The struggle for Arrakis

Each player leads a faction competing for control of Arrakis. Spice pays for cards, shipment and revival. Leaders, weapons and traitors decide battles, while the storm controls movement and turn order. You can win alone or form a public alliance with one other faction.

Play up to ten turns. At the Mentat Pause, an unallied faction normally wins by occupying at least three strongholds. A two-faction alliance normally needs four distinct strongholds between its members. Check victory after battles and spice collection, not as soon as a force enters a stronghold.

The five original strongholds are Arrakeen, Carthag, Sietch Tabr, Habbanya Sietch and Tuek's Sietch. A faction occupies a stronghold with at least one force that counts for occupation. Advanced Bene Gesserit advisors do not count.

A specific faction advantage or card effect changes the general rule only where it says so. Apply the rest of the general rule normally.

An advantage saying may or can gives a choice. Carry out mandatory effects as written, such as the Harkonnen bonus card after a purchase when there is room.

Choose the game before setup

Agree whether to play Basic or Advanced, which expansion factions are available, and which optional modules are in use. Owning an expansion does not require using all its modules. Keep cards for unused modules out of their decks.

The expanded faction selection still assumes a game of at most six players. Larger groups can experiment, but adding factions does not by itself add player circles, strongholds or a revised winning target.

For three players, GF9 recommends Atreides, Harkonnen and Fremen. A two-faction alliance in a three-player game still needs four strongholds. For four players, consider leaving out Spacing Guild and Bene Gesserit; for five, consider leaving out Bene Gesserit.

For two players, try Atreides against Harkonnen, or have each player control two factions. GF9 increases the winning requirement to four strongholds for a two-player game. Keep the factions' hands, spice, forces and rules separate when controlling more than one.

The default alliance limit is two factions and its winning requirement is four strongholds. Other alliance arrangements are optional and must be agreed before play.

Read the board

Territories are named areas with borders. Sand territories have single borders, rock double borders, and strongholds triple borders. The Polar Sink is the central safe area. Eighteen radial sectors divide the board for storm movement, spice placement and spice collection.

A territory can span several sectors. Keep each group in a particular sector. Forces in different sectors of the same territory can normally move or fight together, unless the storm separates them. Moving to another sector of the same territory uses your normal force movement.

The storm moves counterclockwise around the outer edge. Sand forces and spice in sectors it crosses are vulnerable. Rock, strongholds and the Polar Sink protect forces from storm losses, but a sector currently under the storm still blocks shipment, movement and battle. Imperial Basin is the protected sand exception.

Keep dead forces and leaders in the Tleilaxu Tanks. Keep living reserves off the board beside your shield. The Spice Bank supplies spice and receives payments unless a faction or card redirects them. The turn track records the current turn.

Prepare the components

Each base faction has a shield, reference sheet, player marker, twenty force tokens and five leader discs. A leader's printed number is its battle strength and normal revival cost. The character on a faction shield represents the faction and is not an additional leader disc.

Base card decks

Set out spice tokens, both battle wheels, the storm marker, turn counter and Destroyed Shield Wall token. The Advanced Game also uses the Kwisatz Haderach card and counter, the Fremen Shai-Hulud token, three Fedaykin and five Sardaukar. Starred tokens count as ordinary forces in the Basic Game.

Follow this order

If using Leader Skills, that module moves the starting Treachery deal before traitor selection. Ixians, Tleilaxu, Ecaz and Moritani also have setup instructions; follow the appropriate expansion book when they are in play.

Follow the steps in order. Faction setup and selected modules can change particular steps. The table on the next page gives starting forces, spice and revival allowances.

Base factions

In the Advanced Game, Bene Gesserit places only one starting advisor in any territory after the Fremen placement. If alone, it immediately becomes a fighter. This replaces the Basic starting force in Polar Sink; it does not add a second force.

Advanced Emperor has fifteen ordinary forces and five Sardaukar; Advanced Fremen has seventeen ordinary forces and three Fedaykin. These are parts of the twenty-force supply.

Information, hands and discards

Keep spice behind your shield. Keep your hand and selected traitors secret if you wish. You may voluntarily tell or show information to another player, publicly or privately, unless a particular effect forbids it. Information sharing does not transfer ownership of a card.

During Bidding, everyone must disclose the number of Treachery Cards in their hand. Their identities remain private. The normal hand limit is four; Harkonnen's is eight. You cannot bid with a full hand, including when holding Karama.

Atreides alone may make written records about Treachery Cards. Other notes about the game may be kept privately under GF9's general clarification. Tournament restrictions on notes are separate rules.

Discarded cards are placed face up, but the discard pile may not be searched unless an effect allows it. Watching a discard happen does not give permission to look through the pile later. When a deck is exhausted, reshuffle its discards; in the Advanced Game combine both Spice discard piles for the reshuffle.

