Dune: War for Arrakis

In standard two-player play, each player commands one faction. Three or four players share two cooperative factions; Mahdi solo has the player command the Atreides and operate the Harkonnens through dedicated procedures. In two-player setup, draw 1 Atreides Secret Objective and start all three Prescience markers and Supremacy at 0.

At round start, each side draws 1 Planning card from each of its two decks and 3 shared Prescience cards are revealed. Resolve Vehicle Placement, Action Resolution, Desert Hazards, Spice Harvesting, then End of the Round; repeat until a faction wins.

The lowest Imperium marker determines Harkonnen available Action dice and Vehicles. The Atreides always roll 4 Action dice. Two-player dashboards allow at most 3 Harkonnen dice or 2 Atreides dice per result; excess dice change to available results according to the allocation rules.

The Atreides act first, then factions alternate one Action each: spend a matching die for a dashboard Action or any die to play a Planning card. The phase ends immediately after the last available Harkonnen Action; unused Atreides Actions do not grant extra turns.

With fewer unused dice than the Harkonnens, the Atreides may take Desert Power without spending a die: place 2 Wormsign tokens, move 2 different Sandworms, or attack with 1 Sandworm. Strategy instead moves 2 different Legions or attacks with 1; Leadership requires a Leader.

An Area normally holds at most 6 Units. Leaders do not count but must accompany at least 1 Unit. Each concealed Atreides Deployment token counts as 1 Unit for movement and stacking; attacks or scouting reveal it, replace it with its troops, and immediately remove any overstacked Units.

Legions normally move to an adjacent Area without enemy Units, enemy Settlements, or Sandworms; attacking uses the appropriate Action instead. Atreides Sandriding follows consecutive Wormsign/Sandworm Areas. Harkonnen Troop-Transport removes 1 Ornithopter connected to the starting Sector to extend movement or attack by 1 Area, at most once per Legion per turn.

In battle, both sides roll dice based on Units, Planning cards, and other modifiers, capped at 6 dice. Hits inflict damage, Shields cancel Hits, and Leaders convert Special results. Each Hit can remove a Regular, downgrade an Elite to an available Regular (otherwise remove it), or remove a Leader. A victorious attacking Legion may advance together or remain where it was.

Desert Hazards resolves Wormsign and Sandworms, then tests exposed Harkonnen Legions against Coriolis Storms. Surviving Harvesters then yield 1 spice in Desert or 2 in Deep Desert. Each Imperium marker costs 2 spice to maintain or 3 to raise one step; otherwise it drops one step. Activate every Ban corresponding to a dropping marker, plus those at the bottom.

Destroy a Settlement by winning a Legion attack and advancing into its Area; Sandworms or Storms eliminating defenders do not suffice. Destroying a Sietch grants its rank in Supremacy; 10 wins immediately. Destroying a Harkonnen Settlement advances every Prescience marker by its rank. The Atreides normally check all three Secret Objective thresholds at round end, but may win immediately after destroying Arrakeen and advancing Prescience. At most 2 Prescience cards can be claimed each round.