House Vernius

House Vernius rules over Ix, the subterranean world of marvels where the Imperium's most advanced technology is forged. Driven from their homeworld by Bene Tleilax usurpers and their Sardaukar allies, Earl Rhombur Vernius has never stopped fighting to reclaim Ix — and with it, the unrivalled manufacturing power that made his house great.

List of Contents

Faction Bonuses

• + Machine units do not consume Manpower; they consume Machine Scraps instead
• + Machine units are immune to sandstorm movement penalties and do not require Water
• + Machine units do not attract Sandworms
• − Cannot recruit Machine units without an active Ixian Foundry in the region

At 5k Hegemony

• + Machine units gain +10% Power
• + Ixian Foundries produce +5 Machine Scraps per day

At 10k Hegemony

• + Machine units gain +2 Armor and recover 5% Health per day while in controlled regions
• + Unlocks the Ixian Constructor frigate upgrade: Mobile Foundry

Councilors

Bolig Avati

Difficulty: Hard

Abilities

• Multiple S-Vault buildings can be constructed simultaneously
• Removing an S-Vault building reimburses its full construction cost
• Gain +1 Knowledge when a new District is established

"Bolig Avati is House Vernius's chief architect and modular design specialist. His philosophy that technology should be adaptive and reconfigurable has transformed Ixian engineering, allowing their facilities to be reorganized to meet any strategic need."

Bronso Vernius

Difficulty: Easy

Abilities

• Villages with only one neighboring territory cost 20% less Authority to capture
• The furthest active Neural Node automatically generates an Airfield

"Bronso Vernius is Rhombur's brilliant son, caught between Ixian technical tradition and the broader currents of the Imperium. His forward-thinking approach to expansion focuses on finding weak points in an adversary's perimeter and exploiting them before they can be reinforced."

Cammar Pilru

Difficulty: Easy

Abilities

• Maximum Influence increases by 5 for each Knowledge level
• Gain 200 Influence when entering Conflict with a faction; gain 30 Landsraad Standing when a faction enters Conflict with you

"Cammar Pilru served as the Ixian ambassador to the Spacing Guild for decades. His long-standing relationships with Guild navigators ensure that Ixian interests are always represented in matters of interstellar commerce."

Tessia Vernius

Difficulty: Hard

Abilities

• Spy Missions require 1 fewer piece of Information to initiate
• Idle Knowledge generates 50% of its value as Intel and Solari per day

"Tessia is Rhombur's devoted Bene Gesserit consort. Her political acuity complements Rhombur's technical genius, making the couple a formidable presence at both the Landsraad table and the battlefield."

Units

Fighting Mek

• Health: 400 | Power: 13 | Armor: 5 | Supply: N/A
• Recruitment Cost: 400 Solari | 4 Command Points | 4 Fuel Cells
• Recruitment Time: 5 Days
• Upkeep: 8 Solari
• Development required: None
• Range: Melee
• Abilities:
• + Tethered: Gain +3 Power while Tethered
• + Drone: Mechanical; does not attract Sandworms

Self-learning combat drones using a shifting repertoire of deadly moves. First designed to train the Ixian nobility in close combat, the Fighting Meks have been increasingly integrated into Vernius military forces

Suboid Soldier

• Health: 200 | Power: 8 | Armor: 0 | Supply: 100
• Recruitment Cost: 20 Manpower | 2 Command Points
• Recruitment Time: 3 Days
• Upkeep: 4 Solari
• Development required: None
• Range: Melee
• Abilities:
• + Mob Tactics: Inflicts +5% damage per Suboid Soldier at Short Range (x5 max)

Suboids are a race of humans genetically designed for manual labor. They are diligent and methodical, but lack any capacity for imagination and creativity

