Dune: CHOAM & Richese Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Factions
  • CHOAM
  • Richese
• Components & Set-Up for Play
• New Advanced Rules
• Rule Clarification
• Faction Rules: Richese
  • Richese Faction Rules
  • Richese Advantages
  • Richese Advanced Game Advantages
• Faction Rules: CHOAM
  • CHOAM Faction Rules
  • CHOAM Advantages
  • CHOAM Advanced Game Advantages
• Variants
  • Leader Skill Cards
  • Advanced Stronghold Cards
• Q&A: CHOAM & Richese
  • CHOAM
  • Richese
  • CHOAM and Tleilaxu
  • Leader Skill Cards
  • Advanced Stronghold Cards
• How Does Karama Stop These Advantages?

Factions

House Richese, just like the Ixians, had a well-earned reputation for ingenuity, and created important technological inventions. But Count Ilban Richese suffered a number of business blunders that threatened to bankrupt their fortunes. After being ousted from governing Arrakis, they were reduced to selling off important creations simply to raise enough funds to continue their efforts to compete.

The Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles, or CHOAM, controlled much of the economic affairs across the cosmos and had a keen interest in Arrakis above and beyond spice production. Because of its control of inter-planetary commerce, CHOAM was the largest single source of wealth in the Imperium. Influence in CHOAM was a major focus of political maneuvering in the Imperium, both to maximize dividends and also to skim profits. The leaders and bureaucrats of CHOAM were dedicated to controlling vital products that enriched the Great Houses... and CHOAM itself.

CHOAM

The Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles has operated largely behind the scenes, yet CHOAM is deeply involved with all economic affairs throughout the Imperium. Led by CHOAM Ur-Director Malina Aru.

CHOAM have an additional leader, the Auditor, in the advanced game.

Richese

Count Ilban Richese leads the Richese family as they struggle to regain their status as manufacturers of valuable, must-have technology.

Components & Set-Up for Play

This section describes the CHOAM and Richese expansion components and how to incorporate them into the Dune game.

Prior to game setup, follow these steps:

• 2 Faction Sets: Add these to your existing Faction Sets. Each Set contains:
  • 1x Player Shield
  • 1x Player Sheet
  • 1x Player Marker
  • 5x Leader Discs
  • 20x Forces
  • 2x Alliance cards
  • Richese has 3 No-Field Tokens
  • CHOAM has 1 Inflation Token
• 11 Traitor Cards: Add these to the Traitor deck as instructed. As usual, remove the cards for all factions that are not in play from the Traitor Deck.
• 2 Prediction Cards: Add these to the Bene Gesserit Prediction Deck.
• 14 Leader Skill Cards: Use the Leader Skill Card variant described below or return these cards to the game box.
• 6 Stronghold Cards: Use the Advanced Stronghold Card variant described below or return these cards to the game box.
• 2 Treachery Cards: This version of Poison Tooth and Artillery Strike replace the ones from the Ixian and Tleilaxu expansion. Otherwise, you may simply add them to your Treachery Deck.
• 2 Karama Cards: These updated Karama cards replace the Karama cards in the core game.

NOTE — all cards from this expansion are marked with the CHOAM & Richese symbol to distinguish them from those in the base game.

New Advanced Rules

Special Karama Power:

• CHOAM: You may discard any Treachery Cards, even Worthless Cards, from your hand at any time and gain 3 spice each.
• Richese: You may pay 3 spice at any time to buy one of your Richese Treachery Cards, secretly choosing which one.

Rule Clarification

The discard pile is not public information and may not be searched unless an effect allows you to do so (e.g., Nullentropy Box).

Faction Rules: Richese

Count Ilban Richese leads the Richese family as they struggle to regain their status as manufacturers of valuable technology.

Strategy: The Richese are at a disadvantage by having no forces on Arrakis, and not much spice to operate. Try to be aware of when certain factions can afford and would therefore be inclined to buy one of your special Treachery Cards either for their use or to keep it out of the hands of another faction. Selling your cards will be your one regular form of income until you have gained enough spice to ship in your forces. Use your No-Field tokens to get forces on the planet cheaply, but also to confuse your opponents about how many forces are present.

