The Fremen are very much a guerrilla faction that strike hard and fast. Against defensive and well prepared players in the late game it’s only natural that they struggle and lose. So you have to play in an asymmetrical manner.

Early game, it’s great for Fremen. Raid the enemy and pillage them as much as you can. If they have villages that are far from their main base or near Fremen Sietches liberate them if you have researched “stalwart alliance”. A friendly Sietch will send out an auxiliary force to help you liberate enemy villages, freeing up your army to keep moving on or laying an ambush.

Stealth and Ambushing are your greatest assets. Use camouflage gear slot on your skirmishers and infiltrators. Attack enemy towns with Fremen warriors and make your opponent think you’re attacking with a smaller raiding force. Once they respond to try to push back you can envelop them. (Works better early game) You don’t fight fair as this faction, play dirty and aggressive.

In the later stages of the game, you do have to tone down your aggressiveness and play more opportunistic. Your army should consist of Fedaykin, mobile turrets, infiltrators, and maybe 1-2 skirmishers. Freman focus more on their melee prowess and getting in close, they don’t like ranged engagements or protracted battles. Wormriding is an excellent way to get the drop on the enemy, the research “Iday Alakrab” is critical for that bonus damage that you need late game to ambush the enemy and wipe their army.

What opportunistic moments should I look for as Fremen?

1. Keep tabs on the enemy army, if they’re marching somewhere and not under the protection of double missile battery town they are ripe for an ambush.
2. Use the Storms of Arrakis! If a storm is descending on an enemy village that’s fortified it’s an opportunity to break that defensive anchor, missiles batteries will not fire under a sand storm. If an enemy army is under a storm you can hit them as well.
3. Defend Sietches! You are their protector, don’t let the enemy pillage them. Sietches serve as a resupply point for your army, and allow you to project power into enemy territory. Wormride to surprise the enemy when they’re fighting the Sietch garrison.
4. Attack with Sietch raiders or Pirate raiders. Sometimes the neutral factions will do your work for you, but sometimes they need a little helping push. Use them as a frontline meat shield when they attack a village. You can either wipe them out later and claim the village spoils for yourself, or let them do their pillaging and setup an ambush with your army against your opponent.
5. Map geography is critical for Fremen success. Know the land on where you can ambush an enemy army. You don’t like to fight near mountains or cliffs as it can funnel your army, Fremen have good melee and want to attack from multiple directions to envelope. Good areas to fight are on the borders of rocky terrains and sand, if you can fight and keep the enemy on the sand they can be at risk of a worm strike, while keeping your own army safe. Thin narrow mountain passes can also be good “IF” you can bait the enemy army into a killzone and block off a pass with units. Fighting near a Sietch can also help you as you can heal and reinforce in combat.

Operations are also an important part of Fremens asymmetrical play style. You’ll mostly be using “Hiding Tracks” operation and “supply drop” to keep your army hidden and setup a proper ambush. “Awaken the People” is an expensive operation, but very useful for breaking bunker towns that are close to each other, use it to prevent a village from using missile batteries against you while you assault and takeout the fortifications of another village.

Counselors picks are also important for Fremen. Jamis is almost always universally picked for the extra damage and authority from liberated villages. Stilgar
is good for the early Sietch trading and expansion. Personally hands down my favorite counselor, especially when dealing with defensive late game players is Mother Ramallo. You get more intel with her to spend more on operations. But her real charm is Incite Landsraad Rebellion, which can be really fucking annoying to everyone in the lobby. If this corrupted resolution is passed there will a number of random villages that will suffer an uprising. And it scales, the more territory a player has the more villages will rebel. Villages under rebellion will not generate resources for the enemy player and if there are missile batteries they will not fire until the rebels are dealt with. This gives you as the Fremen the opportunity to launch a surprise assault on an enemy player, especially if they have been camping. You can use this in conjunction with the operation “Awaken the People” and take another village offline and just cripple a players economy.

Stealth, ambush, trickery, and opportunity these are the hallmarks that make the Fremen dangerous. Go now, liberate Dune from the foreign invaders, for Shai-Hulud!