Railgun Drone

• Health: 320 | Power: 23 | Armor: 1 | Supply: N/A
• Recruitment Cost: 400 Solari | 4 Command Points | 4 Fuel Cells
• Recruitment Time: 5 Days
• Upkeep: 8 Solari
• Development required: None
• Range: 35
• Abilities:
• + Tethered: Attacks at Long Range when Tethered
• + Armor Penetration: Ignores a portion of enemy Armor
• + Drone: Mechanical; does not attract Sandworms

Railgun Drones fire a projectile accelerated with an electromagnetic coil. These high-tech weapons can reach marginally better projectile speeds than regular firearms, if the cannon is long enough

Resonance Drone

• Health: 400 | Power: 14 | Armor: 4 | Supply: N/A
• Recruitment Cost: 500 Solari | 5 Command Points | 5 Fuel Cells
• Recruitment Time: 5 Days
• Upkeep: 20 Solari
• Development required: Mechanization
• Range: 25
• Abilities:
• + Electrostatic Field: Ally drones at Medium Range gain Electrostatic (x1 max) — non-mechanical enemy units at Close Range lose 120 Health per day
• + Drone: Mechanical; does not attract Sandworms

The Resonance Drone induces a self-repeating feedback loop in its Holtzman Coil, charging nearby Faraday cages with a powerful electrostatic effect. This stratagem has been used by the Ixian armies for centuries

Fight-Engineer

• Health: 400 | Power: 16 | Armor: 2 | Supply: 100
• Recruitment Cost: 80 Solari | 40 Manpower | 4 Command Points
• Recruitment Time: 3 Days
• Upkeep: 16 Solari
• Development required: None
• Prerequisites: 5,000 Hegemony
• Range: 35
• Abilities:
• + Experience Sharing: Gains experience from drone kills at Medium Range; allied drones gain +5% damage and -5% damage taken per Fight-Engineer experience level
• + Repair Station: Drones at Medium Range heal even in combat; cannot move or attack while active
• − Ranged: Suffers penalties in melee combat

Fight-Engineers are a caste of Ixian specialists constantly trying to improve the programming of fighting drones

Spirit

• Health: 230 | Power: 16 | Armor: 4 | Supply: N/A
• Recruitment Cost: 3 Command Points | 9 Guild Favour | 3 Fuel Cells
• Recruitment Time: 5 Days
• Upkeep: 12 Solari
• Development required: None
• Building required: Spacing Guild Branch
• Range: 35
• Abilities:
• + Tethered: Always Tethered
• + Ghost Protocol: Cannot be seen outside combat in own or ally territory; -40% damage received in own or ally territory
• − Ship: Cannot investigate Discoveries or Villages; cannot occupy Villages; cannot target Village Buildings

The Spirit's conditional camouflage lets it step in and out of the shadows to surprise an unsuspecting opponent, or feint an assault

Folder Relay

• Health: 1200 | Power: 10 | Armor: 6 | Supply: N/A
• Recruitment Cost: 100 Guild Favour
• Recruitment Time: 8 Days
• Upkeep: 50 Solari
• Development required: None
• Building required: Spacing Guild Branch
• Range: 35
• Abilities:
• + Tether Network: Always Tethered; ally mechanical units at Long Range are also Tethered
• + Space Fold (10-day cooldown): Teleports all Vernius units at Long Range to any region connected to the Nodal Network
• − Frigate: Cannot investigate Discoveries or Villages; cannot occupy Villages; cannot target Village Buildings

The Folder Relay is the first ship of its kind. Used as a support ship during planetary warfare, it integrates a full Space Folder making it theoretically capable of instant interstellar travel. In practice it is used for short-range teleportation for retreat or maneuvers

Nuwa

• Health: 800 | Power: 35 | Armor: 2 | Supply: 100
• Recruitment Cost: 1000 Solari
• Recruitment Time: 15 Days
• Upkeep: 20 Solari
• Development required: None
• Prerequisites: 10,000 Hegemony
• Range: 35
• Abilities:
• + Machine's Mother: +20% drone recruitment speed; spying operations in the region last 2 additional days; Tethered units at Long Range gain +1 Armor and +20% Speed
• + Nuwa's Repair Station: Drones at Long Range heal even in combat; cannot move while active; executes faster lightning attacks that don't ignore Armor; stacks with Fight-Engineer Repair Station