Richese Faction Rules

• At Start: 20 forces in reserves (off-planet). Start with 5 spice.
• You have a separate cache of 10 Richese Treachery Cards, marked with your faction symbol. These cards are not part of your hand.
• You also have three "No-Field" tokens (numbered 0, 3, and 5).
• Free Revival: 2 forces.

Richese Advantages

You have alternative technology.

Bidding: At the start of each Bidding Round, one fewer card is put up for auction. You must reveal and auction one Richese Treachery Card from your cache (either a Once Around or Silent Auction - see below), ignoring normal bidding order. Your card may be the first card for bid, or the last and you announce which it will be (before Ixians would use their Bidding advantage). You collect payment on your cards sold to other factions. If you buy any, the spice goes to the Emperor or the Spice Bank normally. Whenever discarded, they go to the normal discard pile. Your cards can't be bought or acquired with a Karama.

• Once Around Auction: Pick a direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise), and starting with the faction on one side of you, each faction around has only one opportunity to place a bid. Each faction may pass or bid higher, but once it gets back to you, you either outbid the highest bidder and get the card, or the highest bidder buys the card. If everyone else passes, you may get the card for free or remove it from the game.
• Silent Auction: All factions able to bid put any amount of spice in one hand (including zero spice). Factions reveal simultaneously. The faction that had the most spice in hand wins the card (ties break according to Storm order). If all factions bid zero spice, you may either gain the card for free or remove it from the game.

No-Field: When making a shipment of forces, you may pay for one force and use a No-Field token instead of shipping normally. When you do, place a No-Field token face down in the territory where your shipment lands. Other factions do not know how many of your forces are located there, but it is treated as if one is there. You may reveal a No-Field token at any time before the Battle Phase, placing the indicated number of forces from your reserves (or up to that amount if you have fewer forces left in reserves). You may move No-Field tokens like they are forces. A No-Field token is revealed when caught in a storm or by a worm, and you lose the number of forces indicated by the token.

There may never be two No-Field tokens on the planet at the same time. You may not use the same No-Field token twice in a row (for yourself or an ally). Keep a used one faceup in front of your shield until you place another one.

When you are in a battle, you must reveal the No-Field token in that territory when revealing your Battle Plan, and place the number of forces indicated by the No-Field token from your reserves (or up to that amount if you have fewer forces left in reserves). When you are in a Battle with a No-Field token, Atreides may not see your number dialed.

Alliance: You may offer to ship an ally's forces from off-planet using one of your available No-Field tokens, revealing the forces immediately upon shipping (if you already had a No-Field token on the planet, it must first be revealed). Place the used No-Field token faceup in front of your shield until you place another No-Field token.

You may also give your ally a Richese Treachery Card that is in your hand at any time if their hand is not full.

Richese Advanced Game Advantages

Black Market: At the start of the Bidding Round, before Declaration, you may intervene and offer one Treachery Card from your hand up for auction. You may announce what you are selling, and you may lie, but you do not show any player what is up for auction (although the Atreides may still look). The card you offer from your hand may be auctioned the normal way, or via your alternative auction methods. If no player bids any spice for your card, you must keep it, and your intervention ends. If a card from your hand is sold, one fewer Treachery Card is put up for auction as part of the normal Bidding Round. You receive all spice payments for Black Market cards, and Karama cards cannot be used to acquire Black Market cards. Any bids on Black Market cards that use the normal bidding method proceed in storm order, and normal bidding resumes where normal bidding left off, or in storm order if Once Around or Silent auction was used.

Fremen Special Victory Condition: Richese counts as one of the factions that cannot occupy Tuek's Sietch in order to fulfill the Fremen Special Victory Condition.

Faction Rules: CHOAM

CHOAM (Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles) has operated largely behind the scenes, yet is deeply involved with all economic affairs throughout the Imperium.

