Supremacy 2020 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Object
• Set-Up
  • Misdeal
  • Fast Game (optional)
  • Slow Game (optional)
• Sequence of Play
  • Salaries
  • Company Cards
  • Seizure
  • Armies & Navies
  • Loans & Bonds
  • Default
  • Personal Loans
  • Bonds
  • Record New Production
  • Naval Blockade
• Trade
  • Commodities Market
  • Private Trade
• Attack
  • Step Sequence
  • Conventional Attack
  • Blitz Attack
  • Minor Power Armies
  • High Tech Edge
  • Naval Operations
  • Naval Combat
  • Naval Invasions
  • Strategic Attack
  • Resolving an ICBM Attack
  • Multiple City Areas
• Move
  • Undefended Areas
  • Costs
  • Rail Move
  • Air Lift
  • Naval Transport
  • Impassible Terrain
  • Choke Points
• Build
  • Placement
  • Simultaneous Phase
• Research
• Technology
• Arms Sales
• Ending the Game
  • Net Worth
  • Nuclear Winter
• Conquest
• Bankruptcy

Introduction

Welcome to the exciting world of Supremacy! You will need many skills in this challenging and fast paced game. You must be a strategist and a tactician; a good financial manager and trader. You will need some luck but most importantly: diplomacy. You must build powerful alliances and know when to break them. You must know when to be aggressive and when to sue for peace. Timing is key.

Negotiating skills are critical. You must be aggressive. Sitting back and watching is a sure way to lose. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Get involved early and attack!

For more strategies and help on game play, see the publisher's web site: commandpostgames.com

"Fortune favors the bold." (Napoleon)

Object

The object is to finish the game as the Supreme Superpower: the biggest Net Worth.

Set-Up

Players can choose from 6 Superpowers: United States, Commonwealth, European Union, Russian Federation, China or Japan.

Brazil and the Middle East are optional add-on players. If fewer than 6 players, treat unplayed Superpowers as individual minor power areas. Place 3 markers on the Commodities Market track on the map, 1 for each resource: Oil, Minerals and Grain, at the higher $500 BL price.

Sidebar: Don't be intimidated by all the zeros in Billions and Trillions. It's easier to just focus on the numbers: 10s, 50s, 100s, 500s and 1,000s.

Each player starts with:

• 1 Strategic Reserve card
• 3 Random Company cards
• $7,000 BL
• 9 Armies/Navies

Players are free to choose any combination of Armies or Navies totaling 9 during setup. Armies may be placed in any home country area, or Navies in an adjacent sea area.

Note: Areas on the map with no name are not playable.

Misdeal

If you do not like your initial hand, you may declare a misdeal, but only once: discard your hand and draw new cards.

Fast Game (optional)

This will speed up the progression of the game, if you have limited play time.

• Players start with 6 cards instead of 3.
• Every player starts with technology to build ICBMs. They do not need to be researched.

Slow Game (optional)

The conventional ground game is very exciting. Many players like to extend this part of the game.

• Players cannot research technology for ICBMs or ABMs until turn 3.

Sequence of Play

Conduct each turn in a series of phases:

• Salaries
• Trade
• Attack
• Move
• Build

Each player conducts his Phase one at a time in random order. We recommend pulling spare army pieces from a cup.

Salaries

Mandatory. Every player MUST do this Phase.

Simultaneous Phase. To save time, every player can do this at once.

Step	Action
1	Pay $50 BL to the bank for each Company Card you open.
2	Pay $10 BL to the bank for each Army or Navy on the board.
3	Pay interest payment on Loans.
4	Receive interest on Bonds.
5	Record new production.

Company Cards

Company cards produce resources. They vary in location and type, but they only produce when you open them.

Open. To open a company, you must pay its salary during this phase. Turn the card face up.

Closed. If you do not pay salaries on a company, it does not produce and is closed. Turn card face down.

Note: Closed Companies can still be viewed by other players upon request. They are never hidden.

Seizure

Players that control an area MAY seize any and all company cards in that area at any time.

Note: Players still control their home areas even if there are no armies there.

Armies & Navies

A strong military isn't free. To maintain forces in the field you must pay their salaries every turn. It costs $10 BL for each Army and Navy.

You may disband your forces by not paying their salary. Simply take them off the board at this time.

Loans & Bonds

Players may borrow money from the World Bank at any time in trillion dollar amounts. (As printed; the example below uses a $5,000 BL loan.)

To take a loan, record the loan amount on your Strategic Reserves and receive the cash from the bank.

During salaries, you must pay the corresponding interest payment as shown.

Example: A $5,000 BL loan costs $400 BL in interest each turn.

