Landsraad of Las Vegas Meta
Stronghold Cards
The Stronghold Cards just were not doing it for us, however, we loved the concept. It brings a lot of focus to obtaining Strongholds which is the goal of the game. With this in mind we asked ourselves what does each Stronghold need on an individual level; catering each bonus to its individual location was key. Here is a list of our changes and why we made them.
Habbanya Sietch
The battle wheels already have a lot going on, they are also very well balanced with a unique flow to them; we of the Landsraad did not want to disrupt that flow with adding things to the battle plan but rather give bonuses before and after the battles to help affect the area control portion of an area control game. Three of the Strongholds provide positioning bonuses while the other three give resource bonuses to endure the waves of battle. These effects make a meaningful impact to the game without distorting what is already there. Feel free to print them out for your home games and see what you think, a printable file is located on the Archive Page.
We started with Habbanya Sietch. Originally you won ties here regardless of Storm Order which meant when you were already earlier in storm order there was no bonus and when you were later in Storm Order it gave you a +0.5 to your dial. What it needed a way out so we gave it a +2 movement speed beyond current limits. Too often are your Forces stuck in the boonies when you do not have Ornithopters. When an invader came that you could not contest your only options were to take what was coming to you or move one territory into the sand and hope the Storm/Worms do not destroy your Forces anyway. With this Bonus alone you can access four more spice blows which means you can hold it and strike out to fight for spice or, retreat to one of the spice blows or a rock Territory which makes for a great escape when you are weak. With four movement speed (Fremen, IX, CHOAM w/Kulon) there is access to six spiceblows, four Rocks, and the Polar Sink. Ornithopters gives the Habbanya Sietch bonus holder access to three Strongholds and most of the board. Since a player would have had to take Habbanya the turn before this rewards players for taking Strongholds and opens up the board to interesting plays and more win attempts. Weak or strong a player holding the Habbanya bonus has a lot of versatility in deciding their next play.
Tuek’s Sietch
Tuek’s Sietch originally gave a player two spice for every worthless card played in battle here, usually when playing worthless card(s) in battle you are not winning that battle so it is certainly a hard bonus to utilize, also it is a Treachery Card based ability so when you do not have worthless card(s) you do not have a bonus. Tuek’s had a similar problem as Habbanya of Forces being locked up for awhile. Instead of giving this Stronghold the same movement bonus we gave it a way to continually defend it. When taking losses here two Forces are smuggled out before death counts are added up and are sent to your reserves. This technically allows factions to break revival limits by two but, only if they do battle here which incentives battles and rewards players for taking Strongholds. Players enjoy some of the harshness taken out of Dune but at the rate of winning Strongholds.
Sietch Tabr
Seitch Tabr is always a sloberknocker of a fight because it is traditionally the only Stronghold the Fremen can use their Shipment action to go into and most factions do a ship and spilt from Carthag bringing everything over for a win attempt. Originally it gave you one spice for every number your opponent dialed if you win; the bonus further polarized an already polarized Stronghold to where no one attacked it until they were ready to take it at all cost so that you do not receive spice for it, the bonus was almost never used. We gave it a simple plus one revival giving factions the resilience they needed to keep slugging it out there.
Arrakeen
Arrakeen definitely still needed to raid the treasury before battle. The ability was great we just made the change that they take the spice during Battle Determination which means you can play these cards in Basic, Fremen can actually use the bonus, and a faction can flee the city but still reap the reward for earning the Bonus the turn before.
Carthag
Originally Carthag had a Treachery card based ability so when you do not have a shield you do not have a bonus, the moment you have a shield your leader can only die to the single Lasgun in the deck. Carthag needed a way to reinforce it. At the beginning of the Shipment and Movement Phase the controller can just send a Force there for free. This grants a second shipment to a faction, since a second shipment would be the most powerful thing in the game we limited it to a single Force and to the beginning of the phase. For example, Fremen can send a Fedaykin or any other faction can send a Force to bolster their stronghold then ship to another territory if they wanted. Once again the owner has options. They can always flee with the extra deployed Force or they can still ship there normally.
Shield Wall
Shield Wall Stronghold is unique to the Landsraad version. We usually do not play a game without Shield Wall so we figured we should add a bonus! It is only active when Shield Wall opens up after the fourth worm so you can not camp for it and obtain the bonus early. With the cities full most of the time it is hard to strengthen your position there, often players must fight multiple battles there, and it is usually the last battle that determines the fate of the universe; with all of these reasons shipping there as if it was a stronghold is the leg up factions needed to hold it. The Fremen have a hard time reinforcing Strongholds so they are able to Send Forces there, being able to then move and attack three more Strongholds seemed a bit too powerful for them so we constrained ONLY the Forces that were Sent there this turn to not be able to move. Before this Bonus we saw many players Dialing their last Forces in a victorious battle to avoid leaving behind a small stack to be bullied when they could not reinforce it, now they fight tooth and nail to hold Strongholds and remain on the board which is good for gameplay.
Ixian Hidden Mobile Stronghold
Ixian Mobile Stronghold was already perfect since you do not want to give the Ixians an inherent bonus at the very start of the game but coping another gives them reason to play the game and be involved. All that we changed was the timing so that it is compatible with our versions of the bonuses. There are some crazy combinations once they take another Stronghold so it incentivizes them to take an early offensive and control parts of the board early.
CONCLUSION