Strategy: Your leaders are fairly weak, but you have a pretty steady income, so you should try to stockpile Treachery Cards until you have an impressive hand of them. You also start with no forces on the planet, and must ship them all in. For this reason, you may want to wait until you can attack with a large force. Being able to collect spice for CHOAM Charity, and then double the collection at a key moment will help you to gain cards and still be able to afford revival and shipping, especially if done at a time when others aren't collecting Charity.

CHOAM Faction Rules

• At Start: 20 forces in reserves (off-planet). Start with 2 spice.
• Start with 2 spice.
• Free Revival: 0 forces.

CHOAM Advantages

You can manipulate the economy.

Charity: Each turn, you collect 2 spice for each faction in the game during CHOAM Charity before any factions collect. If another faction collects CHOAM Charity, it is paid to them from your spice.

Treachery: You may hold up to 5 Treachery Cards. At the end of any phase, you may reveal duplicates of the same card (e.g., Snooper) from your hand, and discard the surplus ones for 3 spice each. You may also discard "Worthless" cards for 2 spice each. Alternatively, you may discard Worthless cards for special effects in the following manner (as applicable):

• Baliset: Prevent a player from moving forces into a territory you occupy during Shipment and Movement. They may ship in normally.
• Jubba Cloak: Prevent a loss of your forces in one territory to the Storm when it moves.
• Kull Wahad: Prevent a player from playing a Karama card this phase as they attempt to do so.
• Kulon: Move your forces one extra territory on your turn in Shipping and Movement.
• La La La: Prevent a player from taking Free Revival during Revival.
• Trip to Gamont: Send any 1 force belonging to another player to that player's reserves during the Mentat Pause.

Revival: You have no free revival, but you have no limit to the number of forces you may pay to revive and it only costs you 1 spice for each force.

Inflation: During the Mentat Pause, you may place your Inflation token on the CHOAM Charity phase of the phase track (with either the Double or Cancel side face up). In the following game turn, CHOAM Charity (including the amount you collect from your Charity advantage) is either doubled or canceled for that turn (even for the Bene Gesserit in the advanced game). In the next Mentat Pause, flip the Inflation token to the other side. If the token has already been flipped, you instead remove it from the game. No bribes can be made when your Inflation token is in play with the Double side face up.

Alliance: Once per game turn, at the end of any phase, you may trade a Treachery Card with your ally. The trade must be two-way (each faction giving and receiving a card). You may pay for some or all of your ally's forces in battle.

CHOAM Advanced Game Advantages

Auditor: Gain the Auditor Leader Disc and shuffle the Auditor Traitor card into the Traitor deck at the start of the game. Whenever you use the Auditor as a leader in a battle, if the Auditor survived, you may audit your opponent by looking at two cards in your opponent's hand at random (not counting any they used in battle), or one card if the Auditor is killed. That faction may pay you 1 spice per card you would get to see to cancel the entire audit. The Auditor may be revived from the Tleilaxu Tanks as your one revived leader per turn, as if all of your leaders were in the Tleilaxu Tanks. The Auditor cannot be a ghola for the Tleilaxu, nor captured by the Harkonnens. Also, the Auditor cannot be assigned a Leader Skill Card.

Forces: When other players pay spice for their forces in battle, half of the spice (rounded down) goes to you. When you pay spice for forces, it goes to the Spice Bank. None of the spice goes to you if a Traitor is revealed.

Variants

The two variants below (Leader Skill Cards and Advanced Stronghold Cards) can be added to a game of Dune, together or separately, irrespective of which factions you choose to include.

Leader Skill Cards

Leader Skill Cards provide each faction with a unique advantage, assigned to one of the leader discs, making them a skilled leader.

When using Leader Skill Cards, the game Setup steps are slightly different. After step 1 (positions and Bene Gesserit predictions), proceed to Treachery (deal out Treachery Cards, including the Ixians Start of Game advantage). Then deal out two Leader Skill Cards to each faction. Each player chooses one to keep, and shuffles the other back into the Leader Skill Deck.

Play the card you keep face up in front of your faction shield, then choose one of your Leader Discs to play face up next to your Leader Skill. This leader has that skill for as long as they are alive. Afterward, complete setup, from Traitors on.