Players may pay a loan early (before the Salaries Phase) but still must pay the corresponding interest.

Default

If a player is unable to pay his interest payment, he is bankrupt and out of the game. See Ending the Game, Bankruptcy.

Personal Loans

Players may borrow money at any time from other players. They may agree to any terms, but they are not enforceable under the rules. A player cannot be forced into Bankruptcy for default on a personal loan.

Bonds

Players may purchase Bonds from the bank at any time. These work like Loans in reverse: during the Salaries Phase, players receive the corresponding interest payment from the bank.

Players may sell their Bonds back to the bank at any time to get their investment back.

Record New Production

Add newly produced resources from your open companies to your existing quantities in reserve. Record the current total on your Strategic Reserves card for each resource.

The Strategic Reserves limit your maximum production. All resources beyond your maximum column are lost.

Naval Blockade

If you control all the adjacent sea areas to a company, you may take those resources from them by declaring a Naval Blockade, even if it is in a home area.

To control a sea area, you must have at least 1 Navy in it, while the enemy has none. Several players may collectively Blockade a target player.

Example: The US has Navies in the Caribbean. The Commonwealth has Navies in the Mouth of the Amazon and the Drake Passage. They could jointly declare a blockade of a Russian grain company in Brazil. The Russians could disrupt this blockade with one Navy in either of those sea areas.

Players may blockade some resources and let others through.

If an area has no adjacent sea areas, it cannot be blockaded.

Announce Blockades after players record new production. Blockaded players lose the production but do not get the salaries back.

Trade

Players may now buy OR sell resources on the Commodities Market.

Commodities Market

Use the display on the map to record the current price for each commodity: Oil, Minerals and Grain, in $100 BL amounts.

After players buy a resource the price rises. After they sell, the price falls. Move the price spaces equal to the quantity traded.

During his Phase, a player can buy OR sell each resource for a total of 3 trades. You cannot buy and sell the SAME resource in 1 turn.

Conduct trades 1 at a time per resource.

Example: Japan trades first. They decide to purchase 5 oils. The current market price is the high $500 BL. They pay the bank $2,500 BL and move their oil marker 5 spaces to the right on their Strategic Reserves. They move the oil market price marker up 5 spaces to the right. Oil is now the lower $800 BL price.

• A player can only buy or sell in quantities that fit on his Strategic Reserve. You cannot purchase more to make the price go up higher.
• You cannot put resources on another player's Strategic Reserve while you are buying.
• The price cannot move higher/lower than the maximum/minimum on the track, but players can continue to buy/sell at those prices.

Private Trade

After all players have traded on the market, players may privately trade with each other for any mutually agreeable terms.

Attack

Step Sequence

1. Attack: Active player may launch 1 Conventional or Strategic attack as described below.
2. Counterattack: Each defender may launch 1 Counterattack. This is simply 1 attack, conventional or strategic. A counterattack can be against any player anywhere. If there are several defenders, randomly determine counterattack order.
3. Repeat: Continue until the active player is no longer willing or able to make a new attack. Play then proceeds to the next random player.

Conventional Attack

Step Procedure

1. Supplies: Attacker spends 1 set of supplies: 1 mineral, 1 oil, 1 grain.
2. Identify: Attacker activates all his forces in up to 3 areas to attack.
3. Resolve Combat: Each participating Army and Navy rolls 1 die, simultaneously. Players remove 1 participating enemy piece for every 4-6 result.
4. Occupy: If all defending armies are destroyed, attacking Armies may immediately occupy the defender's area: no resource cost.
5. Defender Reinforce: may make 1 move, regular costs.
6. Attacker Reinforce: may make 1 move, regular costs.

• Activated attacking forces can attack defending forces in any adjacent area.
• If there are no defending armies, the attacker wins automatically with no combat.

Example: Russia attacks into the Ukraine from Moscow, Volgograd and the Caucasus. Or: St. Pete. attacks Baltic States, Belarus attacks Poland and Volgograd attacks Ukraine.

Blitz Attack

Instead of designating 3 different areas to activate, the Attacker may activate the same forces in 1 area to attack defenders in the same target area successively. Resolve combat in rounds: each side rolls, remove losses, then roll again, etc.

Example: Russia attacks into the Ukraine from Moscow 3 times. Or: Moscow attacks Ukraine for 2 rounds and Belarus attacks Poland.

Minor Power Armies

Minor neutral areas are not undefended. They contain a random number of white armies:

• After a player designates an attack into a Minor Power area, roll 1 die. Divide the result by 2 and round up. (1d6/2)
• These are in addition to any armies the neutral Minor may have from an arms sale.
• Do not divide by 2 for home areas of an unplayed Superpower. Use 1d6.

