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4

House Alreides

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	Atreides, like their Harkonnen cousins, have the age-old problem of making an honest buck. They must be able to use the ten spice with which they begin the game to give them control of later spice mining. They lack decisive power in any area to make up for this lack of constant income and their advantages are such that the Atreides player should consider himself first and foremost a spice collector. Not for him the Harkormen pleasures of spice from dead or captured enemy leaders.
	Like the Harkonnen, the Atreides start with half their forces on Arrakis, and based in one of the ornithopter cities. Arakeen does not, however, have quite the range of Carthag (which is only out of range of four possible spiceblows). Territorially it means the Atreides player will be clashing mainly with Guild and Harkonnen forces, while the Harkonnen fight the Firemen and the Atreides. These positions can alter radically, but they are likely to hold at the beginning o f the game and should be considered in choosing traitors. One of the advantages also available to the Atreides in searching for spice is their ability to look at the next spice card, the sight of a worm can allow the player to avoid losses, or to trick other players into fighting over the area for a comparatively small bait. The advantage may seem small, but it preserves House Atreides from the sudden fearsome losses that occur in this game.
	Further use of the oracular powers can often make the Atreides a difficult group to beat. This is a necessary advantage for they lack special troops (one wonders why the Fedaykin should battle the Kwisatz Haderach) and their leaders are only marginally better than the Harkonnen. The most obvious advantage is that of "knowing" one part of an enemy's battle-plan. This is useful, but players should take care that the power does not lead them to forget the skills of battle. In any major battle the Atreides are likely to find a karama card taking away their vision, although the play of a karama card by the Atreides in exposing the entire battle-plan of an opponent can be a shattering blow at a crisis point in the game. The decision of which part of the plan to check is always difficult, and I am a past master at doing it wrong. Against a Harkonnen I would always check for the weapon used, defeat by a Harkonnen is pretty devastating with resulting captures, and his best bet is to nail your leader. Against other players in spice battles the number dialed is often the most useful figure as it indicates whether he is there in a spoiling attack or hopes to collect spice himself.
	The decision as to which section of a plan to consider can be reinforced by the viewing of the cards in the bidding round. If you are doing this properly you might as well write the cards down and note the recipient. Such information may save you from wasting your other powers. It is also very useful in making sure your money is well spent (as well as making the other players just a little wary of a player with no useless cards in his hand). We ruled that the second (free) Harkonnen card was not seen by the Atreides, and this means that the Atreides must always keep reminding himself that one player is not totally safe. Unfortunately one frequently forgets!

- Ip ~,

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	The reasonable revival rate is certainly a boon to the Atreides who will find that even with CHOAM charity he can still bring fresh troops into action. Perhaps the best advantage is the Kwisatz Haderach. His + 2 is most useful if the Atreides are getting a little short on the spice, of course one still fears the death of the leader but the protection of the leaders from being called out as traitors will tend to discourage players from picking an Atreides leader in the first place,
	The Atreides are a testing side to play successfully, they must live off their wits more than most, but they are not without great power in the vital areas of combat and bidding. Providing they are played with care, and the spice supply is kept up they can be winners, but played too wildly they can be reduced to the positon of bandits.

House Atrelides

	Paul is many people's favorite character in the game. He starts right (,',' with a strong position on the board. He holds one of the two cities with t, 11 tokens, so he has automatic movement advantages and half his troops are already on the board. Starting with 10 spice, he can afford to make strong spice-bids for the treachery cards. His leaders have good values and he has a choice among several strong heros, unlike some other players.
	But Paul's special foreknowledge advantage is the real appeal of the character. Seeing one turn ahead into the spice deck enables the cagy player to plan his moves with the secondary goal of getting into range for a far-off spice blow next turn. In addition it enables him to avoid being devoured b) the giant worms, and in fact move to a stronghold or fortify his position in one that when the worm comes up and a nexus is declared, Paul becomes an ally worth courting.
	Paul also has a better resource-economy due to his foreknowledge. Besides knowing where the spice blows are ahead of time, to collect wealth, he can see the treachery cards before bidding on them, thus purchasing only what he needs. An Atreides player with a poison, a projectile weapon, and a defense against each ought, if there is any justice in gamedom, to have ail easy chance of winning the game.
	But ultimately the test of the game is in the battles, and that is where the Atreides player shines. The leaders used by each side are crucial to most bal ties. Paul, by simply seeing ahead of time the offense or the defense his opponent will play, can guarantee either his own leader's safety or the death of the opposing hero, plus having a fifty-fifty chance at the other. This assumes he has the right cards, of course (which he will have seen to in his bidding already). I've seen many times when just the knowledge that Paul had sue odds working for him caused his opponent to lose hope, not play an~ treachery, and consign a low leader to what was seen as certain death-onlN to find out that Paul had no cards worth using and had just bluffed himself into a nice gain.