Bene Tleilax Variant 1 – (Kirby Lee Davis in The General Vol. 18, No. 5.)
Reviving the Ghola -
http://www.sorvan.com/games/dune/
The components of the BT are limited to a player shield. They have no tokens or leaders,
for they are unseen. The BT is a manipulator in the true sense of the word. Their power
stretches through the work of others. That spells out the difference in play. The BT
player has no player dot, so he cannot take part in the storm round. Nor can the BT be
used in a two player game. In all other situations and rounds the BT plays an active role,
not only with his own powers but with those of the other characters.
AT START: Start with 5 spice and 4 Treachery cards.
ADVANTAGES: You control the revived dead.
1. Whenever a player pays spice to revive tokens or leaders, he pays it to you
instead of to the spice bank.
2. After all other combat has been completed each turn, you may attack one
leader of any player. The leader must have just led tokens in battle and must
be attacked in the territory of the battle. The defending player can use his
character advantage (e.g. Atreides prescience, BG Voice, etc.) Tokens in the
territory are only affected if a lasegun/shield combination occurs.
3. You may make a traitor of any one revived leader per turn. When your traitor
is used in combat to gain a territory, you may announce your traitor and gain
control of the territory. You controls the territory until another player moves
tokens onto it. You do not receive your traitor's value in spice, but if the
territory has spice, you may collect it. You do not have to announce
stronghold betrayals immediately. To make a traitor, circle the leader's name
on the Player Aid sheet the moment the leader is revived. You can wait only
until the turn ends or until another leader is revived to make a traitor, but you
cannot wait to see who the next revived leader will be. Traitors to the BT may
be revealed at any time by saying the name of the traitor. If the traitor was
used in combat to gain a territory, the announcement sends the traitor and
betrayed tokens to the tanks (the traitor must have been the last leader used
with the tokens to betray them). The BT can delay announcing the betrayal of
stronghold tokens as long as no other tokens ship or move onto the stronghold
and the betrayed tokens do not move. The BT may not announce the betrayal
during the movement round of a player that makes such moves. Unlike other
traitors, a BT traitor stops being a traitor for the BT once he dies. Upon being
revived, however, the BT can again make him a traitor.
4. You may win by spice count. At the end of any collection round you may
place 35 spice in open view of all players. If at the end of the next collection
round you still have over 35 spice and no one else has won, you win. If you no
longer has 35 spice after a turn, you can reclaim the spice pile. Spice from the
open pile may not be spent until you have exhausted all other sources. This
spice win can be predicted by the Bene Gesserit.
ALLIANCE: You may grant free revival of up to six tokens and two leaders (one may be
made a traitor) per turn to each of your allies.
OPTIONAL ADVANTAGES:
1. The BT can lay traps in strongholds which he controls or in unoccupied
strongholds at the start of the game. These traps are Treachery cards laid face
down outside the board sector containing the stronghold. The first tokens
moved or shipped onto the stronghold trigger the trap. These tokens are frozen
and may not move any farther that turn. At the beginning of the combat round,
before all other combat, a leader of the triggering force is drawn at random.
That leader is attacked by the trap. He may play a defense card. (NOTE: As
the trap card has already been played, the Bene Gesserit CANNOT voice it.
The Atreides player can, however, look at the card.) Combat is resolved
normally, with the trap card being discarded afterwards. If the leader is killed,
the BT gains his value in spice. Tokens in the stronghold are not harmed
unless a lasegun/shield combination occurs.
2. In the Bidding round, AFTER Treachery cards are dealt face down but
BEFORE bidding begins, the BT player can give Treachery cards in his hand
to any other player. The BT cannot give a player more cards than he can hold.
Opponents may not refuse to accept given cards.
3. Instead of playing a weapon card in a trap or leader attack, the BT may play a
worthless card (Kulon, Trip to Gamont, etc.). The card either: (a) prevents the
defender from shipping down any tokens during the next turn; or (b) prevents
the defender from moving any on board tokens during the next turn. The BT
can choose which power the card has when it is revealed.
ADDITIONAL KARAMA RULES:
6. a. 7. prevents the Bene Tleilaxu from announcing a leader as a traitor. The
leader reverts to his/her original allegiance. Or it taxes the BT ten spice which
must be paid immediately to the spice bank. If the BT has less than ten spice
he must pay what he has. Or (optional rule) it can destroy an un-triggered trap.
6. b. 7. Bene Tleilaxu You may use a karama card as a lasegun in an attack on a
leader, or (optional rule) as both a lasegun and a shield when played as a trap.
STRATEGY: The strength of the BT lies in two areas. The first is obvious, they are
unreachable. There are no BT tokens to blast to the tanks, no Tleilaxu leaders to
turn traitor. The only ways the BT can be restrained are through karama cards and
the "voice" of the BG (Bene Gesserit). This strength is also a weakness. The BT
has an incredibly hard time making their plans concrete. Their very intangibility
makes the other players nervous and reluctant to freely go along with the BT
whims. Association and alliance becomes a matter of cost, and even then the aloof
mystique that surrounds the BT never diminishes.
