What’s so Great About Supremacy?

If you are new to Supremacy, what is so cool about it?

Nukes

Ok, how many games actually let you nuke your enemies off the board?!  And Mushroom Cloud pieces?!

ICBMs are relatively cheap to build and very devastating.  How can you survive?  With a delicate balance of threats, negotiation and MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).  ABMs could break this balanced stalemate but it is very expensive.

 

Trillion Dollar Bills

There is something very exciting about hold and exchanging Trillion dollar bills….

 

Economics

You don’t just collect money each turn in Supremacy.  You have to control and produce key resources around the world:  Minerals, Oil and Grain.  You can trade these on the world market for a profit, or use them to move, attack or build.

This simple clean system models something very complex, sophisticated and realistic that most games ignore:  Logistics.  It costs resources to move.  Resources to attack.  Those same precious resources you are going to need to build new forces at the end of the turn.

 

Multiple Ways to Win

Most other games you win by building up lots of armies and then fight your way to victory.  Brute force is always fun, but in Supremacy, there are many other paths to victory.  Here are just a few:

  • Political–  Diplomacy and alliances are always important.  Crafty players get other to do their dirty, expensive work for them.
  • Economic–  There are many economic strategies.  Here is one:  You can amass huge fortunes by staying neutral during a massive war.  What happens to prices then?  They sky rocket.  If you can stay neutral, you can sell your resources to the combatants at exorbitant prices so that they can annihilate themselves!  Here is another:  Target one resource to dominate.  Monopolize it.  Capture all that you can and destroy the ones out of range.  You can then restrict the worlds supply, strangling their economies at will while you reap windfall profits.  How many others can you devise?
  • Naval–  You can also win by dominating the seas.  Become the worlds dominant naval power.  Your forces will become highly flexible:  able to defend or deploy anywhere quickly.  You can also cripple your enemies trade through blockades.
  • Strategic–  Speak softly and carry a huge high tech arsenal!  With the threat of a huge strategic nuclear force, you don’t need a big army.  Bluff, bluster and bully your way to victory.  If you can build enough AMB’s you can counter most small nuclear threats.  Isolate and take out players one at a time in the right sequence and global supremacy will be yours.
  • Cash–  Often times the massive war machine players drive themselves into bankruptcy.  Invest in bonds and trade on the market.  With enough cash you can buy alliances.  Hire mercenary players to fight for you while you profit off the resources they buy from you.  Cash is king and ultimately money is power, provided you have the negotiating skills to make it work for you.

 

Combat

The turn order for players is random, so you have to be ready for anything at all times.  You resolve combat with simple die rolls, no charts or tables.

After an attack, the both sides get a move to bring up reinforcements, withdrawal or shift forces into another theater.  Then the defender gets a counter attack.

This dynamic attack/counter attack sequence continues in successive rounds until all sides pass.

 

Girls Like It

It’s true!  Supremacy has a huge following of female fans.  I think it has something to do with being able to nuke the whole planet if they don’t get their way….

 

mechanics

Game Play: How does it actually work?