When a deck runs out, shuffle its discards. In Advanced play, combine both Spice discard piles for the reshuffle. Do not search a discard pile without permission.

Play in this order

First Player is the faction whose player marker the storm will next approach while continuing counterclockwise. Proceed to that player's right, counterclockwise, when an activity calls for storm order. In battle, the earliest involved faction in that order is the aggressor.

Complete one phase before beginning the next. A card or faction ability can introduce a specific action within a phase; it does not give permission to skip the remaining sequence.

Plan ahead

Shipment and Movement sets up battles, spice collection and the victory check. Check all three before moving your only force out of a stronghold.

Advanced game

Advanced additions appear where they apply. Add double spice blows, paid battle support, stronghold income and Advanced faction advantages together when choosing the Advanced Game.

Turn one: place the storm

Place the storm at the Storm Start sector. The players whose circles are nearest on either side of that sector each secretly dial a number from zero through twenty. Reveal both numbers together, add them, and move the storm counterclockwise that many sectors.

This procedure determines the first storm position and turn order. Resolve storm losses in sectors crossed under the normal storm rule. In an Advanced Game with Fremen, use this same first storm procedure; the Fremen Storm Deck takes over on later turns.

Later storm movement

On turns two onward, the two players who last used the battle wheels secretly dial one, two or three. Reveal together, add the numbers and move the storm counterclockwise that many sectors.

If Advanced Fremen is playing, reveal the Storm Card it selected during the preceding turn instead. Move that many sectors, return the card, shuffle the Storm Deck, and let Fremen secretly select and inspect the card for the next turn. Without Advanced Fremen, continue using the two dials.

Weather Control can replace the calculated movement. After turn one, its player chooses zero through ten sectors and discards the card. The card can be played after the ordinary distance is known, but before the storm moves. Family Atomics also has a window before movement.

Storm losses and obstruction

Send forces in crossed or final sectors of sand territories to the Tanks. Imperial Basin is protected while the Shield Wall stands. Forces in rock, strongholds and the Polar Sink survive normal storm movement. Return spice in sectors crossed or stopped on to the Bank.

Forces cannot ship, move or battle into, out of or through the sector currently under the storm. In a territory spanning several sectors, a group may enter or leave an uncovered part if its path does not cross the covered part. The Polar Sink is never covered.

Forces in different parts of one territory cannot battle if separated by the storm. Two factions can therefore survive in the same stronghold while it is blocked; neither counts that disputed stronghold toward victory.

Reveal a spice blow

Turn over the top Spice Card. For a territory card, take the printed amount of spice from the Bank and place it in that territory's sector marked with the spice-blow symbol. If that sector is under the storm, place no spice. Put the card face up on the Spice discard pile.

On the first turn, set every revealed Shai-Hulud card aside and keep drawing until the required territory card appears. Those set-aside Shai-Hulud cards have no effect and cause no Nexus. Shuffle them back into the Spice Deck after the phase.

In the Basic Game, resolve one spice blow each turn. In the Advanced Game, resolve two, keeping separate discard piles A and B. Apply Shai-Hulud to the territory on top of its own pile, not the other pile.

Shai-Hulud and riding

After turn one, a Shai-Hulud card devours the spice and forces in the territory shown on the card previously on top of that discard pile. Return spice to the Bank and forces to the Tanks. The attack is against that previous blow, not the new spice about to appear.

Discard the Shai-Hulud card on that pile and draw again. Discard consecutive Shai-Hulud cards and continue until a territory card appears. Resolve that spice blow. In the Basic Game, Shai-Hulud appearing during the phase provides a Nexus after the spice draw is complete. In the Advanced Game, finish that pile's draw, Nexus and riding before resolving the other pile.

Fremen forces are not devoured. After the Nexus, Fremen may ride the worm with some or all of its forces at the attacked location to one destination, subject to storm and occupancy rules. A ride may end in any territory, including a stronghold; the destination need not be sand. It uses no normal movement and costs no shipment spice.

Fremen can choose whether to protect its ally from being devoured. Protection does not give that ally a worm ride. In Advanced, resolve each spice discard pile separately. Its first Shai-Hulud attacks that pile's previous Territory. Fremen may place each consecutive additional Shai-Hulud before the next Territory card in any sand territory; resolve its destruction and the Fremen riding benefit. Finish that pile's draw, Nexus and rides before starting the other pile.

Resolve both piles

The first-turn Shai-Hulud exemption applies to both draws. Atreides' next-spice inspection still reveals only the single top card, not two cards. Expansion Sandtrout, Thumper and discovery cards add instructions described in their expansion books.

