It sounds kind of silly.  Am I overstating this?  Supremacy is just a game right?  What difference can a game make.  That’s just kid stuff.

My little brother-in-law grew up in a bad neighborhood going to a bad school. It was a shame because he was a very smart kid surrounded by drugs and gangs. I showed and played Supremacy with him when he was about 12. He loved it!! It sounds silly to say but it truly transformed his life. I couldn’t get him out of the ghetto but Supremacy showed him that there are other things in life. Things like: business, profit, trading, millions of dollars trading hands, budgets, international political conflict. He learned good communication skills, negotiating, how to resolve conflicts and managing money.  How do you balance today’s needs with long term investment? Where else could he be exposed to these ideas and learn about them?  He certainly not in his school or community.

Mark stayed out of gangs and drugs. In spite of his background, he was inspired to go to college and build a career. I watched him grow up. He went on to get a bachelor’s in business. He built a career in management at UPS. He bought a home and started a family. Yes, I really do credit much of his success to Supremacy. It was his ‘gateway drug’ to success. It opened his eyes to possibilities he would not have otherwise seen.

Supremacy touched my life. It was huge to Mark. If you are a real fan, then it’s touched you also. Want to have a life changing impact on a kid?  Play Supremacy with them.

THEY tried to shut us down.

THEY failed.

The Command Post is back on line!

(We strongly suspect grey aliens are involved too but we can’t prove it, ….yet.)

Help us send THEM a message with our new Cyber Attack promotion and SAVE!  For a limited time, save at our Shop checkout with this secret Coupon Code:  greys

This will only be good for so many customers so don’t delay.

It just so happens, we are working with a real Cyber War specialist! He works with the Pentagon and the CIA. He is also helping us develop an all new expansion deck: Cyber Supremacy 2020. This deck will allow players to launch and defend against cyber, chem and bio attacks. We have some very exciting ideas going into this. Let me know if you are interested in helping us play test it. We won’t really get cranking on this until after the first print run is shipped.

We get this question from time to time.  Strangely enough, we also get:  Are ABMs too weak?  I guess it depends how you look at it.  First of all, how much does it cost to build them?

Before you can build them, they have to be researched.  I count 4 ABM cards out of a 100 card deck.  You have to pay $200BL per card you turn over.  That sounds really expensive but keep in mind that many of the cards are already dealt out to players.  How much do you have to spend on research on average?  (help me out here math geeks)  I’m not exactly sure of the math but from playing experience it’s expensive.  You better plan spending at least $2-5TL on research.  I’ve seen desperate players spend as much as $10-15TL.

That’s not all.  You still have to pay for 2 minerals.  If they are worth an average $500BL each, that is an extra $1TL.  So let’s say you spend $6TL on ABMs.  Are you protected?  No.  This is where the ABMs are ‘weak’.  $6TL is a lot of cash.  What do you get for all this?  You can shoot down 1 incoming ICBM.  If a player launches 5 at you at once, you are still out of the game.

Ok, so what did we spend all that cash for?  It’s the follow up builds.  Let’s say next turn, you build 4 more.  Now you can shoot down 5 incoming ICBMs at once.  A player would have to launch 9 at you to take you out.  Let’s say the turn after that, you build 4 more.   Now you have a total of 9 ABMs.  The most ICBMs a player can launch at you is 12.  You shoot down 9.  Only 3 get through.  You are still in the game.

Lets look at the economics.  How much did it cost that player to launch 12 ICBMs at you?  $6TL for missiles plus the cost of 6 minerals.  Worse than that is the VP cost!  It’s double:  $12TL (+value of minerals).   The kicker here is that the ABMs are not consumed when fired.  They are reusable.  Your stockpile of ABMs still count big for VPs.  Again, this is double value.  Your 9 ABMs are worth $18TL in VPs.

In addition, having the most ABMs also gives you the high tech advantage in combat:  3 re-rolls.  A nice bonus but after building 9 ABMs, you aren’t likely to have a big conventional force.

So, what is the final conclusion?  Are they too weak or too strong?  They are very expensive.  That expense is countered by the huge VP value.  If you have only a few, they are weak.  If you can build many, they become very strong.  Too strong?  Well, look at all the cash you had to pay for them!  Would you spend that much effort on something that wasn’t very strong?

Also consider your opportunity cost here.  What did you not build by choosing to build a huge ABM stockpile?  How are you hurting and behind in those areas?  Yes, a massive ABM force can be extremely strong.  Considering the costs to build one, it seems just about right.

My daughter Emily heard about the budget battles in congress on the news and the ensuing government shutdown.  “Why do the republicans want to shut down the government?”, she asked.

“Well, I think they are worried that the national debt is getting too high.” I answered.

“Oh, is that like in Supremacy?”, she asked.

“Yes”, I answered “Exactly.”

“What is our debt?”, she asked.

“I think it’s around $16-17 TL.”, I answered.

“Oh my,” responded Emily, “That’s high.  We aren’t bankrupt yet?”

“Well, not yet but we are getting close.  That’s what congress is worried about.”

“How can we even afford the interest payment on that much debt?”, she asked.

“Well, that’s a big problem for us now.  Our payments on debt is a big part of our budget and it’s growing.  That leaves us with less money to pay for other things.”, I responded.

“We have to pay all that money to the bank?”, she inquired.

“No, we pay it to our bond holders.  China holds a lot of it.”, I answered.

“Oh, just like in Supremacy!  So we have lots of debt and China has lots of bonds.  So each turn they make a bunch of money and we pay it?”, she clarified.

“Yes”, I said, “That’s mostly it.”

“Do they have a big navy?”, she asked.

“Not yet”, I said, “but they are trying to build one.”

“That’s not good.”, she said, “Do they have lots of ICBMs?”

“Yes”, I answered, “but so do we.”

“Ah, so there is no point in attacking us.  We’d just obliterate each other.”  She said, “What about North Korea?  I heard they were threatening to nuke us?”

“Yeah, but they only have like 1 or 2 and they aren’t long range or very reliable.”, I answered.

“Do we have ABMs?”, she asked.

“Sort of”, I answered, “It’s not full proof but we can shoot down some.”

“So it’s like we only have a couple ABMs in Supremacy but the North Koreans only have 1 ICBM?”, she surmised.

“Yeah,” I answered, “More or less.”

A surprising conversation considering that Emily is a 10 year old.  What?!  What is she?!  Some sort of international/political genius?  Nope.  Just a regular kid.  A regular kid that has played Supremacy!

Pretty sophisticated knowledge for a 10 year old.  Unlike most of her peers, she knows where Burma, Afghanistan and Argentina are and she can point them out on a map.  She understands the basics of global trade, conflict, negotiation and politics.

Well, that’s all good but what about nuclear war?  Doesn’t playing games like this make kids violent?  Nuclear war is horrific.  It shouldn’t be made into a fun game. It may seem that way at first.  A closer look actually reveals the opposite:  Studies show that wargamers tend to be more pacifistic than the general public.  It makes sense if you think about it.  People that play wargames understand better than anyone else how devastating and destructive war can be.  They see how it starts.  They know why it’s best to avoid it and  how.  The world would be a much better and safer place if more people played Supremacy.