Is it Better to Liberate or Pillage a Village in Dune Spice Wars?

The Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli once said that a good leader should be feared by their people rather than loved, at least if they can’t be both. It ain’t nice to think about, but you gotta be ruthless sometimes when you’re in charge of stuff. You’ve got things to do, people to see, goals to achieve, and in the case of Dune: Spice Wars, spice to hoard. Of course, when the people fear you too much, that leads to revolt, which is less than ideal. So, is it better to Liberate or Pillage a Village in Dune: Spice Wars?

Once your Faction is powerful and properly established enough to have its own military unit, you can start attacking Villages around Arrakis, whether they be neutral ones or, more frequently, ones belonging to other major Factions. Assuming you’re successful in this endeavor, you’ll have one of three options before you:

• Liberate
• Pillage
• Turn Neutral

Is it Better to Liberate or Pillage a Village in Dune Spice Wars?

The correct choice of these three depends heavily on your current standing, as well as the local topography. If your Faction is flourishing and you’ve got resources out the wazoo, then the best choice would be to Liberate the Village. Liberating a Village brings them under your Faction’s banner. They’ll contribute to your conquest efforts, though they will need your support to stay afloat, which is why you should be careful not to Liberate more Villages than you can handle. Oh, and if they’re in close proximity to a Spice field, Liberating becomes much more attractive.

On the other hand, if you’re having difficulty properly establishing your Faction and need to secure some resources in a hurry, you should Pillage the Village. You’ll raid them and swipe whatever resources you can from them, including Materials and Solari. However, if you take them for all their worth, they won’t have much to offer you if you want to Liberate them later. Pillaging is strictly a short-term solution.

If you’re not quite sure what you want to do with a Village, you can opt to Turn them Neutral and leave them be. You won’t take their stuff, and they won’t go under your banner, you’re just chasing whatever Faction is currently occupying them out. This is a good choice if you want to Liberate the Village later and don’t want to chew up all of their resources with Pillaging. Just make sure to come back and Liberate them before some other Faction does!