Advanced game

Finish pile A before revealing pile B. If both produce a Nexus, players have two opportunities to form or break alliances. First-turn Shai-Hulud cards are still ignored.

Make or break alliances

During a Nexus, players may discuss alliances, publicly break an existing alliance and form a new one. No faction can belong to more than one alliance. The default maximum is two factions. Declare all alliances openly and exchange alliance reminder cards.

A player may leave an alliance during a Nexus without the former ally's permission. Outside a Nexus, alliances persist unless a specific expansion effect changes them. A Nexus does not compel anyone to ally.

An alliance normally wins by occupying four distinct strongholds between its members at the Mentat Pause. Allies may not battle one another. Except in Polar Sink, they must not finish the applicable evacuation window sharing a territory.

If newly allied factions already share a territory, one must leave during Shipment and Movement. If the first to ship and move does not leave, the later ally must leave or send its forces there to the Tanks. Advanced Bene Gesserit advisors are included in this official alliance restriction. Ecaz's Occupy advantage is a specific expansion exception.

An ally may pass through a territory containing allied forces or ship there and then move out, as long as the move ends elsewhere. The rule blocking entry into a stronghold with two other factions still applies.

Declare every alliance openly. Swap reminder cards. No faction can be in two alliances, and no one has to form one.

Outside the Polar Sink, newly allied factions sharing a territory must separate during Shipment and Movement. If the first does not leave, the later ally must leave or lose its forces there. Advanced advisors follow this restriction too, except where Ecaz Occupy explicitly allows co-occupation.

Helping an ally

You may pay part or all of an ally's Treachery purchase or shipment, up to the actual cost. Promise that help before the ally bids beyond its own holdings. Pay the recipient of that transaction directly, rather than transferring unrestricted spice to the ally.

For a normal Treachery purchase, pay the Emperor, or the Bank if no Emperor is playing. When the Emperor itself helps its ally buy a card, the Emperor's contribution goes to the ally and is paid back to the Emperor under the official clarification.

For shipment, pay the Guild, or the Bank if no Guild is playing. Any contribution the Guild itself makes toward its ally's shipment goes to the Bank.

Alliance does not normally let players transfer spice for other purposes, pay one another's battle support or revival, transfer cards, share leaders, or use every faction power. Each faction's alliance advantage states the further help it permits. The Emperor can give spice directly to its ally, immediately and for any purpose.

You cannot put a weapon or defense from your own hand into an ally's battle plan. Cards with independent timing, such as Truthtrance or Karama, may be played by a nonparticipant when their own instructions allow it.

Agree to help before your ally bids beyond its own spice. Normal allied aid covers the actual purchase or shipment cost. It does not create an unrestricted purse for battle support or revival.

Take CHOAM Charity

A faction with zero or one spice may call CHOAM Charity and take enough spice to bring its total to two. This is a top-up, not two extra spice for a faction already holding one.

Advanced Bene Gesserit receives two spice regardless of its existing holdings, including on turn one. If CHOAM is in play, its charity and Inflation rules change who supplies charity and its amount; use that expansion book.

Spice promised by a bribe and sitting in front of a shield is not yet spendable. Do not treat it as money behind that shield before the Mentat Pause.

Faction and module exceptions

Advanced Bene Gesserit receives 2 spice even when already holding spice. CHOAM and Homeworld modules can change charity; apply their separate instructions.

Run the auctions

You may not bid more spice than you can pay using your holdings and your ally's promised contribution, except while holding Karama. A full hand must pass even with Karama. Each bid must be made within ten seconds or it counts as a pass.

A player can acquire several cards while space remains. The number offered was determined when dealing; it is not one guaranteed purchase per player. Expansion Ixian and Richese auction procedures can alter the normal offer.

Revive forces

During Revival, each faction may return dead forces from the Tanks to its reserves. Its free revival allowance is shown on its sheet. Additional ordinary forces cost two spice each. Free and paid revivals together normally cannot exceed three forces per turn.

Only forces actually in the Tanks can be revived. Reserves and forces on Arrakis are already alive. Revival returns forces to reserves; getting them onto Arrakis normally requires shipment later in the turn.

Fremen gets three free revivals and cannot buy additional revivals under the base rules. The Emperor may pay for up to three additional revivals for its ally. A Ghola card adds the revival stated on that card. Tleilaxu and expansion modules can change limits or costs.

In the Advanced Game, no more than one Fedaykin and one Sardaukar of the respective factions may be revived per turn. Each counts as one force toward the applicable force allowance. Ghola, the Emperor's alliance and Tleilaxu do not bypass the one-special-force limit.

Revive leaders

Leader revival is separate from force revival. If eligible, you may revive one leader as well as taking your force revivals in the same phase.

