Posted August 8, 2025 by Martin
An advanced design that allows for Spice dialing, can hold a Leader token, and has a slot for Treachery cards
I absolutely adore the classic Dune board game. It’s thematic, it’s tense, and you never know when you’re going to get stabbed in the back (although it’s probably going to be by the Harkonnen player). Gale Force 9’s re-release of the game is sadly out of print, but the company has confirmed they’re working on a Kwisatz Haderach edition that will come with updated deluxe components, and I for one am stoked. STOKED, I TELL YOU!
The way Dune handles combat is suitably brutal. When two players clash, they each grab a Battle Wheel, then they secretly dial in how many troops they’ll sacrifice for this battle and assign one of their Leaders to the skirmish, as well as optional Treachery cards, which can be things such as weapons or defenses. Once both players are ready, they reveal their battle plan and resolve the conflict.
In the advanced rules (in my opinion, the ideal way to play Dune), players also need to commit precious Spice in addition to troops to each battle. Unfortunately, the Battle Wheels that come with the game do not allow for dialing in Spice. On top of that, the advanced rules also allow dialing in half troop strength, committing for example 1.5 points of Force to a battle, but the standard wheels do not do these half-steps cleanly.
Lastly, battle plans consist of Force, Spice, Leader, and Treachery, and holding all of that in one hand with the default wheels is just asking for tokens to get dropped.
I saw where an Advanced Battle Wheel wasn’t, and I said, “This will not do.” So I set out to fix all of these issues in one glorious design, and friends: I believe I’ve succeeded. I present to you, the Advanced Dune Battle Wheel!
Let’s have a look. The Advanced Battle Wheel consists of the following parts: A back plate, a face plate, an inner dial (for Spice) and an outer dial (for Force), six springs, and three bolts that attach the face plate to the back plate.
To assemble the wheel, place the inner and outer dials on the back plate, put the springs into their respective slots, put the face plate on top, and use the bolts to secure the face plate. And that’s it: You’re now ready to do battle on Arrakis like a champ!
As you input your battle plan, the dials neatly click into place thanks to the springs, and I cannot begin to describe how satisfyingly tactile this thing feels. There’s enough resistance to prevent the dials from slipping, but not so much that it’s difficult to turn them. If you do feel like the wheels are too tense for your liking, you can always remove one outer and one inner spring; the design still works perfectly fine with fewer springs.
Personally, I prefer to sleeve my cards, so the receptacle for the Treachery cards is large enough to hold sleeved cards as shown in the picture above. Unsleeved cards fit perfectly fine as well, but really, I strongly recommend you sleeve your cards.
Finally, the Leader slot comfortably holds a token should your battle plan call for one of your Leaders.
If you’re feeling inspired to give this design a whirl, you can download the .STL and Blender source files right here.
The Spice must flow!
The design shown here was printed on a Bambu Lab P1S printer.