Quote Originally Posted by Fyraltari View Post
Meh
Spoiler: the books and later books
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The Fremen did beat the Emperor's troops on Arrakis, but it was Paul's threat to nuke the Spice out of existence that actually got Shaddam to stand down. The Emperor had only sent a couple legions to the planet and despite every Great House having sent troops there, the Guild kept them stuck in orbit, so I wouldn't say the Fremen overcame the resources of the entire Imperium.

As for the spice production, while "the spice must flow" sounds very nice, God-Emperor tells us the production was completely halted for hundreds of years, up to possibly three millenia and the Imperium managed to carry on (albeit at greatly reduced speed) on reserves alone.
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precisely. The Fremen can't take the entire Imperium at once. But they dont have to: by threatening the destruction of the Spice, they secure the permanent cooperation of the Guild and negate any potential of strategic reinforcement by any combattant not directly involved in the fight.

That means no support form the Landsraad. That means you can do to the Landsraad what the Landsraad was terrified the Emperor would do to them: pick them off one by one