Leader Skills give you a special bonus or ability for as long as the skilled leader is alive, and the card is face up in play. There is also a more powerful or additional advantage when the skilled leader is in battle. Skills are applied in the current battle unless your skilled leader is killed in that battle. A Leader Skill must be used before a faction ability (e.g., the Mentat skill before Atreides prescience). If a skilled leader is captured, the skill goes with them.

When you must choose a leader for a battle, you may either leave the skilled leader face up in front of your faction shield or take it and the Leader Skill Card behind the shield. When you use that skilled leader, place it in your wheel with the Leader Skill Card (along with any Treachery Cards normally). In this case, the first part of the skill is still in effect (if applicable), but you also can use the second part of the skill, associated with that leader. Alternatively, if you use another leader for battle, and the skilled leader and card are behind the shield, no part of the skill is available to you. If you leave the skilled leader in front of your shield, the first part of the skill can still be used when your other leaders are in battle (if applicable).

After the battle, place the leader (if still alive) and the Leader Skill Card in front of your shield.

Any skill that mentions a card type (e.g., Poison Weapon) requires that the card included in the Battle Plan is played as that card type to gain the skill bonus. Therefore, a card like Chemistry (from the Ixians and Tleilaxu expansion) would have to be played as a poison weapon if using the Master of Assassins skill to gain its bonus.

If your leader associated with the skill is killed, shuffle the Leader Skill Card back into the Leader Skill Deck. Whenever you revive any leader, if you have no Leader Skill Card, you may draw two Leader Skill Cards, and then choose one to play face up in front of your shield and assign the newly revived leader to that skill.

Advanced Stronghold Cards

These cards are passed to players controlling the corresponding strongholds, representing home-field advantage. These are only used in advanced games. At the end of each game turn, each player controlling a stronghold takes the corresponding Stronghold Card. Players keep those cards until the end of the game turn, and if they no longer control the stronghold, they either pass it to the player who does control the stronghold, or they set the card aside if no one controls it. To have control of a Stronghold, you must be the sole occupant (not counting Bene Gesserit advisors).

At the start of the game no faction controls a stronghold, even if they start with forces there.

Only after the first turn, in the Mentat Pause, does control of a Stronghold Card get claimed.

Q&A: CHOAM & Richese

CHOAM

What happens if CHOAM uses Trip to Gamont on Richese at a location where they have a No-Field token? Answer: The No-Field token must be revealed, and one Richese force placed there would return to reserves. If none are there, the card is still considered used.

Does CHOAM's Charity advantage by itself trigger the Spice Production tech token? Answer: No. The amount the tech token collects is also not affected by CHOAM's Inflation advantage.

If CHOAM uses their Auditor leader disc and their opponent has only 1 card, will a 1 spice payment cancel the audit? Answer: Yes. The payment only needs to be as many spice as cards CHOAM could see. Additionally, you may not offer a partial payment to simply reduce the number of cards CHOAM may see.

Does CHOAM get 1 spice if another player uses the Arrakeen Stronghold card? Answer: Yes, they would get half (rounded down) of that player's spice paid for forces, counting the 2 paid by the card from the Spice Bank.

If CHOAM holds Shield Snooper and a Snooper, can they use their Treachery advantage to discard the Snooper? Answer: No. The cards must be the same. Portable Snooper is also not the same as Snooper.

Richese

If Richese does not reveal a No-Field token in a territory with spice, do they collect 2 spice (3 if they have ornithopters)? Answer: Yes. The No-Field token is considered one force for all effects until revealed, even if it is the 0 No-Field.

If an ally of Ixians buys a Richese Treachery Card or a Black Market Card, can they discard it and take the top card of the Treachery Deck? Answer: Not with a Richese Treachery Card, but they can with a Black Market Card (even if that turns out to be a Richese Treachery Card).

Does Harkonnen get a second card for free from the Treachery Deck when buying a Richese Treachery Card? And for Black Market cards? Answer: Yes for both questions.

What if you have a 0 No-Field token in a battle? Do you still play a leader? Answer: Yes, and you may play Treachery Cards normally (including a Cheap Hero in lieu of a leader).

