From: szym2511@mary.cs.fredonia.edu (Brian Michael Szymanek) Subject: SUPREMACY Date: Tue, 6 Sep 1994 16:05:01 GMT Okay, seriously, I love this game, but agree that Nuclear escalation can put a damper on a game(I always start building L-Stars, but there is at least ONE Nuke-Head) so I have delveloped the Nuke Head Rules: 1) Scorched Earth Lunitics revised: If there is a 50% chance that your people will not Nuke themselves (Field Marshal's HB), then there is a 50% chance that a Nuke that will cause Nuclear winter will not be fired. (In FMHB, there is an optional rule that varies the actual # of nukes it takes to destroy the world.). So for each nuke that has the potential to cause nuclear winter, on a roll of 1-3 the Nuke is not fired, on a 4-6 it is fired normaly. Then the L-Stars are fired. Then the lauchers have one more chance to come to thier senses. So for each Nuke fired that evaded an L-Star screen must make an ADDITIONAL roll with 1-3 meaning the Nuke was aborted, on a 4-6 God help us all...... Note that if a Nuke is not fired, it stayes in the Supply Center, while if it were aborted, it is destroyed. This also applys to entire waves that would end in NW (IE 9 Nukes have been detonated, 3 more bring NW. Player A is losing, and launches 7 Nukes. All seven nukes must then be checked under the above rule.) 2) Nuclear punishment: Remove a nuke card from the deck (Meaning there are only 2 in the deck) 3) Nuclear punishment(Improved):If you have Resource Deck II, then mix both decks together and remove 2 L-Star and 4 Nuke cards(Leaves only 2 Nuke and 2 L-Star cards in the double-deck) These rule severly cut back on the Nuke winter games, and left the rest of the flavor of the game intact. May these help everyone. Brian ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: 11366ns@cygni.ho.att.com (Nick Sauer) Subject: Supremacy rules fix ideas Date: Thu, 8 Sep 1994 03:05:07 GMT This is a sort of follow-up to the "fix Supremacy" thread. WARNING! WARNING! DANGER WILL ROBENSON! DANGER! DANGER! These rules have not even remotely been playtested. I was originally going to play a game against myself to make sure all the systems actually work but, due to serious lack of free time, I was never able to do this (I guess having a baby daughter around will tend to do this to you). The whole system may cave in under its own weight due to interaction imbalances that I haven't noticed. I will also apologize before hand for the rambling nature of the rules presented. I never actually wrote them down (in this much detail) before. So, I am kind of including things as I remember them. The basic idea for the "fixes" is a political overlay for the entire game. The reason you can get away with stuff in Supremacy that super-powers in the "real world" cannot is because of a lack of political/economic reprocussions in the game. The rules that follow hopefully model this without taking diplomacy out of the player's hands completely. What you will need to start with is 45 counters. You need 15 labelled "1", 15 labelled "2" and, 15 labelled "3". These are called political ideology counters (PI counters for short). You will also need something to represent third world armies. Pennies should work good but, if you have Warlords and Pirates you can use those. You will also need a sheet of paper with a list of all the neutral powers on it. It should include blank lines for the names of territories of unplayed super-powers. The sheet should have columns for name of the territory, its current treasury, its current oil, mineral, grain and nuke supply. In addition to the normal set-up for the game, each neutral power gets 1 army placed in its country. In addition each neutral power starts with 500 million in its treasury and one each of grain, oil and minerals. Take the PI counters and mix them face down. Now take out one and place it face down on each neutral power. Once all neutral powers have a PI marker on them turn them all face-up. All player now roll a d3 to get the PI number of their super-power (use any remaining PI markers to mark super-power PI numbers). [Note: I was originally going to let the PI markers stay face down and have players approach a neutral power to flip the PI marker up but, I figured this would slow the game down too much to be worth it.] At the start of the turn sequence (before paying salaries) all players and neutral powers collect taxes. Super-powers get 250 million and neutral powers get 50 million (add it to the treasuries on the sheet). If a super- power has military control over a neutral power it collects that neutral power's 50 million also. [Note: I was originally going to have the tax collection rate be 50 million for each territory in the super-power but, decided against this as no one would ever want to play USA or South America. That's why I changed to the flat rate for super-powers. How this idea got left out of the game in the first place is beyond me. Anyone who fills out a 1040 every year should have immediately known where super-powers get their money from (then again, maybe the game's designer doesn't pay his taxes).] Neutral powers must pay salaries for any armies they have (just like super powers). Note the payment by subtracting from their treasuries on the neutral power sheet. The market no longer exists. Use the market only to mark what the current value of commodities are. The market values for oil, grain, and minerals at the startof the game should be set at 25 million. The only way to buy or sell commodities is through other super-powers or neutral powers. Sales of goods between super-powers have no effect on the market price. If a super- power sells goods to a neutral power the price of that commodity drops one space on the market regardless of the amount sold to the neutral power. Likewise, if a super-power buys goods from a neutral power the price of that commodity goes up one space on the market regardless of the amount sold. Note any changes to the neutral powers supply of oil, grain, or minerals on the neutral power sheet. There should probably also be a rule that each power can only sell each commodity as a single group once per turn. Neutral powers will never sell commodities below their PI number. For example, a PI 2 neutral has 4 oil (from a previous buy from a super power). That neutral power will sell 2 oil maximum to a super-power looking to buy it. Starting up companies in neutral powers works a little differently now, also. If you have a corporation in a neutral power with a PI two away from yours (i.e. you are a 1 and it is a 3, or vice versa), you cannot operate that corporation. You may sell/trade it to another player. If you have a corporation in a