Dune/docs/NEXUS_GUILD_RULES.md

Spacing Guild Nexus: shipment source contract

Later runtime checkpoints: Guild Cunning implements the extra-shipment continuation. Guild Secret Ally implements supported paid routes using the focused source resolution. The original audit below remains historical source evidence; its Homeworld-return question has now been sent to the user.

Source audit, 10 September 2026. This documents the three printed panels and their integration boundaries. It does not implement them or certify complete Guild, Homeworld, Nexus or expansion compliance. Common Nexus lifecycle and existing release gates continue to apply. No user question was sent during this audit.

Primary evidence

The Guild face was freshly inspected in the original photograph of GF9's twelve Nexus cards, local inspection copy /tmp/dune-nexus-cards.jpg:

• Cunning, Guild only: an immediate second shipment after the owner's Shipment and Movement. The second shipment's forces cannot move unless Hajr permits it.
• Secret Ally, Guild absent: Guild shipping prices, with cross-planet shipment or return to reserves permitted as the holder's shipment action.
• Betrayal, opposing Guild seated: take one entire shipping payment otherwise going to Guild or the bank, including one's own payment. The face expressly overrides a faction collecting for occupying Junction.

The base GF9 rulebook, p19 identifies three native shipment forms: reserves to Arrakis, one Arrakis territory to another, or one territory to reserves. Guild uses half ordinary prices; returning costs one spice per two forces. Its flexible placement in the combined-turn order is Advanced. Page 23 rounds fractional shipment costs upward, confirms the return tariff, and preserves payment by allies. These publisher passages were freshly retrieved from the official search index; direct PDF opening returned 403.

The November 2020 FAQ was freshly checked through indexed publisher text. Page 2 allows Hajr after entering Arrakeen/Carthag and grants the resulting ornithopter access. Page 8 requires Hajr during one's own turn under ordinary movement rules. Page 7 separates canceling one Guild income receipt, one discounted shipment, cross/return permission, and Advanced timing; cancellation stops one ability use. Page 2 routes each contributor's shipment funding directly to Guild or bank, with Guild's own contribution going to the bank. Page 7 routes independent Karama shipment payments to the bank.

The Ecaz & Moritani rulebook, pp10–11, inspected in the publisher-authored mirror /tmp/dune-e3-nexus-rules.pdf, calls Cunning an enhancement of a native advantage. It requires used Nexus cards to be discarded. Its Homeworld rules distinguish native Guild transport from other factions' routes, prohibit shipment to an ally's world, and exclude Homeworlds from territories. Homeworld advantages and penalties are immune to Karama.

Search results concerning tournament house rules and the separate 2021 movie game were excluded. No retrieved publisher clarification specifically addresses Guild Nexus with Hajr, skipped movement, an independent Karama shipment, or Secret Ally Homeworld returns.

Cunning: supported sequence and composition

Keep one combined turn open. Finish or decline the original shipment and ordinary movement opportunity, then resolve the Nexus second shipment before handing the turn to another faction. Declining ordinary movement is not a new prohibition on the card: the named Shipment and Movement turn has still reached its end. No inspected text requires moving a positive number of forces merely to reach that boundary. Likewise, do not implement the second shipment by reopening the original unused shipment slot after a pass; it is a distinct card-granted opportunity. These are phase-sequence compositions, not a dedicated FAQ answer about passing.

Allow native shipment forms. The new shipment inherits native Guild reserve, cross-planet and return choices, actual tariff, legal source group, storm/stronghold rules and custody. Nothing restricts it to the first shipment's type or destination, or makes it free. A group moved during ordinary movement can be selected for the later cross-shipment; shipping is a separate action. Payment, physical arrival, technology triggers and entry reactions must settle before the second-shipment opportunity can finish.

Movement remains bounded. The second shipment does not grant an ordinary movement. Ending the first ordinary movement by declining it cannot leave an ordinary move available for newly shipped forces. The express exception is Hajr. If Hajr is played after the second shipment, retain the same active player until its optional legal extra move finishes or is declined. A previously played but unspent Hajr move can remain available under ordinary allowance composition; a Hajr move already consumed before the second shipment cannot grant a third move. Track the actual remaining allowance, not merely whether Hajr appears in a played-card list. A later move checks current ornithopter access normally.

The card does not establish how an independent Richese Ornithopter movement card combines with this exception or with earlier Hajr usage. Preserve the already documented Hajr/Ornithopter boundary instead of assuming a third/fourth move. Native city ornithopter range is a different matter from that physical Treachery Card.

Separate native cancellations. Cunning creates an enhanced native shipment allowance. Treating its declaration as a cancelable native enhancement is the common Cunning/general Karama composition. Cancellation consumes the attempted Nexus use but grants no second shipment and cannot undo the first shipment or completed movement. This is distinct from permitting a second shipment while canceling its discounted rate or its cross/return form. The base FAQ explicitly treats those native advantages separately; one generic cancellation must not silently choose all three outcomes. Existing rate/route cancellation limitations remain implementation work. Independent Karama shipment permission also has its own payment route; it must not silently authorize a second shipment after Cunning itself was canceled.

Homeworld Cunning routes are native routes. Guild remains the native Guild faction, so an additional legal Guild shipment can use an already supported native Homeworld transport adapter. Preserve the route's typed forces and pricing, Homeworld alliance prohibition, BG limitations and actual arrival rules. The card does not turn a Homeworld into a territory or grant another faction the high-Junction sponsor ability.

