History Videogame / EmperorBattleForDune

* BadBoss: House Harkonnen and Ordos proudly wear this as a hat. The intro shows that both of them pulled a YouHaveFailedMe on your predecessor and do the same to you if you do if you perform poorly. The Harkonnen are especially brutal; Rakan, after seeing the player character and not being impressed, says to his mentat "if this one performs as badly as the last one I'll have you strangled along with {{it|IsDehumanizing}}." [[spoiler:After the betrayal of the Guild leaves them stranded on an enemy's home planet, either of the Baron's sons threaten to kill their mentat unless he quickly comes up with a way off the planet.]] Gunseng is especially brutal, if the player attacks the Ordos homeworld, he demands the soldiers who burned down the Executrix's great hall be brought to him so can torture them as punishment for denying him the opportunity to torture the Executrix.

* ColdSniper: The Atreides Sniper. Fremen Warriors. The Fedaykin [[MakeSomeNoise use sonic pistols a la the 1984 film instead.]]

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Harkonnen. Due to them being a [[PlanetOfHats Planet Of]] {{Jerkass}}es, the Fremen cannot be made to ally with them in the campaign. [[spoiler: [[EnemyMine Until]] [[LesserOfTwoEvils the final mission]].]]

* ColdSniper: The Atreides Sniper. Fremen Warriors. The Fedaykin [[MakeMeWannaShout use sonic pistols a la the 1984 film instead.]]

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The Spacing Guild is played this way.

* CuttingOffTheBranches: The plot follows up directly from the Ordos victory in ''[[Videogame/DuneII Dune 2000]]'', though House Ordos is not left in any stronger position than the others.

* DopplegangerAttack: The Ixian Projector can create seemingly harmless duplicates of any unit, in order to fool an enemy. In truth, while they rapidly lose health and disappear upon taking damage or colliding with an enemy unit, their weapons are fully functional. Projectors thus become {{Game Breaker}}s once you have access to Harkonnen [[MacrossMissileMassacre missile tanks]].[[invoked]]

* TheUnfavourite: Baron Harkonnen frequently flip-flops between favoring his two sons in public. It's fairly obvious he's playing the two against each other; privately (according to AllThereInTheManual) he seems to consider Gunseng the most threatening of the pair and ends up sending him to Arrakis to oversee the spice production. [[KarmicDeath He is then poisoned to death by Copec.]]

** It is not made clear what became of Shafla, Cilix, and Elara. The lab was most likely destroyed when the Emperor Worm was bombed, and we do see what appears to be its wreckage. The final [[RedEyesTakeWarning shot]] of the ending suggests ''something'' happened, but that's it.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Lose too many battles and the Harkonnen will install a heart plug and pull it out, while the Ordos will [[OffWithHisHead decapitate you]] and [[AndIMustScream hook your head up to a life support system to serve as an example to future strategists]]. The Atreides will actually [[DoubleSubversion double-subvert]] this trope - while the Duke initially intends to merely dismiss you from your position, he is forced to [[DeadlyEuphemism promise your water]] to the Fremen in order to mend the rifts in the trust between the two factions caused by your failures.
** The Harkonnen and Ordos opening cutscenes show your predecessor's "punishment for failure", who may be the player character from "II" or ''2000''.

* HumongousMecha: Many of the Atreides armored units are Mecha, as is the Harkonnen Devastator. This may be a call back to ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun''.

* BadassBaritone: Duke Achillus, being played by Michael Dorn.

* IllTakeThatAsACompliment: After Gunseng questions the wisdom behind Rakkan's "sublime thought" of attacking Atreides and Ordos passengers on the Spacing Guild highliner, thus a violation of a Great Convention rule stating that the "War of Assassins" must be limited to the planet Arrakis......

* InsultBackfire: After Copec becomes the new Baron, he orders Gunseng to swear fealty to him. Gunseng instead spits at him in defiance. However, spitting at another person is the Fremen way of saying they own a life debt to that person(since water is precious on Arrakis and spitting at another shows they are forever loyal to the recipient) which Copec purposefully chose to interpret the insult as a sign of his brother's loyalty.

* BenevolentBoss: Duke Achillus. Unlike Rakan and the Executrix, he is not bringing in a new strategist because he killed the old one and isn't dismissive of the player on first sight. If the player does do poorly, he threatens to replace instead of kill them, though due to distrust from the Fremen caused by the player's failures, [[GoodIsNotNice he hands the player over to the Fremen as a gesture of goodwill]]. And when his mentat feels guilt over [[spoiler: not seeing the Guild's betrayal]], he tells the mentat to get a hold of himself.

* FateWorseThanDeath: If you know whats good for you, never fail the Ordos. [[OffWithHisHead Or]] [[AndIMustScream else]]...
--> '''Previous Ordos Strategist:''' [[LampshadeHanging "Why can't they just let us die?"]]

* LaughablyEvil: House Harkonnen. With the sheer haminess of its characters and their over the top villainy, it's hard not to get a laugh out of their antics.

* YouHaveFailedMe: Lose too many battles and the Harkonnens will install a heart plug and pull it out, Ordos will decapitate you and hook your head up to a life support system ("Why won't they just let us die?"), while the Atreides will simply let you go, however your Fremen allies will then lay claim to your water.

* ColdSniper: Fremen Warriors. The Fedaykin [[MakeMeWannaShout use sonic pistols a la the 1984 film instead.]]

* StandardStatusEffects:

-->'''Gunseng:''' You could ask...
''**The Baron begins asking**''

* AdaptationNameChange: In the Dune novel and Dune 2000 game, the leaders of House Atreides and House Harkonen are Duke Leto and Baron Vladimir respectively. In Emperor, their names have be retcon to Duke Achillus and Baron Rakan.

* BadBoss: House Harkonnen and Ordos proudly wear this as a hat. The intro shows that both of them pulled a YouHaveFailedMe on your predecessor and do the same to you if you do if you perform poorly. The Harkonnen are especially brutal; Rakan, after seeing the player character and not being impressed, says to his mentat "if this one performs as badly as the last one I'll have you strangled along with {{it|IsDehumanizing}}." [[spoiler:After the betrayal of the Guild leaves them stranded on an enemy's home planet, either of the Baron's sons threaten to kill their mentat unless he quickly comes up with a way off the planet.]] Gunseng is especially brutal, if the player attacks the Ordos homeworld, he demands the soldiers who burned down the Executrix's great hall be brought him so can torture them as punishment for denying him the opportunity to torture the Executrix.

** ...and then there are ''Ride the Worm'' and ''The Fremen'' using the same roughly-two-minute tune.

* BenevolentBoss: Duke Achillus. Unlike Rakan and the Executrix, he is not bringing in a new strategist because he killed the old one and isn't dismissive of the player on first sight. If the player does do poorly, he threatens to replace instead of kill them, though due to distrust with the Freemen caused by the player's failures, [[GoodIsNotNice he hands the player over to the Fremen as a gesture of goodwill]]. And when his mentat feels guilt over [[spoiler: not seeing the Guild's betrayal]], he tells the mentat to get a hold of himself.

* OneHitKill: In close combat with enemy infantry, the Sardaukar Elite uses a knife that can instantly kill any enemy soldier in one hit except for other Sardaukar Elites.

* GlassCannon: The Ordos Kobra, a fixed-gun tank destroyer that can deploy itself to become a SentryGun.
** There's also the Atreides Sonic Tank.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Averted, with units degrading in performance as they are damaged -- except for the Harkonnen; as one of their advantages, units function at full ability up until they are destroyed, likely to compensate for their lack of a HealingFactor or medic-type units.