When it comes to real-time strategy, a few well-known hits like the Total War series, StarCraft, Warcraft and, of course, Command & Conquer immediately come to mind. However, there is another RTS that is rarely mentioned when listing the greatest strategies of all time. And in vain, because it was with Dune II: Battle for Arrakis that the active development of this genre began.
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Another fantastic universe
The Dune II setting is based on Frank Herbert’s fantasy novel Dune. Its plot tells about the mysterious planet of the same name, which is also called Arrakis. It is an endless desert, where there is very little water, there is no vegetation and other necessary resources for the autonomous stay of people. The climate is aggravated even more – the wind, whose speed reaches 200 km / h, carries dust from the surface and forms electric storms.
But all this does not matter, because the whole of Arrakis is littered with the most valuable resource – spice, or melange. It prolongs life, activates the work of the human brain, is the basis for the synthesis of any other substance, can replace food, and so on. In general, a universal raw material capable of becoming whatever its owner desires.
Spice is a waste product of the larvae of the giant sandworm, one of the few representatives of the Arrakis fauna. These creatures are another problem for those who want to conquer the planet. The fact is that the vibration from any technique makes the worms nervous and feel danger. Their size is so great that one such “animal” can quickly gobble up a harvester that collects spice. But humanity in the Dune universe has become so dependent on this resource that no dangers of Arrakis will stop it from uninterrupted production – spice rebuilds the body so much that refusal from it causes inevitable death.
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This is what Arrakis looks like in the 2023 Dune movie
Arrakis belongs to Emperor Frederick IV. He fought for the throne with his brother for a long time and in the process got into huge debts. The only way to quickly settle with them is to collect and sell as much spice as possible, that is, to significantly increase its production. But where to find those who agree to this adventure? Frederick IV decided to arrange a competition between the three great houses – Atreides, Ordos and Harkonnen. Whoever delivers the most spice to the emperor will receive a portion of his empire’s taxes and the right to solely rule Arrakis. Naturally, they did not refuse such a tempting offer and immediately got down to business. And, as expected, they started a war among themselves.
Fans of the novel by Frank Herbert, already from this description, will say that Dune II: Battle for Arrakis has practically nothing to do with the original story. For example, the emperor was originally called Shaddam IV, and the war for Arrakis began for a completely different reason, and Ordos did not participate in it. But now we are not going to discuss these things. In this material, we will focus exclusively on strategy, and no inconsistencies in the book and game plots in this context matter. Just make a reservation right away: the basis for the article will be the version for the Sega Mega Drive, and not for the PC, because in the countries of the former USSR in the mid-1990s and even in the early 2000s, there were practically no computers. And consoles, especially 16-bit ones, were the most common gaming platform.
Clash of wealth, hard work and cruelty
As mentioned above, Dune II is based on the confrontation of three houses. The player chooses a side at the beginning of the game, but in any case, the so-called mentats will conduct a briefing before the missions for him – people whose brains have been turned into a supercomputer thanks to spice. They, in fact, are representatives of the heads of houses on the planet, and the player is destined for the role of a warlord who has to capture nine territories – each has a separate mission.
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