Engineer, strategist, and protector of the machine army, Nuwa's bond with Ixian technology borders on the supernatural — and her drones fight all the better for it

C'Tair

• Health: 600 | Power: 18 | Armor: 3 | Supply: 100
• Recruitment Cost: 1000 Solari
• Recruitment Time: 15 Days
• Upkeep: 20 Solari
• Development required: None
• Prerequisites: 10,000 Hegemony
• Range: Melee
• Abilities:
• + Dissident Thinker: Unlocks an extra Armory gear slot (requires +1 Fuel Cell per use); grants Stealth to nearby allied non-mechanical units at Short Range; cannot be detected outside combat
• + Evasion (1-day duration, 2-day cooldown): The next attack executes and removes C'Tair from combat

A rebel and a genius, C'Tair spent years undermining Tleilaxu control of Ix from within. He fights not with an army, but with cunning — and vanishes before his enemies can strike back

House Vernius Development Tree

Unique Developments

★ nodes in the tree above are unique to House Vernius.

Statecraft

Technological Exchange [Statecraft] Unique

• Gain 5 Landsraad Standing on Council opening per active Truce
• +2 Knowledge per active Truce

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Heretical Computing [Statecraft] Unique

• Unlock Analytical Machine Agents and get 1 for free
• Unlocks the Harmless Gadget Treaty
• Unlocks the Intelligence Agency Building in S-Vault

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Holistic Thinking [Statecraft] Unique

• +1 Knowledge per Information field with at least 1 Analytical Machine
• Information increases by 1 level in factions that have accepted a Harmless Gadget

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Physical Wiring [Statecraft] Unique

• Infiltration Cells adjacent to a connected neural node give +2 Knowledge, +5 Solari production, and +1 Intel production per Statecraft building in the Village
• Allows the training of Assassins

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Expansion

Sequential Thinking [Expansion] Unique

• The Nodal Network can optionally connect to Neural Nodes across a Deep Desert
• Each node on the longest path of the Nodal Network gives +0.5 Knowledge and +2% Authority production

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Automated Defenses [Expansion] Unique

• Villages connected to the Nodal Network gain: +2 free extra Automated Militia
• Connected Neural Nodes attack enemy units in the region as a rapid-fire single-target defensive building

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Neural Tropism [Expansion] Unique

• Enemy factions pay +30% Authority to Annex a Village neighboring at least 2 regions connected to the Nodal Network
• Unlocks the Neural Core Building in S-Vault

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Economy

Entropic Engineering [Economy] Unique

• Can spend up to 2 Fuel Cell in Combine Harvester Drones to increase their production
• Unlocks the Spice Silos Village Building
• Unlocks the Spice Laboratory Building in S-Vault

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Spice Enlightenment [Economy] Unique

• Can spend up to 4 Fuel Cells in Combine Harvester Drones to increase their production
• +0.5% Spice production per Knowledge

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Military

Water Batteries [Military] Unique

• When out of Fuel Cells, Water is used in its stead
• Unlock the second gear slot in the Armory

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Guild Collaboration [Military] Unique

• +5 Command Point
• Agents assigned on a Spacing Guild Information slot produce 2 Fuel Cell
• Unlocks the Command Post Building in S-Vault

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Automated Manufacture [Military] Unique

• +10 Command Point
• +0.5% recruitment and regeneration speed of all units per Knowledge

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Unique Buildings

Buildings exclusively available to House Vernius.

Village — Economy

Neural Node

• Cost: 50 Plascrete
• Upkeep: None
• Construction time: 1 Days
• Development required: None
• Factions: Vernius
• Connects the Region to the Nodal Network
• Can only be built where exactly 1 neighboring region is already connected to the Nodal Network

The whole is more than the sum of its parts