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"Does the Dune Universe Lend Itself to Big Battle Gaming?" Topic


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255 hits since 17 Nov 2022
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Comments or corrections?

robert piepenbrink Supporting Member of TMP17 Nov 2022 4:57 a.m. PST

People game lots of things, and if they enjoy them, fine.

Based on Frank Herbert, I would not have said there was enough tactical description and tactical balance for a good game, so it would be more a matter of inventing one. One of the later franchise writers might have fixed that, but I'm certainly not going back to Dune books to find out. I regarded them as poorly thought out in the 1970's, and nothing since has caused me to reconsider.

Frederick Supporting Member of TMP17 Nov 2022 7:25 a.m. PST

Given that the major mode of fighting appears to be hand-to-hand combat with essentially no missile combat it seems to me that skirmish gaming is the best one could hope for – as Robert says, so little on grand tactical that large scale gaming would require a lot of creativity on the part of the game master

Col Durnford17 Nov 2022 9:44 p.m. PST

There are so many other books/series that would make far better game material then Dune. It has no place on my table.

Covert Walrus18 Nov 2022 4:03 p.m. PST

It's a background with built-in mass combat, since one has to shift a massive infantry force via Heighliner to get anything done, and hand-to-had supported by some artillery due to shield technology.

The limits to "Dune" era combat, however, are not all that daunting if you move beyond Arrakis and look at possible conflict among the Lanndsraad world, The Imperial House and CHOAM, taking place on the plethora of worlds which is suggested, all the while limited by the political machinations and control of movement by the Guild; One imagines that small forces of saboteurs and assassins sent to another world by smuggler's craft might be useful to disrupt a planet's politics in subtle ways.

It has possibilities: I'd be using Jim Webster's HELLFIRE rules fro it most definitely.

ScottWashburn Sponsoring Member of TMP19 Nov 2022 4:55 p.m. PST

In the book, "Dune" when the Harkonnens attack the Atredies on Arakis, they use massive force. Thufir Hawat is stunned by the size of the attack. Over two thousand ships carrying ten legions, which equals one hundred brigades. They never say how much is in a brigade, but that is surely a lot of troops. And the Harkonnens are using antiquated artillery as a surprise weapon. Sounds like a big battle to me. But it is true that the mechanics of mass battles is never really explained in detail.

robert piepenbrink Supporting Member of TMP06 Dec 2022 3:40 p.m. PST

"the mechanics of mass battles is never really explained in detail"

Sorta my point, Scott--or one of them. Without any description of how battles were fought at a colonel's or general's level, all you can do is play whatever SF rules you like with Dune figures--except that there aren't any Dune figures.

But also note that it doesn't matter. The whole point--maybe taken from Herodotus?--is that hard lands grow good soldiers, and that the only thing which matters is those hard soldiers. No points for industry, for numbers or for tactics. Whoever has the hardest soldiers has--in Herbert's universe--an insurmountable advantage.

It's a skirmish and commando raid universe. Enjoy it for what it is.

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