Secret Ally: one modified shipping action

The absence test is the seated native Guild faction, not whether a Guild player currently has board forces. Consume the held Nexus when declaring its use for the owner's shipping action. The grant supplies the printed rates and route choices; it does not add a second shipment, create a real alliance, provide flexible Advanced Guild timing, collect other players' payments, or convey every Guild/Homeworld benefit.

For ordinary Arrakis routes, use the same rounded Guild tariff and one-territory source selection as native transport. The shipment still consumes the holder's normal shipping action. The ordinary movement afterward remains available and uses the holder's own movement rules. Keep physical elite/advisor/No-Field classification, source custody, storm restrictions and entry continuations with the actual player. A Fremen holder's ordinary free reserve reinforcement remains a distinct native option; do not overwrite its existing zero-price action merely because a Guild Nexus is held.

The Guild is absent, so no native Guild income recipient or native Guild advantage owner exists. Do not manufacture a Guild-rate Karama response targeting a nonexistent player. The Nexus rule does not establish universal immunity for borrowed effects; this is a distinction between the printed card grant and the native cancellation targets. Ordinary actual arrival reactions can still apply.

Secret Ally with Homeworlds needs separate resolution. E3 expressly limits Arrakis-to-Homeworld shipment to native Guild, except its named Homeworld transport advantage; Secret Ally expressly allows return to the holder's reserves. With reserves represented on a Homeworld, those provisions meet directly. Neither the face nor the inspected FAQ explains whether this grant overrides that faction-specific route restriction. Native Guild Cunning does not have that ambiguity. Do not silently extend the Secret Ally return to arbitrary foreign Homeworlds, or treat the entire Secret Ally panel as implemented while that material combination is unresolved. Richese No-Field discount combinations retain their existing separate pricing boundary.

Betrayal: payment replacement

Bind one actual shipment payment and redirect that payment in full to the Nexus holder. This is payment replacement, not bank income added alongside the existing receiver. The express own-payment case allows paying the shipment's cost and receiving that payment; it does not permit financing the cost with the expected later receipt. A free shipment supplies no positive payment to take.

The face expressly supersedes occupied Junction collection for that payment. Preserve the original charged amount before any native low-Junction division; do not hand the card holder only the Guild's reduced half while paying the remainder to an occupier. This follows the component's full-payment override, not the unoccupied low-Junction runtime quote. The existing contributor-rounding and occupation-lifecycle questions are not resolved generally by this one card.

An implementation needs an original payment identity, exact charged contributions and a committed replacement recipient before ordinary Guild/bank/occupier settlement. Preserve hidden held Nexus identities until an actual play. The already pending private-reaction timing policy applies; this audit does not invent another pause, automatic response reveal, or duplicate user question. A zero-cost Guild Ambassador shipment cannot manufacture a Betrayal award.

Existing integration points and required state

engine.ts currently uses p.shipped, numeric p.moved, movesAllowed, finishMovementTurn and the endMovement action to manage the combined turn. movesAllowed currently treats a played Hajr as a two-move ceiling, which alone cannot distinguish an intentionally ended ordinary move from an unspent extra move after a new second shipment. A Cunning continuation needs that distinction before the queue advances. Advanced movementTurn/chooseGuildTiming and Sapho ordering must see one uninterrupted owner turn, not insert Guild into the queue twice.

Preserve distinct settlement adapters: ordinary reserve shipment, guildShip, native Homeworld shipment, concealed No-Field and Junction-sponsored transport. shipment-price.ts already separates reserve prices, Guild transport tariffs, contribution bounds and Guild income. guild-homeworld-shipment.ts explicitly requires native Guild and should not be broadened indiscriminately for Secret Ally. shipment-promises.ts also requires review: a second shipping action must not erase an earlier committed Truthtrance answer or reapply one shipment's promise to the wrong action.

The pure Cunning receipt module records the original combined-turn event, native Guild owner, turn, canonical faction roster, original shipment flag, original movement count and whether Hajr had been played. createNexusGuildCunning checks the unallied owner's active phase-five turn. validateNexusGuildCunning checks historical facts without reading current hands, resources, alliances or force custody. The engine owns the independently bound mutable lifecycle and second-shipment intent/receipt. Actual shipment custody and payment remain in their existing continuations. Do not clear a shipped flag as the sole source of the extra right, and do not use current hand membership as proof after spending the Nexus. Reconnect and uncertain responses must preserve one debit, one arrival and one consumed allowance.

nexusGuildCunningMoves(receipt, currentHajrUsed, movesAfterSecond) returns only the remaining Hajr extra allowance. Ending ordinary movement forgoes at least one ordinary slot, so original movement counts zero and one both permit at most one Hajr move; an original count of two permits none. A newly played Hajr supplies that same one extra slot, while losing a previously recorded Hajr or claiming more moves than that allowance rejects. This bounded helper excludes the separate physical Ornithopter-card composition; it does not reset or mutate the original movement counter. Its pure tests cover declined and used first actions, Hajr before and after, spent allowances, native ownership, exact signatures, JSON restoration and private-field getter traps.

Integrated verification should exercise first shipment followed by moved/declined ordinary movement, all three second-shipment forms, Hajr before/after and already consumed, cancellation of only the selected native advantage, paid BG/entry continuations, native Homeworld routes, private offers, stale requests and actual SQLite restoration. Passing the pure receipt tests does not establish those engine or persistence behaviors.