In addition to enemy incursions, there are other dangers like the marauding and gigantic sandworm, capable of swallowing vehicles and infantry whole but only capable of moving through sand. Unlike later games such as Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the fog of war is lifted forever with initial exploration, it does not become dark once more when units leave the area.

As the units explore the map, the darkness is removed. The game map initially starts with a fog of war covering all area which is not covered by the player's units range of view.

The basic strategy in the game is to harvest spice from the treacherous sand dunes using a harvester vehicle, convert the spice into credits via a refinery and to build military units with these acquired credits in order to fend off and destroy the enemy. The player takes the role of a commander of one of three interplanetary houses, the Atreides, the Harkonnen or the Ordos, with the objective of wresting control of Arrakis from the two other houses. The final cutscene is different for each House, in consonance with their very disparate worldviews. The ultimate final showdown is the battle among the player's House up against three enemy sides, among them Frederick's forces the Sardaukar (an unplayable elite force whose heavy infantry are particularly powerful). When the player dominates Arrakis on the world map, the two other enemy factions ally against their common enemy. Later, when the three Houses divide Arrakis among them, the player has to assault and capture enemy territories. In the first few missions the objective is to successfully establish a base on an unoccupied territory of Arrakis, to harvest spice and defend against intruders.

The player is a military commander from a House of their choice. War begins as deputations from all three Houses arrive on Arrakis. To achieve this, he now offers the sole governorship of Arrakis to the House (huge nobleman family/cartel) which delivers the most spice for him out of House Atreides, Harkonnen and Ordos. Emperor Frederick IV of House Corrino is desperate for the harvesting of the valuable spice melange, only found on the planet Arrakis, to pay off all of his debt incurred on internecine wars with family members.

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