Once all five of your leaders are in the Tanks, you may revive one per Revival Phase until all have been revived. Pay that leader's printed strength in spice to the Bank. The leader returns to your available leaders and remains subject to its original traitor card.

In Advanced play, having no leader of your own available because the others are captured also opens normal leader revival. A leader merely committed to another territory earlier in the Battle Phase does not create a Revival Phase action.

When a revived leader dies again, place it face down in the Tanks. It cannot be revived again until all the faction's other revivable leaders have also been revived, killed and returned to the Tanks. Ghola and Tleilaxu may explicitly bypass normal availability restrictions.

A leader revived by Ghola during Battle can fight immediately, including in that same phase. The Kwisatz Haderach is a separate Atreides token; whether it is alive or dead does not delay normal revival of the five Atreides leaders.

Finish both actions

These examples use the Basic Game. In storm order, each faction may make one shipment, then one on-planet movement. Finish both before the next faction acts. Either action is optional. Newly shipped forces may move immediately.

What does shipment buy?

Send reserves to one territory and choose their sector. Pay the Guild if it is playing, otherwise the Bank. The Guild pays the Bank. Ordinary shipment cannot retrieve forces or move them between board territories.

These are ordinary Emperor actions. Guild shipment types and prices, Fremen reserve placement and other faction exceptions use their own rules.

Check range when movement begins

A force just shipped into either city can unlock ornithopters immediately. The moving group may be elsewhere on Arrakis. Use one range; do not add the allowances together.

One origin, one destination

Choose some or all forces from one territory. Move them together to one destination, leaving any others behind. You cannot gather groups from several origins or split a moving group among destinations.

A three-territory move

Count territories entered, not sector lines. Moving to another sector within the same territory still uses your normal movement. The storm can separate forces that would otherwise form one group.

Ornithopters do not cross storm

Ordinary forces cannot ship into, enter, leave or cross a sector under the storm. Clear sectors elsewhere in that territory remain usable. Imperial Basin's protection from storm losses does not permit movement through a stormed sector.

Count the other factions

A stronghold with two other factions is closed to you: no shipment into it, movement into it or passage through it. One opposing faction does not block entry.

In Advanced play, Bene Gesserit advisors do not count toward this limit. These diagrams show ordinary fighting forces. Entry into an enemy-held stronghold normally leads to a later battle, not a battle during movement.

Move one group

A city under the storm can still provide ornithopters for a group elsewhere. The storm does not itself switch off city access, but the moving group cannot enter, leave or cross a stormed sector.

Count territory borders, not sector lines. Sectors still matter for avoiding the storm and choosing a final position. Changing sector within a territory uses movement. Forces in separate uncovered sectors of the same territory can form the moving group.

Never enter or pass through a stronghold already containing two other factions. Passing through an allied territory is permitted if you finish elsewhere. Do not move into, out of or across the storm. The Polar Sink permits all factions and is never a battle site.

Play Hajr immediately after your normal force movement during your own turn to make an additional on-planet movement. Reassess ornithopter access when that extra movement begins, so reaching a city with the first move can extend the second.

Shipment, ordinary movement, a worm ride and an extra Hajr movement are separate actions. An effect granting one does not grant another.

Determine the battles

After everyone has shipped and moved, opposing forces in the same territory must fight until only one faction or no forces remain. Do not battle in Polar Sink, under the storm, or across the storm. Advanced Bene Gesserit advisors neither fight nor require a battle.

Starting with First Player, each faction becomes aggressor for all battles in which it is involved. The aggressor chooses which of its territories to resolve first and, with several enemies in one territory, which opponent to fight first. When its battles are finished, continue to the right.

All of a faction's forces in the territory participate as one side unless separated by the storm. You cannot withdraw just because a battle looks unfavorable. Choosing a zero dial is legal, but you still risk your leader, cards and all forces if you lose.

Choose secretly

If you have no usable leader or Cheap Hero, announce it. You still dial and battle, but cannot include Treachery Cards in the plan. Cards played outside the plan follow their own timing.

A living leader can fight several battles in one territory during a phase, but cannot fight in two different territories that phase. Leave surviving leader discs by the territory as reminders, then retrieve them when all battles are finished. A Cheap Hero is discarded after use even by a winner.

Voice and battle information

Bene Gesserit Voice is used before Atreides Prescience. Voice gives one instruction about a card or category to play or not play. If the opponent cannot comply, it may make an otherwise legal plan. Voice does not allow extra cards or remove the need for a leader.

Atreides may then ask for one chosen element: leader, weapon, defense or number dialed. An answer of no weapon or no defense uses the question; Atreides cannot choose another element. The revealed element must be honored.

Truthtrance may be played at any time in this interaction. A player may revise the parts of its plan not fixed by Voice, Prescience or Truthtrance. The revealed plans still need to be legal.