"To unfailingly defend, defend that which is never attacked." (Sun Tzu)

High Tech Edge

The player with the most ABMs has a technological advantage in a Conventional Attack: he may re-roll any 3 dice.

Naval Operations

Navies from different players may coexist peacefully in the same sea area at the same time. They may move into, through and out of the sea area without fighting.

• Any Navy may "contest" control during the Attack phase if there is an active Navy in the sea area. This triggers an immediate round of Naval Combat. Any Navy in the area may participate. Continue to fight additional combat rounds until no player contests the area.
• Navies activated during an Attack may make 1 move before combat. The attacker must pay regular oil costs for this move.

Naval Combat

• Navies fire at enemy Navies in their own sea area, not into adjacent sea areas.
• Navies can fire at Armies in adjacent areas.
• In Naval Combat, players select their own pieces to remove for losses.
• Naval Transports cannot fire.
• If Naval Transports are destroyed, their transported armies are destroyed also.
• Transported Armies cannot fire.

Naval Invasions

Players attack across sea areas by loading Armies onto Navies (transports), moving and then unloading them into adjacent land areas.

• The invading force must first destroy any Navies contesting the area before the Armies can unload.
• Attacking Navies that are not transporting Armies may fire at defending Armies on the coast.
• Invading armies must win and occupy the attacked land area or they are destroyed.

Example: Japan invades Korea. They activate Armies from Japan and Navies from Sea of Japan. Japan uses the 3rd activation to blitz in Korea for 2 rounds of combat. They spend 1 set and 1 extra oil to "move" the Navies. China has 2 Navies in the Sea of Japan. They can allow the invasion, or "contest" and force Japan to fight a Naval Combat at sea before they land in Korea.

Strategic Attack

Step

1. Identify: Attacker designates how many ICBMs he is launching and their target areas.
2. ABMs: All players with ABMs may fire at ICBMs. Defenders designate each target. Multiple ABMs may target the same ICBM.
3. Resolve Combat: Each ABM rolls 1 die. The ABM destroys the ICBM on a 2-6. The ABM misses on a 1 and the ICBM proceeds to its target. Subtract 1 from the die roll if defending an area you do not control.

• Note: ICBMs are consumable. Reduce your quantity in Strategic Reserves as you fire them. ABMs, however, are reusable. They are not used up when you fire them. Keep your current level the same. They may fire again during every Strategic Attack.

Can a player call off an attack? Yes. Often, the real negotiations don't start until a player launches. If players reach mutually agreeable terms before step 3, the attacker may call off his launch.

Resolving an ICBM Attack

• Destroy all Armies and Navies in the target area. Remove them from the board.
• Destroy all Company Cards in the target area. These cards are placed back in the deck. If pulled later during research, the money is wasted and the research attempt fails.
• Contamination: Place a mushroom cloud marker in the LAND area. This area is permanently destroyed and out of play. Armies may no longer move through or occupy this area. Sea areas are unharmed and do not count towards Nuclear Winter.

Multiple City Areas

Some areas have multiple Cities (Japan and Brazil). When attacking these, you must designate a specific city as the target, not the entire area. Areas are still in play (and defending Armies) until all cities in them are destroyed. Place a separate mushroom cloud over each destroyed city.

"When attacking, attack from the highest heights of the sky." (Sun Tzu)

Move

Use this phase to redeploy your forces. No combat is allowed during this phase.

Armies may only move into controlled areas. Navies may only move into unoccupied sea areas.

You control any area you have an army in and your unoccupied home areas.

Undefended Areas

Players may not move through undefended home areas of another player. They must be "attacked" to move into them.

Costs

Players must spend resources to move as follows:

Unit	Cost	Range
Army	1 Grain	1 area
Navy	1 Oil	3 sea areas

Players do not spend 1 resource for each piece moved. Instead, they spend 1 resource to move a whole group. "Group" moves work as follows:

• Each piece in 1 designated area can move to any destination in range; or
• Any units can move, as long as they end their move in the same designated area.

Rail Move

Instead of grain, players may spend 1 Oil to move Armies by rail. Armies moving by rail can travel an unlimited distance in continuous, controlled land areas.

Air Lift

Alternatively, players may spend 1 Oil to Air Lift 3 Armies to any controlled area.

Naval Transport

Navies may pick up Armies (3 max) in an adjacent land area and transport them to another controlled adjacent land area.

Impassible Terrain

Some ground is too rough or unable to support logistics for modern armies.

• Armies cannot attack or move across the thick area borders.

