Iluwen
Chieftain
Definitely. The Bene Gesserit look upon themselves as the self appointed saviors of humanity whose very job it is to advance the state of the human, and to preserve knowledge against the inevitable catastrophes like the one presented in the mod's storyline.
All the Tleilaxu wonders and monstrosities, gholas, axlotl tanks, facedancers, all spring from their own odd spiritual philosophy. Ix too has a philosophical-religious background behind it's fascination with forbidden thinking machines.
It is a very clear theme in the series that philosophy, religion and science are inextricably bound together. Knowledge and truth are knowledge and truth.
I again agree with Ahriman's "Yes and No." The Mahdists and the Quizarate are obviously rather self-righteous and intolerant. But Shai-Hulud is just a Bene Gesserit creation, taken from the prevailing Orange Catholic scriptures, which, itself is a creation designed to be an all-inclusive faith for the known human universe. All-out war and religious intolerance isn't really a prevailing theme in Dune until after Paul becomes Emperor and lets the Mahdi Jihad and it's Quizarate successors loose. After all, the Corrino Emperors may not approve of the Tleilaxu, or the Ixians, but you don't see them dropping Sardaukar legions down there to purge these heresies from the Imperium, do you? Even Paul doesn't do that as long as they pay lip-service to his "divinity."
Yeah, even on noble, once everyone gets well-established, my troops get plenty of opportunity to practice their trade, and I play a rather peaceful, mind-my-own business utopia-development style.
And again, aside from Fremen Jihads, the society of Dune is very against all-out war. The whole point of the Great Convention, Kanly and Wars of Assassins is to make war limited. The Orange Catholic faith was created specifically to prevent such wars.
War in Dune is mirrored by martial arts in Dune. Stately rapier fighting is the style of day. And let me tell you, as someone who practises European and Japanese Mediaeval/Renaissance martial arts, rapier fencing is very stylized, and both style and weapon are very impractical on a muddy field against a zweihandler, longsword or backsword wielded by a fellow who doesn't care for the niceties of duelling etiquette. But, in a world of body shields, this ritualistic, gentlemanly style is actually practical, and even dominant, because shields don't allow blades to pass through them edge-on. Those devastating chopping blows that sever limb or head are impossible. One must try to slip a stabbing past their guard, or perhaps slice with a passing or withdrawing thrust. Since even those blows must be slowed to pass through, aggression and intensity are not the ways to victory. One must feint and deceive, kill with the thrust sinister rather than the dexter. The Weirding Way, similarly, is about using the body, about being in control and psychologically dominating the opponent, rather than
All of that is reflected in war. (Microcosm and Macrocosm, again fitting the mystica and philosophical them of Dune). Nobody uses their nuclear arsenals, even when the fall of their House is imminent. Guild war transport fees make mass armies as useless as axes and greatswords are against shields. Instead, as with single-combat, deception, feint and manoeuvre, objective raids and assassination are the means of combat. House Atreides has one mentat in the first book, and he is their Master of Assassins, not the commander or chief of staff of their armies. That should tell you something about the relative importance of those two arms of service, given that the conventional military would benefit every bit as much by a mentat's abilities as an espionage agency would.
Even the Emperor doesn't dare to just send in the Sardaukar with impunity, but must hide his actions behind a House known for their lack of morals, whom he clearly intends to dispose of later.
If everybody went after each other like it was World War II it wouldn't be Dune. Sure, the Mahdists would, and they are given the incentives to do so, but everybody else, even without worrying about Guild transport fees, have been inculcated by 10,000 years of culture to behave in a very different way. They believe they are civilised. Noblisse oblige requires the Houses to spare the lives of ordinary folks, even as their aristocratic perogatives allow them to order about and exploit those same people. That's the basic feudal contract: produce for us, obey us, and we will protect you from the horrors of war.
I think the mod has quite as much war as the flavour requires.
Speaking of which: I don't really understand why slavery should be Harkonnen only. Slavery is part of the Faufreluches. The Emperor has slaves. Remember the red-headed slave girl he gives away because he likes her too much, in one of Irulan's reflections, used as a chapter preface? The Sardaukar are kept amused with their own private harem of slave girls, to keep them impervious to outside influence. The whole Zensunni Migration is a story of repeatedly uprooted slaves dragged about to wherever the Imperium needs cheap, expendable labour.
Sure, the Atreides don't seem to keep slaves, but they are unusually honourable. And neither do the Bene Gesserit, but they are a mystical order chasing enlightenment. But the way the Tleilaxu treat their own personnel, the way they use gholas, and so forth, is not indicative of a people who oppose slavery. Similarly, the Ixians seem to have a slave undercaste, do they not? And why would the Ordos oppose slavery if it kept costs down?
Fremen culture is a bit nebulous here, but it is not clear that indentured servitude, all but identical to slavery, is not practised. I think that the Atreides, the Bene Gesserit, and maybe[/I the Fremen should be disallowed slavery, but it is fair game for everyone else.
Dune Wars/assets/XML/GameInfo/GameSpeedInfo.xml.
<iMonthIncrement> sets how many months a turn takes, and <iTurnsPerIncrement> how many turns that rate lasts.
I agree about the speed. 25 years turns is way too long at the beginning. I have experimented with 1 year and six months turns, and am currently trying out 1 month. As a rule of thumb, you don't realistically want troops to be produced in less than 3 months. Modern US Army infantry training lasts 3.25 months, and produces an acceptable, but hardly an amazing product. A US Marine Infantryman takes 4.5 months to train, between Recruit Training and Infantry Training Battalion, and the British Army takes 6 months to turn out infantry, as did the German Kaiserheer in 1914. Dune focuses on smaller, more highly trained armies, so look to the latter named armies for a guideline. The Atreides can be inferred to have about 3-4 legions total, from the first book, a mere 90,000-120,000 men. Half the modern British Army, recruited from a whole planet's population. The Harkonnen, who, clearly Russian-flavoured, favour a mass cannon fodder approach, can only get together 10 legions (300,000) for the attack on the Atreides, and the Emperor thinks 2 legions, a mere 60,000 Sardaukar, should be sufficient to wipe the floor with anything on Arrakis, and, from the Baron's point of view, still slaughter all his own troops, too, if ordered.
To achieve the kind of quality the Sardaukar are supposed to have, I think you can expect 2-3 years, at a minimum. Given what they are supposed to be capable of, I think nothing less than an SAS level of training would do. They are supposed to be the pinnacle of soldierly skill, or very nearly, after all.
On that basis, I think turns should be set to produce a basic foot unit in 6 months to a year, and the really elite ones in 2-4 years, assuming your civilisation has achieved a reasonable level of development, mid game.
Vanilla Civ has turn increments change dramatically to follow Earth's development, but technology is pretty stabilised in Dune. Lasguns and body shields are thousands of years old, and haven't improved much. Filmbooks have been around since before the Guild used spice. Either the increments should decrease in length very slightly as time wears on, as people piece things back together, or not at all, to properly reflect the Dune setting.
Tleilaxu would want whatever messes with and irritates everyone else the most. So, likely Paradise, just to be difficult.
Spice prolongs life, and the Guild Navigators depend on it to keep travelling the space lanes. By default, everyone except for far-out religious fanatics would be Pro-Spice, given the choice, as a matter of pragmatism. Atreides might be pro-Paradise, but they might also change their mind once they realise that may mean the end of spice, as Leto II more or less concludes. Nobody else, aside from the Fremen, the Tleilaxu, and maybe the Atreides have even the tiniest incentive to be other than Pro-Spice. So, six to three, there is your 2-to-1 split.
and +1
prophet?