If a later legal effect makes a Prescience answer impossible to honor, give a new legal answer to that same question before reveal. If the original answer remains possible, keep it.

Resolve the result

In the Advanced Game, both sides pay the support spice in their plans, win or lose, except a traitor-winning side keeps its committed spice. Taking leader rewards does not refund battle support.

Base weapons and protection

A defense protects only the leader, not the dialed forces. A killed leader adds zero, but the force dial still counts. If both leaders die, compare the dials; the aggressor wins a tie.

A Lasgun with any Shield in the same battle, including its own side's Shield, explodes. Destroy all spice and forces in the territory, including uninvolved forces and advisors. Kill the leaders used in that battle. Neither side wins or collects spice for killed leaders. A traitor call can override this explosion.

Keep previously used surviving leaders beside the territory to enforce their movement restriction. They are markers of a previous battle, not leaders participating in a later battle there. A later lasgun-shield explosion does not kill those earlier surviving leaders.

Expansion weapons and defenses have special definitions. A card that counts as projectile defense is not automatically a Shield. Read its actual categories when resolving Voice, Lasgun or Artillery Strike.

Reveal a traitor

If your opponent uses a leader matching a traitor card you hold, you may reveal it and call treachery. Revealing is optional. A selected traitor stays a traitor for the entire game, including after revival.

The side revealing the traitor wins immediately, keeps its forces and committed support spice, sends the traitorous leader to the Tanks and collects that leader's printed strength in spice. It may retain or discard its battle cards under the normal winner rule.

The betrayed side loses all forces in the territory, its committed support spice and all cards in its plan. The winner's leader survives even if the revealed weapons would have killed it. A lasgun-shield combination is overridden.

If each side reveals the other's leader as a traitor, neither wins: both lose all forces in the territory, both leaders and all played cards. Neither collects leader spice.

Harkonnen may call a traitor against its ally's opponent. An Atreides leader accompanied by the Kwisatz Haderach cannot turn traitor. Face Dancers are an expansion ability resolved after a battle and are not ordinary traitor calls.

Keep a revealed Traitor Card. It remains yours and may betray the same leader again after revival. In an allied Harkonnen call, the faction actually fighting is the battle winner and receives the traitorous leader's spice.

Support forces with spice

An ordinary force contributes one-half strength without support, or one strength when supported with one spice. Secretly put the spice committed to support on your battle wheel. You cannot support forces using spice that is not yet spendable.

If you win, select losses whose strength matches the dial and whose support matches the spice committed. You may choose among several valid combinations; you are not required to remove a predetermined token for each spice.

Advanced force values

A Karama played before reveal can make Sardaukar or Fedaykin ordinary for that battle. A separate cancellation can remove the Fremen no-spice advantage. Recalculate the legal maximum and losses using the advantage actually canceled.

Collect spice

During Spice Collection, a faction with forces in the same territory and sector as spice can take it from the board and put it behind its shield. Its rate is two spice per force, or three per force if it currently occupies Arrakeen or Carthag. City access can help a collecting group elsewhere.

Take no more than the spice actually present. Leave any excess spice on the board. Collecting forces stay where they are; collection does not return them to reserves or move them out of danger.

Advanced Bene Gesserit advisors cannot collect spice or provide ornithopters. Faction and module exceptions, such as Ixian Cyborgs or discovery locations, state their own rates or income.

The per-force harvesting rate and Advanced stronghold income are separate benefits. A city can improve distant collection while also paying its own income in Advanced play.

Mentat Pause and victory

At the start of the Mentat Pause, move deferred bribe spice from in front of your shield to behind it. Resolve the end-of-turn actions of the factions and modules in use, then check victory using the resulting position.

An unallied faction occupying at least three strongholds wins. A two-faction alliance occupying four distinct strongholds wins jointly. Advisors do not count, and a stronghold disputed by factions unable to battle because of storm does not count for either side.

If several players or alliances meet their requirements together, they share the win. The group may instead agree to play another whole turn, optionally increasing the requirement. Holding more strongholds does not automatically beat another qualifying faction.

Bene Gesserit's correct faction-and-turn prediction replaces the predicted normal victory with a sole Bene Gesserit win. A normal victory on turn ten takes priority over end-of-game special victories.

If nobody has won before the end of turn ten, check the Fremen special condition first. If it is satisfied, Fremen and its ally win. Otherwise Spacing Guild and its ally win if the Guild is playing. If Guild is absent, use GF9's printed fallback awarding the Fremen the game if present, otherwise the factions occupying the most strongholds share the win. This fallback is distinct from satisfying the named Fremen Special Victory Condition.

If no winner is due and turns remain, advance the counter and start the next Storm Phase. Expansion Homeworlds, Tech Tokens, Hidden Mobile Stronghold, discovery strongholds and Ecaz Occupy can affect the victory count.

