The Fremen are the indigenous population of Arrakis and one of the factions players are able to play as within Dune: Spice Wars.
Angered by the imperial invaders, the Fremen are fierce and relentless in their resistance against the Imperium. The Fremen have a particular hatred for House Harkonnen, and have been a thorn in the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's side since his occupation began.
The Fremen are lead by the Imperial planetologist, Liet Kynes, who secretly leads the Fremen and their ecological project to terraform the planet.
General Gameplay[edit | edit source]
The Fremen have long dreamed of transforming Arrakis into a lush, temperate planet. This, however, poses a danger to the mining and trading of spice melange, therefore endangers the vitality of the entire Landsraad.
With news of the Spice War between House Harkonnen and House Atreides, the Fremen see an opportunity to free Arrakis from Imperial hands.
Given they are the native population of Arrakis, they are less affected by its environment, therefore can travel further before suffering from exhaustion. They are also skilled in sand-walking, therefore are able to avoid sandworms for a longer period than other playable factions.
Players opting for the Fremen faction can utilise worms to travel around Arrakis, and strike at the heart of their enemies domain.
Councillors[edit | edit source]
Whilst the Fremen look to Liet Kynes for support and leadership, there are a number of councillors that players can turn to for advice throughout Dune: Spice Wars.
- Stilgar Ben Fifrawi: Stilgar is the Naib (leader) of Sietch Tabr and a formiddable warrior. He is respected by the Fremen who listen to him, making him advantageous for players looking for both fighting and leadership skills.
- Mother Ramallo: Mother Ramallo is a rogue Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit. Given her position, she is advantageous for those wishing to inspire religious fervour into their warriors, but is also advantageous for those seeking knowledge about the rights of the Fremen.
- Chani Kynes: Chani is the daughter of Liet, and plays a key part in gathering facts and figures for her mother and players throughout the game.
- Otheym: Otheym is a renowned fighter of the Fremen tribe, but also a good teacher knowledgeable about guerrilla warfare.
Unique Units[edit | edit source]
Faction Bonuses[edit | edit source]
Like other factions, players opting to play as the Fremen at the beginning of the game have specific faction bonuses, but also drawbacks which they must overcome.
- The Fremen military units have a -30% supply drain, which is advantageous over other factions.
- The Fremen can form alliances with Sietches outside of their territory.
- A trademark of the Fremen is sandworm riding. The Fremen are able to use thumpers to achieve this.
- In a similar fashion to the Smugglers, the Fremen have limited initial access to the Landsraad that they must overcome.
Tips and Tricks[edit | edit source]
Hegemony Win[edit | edit source]
The Fremen are particularly advantageous to players wishing to achieve the Hegemony victory conditon, but there are several strategic things that players can do to increase their chances of winning the game via this method.
Firstly, players would benefit from choosing Stilgar Ben Fifrawi and Otheym as their two councilors. Choosing Stilgar as one of your councilors will give you the added bonus that every new village capture increases Sietch detection progress. You will also gain 1 Authority production per exploited Spice Field. Furthermore, choosing Otheym will give units a 10% speed bonus, whilst units will gain "Sand Killers" when no allies are nearby.
As the game begins out, capture only the necessary number of villages until you need to expand. Around 3 or 4 is a good number, and players can pillage the rest to ensure that they are still collecting resources whilst progressing through the game.
Purchase your first two Ornithopters at the beginning of the game, but hold out on purchasing a third until after you pillage your first region. Do not use up any tech boosting discoveries, unless they are in contested places. Use your harvesting teams to pick up discoveries in remote places where other factions either aren't looking, or don't have a large presence yet.
Utilising the technology tree is going to be very advantageous at this point in the game, especially if you wish to win the game via the Hegemony condition. You may wish to start with the "Local district Studies" section of the technology tree at first and the continue through the green, gvernment sections of the tree until you have completed "Lay of the Land"; don't worry about "Paracompass" and "Dune Wandarers", they're not helpful in assisting you with Hegemony.
Meanwhile, you'll need to get started on your main base, to ensure that it is built up enough to properly progress through the game, but to also ensure that you're safe from enemy combatants. Recommendations for these buildings include the Research Center and the Bazaar. This is personal preference, however, but these two buildings will aid you well later down the line.
At this point, it would be ideal to already have completed the majority of the green technology section (G1-G5 on the tree), but you may also feel that you can expand further and finish G7 and G7 if there are no combatants nearby. This is not a requirement, and if there are several combatants close by and encroching on your space, stop at G5 and wait until you have a bit more control over the situation.
After you have built the Bazaar and the Research Center, you can switch to researching the yellow section of the technology tree. Research tier 1 normally, then use up your Harvester wreck discoveries. Each should give you full T2 tech or 80% of T3, depending on how much research output you have. Ideally you should get Y1-Y5 before you switch to red, but sometimes you have to adjust and build the Barracks as your 2nd main base building due to early pressure on you.
Afterwards, research the red section of the technology tree, beginning with tier 1, then pick up all your saved Crashed Shuttle discoveries. These should give you roughly 60-70% of T2 tech or 40% of T3 tech each. As you research R1-R3 you build your Command Post and Recruitment Center in your main base 3-slot district. Then you build Administrative Hall and Recycling Vats in 2-slot.
You can either move Barracks to the last slot of 3-slot district, or you can build Enhanced Fortifications there. This should give you a good starting point to winning the game via Hegemony as the Fremen, but you'll want to assess your situation at this point and decide what moves are best moving forward to propell yourself to victory.