Choke Points

The map designates several key choke points with a grey line and ball. For example: the Panama Canal, Suez, Gibraltar, etc.

The "grey ball" designates the control area. For example: Egypt controls naval movement from the Arabian Sea to the Eastern Med.

Navies cannot move across the thick choke point line without the permission of the player that controls that control area. If this area is neutral, all players can freely move through.

Build

It takes both money and resources to build new forces. The cost to build is as follows:

Cost	Builds
$300 BL + 1 set	3 Armies and/or Navies
$500 BL + 1 min	1 ICBM
$1,000 BL + 2 min	1 ABM

Placement

• Players must place new Armies in a controlled home area city. Place Navies in any sea area adjacent to a controlled home area, even if occupied by enemy Navies.
• Armies and Navies must be built in sets of 3. You cannot build just one or two.
• Players must first Research the technology before they can build ICBMs and ABMs.
• Players can borrow cash but cannot borrow resources during this phase. Players can only do this during Trade. They could however purchase arms. (See Arms Sales.)

"Si vis pacem, para bellum." (Vegetius) "If you want peace, prepare for war."

Simultaneous Phase

If all players agree, you may conduct this phase simultaneously to save time.

If any player insists, play normally by random piece pull.

Research

Players may research: Resources, ICBMs or ABMs. Players may make 3 attempts each Build Phase.

• Shuffle the Cards.
• Announce the type of resource or technology you are researching.
• Players turn over cards one at a time, paying $200 BL each.
• When the player reaches the 1st card of his announced type, he stops. His attempt is over. He removes this card from the deck and adds it to his companies.
• A player may decide to halt research before reaching the 1st card of the type. The research has failed. The player does not get a company card, but still has to pay for the cards he has turned over so far.

Note: Your research still succeeds even if your company is in another player's home area. You get to keep the card, unless that player chooses to seize it.

Technology

Researching technology works the same way as researching new resources. Players simply announce which weapon they are attempting to research: ICBM or ABM.

• If successful, they do not keep the card. Return it to the deck.
• The player may now build his 1st ICBM or ABM. Record the quantity on the Strategic Reserve card. He may build only 1 this turn. He must pay the mineral cost to build it. The cash cost is included in the research.
• Starting next turn he may build as many as he has resources and cash to pay for.

Arms Sales

After a player has finished building new forces, he may sell some or all of them to other players for an agreed upon price. He may also sell them to any Minor Power for profit. At this time, players may also buy back weapons from Minors to disarm them.

• Minors will pay twice the build cost in cash to buy weapons.
• Minors will sell their weapons for twice what they paid.
• If Minors have ICBMs, they will always fire them at any player that attacks them.

Example: A Minor will buy an ICBM for $1,000 BL. To buy it back, a player must pay $2,000 BL.

Ending the Game

The game ends at a predetermined time/turn or when there is only 1 player left. Players win by having the highest Net Worth.

Net Worth

Net Worth is calculated as follows:

Item	Value
Cash, minus Loans, plus Bonds	face value
Company Cards	$1,200 BL each
Blockaded Companies	$600 BL each
Armies & Navies	$200 BL each
ICBMs	$1,000 BL each
ABMs	$2,000 BL each

Nuclear Winter

The 12th nuclear land detonation may trigger a nuclear winter which immediately ends the game on a die roll of 6. Continue game as normal on 1-5, but each subsequent land detonation rolls again adding a +1 to the result.

• The player that triggered nuclear winter is last.
• Rank all other players by Net Worth.

Conquest

A player is conquered if all of his undestroyed home cities are controlled by another player at the end of the Attack phase.

Result:

• Remove all Armies and Navies of the conquered player.

• Remove his piece from the turn cup.

• Erase any loans he had.

• The conquering player (player to take the last city) takes possession of:

  1. Cash on hand plus bonds.
  2. Strategic Reserve. Note: This allows the conquering player to have double of everything, including loans or bonds.
  3. Company cards remain in play but must be seized.

• If an ICBM destroys all of a player's cities, or his last city, he can still win. Calculate his Net Worth at the end of the Attack phase for victory. Write this number down and save it to compare at the end of the game. Then apply conquest results, except: his cash is returned to the bank and his Strategic Reserve is out of play.

Bankruptcy

In addition to conquest or nuclear destruction, a player may lose the game by Bankruptcy: when a player cannot make his loan payment to the World Bank during the salary phase.

• Remove his pieces from the board.
• Place any cash back in the bank.
• His Strategic Reserve is out of play.
• Company Cards are still in play. Place them face up next to the deck to show that they are open to seizure.