I got this email recently. It isn’t a full review or AAR on Supremacy but it does give you a good independent take on the game.
Game played great.
As I mentioned in the post, so many of the issues in the original have been corrected.
– Randomly determining next market trade reduces the amount of control two players can obtain on the markets.
– Randomly distributing the initial cards allows everyone to start with different resource needs and establishes alliances very quickly.
– Operations for the attacks is amazing. Allows for very creative attack strategies – multi theatre, blitz, amphibious assault, and offshore bombardments! So simple a rule but the strategic complexity is huge. Took a little time to fully appreciate it.
We used a hybrid rule interpretation for the navel assault (when, if ever, do you spend a full set of supplies and an oil? It appears the rules initially required the oil but later interpretations ditched the extra oil for just the set of supplies. We settled on – if the navy and units were in or adjacent to the same sea as the attack location, then no oil is required (just the full set of supplies). If the assault requires moving into a new sea, pay the additional oil. So Japan assaulting California would be full set of supplies plus one oil. Japan assaulting China would be just the full set of supplies.
Japan was sacked on turn 1. Brazil fell to Europe on turn 3. The Russian player was the only to develop nukes and the Commonwealth the only to develop Anti ballistic missiles. On turn 4 it was a conventional World War III with numerous attacks and counter attacks. The Commonwealth attacked Spain to gain control of Gibraltar, then Italy, France and Saudi Arabia. The USA invaded/liberated Brazil then attacked a Russian Navy to add them to the War. Russia nuked the U.K. with 2 missiles, one got through. The Commonwealth then removed the US force in Brazil with a naval attack. This prevented the US from gaining a second supply center at the end of the attack phase.
We needed to end on that turn, declaring a Commonwealth Victory! They had anti missiles systems, high tech edge, and a second supply card.
With the older rules, the games usually degenerated into a Nuclear winter. With these rules we had a much more conventional World War III with a very limited Nuclear exchange.
Looking forward to playing again!!!
David