Deals and bribes

Players outside the same alliance may make binding spoken deals about legal future actions, information and spice. State the agreement aloud. It cannot authorize an illegal action or transfer forces, leaders, cards or faction advantages unless a separate effect allows that transfer.

Put a spice bribe in front of the recipient's shield. It cannot be spent until collected at the start of the Mentat Pause. Allies cannot bribe each other; use their permitted purchase or shipment contributions and their specific alliance advantages.

A player must honor the possible parts of an agreement. If a promise becomes impossible, that part is void. All parties may agree to cancel their deal.

Bribery is an Advanced Game rule. Players learning the Basic Game may still share information.

Information sharing is permitted in either game. Paid, binding deals use the Advanced rule above. A deal cannot create a permission the rules do not give.

Atreides

Start with ten forces in Arrakeen, ten in reserves, ten spice and one Treachery Card. Free revival is two forces. Keep the Spice and Treachery decks nearby, since your prescience involves them.

Basic advantages

Activate the Kwisatz Haderach

Secretly track Atreides force tokens lost in battles. Once at least seven have been lost, the Kwisatz Haderach becomes active immediately, so it can help in a later battle of the same turn. Storm and worm losses are not battle losses.

In one territory per turn, accompany an Atreides leader or Cheap Hero with the token to add two strength. It cannot fight alone. If the accompanied leader or Cheap Hero is killed, the token adds nothing to that battle. An accompanied leader cannot turn traitor.

Only a lasgun-shield explosion kills the Kwisatz Haderach. It then requires revival for two spice. Normal leader eligibility applies to that revival, with Ghola and Tleilaxu exceptions. Its life or death never counts when deciding whether the five Atreides leaders qualify for normal revival.

The special Atreides Karama power allows inspection of one player's whole battle plan before reveal. It is separate from the one-element battle question and may be used once per game.

Bene Gesserit

In Basic play start with one force in Polar Sink, nineteen in reserve, five spice and one Treachery Card. Free revival is one force.

After player positions are set, secretly write down one other faction and one turn number. Keep the record hidden. If that faction earns a normal victory, alone or in an alliance, on the chosen turn, reveal your prediction and win alone instead. You may predict your eventual ally. You cannot predict a Guild or Fremen special end-game victory, and may win normally if your prediction fails.

Whenever another faction ships from off-planet to Arrakis, you may send one reserve force for free to Polar Sink. This is additional to your own normal shipment. Fremen reserve placement and Guild cross-shipment do not qualify as off-planet shipment.

In battle, Voice your opponent to play or not play one weapon, defense, Worthless Card or Cheap Hero as specified. A legal category instruction can name poison weapon, projectile weapon, poison defense or Shield. Special cards can require exact names. If compliance is impossible, the opponent may play an otherwise legal plan.

You may Voice the opponent in your ally's battle. Give the Voice before Atreides asks its Prescience question. You do not gain the ally's other advantages.

Bene Gesserit advisors and fighters

After Fremen places its forces, put one advisor in any territory, leaving nineteen in reserve. If it is alone it becomes a fighter. All your forces in a territory must show the same side.

You receive two spice in every CHOAM Charity Phase regardless of holdings. You may use any Worthless Card as a Karama. You have no separate special Karama power.

An advisor coexists peacefully with other forces. It cannot fight, collect spice, count toward stronghold control or the two-faction limit, provide ornithopters, or enable Family Atomics. It can be lost to storm, worm, a lasgun-shield explosion or atomics.

When accompanying another faction's off-planet shipment, you may put a free advisor in its destination instead of Polar Sink. That new accompanying advisor cannot flip to a fighter during the same turn unless it becomes alone.

If you already have fighters at the destination of an off-planet shipment, first use Intrusion to flip them to advisors before sending an accompanying advisor there. Otherwise send the free force to Polar Sink or decline it; you may not place the two types together.

Changing sides

The alliance restriction still applies to advisors. Their lack of battle strength does not allow indefinite co-occupation with an ally under the alliance rule. Homeworlds cannot receive advisors.

Emperor

Start with all twenty forces in reserves, ten spice and one Treachery Card. Free revival is one force.

Other factions pay their normal Treachery auction purchases to you. They must pay the full winning bid; you cannot discount it. Pay the Bank for your own normal purchases.

You may give spice directly to your ally, for any reason and at any time. It goes behind the ally's shield and is immediately usable. This is separate from normal allied contributions to purchases and shipments.

During Revival, you may pay for up to three additional forces for your ally. These are extra to its normal three-force ceiling, allowing six in the base game. Pay two spice per ordinary force, redirected to Tleilaxu if its revival payment ability applies.

