In Dune: Spice Wars, House Atreides is best suited to pursuing a Political Victory. Their faction bonuses revolve around securing influence and dominating the Landsraad to push through favorable resolutions. Eventually, House Atreides will be able to appoint themselves to the governorship of Arrakis and win the game.
House Atreides Faction Bonuses in Dune: Spice Wars
Unlike other factions, House Atreides cannot pillage villages, but they can wield their diplomatic power by spending influence to annex neutral villages in Dunes: Spice Wars peacefully. Theoretically, the Atreides don’t need much of an army in the early game. However, it’s best to mix this friendly approach with military aggression.
Other Houses are more likely to seek out and agree to treaties with the Atreides because they will not lose influence due to the treaty. While the Atreides don’t directly benefit from this faction bonus, they gain from being a more attractive diplomatic partner. Signing treaties with close neighbors is vital in the early game and, later, with any faction unlikely to be a competitor for victory.
Developments
Researching Spying Logistics as soon as possible. Not only are spies themselves helpful for early game exploration and managing territorial expansion, but the tech is a prerequisite for one of the Atreides’ unique techs, Atreides Delegations. Unlocking this provides hefty bonuses to influence production and benefits from Landsraad standing. It also increases the penalties suffered by other factions when they break a treaty and allows the Atreides to spend influence on cancelling any Landsraad resolution targeting them.
Once Atreides Delegations is available, the Atreides can start throwing their weight around at a diplomatic level. However, the faction’s other unique developments are less of a priority. Atreides Merchants and Understand The Beauty provide resource bonuses that, while useful, are not game-changing, and the military benefits of New Homeland are questionable; the Atreides should be fighting in the Landsraad, not on the battlefield in Dunes: Spice Wars.
Councillors
Thufir Hawat and Duncan Idaho are the best picks for House Atreides. Hawat’s a spymaster who makes all Atreides spies more powerful and discourages other factions from sending their spies to operate in Atreides territory, while Idaho is a diplomat whose presence complements the Atreides’ ability to annex peacefully and forge alliances. Lady Jessica’s ability to force factions to accept treaties is helpful in multiplayer matches but is rarely needed versus the AI, while Gurney Halleck’s military bonuses don’t support the preferred diplomatic approach the Atreides should be taking in Dunes: Spice Wars.
Finally, it is paramount that the Atreides pay the Spice Tax whenever it is due. The whole Atreides strategy hinges upon accumulating Landsraad standing. Any time the Spice Tax is not paid on time, that standing takes a hit. As such, crewed Harvesters are vital to early infrastructure efforts.