Can Richese in a battle with a No-Field token dial a number of forces higher than what they have in their reserves? Answer: No.

Does a shipment with a No-Field token activate the Heighliner tech token? Answer: Yes, unless Richese uses the No-Field token to ship Guild as an ally.

Can you play Juice of Sapho during a Richese Once-Around auction to go last? Answer: Yes.

If Richese ships an ally's forces with a No-Field token, does someone have to pay any spice for the shipment? Answer: Yes. One spice, if shipped to a stronghold, and two if shipped elsewhere. Either player may pay the spice (to Guild, or the Spice Bank if the Guild is not present).

Can you take the Nullentropy Box card from the discard pile when using the Nullentropy Box card? Answer: No.

How does the Richese auction work with Ixians' Bidding advantage? Answer: If Richese goes first, it precedes the Ixians' bidding advantage. If Richese goes last, they reveal the card they are auctioning once the normal bidding is completed. In either case, Ixians will draw one fewer card for each card that Richese puts up for auction that game turn (Black Market and/or Richese Treachery). Ixians will still draw one more card than the number of normal Treachery Cards to be auctioned, removing one per their advantage.

CHOAM and Tleilaxu

In a CHOAM/Tleilaxu alliance, can Tleilaxu offer CHOAM half price for the total number of forces revived? Answer: Yes.

Leader Skill Cards

Can you still use the leader with the Mentat Skill in a battle if you use the skill to ask about a weapon? Answer: Yes. The Mentat skill's effect takes place before Battle Plans are made, so you may use the effect and then still take that leader behind your shield (to potentially use in battle).

Does Zoal copy the bonus a leader disc has from a skill like Mentat or Swordmaster of Ginaz? Answer: No. Zoal only copies the leader disc value, and not anything that is added to it like a skill or Kwisatz Haderach.

If the Tleilaxu take a Ghola from a faction that has no Leader Skill card, do they draw 2 cards and assign a skill to the Ghola? Answer: No. Only a player reviving their own leader discs can draw Leader Skill cards.

If Richese have the Smuggler skill and ship with a No-Field token, do they still get to ship along one extra force for free? Answer: Yes, if it's into an empty territory.

If Harkonnen have captured leaders with Leader Skills, do they get to use the skill? Answer: Harkonnen may only use the leader's battle skill if used in battle (including with Mentat). They would not, for example, collect spice when another player paid 4 or more spice to the Bank if the captured leader had the Spice Banker skill. But Harkonnen could add 1-3 spice to the battle per the Spice Banker skill if using that leader in the battle.

Can the Spice Banker collect 1 spice if a player spends 4 or more spice during revival? Answer: Yes, when paying to the Spice Bank.

If Tleilaxu have Rihani Decipherer and gain a Traitor Card, does it count as a Traitor or a Face Dancer? Answer: It counts as a Face Dancer, but it can only replace an unrevealed Face Dancer.

Advanced Stronghold Cards

Do the Bene Gesserit immediately lose a Stronghold Card when they flip to advisors after using their Intrusion advantage? Answer: They will lose it during the Mentat Pause to the player in control of the stronghold, or if no one controls it, the card is set aside.

How Does Karama Stop These Advantages?

• CHOAM Charity: Prevent from collecting spice (except collecting normal CHOAM Charity), and any other player collecting Charity, does so from the Spice Bank.
• CHOAM Treachery: Prevent from discarding a card for spice. Prevent discarding a Worthless card in that phase for its special effect.
• CHOAM Revival: Limit to reviving up to 3 forces (or 5 if Tleilaxu allows) and must pay 2 spice each.
• CHOAM Inflation: Prevent from playing Inflation token in Mentat Pause. Does not prevent flipping on the following turn.
• CHOAM Forces: Prevent collecting spice payment for forces for one battle.
• CHOAM Auditor: Prevent audit.
• Richese Bidding: Prevent from auctioning a Richese Treachery Card (play at the start of the Bidding Round).
• Richese No-Field: Prevent from using a No-Field token to ship.
• Richese Black Market: Prevent from selling a card from hand.