Fremen

Start with ten forces divided as you choose between Sietch Tabr, False Wall South and False Wall West, ten in reserves on Dune's far side, three spice and one Treachery Card. Revive three forces free and do not buy extra base-game revivals.

For your shipment, bring any number of reserves for free into The Great Flat or one territory within two territory borders of it. Do not count The Great Flat itself against the range. This is your faction's reserve-placement action, rather than a paid off-planet shipment.

Your normal movement range is two territories. Worm riding is a separate move after a Nexus and does not consume your normal movement. Worms do not devour your forces unless an applicable cancellation removes that protection.

You may protect your ally against worms and grant it three free revivals during Revival. Those three are its total free allowance within its normal limit. They do not add three forces beyond that limit. Your ally shares your special victory.

At the end of the last turn, if no normal victory occurred, your special victory requires Sietch Tabr and Habbanya Sietch to be occupied only by you or nobody, and Tuek's Sietch not to be occupied by Atreides, Harkonnen or Emperor. Allies do not become Fremen for this test. Richese adds itself to the prohibited Tuek's occupants when that expansion applies; Ecaz has a specific co-occupation exception.

Advanced Fremen

After the first dialed storm, secretly select the Storm Card for the next turn. Reveal it at the next Storm Phase, move that distance, return and shuffle it, then select the following card.

If caught by storm, lose half the affected force tokens, rounding losses up. You may place reserves into your legal landing area under storm and lose half. You cannot use ordinary movement or a worm ride to enter or leave storm.

Resolve each discard pile separately. Its first Shai-Hulud attacks that pile's previous Territory, even if Shai-Hulud appeared earlier in the other pile. Place each consecutive additional Shai-Hulud before the next Territory card in a sand territory of your choice. It devours other unprotected forces and spice there. Your own forces are immune and may benefit from riding.

Your three Fedaykin each count as two ordinary forces in battle and losses. All your forces fight at full strength without spice. Only one Fedaykin can be revived each turn.

Once per game, spend Karama during Spice Blow and Nexus to place a worm in a sand territory. Treat it as a normal worm, including a Nexus at phase end and your riding opportunity. This uses your special power; it is separate from placing additional naturally drawn Shai-Hulud cards.

Harkonnen

Start with ten forces in Carthag, ten in reserves, ten spice and two Treachery Cards. Free revival is two forces.

Keep all four traitor cards dealt at setup, including your own leaders. You may reveal any qualifying opponent leader in your own battles. You may also reveal a traitor against your ally's opponent.

Your hand limit is eight. Whenever you buy a Treachery Card, draw another from the top of the deck for free if that would not exceed eight. Buying with seven cards fills the hand and gives no extra card. You must pass when full.

A captured leader may be a traitor. If it survives the one battle for you, return it to its own faction. If killed, put it in the Tanks for its own faction. Return all captives immediately when all your own leaders are dead. The captor and original owner know the captive's identity and may disclose it.

Spacing Guild

Start with five forces in Tuek's Sietch, fifteen in reserves, five spice and one Treachery Card. Free revival is one force.

Receive payments when other factions ship onto Arrakis from off-planet reserves. Pay the Bank for your own shipments.

Choose one shipment type on your turn

For the first two types pay half normal cost, rounding the final cost up. The back-to-reserve rate of one per two is already your stated rate and is not halved again. A one-force shipment to a stronghold costs one spice.

Your ally may ship reserves to Arrakis or cross-ship forces on Arrakis at Guild rates, but cannot use your return-to-reserve option. Allied Fremen may treat its off-board reserve territory as the origin of such a cross-shipment.

If no one has won when the game ends and the Fremen special victory does not apply, you and your ally win. A correct Bene Gesserit prediction cannot target this special victory.

If Karama stops your out-of-order shipment-and-movement advantage, take your turn in normal storm order. Do not simply retry the same timing advantage in a later gap that turn.

Base Treachery Cards

The base deck has thirty-three physical cards. Repeated copies share rules. The card names below provide the effects needed to use the Basic and Advanced core game; expansion cards are described in their books.

Base deck contents

Return retained battle cards to your hand after resolution. Discard cards whose effects require it; remove Family Atomics from the game after use. The new CHOAM & Richese Karama cards replace the old two copies, rather than adding two more.

Worthless Cards and Cheap Heroes

A Worthless Card has no base effect. Play one instead of your weapon or defense, or two to fill both places, to get it out of your hand through battle. The loser discards it; a winner may discard or retain it. You cannot freely discard a Worthless Card outside an effect permitting it.

A Cheap Hero fills the leader position with zero strength. It permits weapon and defense play normally, and can be chosen instead of a living leader. If you have no usable leader but do have a Cheap Hero, you must play it. It cannot fill a weapon or defense place merely to discard it.