neutral power with a PI one away from yours you may operate the company normally except that the neutral power always gets one half (rounded down) of the companies production for free. The neutral power will also allow you to keep a number of your armies in the country equal to half (rounded down) of the number of its armies. If you have a corporation in a neutral power with a PI that matches yours you operate the company normally except that the neutral power always gets one unit of the companies production for free. Furthermore, the neutral power will allow you to keep a number of your armies in the country equal to the total number of its armies. Only one super-power may have its armies in a neutral country. If you ever exceed the limits above, the neutral power will automatically attack you during the combat phase. If you have conquered a neutral power through conventional warfare, you get full production of any corporation you operate in that country (you also get that countries treasury and commodities). Place one of your armies on the PI counter for that country to indicate that you have military control of that country. However, you also have to check for coup attempts (see below). During the purchase armies phase, a neutral power with excess commodities will always buy armies until one of its commodity levels reaches its PI number. Also, if a neutral power has been sold a nuke by a super power, roll a die. If the number rolled is the PI number of the neutral power or less, then the neutral power acquires the ability to build nukes as well. Neutral powers will build one nuke whenever possible (within the above PI commodity limits) and will build nukes before armies if it has to make a choice. During the combat phase, neutral powers might attack their neighbors. If a neutral power has more armies than an adjacent neutral power and the neutral powers PI numbers are two apart, the neutral power will have a 5 - PI chance on a d6 to attack its neighbor (if there is more than one such neighboring country roll randomly to determine who gets attacked). Fight the battle out. If the attacking neutral wins move the attacked neutrals PI marker next to the attacking countries border and place one of the attacking neutrals occupying armies on the PI marker to indicate military control status. The conquering neutral power gets any treasury and commodities the other power had. Any super power with armies in the attacking neutrals country may opt to assist. If the player decides to help he must spend one of each resource as if he were conducting an attack. If a super power has armies in the attacked country, he may either stay (and be included in the defensive force) or leave immediately. Neutral powers will always spend one of each resource in combat (with another neutral or a a super power) if it is available. If a neutral power has a nuke and has an adjacent neutral neighbor with a PI number two apart from it and has less armies than this country, there is a chance it will nuke its neighbor (again roll a die in case of ties). The chance is 4 - PI on a d6. If the nuke is used, any super power who had tokens in that space may use this as an opportunity to make a counterattack against the super power who sold the nuke to the neutral power. A neutral power that is taken over by conventional combat (from either a super power or a neighboring neutral power) will always use the nuke as a counterattack versus the attacking power. The coup attempt phase occurs at the beginning of the combat phase (I guess). There are two situations where checks for coup attempts occur. Any neutral power that is under any sort of military control checks for coup attempts. A super power which fired any nukes on the previous turn rolls for coup attempts. A coup attempt is determined as described below. [Note: I was never really sure where the coup attempt phase should go. I was also originally going to have neutral powers always roll for a coup attempt each turn (chance was 4 - PI number, determined number of revolting armies as below, and success meant that the neutral power got a new randomly rolled PI number) but, I decided this would be too die-rolling intensive.] For, an occupied neutral power roll a d6 versus the countries PI number (the original number hidden by the occupying forces). Modify the die roll by compairing the difference between the occupying and occupied powers' PI numbers. A difference of two is -1, a difference of one is -0, and a difference of zero is +1. If a number rolled is less than or equal to the target PI number a coup attempt occurs. Roll 1d3 times the target PI number. This is the number of armies that attack the occupying forces immediately. These forces do not get the benefits of spending one of each resource on an attack. If the occupying forces are defeated, the neutral power retains any armies left and returns to its original PI number. For a super power roll a die versus the super power's PI number with a modifier of -1 for each nuke fired (not just the ones that hit). Roll for each territory in the super power. Each number rolled that is less than or equal to the target PI number means a coup attempt occurs in that territory. Roll 1d3 times the target PI number for each territory in the super power. In addition, if two adjacent territories have coup attempts each adjacent territory gains one extra 1d3 roll (maximum of one extra roll per territory). This is the number of armies that attack that power in those territories immediately. If the super power player loses to the coup forces that super power now gets reduced to any remaining territories. The successful coup territories now become neutral powers with any surviving armies remaining. Roll 1d3 to determine the PI number for each new neutral power. [Note: There should probably be some rule about new or reclaimed neutral powers getting some kind of automatic treasury (maybe 50 million or so).] At first I thought there should probably be an upper limit to how much you could sell to a neutral power but, this may not be neccesary. There might be enough natural forces in the game to prevent players from using one neutral power as an oil dump, one as mineral dump, etc. I know I would tend to sell such countries other commodities so they could build lots of armies (but that's me). There might be a need for this rule anyway. Well, that's all there is. Sorry about the skeletal nature of the rules above. If anyone does anything with these as far as playtesting or using them as a part of a whole new set of Supremacy rules please e-mail me the results. Note, I put the follow-up line to rec.games.board as I do not read rec.games. design. Nick Sauer