Ever Wonder Why...

[Gobalopper]

If you have never read the Dune novels this post will probably confuse you, so go buy them and come back in a few months to read it. :)

I am sure some of our longtime visitors or forum posters know what some of us think about tanks and the general method of warfare used in the Westwood Dune games. Shaddam Corrino was looking through his copy of Children of Dune and came upon a pretty interesting couple of paragraphs, check them out below:

Mentat fastion, he accepted this, turned to other facets of his problem. All the Atreides were on this one planet. Would House Corrino risk attack from space? His mind flashed through the review of those conventions which had ended primitive forms of warfare:

One-All planets where vulnerable to attack from space; ergo; retaliation/revenge facilities were set up off-planet by every House Major. Farad'n would know that the Atreides had not omitted this elementary precaution.

Two-Force shields were a complete defense against projectiles and explosives of non-atomic type, the basic reason why hand-to-hand conflict had reentered human combat. But infantry had its limits. House Corrino might have brought their Sardaukar back to a pre-Arrakeen edge, but they still could be no match for the abandoned freocity of Fremen.

Three-Planetary feudalism remained in constant danger from a large technical class, but the effects of the Bulterian Jihad continued as a damper on technological excesses. Ixians, Tleilaxu, and a few scattered outer planets were the only possible threat in this regard, and the were planet vulerable to the combined wrath of the rest of the Imperium.

The Butlerian Jihad would not be undone. Mechanized warfare required a large technical class. The Atreides Imperium had channeled this force into other pursuits. No large technical class existed unwatched. And the Empire remained safely feudalist, naturally, since that was the best social form for spreading over widely dispersed wild frontiers-new planets.

If you want to look it up yourself it is page 128 of the Ace paperback version of CoD.