Always discard a Cheap Hero after its battle. Advanced Bene Gesserit may instead play Worthless Cards as Karama. CHOAM has separate expansion uses for specific Worthless Cards.

Use a Karama Card

After setup and At Start actions are complete, a Karama can stop one use of a faction advantage, including an alliance advantage, when that advantage is attempted. It does not switch the whole faction off for the phase. In battle, play it before plans are revealed.

Other uses

A full hand cannot buy or take another card with Karama. Richese special auctions disallow Karama purchases. Discard Karama after use. The updated cards supplied with CHOAM & Richese replace the core copies.

Karama does not stop a Special Victory Condition or the Bene Gesserit prediction. It cannot reduce Harkonnen's hand limit or stop an ordinary traitor reveal in Harkonnen's own battle. Use the following faction reference for the actions it can cancel.

Karama does not cancel the ordinary effect of a Treachery Card such as Hajr, or another faction's Special Karama Power. Stopping Bene Gesserit from converting a Worthless Card is a cancellation of its faction advantage. After an advantage is canceled, its player may choose a revised legal action that respects that cancellation.

One canceled use

The precise advantage named matters. Canceling Fedaykin's doubled value does not also cancel all Fremen battle advantages. Benefits with separate triggers require their own cancellation. Expansion factions and homeworld abilities have their own limits.

One use

Name the advantage being canceled. Canceling one benefit does not cancel every other advantage. In battle, act before plans are revealed.

Special Karama powers

Each faction other than Bene Gesserit may spend a Karama on its special power once per game. This is an alternative to the card's normal uses, not an additional effect. Bene Gesserit's conversion of Worthless Cards is a repeatable advantage and gives it no separate once-per-game power.

Base faction powers

Harkonnen may temporarily handle the taken cards even with a full hand; returning the same number restores the limit. The power does not let it permanently exceed eight. The Emperor's special revival still observes the one-Sardaukar-per-turn restriction.

Truthtrance

At any time, play Truthtrance to publicly ask one player one yes-or-no question about the game. The answer must be truthful and public. Pause play for the answer. A question may use and or or.

A question about a choice during the current turn binds the player to do everything possible to honor the answer. It cannot bind actions in a later turn. If carrying out the answer becomes impossible under the rules, that obligation ends.

If the question asks something beyond the player's ability to know or decide, it may answer that it does not know. The questioner may then ask another question or save the card for later. Resolve simultaneous attempts in storm order.

Truthtrance can interact with Voice and Prescience before battle reveal. The player can change elements that those effects have not fixed. Discard the card after resolving its use.

Family Atomics

After turn one, play during a Storm Phase before the storm actually moves. You need at least one qualifying force on the Shield Wall or in a territory adjacent to it. Storm between your force's sector and the Shield Wall prevents the connection, but a force or the wall itself being under storm does not by itself prohibit the card.

Destroy every force on the Shield Wall and remove the card from the game. Place the Destroyed Shield Wall marker. Arrakeen, Carthag and Imperial Basin lose their protection from storm for the rest of the game. Shield Wall remains rock and can be entered normally.

You may wait until storm distance is known, then play before movement. The current storm sector is not retroactively hit; vulnerable sectors it moves into are affected. Weather Control and Family Atomics can be played in either order, resolving each in the order played.

Advanced Bene Gesserit advisors do not qualify as forces enabling Family Atomics.

Special base cards

An extra movement is not an extra shipment. Free revival does not ship the revived forces. Weather Control changes the number of sectors, while storm direction and damage remain normal.

Optional alliance arrangements

The standard game uses two-faction alliances needing four strongholds. GF9 also lists the following optional arrangements. Choose one before starting; do not change the target midway because an alliance is close to winning.

Optional arrangements

With larger alliances, each member still follows the chosen game's payment, movement and public-alliance rules unless the variant explicitly changes them. These alternatives are not the default GF9 alliance requirement.

Adding expansions

The Ixian & Tleilaxu book adds those two factions, Hidden Mobile Stronghold, Cyborgs, Suboids, Face Dancers, Sandtrout, new Treachery Cards and the optional Tech Tokens.

CHOAM & Richese adds those factions, the Auditor, No-Field tokens, special Richese auctions and card cache, replacement Karama, Poison Tooth and Artillery Strike cards, and the Leader Skill and Advanced Stronghold variants.

Ecaz & Moritani adds those factions, Ambassadors, Terror, Duke Vidal, Nexus Cards, Homeworlds, discoveries and new Treachery Cards. Its modular variants can be chosen independently.

Apply each selected module's setup, timing and exceptions alongside the core sequence. Do not mix KISS, tournament, Landsraad, Dreamrules or other variant changes into GF9 unless choosing that separate ruleset.