I played solo Dune: Imperium Uprising. I'd played many times before, but this time was the first I played on Mentat difficulty, which makes the bots stronger.

My leader was Princess Irulan, and I randomly drew two rivals, which turned out to be Staban Tuek and Princess Irulan (yes, I'm playing against myself)

Both had a high Swordmaster value, which was good since I hadn't played Mentat.

Really early on, I started using my Signet Ring ability to cut down my deck. For whatever reason, I never got very much persuasion, so I bought very few cards, and I trashed most of those for spice.

For the first two conflicts, I didn't commit any troops at all as I sprinted down the Fremen influence to get Sandworms. After I did, I started sandworming a lot, and used by plethora of spice for some Highliners early on. Sandworm doubling was really useful.

Eventually though, the Irulan bot became too strong with like Maker Hooks and a lot of troops, as well as 3 storming alliances, so lost a lot of the late-game ones. Both bots got Swordmaster early on, and I did too eventually, which is actually something I don't do much. I usually go for High Council first, which I didn't get at all this game.

By the end of the game, my deck was only 5 cards. I got 9 VPs, Staban got 6, and the Irulan bot got 10. So yes, I lost to myself.

But it was close, and I did better than I expected to on my first Mentat difficulty game.