The other unalienable strength is the tanks. As long as there is combat, spice will
flow into the hands of the BT. The basic problem here is one of attrition, only so
much battling can be expected before players lose their combat potential. Luckily
time has a way of solving these ills.
The most prominent problem with the BT is the multi- sided Tleilaxu paradox.
This is first encountered through the BT's ability to ambush an opponent's leaders.
This gives the BT the chance to fuel the tanks and doubly collect spice (once for
killing the leader and again when the leader is revived). On the negative side,
attacking leaders further alienates the player whose leader was liquidated. Such
alienation cannot be avoided in the latter turns of the game, but as the game
begins it can be damaging.
The strongest forte of the leader attack is the threat of a leader attack. The BT is
not limited to movement and battle, they can attack and withdraw unharmed no
matter where or how strong the leader or his accompanying token force is. The
defenders (all who participated in combat that turn) must be prepared. In this way
the leader attack also becomes a diplomatic tool. The BT can become the
professional hit man, the ultimate assassin. It is a staggering threat.
In many ways the backbone of the BT is its traitors. Although they can be used to
gain any territory, their main targets should be spice and strongholds (the only
other logical area of attack would be the shield wall). In this way they grant the
BT the chance for a normal win via three strongholds. Therefore the BT should
try to build up a large number of traitors.
The natural process of leader deaths to their revival and recirculation is long and
tense. The manipulation powers of the BT must be used to spur early pitched
battles that will quickly devastate at least one player's stable of leaders. A good
byproduct of this is the filling of the tanks with tokens.
Revealing traitors can make or break the Tleilaxu cause. Ideally the BT could
reveal three in stronghold victories all in one turn, but that is rare. The BT must
face the unhappy prospect of defending his strongholds without tokens. He has
three options: (I) laying a karama trap to blast all who try to take the stronghold;
(2) attacking the leader of one of the invaders and hoping for a lasegun/ shield
combination; or (3) manipulating the invaders so that they will wipe each other
out or again use a BT traitor in victory. All three options should be utilized, if
possible . A trap, whether a karama or not, should be played. It is a threat that
probably will not deter determined players from the stronghold, but it may prompt
a player to use another karama to destroy it (and provide a good laugh when the
player discovers it was a "shield" trap).
The second point, that of attacking a leader in hopes of a lasegun/shield combo,
can be seen as a desperate act of guesswork. That does not have to be true. One of
the coldest, yet most successful agreements is that of a player who lost in the
stronghold battle sacrificing his leader to a BT attack. The sacrificed leader plays
a shield defense to the BT lasegun attack, thereby wiping out the tokens in the
stronghold. This act of revenge does not return the stronghold to the control of the
BT, but it further strengthens the tanks and thus future revenue through revival.
This illustrates another facet of the Tleilaxu paradox, that of the failure of winning
by strongholds strengthening the chance of winning by spice. The inverse of this
is also true.
If the backbone of the BT is in traitors, the flesh is the BT's manipulative force.
This has already been brought out through the threats of traps and leader attacks.
The main strength of the BT arsenal of diplomatic ploys is in Treachery cards;
indeed the cards are the physical extent of their power. It is also here that the
Tleilaxu paradox strikes hardest. To attack leaders or to lay traps the BT must buy
Treachery cards, thus draining their spice. Their main diplomatic tool also
demands that they buy cards to give them away. The BT therefore continually
needs to purchase cards. The costs of this, however, are not as damaging as it may
seem.
First, it must be understood that the BT must give cards away. Out of the 33 cards
in the deck, there are 14 the BT can use only as fake traps and discards. All are of
value to the other players, and therefore bargaining power when the BT
inadvertently buys one. Another result of the ability to give cards "AFTER
Treachery cards are dealt face down but BEFORE bidding begins" is that it
becomes easier to fill an opponents four card hand, leaving a Treachery card on
the block that he can no longer buy. The card can then be picked up at a cheaper
cost.
Still another result of the giving of cards is a knowledge of the other players'
hands. Careful watch by the BT of how other players use their cards can lead to
situations where the BT can guide players against each other and predict the
results. The BT can also watch for defenses players have for their leaders in
preparation for the BT leader attack.
The last factor to be observed in giving cards away is that it makes room for the
purchasing of more cards, a good way to fill the BT hand with valuable cards. To
this goal, it is also suggested that traps be laid during the bidding round if
possible. The cost of this is spice. To survive as a player the BT must buy
Treachery cards. which then lowers his chance for a spice win. The giving of
cards counters this by coaxing players to battle.
The last power of the BT, the use of worthless cards as movement impairers, is a
futuristic one. Timed correctly, this can isolate a token force for accumulated
assault not unlike Custer's Last Stand. Occasionally this can be used to keep
players from moving onto a BT stronghold. The main pull of this power, however,
is as a diplomatic tool. It should not be underestimated.
