed, and spice is dropped in that tile. If the card is Shai-Halud, a Worm appears, and devours the top card of the discard deck, destroying all spice and killing all units. A Nexus phase then begins, where players may form or break alliances.
3. CHOAM Charity - Any player with 0 or 1 spice will be given 2 spice by CHOAM Charity. The Bene Gesserit always collect this.
4. Bidding Phase - 5 Treachery cards are laid face down, and an auction begins on each card in sequence. The Atriedes Player can look at the card and may reveal what it is or charge players for the privilege. All payments are made to the Emperor. Once all 5 cards are bid on, we move to...
5. Revival - Players receive their free revival, and may pay to revive up to 3 units in total.
6. Shipment and Movement - Starting with the first player counterclockwise of the Storm, and proceeding counterclockwise, each player ships units to Dune and then moves them one by one.
7. Battle Phase - Starting again with the first player counterclockwise of the storm, each player resolves all their battles. They may choose in what order.
8. Collection Phase - Players collect spice off the game board. They may take a maximum of 2 spice per troop, or 3 if they control Carthag or Arrakeen. Carthag & Arrakeen give 2 spice to their controller, and Tuek's Sietch gives 1.
9. Mentat Phase - Check for a winner, and if there is no winner, have an ice cold Saphoo Root brew and kick back.
The 6 factions are:
House Atredies
The noble House of Atriedes, ruled by Duke Leto Atriedes of Caladan, is the family and faction of Paul, the protagonist of the book. The atriedes have decent leadership, and the power of limited prescience. They will be able to see Strategy cards in the bidding phase, whilst others bid blindly. The Atriedes also know where the next Spice Blow will happen, and can force an opponent to reveal a single part of their battle plan publicly. There is also a rumor that they might have the Kwizatz Haderach, but this is impossible as it is a full generation too early. 
The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood
The sisterhood of the Bene Gesserit are omnipresent advisors, spies, spiritualists and generally schemey women. They have mastered superhuman abilities over thousands of years, and are now flaunting them in the battle for Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit arrive as a noncombatant spiritual advisor with other forces when they are shipped to Dune, and can flip into combatants at the start of any movement phase in any of the zones they occupy. They will automatically do this if the faction they were coexisting with leaves the territory. In addition, during a combat, the Bene Gesserit can use the Voice to force an opponent to modify their battle plan. The Bene Gesserit can also predict a winner and a turn, and if that player wins on that turn, the BG player will win instead lol.
The Emperor of the known Universe (House Corrino)
The Padishah Emperor's have ruled for 10,000 years, and Shaddam Corrino is intent to go on ruling. The Emperor maintains an elite, nearly unstoppable army known as the Sardaukar who are twice as strong as other factions units. In addition, during the strategy phase, all of the spice paid by other factions is paid to the Emperor, not the bank, leaving the Emperor fabulously wealthy almost all game. As a downside, the Emperor starts with all forces in reserve, with no holdings on Dune...
The Fremen
The Fremen are descendants of the Zensunni settlers on Arrakis generations ago, and have adapted their society, culture, physiology and fighting style to Dune itself. The Fremen's key advantage is that as the controllers of the vast desert of Arrakis, they don't need to pay the Guild to move onto the planet. In addition, they can move twice as far once on the game board. When a Worm appears, if it appears in a territory in which the Fremen are, they can ride the worm to any other territory. Additionally, they know how far the storm will move around the game board and when caught by it only lose half of their men. Finally, the Fremen have their own small group of Fedaykin, who are double strength troops. In fact, the Emperor's sardaukar don't offer any advantage against the hardened Fremen!
The Spacing Guild
The Guild have a complete monopoly on Interstellar Travel, and jealously guard it. For this reason, anyone moving to Arrakis who isn't the Fremen, has to pay the guild 1 spice per unit. The Guild itself, pays half price to the bank. The Guild can also move from any territory to any other territory essentially, or back into their reserves. Lastly, they can move at any point during the movement turn, regardless of the turn order.
House Harkonnen
Lead by the vain and devious Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, this house is known for one thing: Treachery. At the start of the game, when players choose their traitors, The Harkonnen player will keep all of their traitors. In addition, any cards they win by bidding will be supplemented with a card from the deck. They can also capture leaders.
Signup
Please register below by replying in a post with WORMSIGN. Please also put your favourite 3 factions in the post as I'll hand them out based on earlier post vs ranking.
Player List
Atriedes -
Bene Gesserit -
Emperor -
Fremen -
Guild -
Harkonnen -
ADVANCED RULES
We're playing with all but one as they are cool and good. They are:
Karama Cards - A pain for the GM tbh, but these cards are hilarious. Their entire list of effects requires its own card.
Increased Spice Flow - There are two spice blows, one after the other.
Advanced rules on factions - I covered most of these above.
House Rules
Alliances are limited to 2 people.
Conditional Orders - For Example, If someone has a Karama card and wants to block Bene Gesserit using the voice during a combat, you can pre-load this by PM to me.
Deadlines There is a lot of downtime in Dune, so I would like to keep the game moving.
ON THAT NOTE I AM LOOKING AT SOMETHING TO SPEED UP BIDDING, MAYBE HAVING OVERLAPPING BIDDING PHASES OF THE CARDS
Links:
Rulebook - https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/Dune-Rulebook-.pdf
FAQ - https://www.gf9games.com/dune/wp-content/uploads/Dune-FAQ.pdf