I'll start by saying that I'm not really a Board-Gamer, but I saw this game in a shop years ago and never bought it.
I was mainly attracted to the plastic mushroom cloud playing pieces!
It's called Supremacy.
Anyone know:
1) If it's any good.
2) If the rules are relatively easy to pick up.
3) Where I might be able to get a copy at a reasonable price(bear in mind I'm in the UK)?
Apols for the rubbish picture.
Dr. S.
The last time I played that was after my friends and I went to the impromptu Kurt Cobain memorial at Seattle Center just a couple of days after Courtney -- uh -- after he shot himself.
At the time, we played a good deal of Risk along with Axis & Allies, but this one never caught on with us. The mechanics of the market system never seemed to work well for us, which is to say we very well may have had it figured all wrong. Overall, I recall the experience as a plodding, glacial affair. Much more kick for the buck (or Sterling) from A&A, at least by our measure.
There seems no end of people who love this game and the umpteen expansions that it spawned, but my copy is boxed up in pretty much the same condition that I bought it.
Wish I had more to offer aside from saying that it conjures memories of ho-hum gaming. I'm sure there are others here with much more experience who'll offer up a more insightful reply. Personally, I'm interested to hear their impressions.
-Pete
I have this game wasting away in my basement. Never really caught on with me either.
My experience was just the opposite. I bought the game with a few friends and, while it certainly wasn’t my favorite game, it was pretty fun. Our games generally consisted of four players and an all out nuclear war was a guarantee. It’s not exactly a complicated game, and the tactical component leaves a fair amount to be desired - but if you’re looking for a “party” game that can be learned/played pretty quickly, this might be the one for ya.
Check out Mrk's Game Warehouse and Midnight Madness for more info about the game and its various sets of advanced rules.
We lived for Supremacy when we had a viable gaming group. The basic game is quite simple (and boring) until after you start adding some expansions. After a while, everyone has the resources memorized, so you needed to add the extra resource deck in and split the deck to randomize where things were.
Mega Supremacy added some complexity/reality to it and the Mega Map really changes the game strategy. We always played with the Warlords/Pirates and extra resource deck and usually with the neutron bombs/K-sats and Boomers. The Fortura deck was interesting, but we didn't use it very often, ditto for the High Tech Edges and Unconventional Warfare. We didn't get Tanks until the group had started breaking up.
Besides, this is the only game where Canada and Australia - with an expansion - (not to mention South America and Africa) get to be Superpowers.
The game also has little mushroom cloud pieces (in various colors for neutron detonations)... that alone is a cool feature no other game has!:thumb:
The best way to describe the game is that it is a “HATE BREEDING GAME”
What I mean by a Hate Breeding Game is you get a bunch of your friends together and kick the snot out of each other in one way shape or form.
You build armies, navies, nukes and laser satellites in an attempt to dominate the world. Sounds right up Dr. S’s alley and plays to his strengths.
There's a stock market of three commodities: grain, oil and minerals. You need these commodities to build armies, navies and weapons. You also need them to move and to fight with your armies and navies. You can sell the commodities at a profit, since you need money to build your armed forces and strategic weapons as well.
The game is fairly simple to play. It's along the same lines as Axis and Allies in complexity. There are a large number of expansion sets (more than a dozen) that can be purchased separately. There is a MEGASUPREMACY RULEBOOK that compiles almost all of the rules and clears things up a great deal. MEGASUPREMACY is an expansion of the original SUPREMACY. The MEGASUPREMACY mat gives you a larger playing surface and introduces cities to the game.
The game is not without its faults. There are two main bones of contention.
First, I've seen a number of novice players give up because the game seemed to revolve entirely around the stock market. It is very easy to drive the price of the stock market into the ground during the sell phase, meaning that any players after you can't make any money by selling commodities. Likewise, you can buy commodities in the buy phase and drive the price sky-high for anyone that wants to buy after you. The obvious answer to this is to form trading blocks that trade as much with each other as with the stock market. This seems to be lost on a number of novice players who are more at home with RISK than DIPLOMACY.
The second contentious issue is the nuclear winter rule. A disgruntled player can easily destroy the game for everyone by dropping the "last" nuke. After so many nukes are dropped (12 in the basic game or 13-18 using an optional rule) the world is plunged into a nuclear winter and everyone loses. I've only ever had this happen once, and that was by accident (someone miscounted his nukes). Some players, though, report that every game seems to end in a nuclear holocaust. I've found that groups that have the most fun playing the game are out not so much to win but to not lose. These groups often take treaties, and the breaching of same, very seriously. This might have to do with the fact that most of the people I've played it with are DIPLOMACY players.
So, that's two "votes" for, two against, and one even-handed fence-sitter.
Hmmmmm.......
I think perhaps I just want to play with the "armies, navies, nukes and laser satellites".
Is there a game just called "Armies, navies, nukes and laser satellites" that I could try?
Dr. S.
They had a game with a working title of "Armies, navies, nukes, laser satellites and biological warfare" but the company shorten the name to "Full Contact Candy Land" and the game never took off!Originally posted by Doctor Sinister
Is there a game just called "Armies, navies, nukes and laser satellites" that I could try?
Dr. S.
Let's see... Fortress America has armies and lasers... lots of games have armies and navies... some have nukes... looks like you'll have to stick with Supremacy with an expansion or two and skip the stock market, and go on production alone.
Besides... you have to play with the little mushroom clouds... it's the only game that comes with them:demon:
Yeah, the little mushroom clouds were what made me want it in the first place. I could modify my copy(ies) of Risk and use them in that if nothing else.Originally posted by chrisvalla
Let's see... Fortress America has armies and lasers... lots of games have armies and navies... some have nukes... looks like you'll have to stick with Supremacy with an expansion or two and skip the stock market, and go on production alone.
Besides... you have to play with the little mushroom clouds... it's the only game that comes with them:demon:
Does no-one know where I could find a copy of Supremacy of my very own?
Dr. S.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks