Supremacy

Copyright July of 2005 by Mark William Henshaw, all rights reserved. Contact me at harkenbane@juno.com

Supremacy is a game of rulership and conquest. Your race settles in several land cards on the table, creating farmsteads, roads, and so forth. Learn the secrets of technology, win the favor of your god, or follow the dark arts of sorcery to defeat your enemies. Train warriors to crush your foes, or agents to undermine their society from within. The world is not large enough for all races to live in peace; only one can achieve Supremacy.

Overview

Land cards: There are 5 basic land cards: plains, forests, highlands, wastelands, and swamps.

Plains	Supports 4 population.
Forests	Supports 3 population.
Highland	Supports 3. Unless there are roads, pieces entering must stop. –1 to attacker strength.
Swamps	Supports 2 population. No walls. Unless there are roads, pieces entering must stop.
Wastes	Supports 2 population. No farms.

Somewhere on each land card should be written its name, and either a drawing or label should indicate its type. Land cards should be large enough to hold several population, agent, leader, and development tokens.

	Pieces: There are four kinds of pieces: population, agents, leaders, and developments. Population are the people who comprise your race; they hold land, produce offspring, and fight battles. Agents are the heroes or spies of your empire, and may keep order, scout enemy positions, copy foreign learning, or destabilize foreign governments. Leaders are the priests, chieftains, and demagogues of your people, who keep the empire together and can also coordinate battle plans and espionage attempts to offer bonuses in either endeavor. Developments represent the buildings your race has erected on each land.

	Rolls: Except where specifically noted otherwise, all rolls consist of a throw of a single six sided die. A roll which comes up 6 or better results in a success; a roll greater than the rating being rolled on results in a failure. Bonuses and penalties may be applied to this roll; any roll result reaching 9 or higher counts as a critical success.

Creating your race

Racial design: To begin the game, you first create a race using the instructions given at the end of these rules. Get a half-sheet of binder paper and write up your racial picks, making sure to leave spaces for the following:

•	Your race’s name
•	Unity: A measure of your people’s loyalty. 1 is a race of rebellious curs, 6 of slavering zealots. Your race’s unity will be 3, unless you pick traits to modify this.
•	Strength: Represents your warriors’ fighting prowess. This will be +0, unless traits modify it.
•	Stealth: this only applies to agents, representing their spying prowess. Stealth is +0, unless modified.
•	Move: How many spaces your units can move in a turn. Move is 2 without modifiers.

	Now choose your homeland and racial traits from the list below; you may not have more than 4 total picks. When you are finished, you must have an equal number of plusses(+) and minuses(-).
	Option: if all players agree, you may create races with and end result of 1 minus, 2 minuses, 1 plus, or 2 plusses instead of balanced traits.
	As a final note, the races you make should mesh with one another according to some type of theme. If your opponent makes the Romans, consider making the Britons or the Goths; if your two opponents make the trolls and the fairies, consider making the orcs or the dwarves; if your opponent makes the raccoons and the rabbits, consider the bees or the ravens for yourself. Unusual and ridiculous combinations can sometimes be fun, but it typically works better if the racial themes mesh together.

Homeland
(Choose one.)

Plains home (+): Your homeland is a plains, and your race may develop that land type even without farming.
	Plains are wide, sweeping grasslands, full of all manner of beast and bird, berries and nuts ripe for the picking, and verdant streams which wander between the trees. 
	Highland/forest home: Your homeland is a highland or forest, and your race may develop that type of land even without any agricultural knowledge.
	Highlands are lofty places, full of slopes and crags which make travel difficult, if not downright dangerous. Although it is rather cold even in the sunshine, there is foliage and life here.
	Forests are any areas with a heavy growth of trees. They can be gloomy places where thick needles block out most light and there are few shrubs, verdant sylvan paradises where shafts of light peek through the twisted boughs of oak trees, or places where ash and redwood stand tall and serene in a majestic cathedral of nature.
	Swamp/wasteland home(-): Your race’s homeland is a swamp or wasteland, and you may develop this kind of land even without any knowledge of farming.
	Swamps are usually wetlands where the ground is perpetually submerged, although the term can include dense jungles. Either way, the places brim with insects and wild beasts, vines and tendrils cut across the paths, and life is uncomfortable.
	Wastelands are desolate, lonely places of harsh and unforgiving weather patterns. An icy tundra, a smoldering desert—even a vast rocky field without soil—the result is the same: foliage is scarce, animals are few and far between, and life is a struggle for food and water.
	Amphibious(+): Your race can survive on ocean squares which are adjacent to three land spaces, and your species begins play on such a land. Your race treats all such ocean spaces as other races would treat forests (i.e. no modifiers) and you can develop them without agriculture. Your population may not enter highlands or wastelands.

Traits
(choose up to three, so long as they don’t oppose.)

Intelligent(++): Your race is extraordinarily intelligent by nature. Unity is +1, and knowledge rolls are also at +1.
Unintelligent(--): Your race is naturally dull and primitive. Your unity and knowledge rolls are –1.
Large: while your warriors benefit from +1 strength, your agents are –1 to stealth.
Small: your population are –1 strength, but your agents are +1 to stealth.
Industrious(+): Every land with 3 unmoving population on it produces 2 Labor.
Stealthy(+): your agents are given +1 stealth.
Poor senses(-): your agents are –1 stealth.
Swift(+): all of your pieces have +1 move.
Carnivorous(+): Your race’s natural weaponry and aggressive disposition renders +1 to strength.
Herbivorous(-): –1 to strength.
Berzerk: +1 strength, but you can’t retreat or call for reinforcements.
Flight(+): Wings allow your race to fly over swamp, highland, ocean, or undiscovered spaces, or lands inhabited by the enemy. Also, your warriors may ignore strength penalties from walls and highlands.
Assimilationist(+): Any time your forces win a battle in which they kill at least one enemy population, that population is transformed into your own race; add a population token to the land.
Stunted: Stunted races live long but mature slowly. Gain 2 population during the prosperity phase for controlling 10 lands (rather than 8), but since your people are longer lived, society is more stable and unity is +1.
Prolific: These races are short lived and mature swiftly. Gain 2 population during prosperity for controlling 6 lands, or 3 for controlling 12, but your unity is –1.

Setting up the board

Order: When everyone knows what race they will be using, everyone rolls a die to determine who will be going first. High roll wins, (ties for first are rerolled) and turns proceed clockwise from there throughout the entire game. 

	Board: Now everyone must decide how large the board should be. Each player, from first to last in turn, may choose to add from 5 to 8 lands to the total board, placing them however he wishes so long as they have a hexagonal orientation. However the lands placed must all be connected on to the main group (islands are not allowed unless using the advanced rules). Obviously, the fewer lands used, the shorter the game will be (and, usually, the more violent, as races struggle for lebensraum). Here is a sample 2 player board before homelands are placed:

      +-----+ +-----+         +-----+
      ¦     ¦ ¦     ¦         ¦     ¦
      +-----+ +-----+         +-----+
  +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
  ¦     ¦ ¦     ¦ ¦     ¦ ¦     ¦
  +-----+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
              +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
              ¦     ¦ ¦     ¦ ¦     ¦
              +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
  +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
  ¦     ¦ ¦     ¦ ¦     ¦
  +-----+ +-----+ +-----+

	Homelands: Each player, from first to last, adds a card of their homeland type to the coast; this space must be at least 3 spaces from any other homeland. Each player begins with 4 population (his loyal subjects), a leader (he himself), and an agent (his trusty advisor). Note: this land is currently overloaded, and your people must emigrate immediately to alleviate population pressures.

	Game Types: Now a game type must be agreed upon. There are three—primitive, advanced, and wartorn. If it is put to a vote and a decision cannot be agreed upon, the player who moves first gets to decide.
	Primitive: Recommended for beginners. Each player begins with 1 knowledge at his choice—the signature learning of his people, handed down by tradition since time immemorial. This is the dawn of his civilization, and makes for a somewhat longer game than the other versions. If you are playing a two player game, it is suggested that you place your homelands at least 4 spaces apart under primitive starting conditions.
	Advanced: Each player, in turn, chooses 4 first-level knowledges to start with, and picks an adjacent land to place 2 extra population, 2 agents, and 2 leaders.
	Wartorn: Not recommended for beginners. This simulates the game after a devastating war has wracked the countryside. Reveal each land on the board. Each player starts with all first-level knowledges, and then chooses one land, anywhere on the board, to populate with rebels. This land is turned sideways, and on it are placed 2 population, 3 agents, 1 leader, and 1 development. These lands may be conquered by any empire as per the rules for capturing rebels, under Loyalty.

Turn order

	One turn in Supremacy has the length of a single generation. Each player, in turn, goes through steps 1-4; then, when everyone has moved, everyone finishes the remaining steps together:

1.	Movement is resolved for one player.
2.	Labor is produced and spent by his empire.
3.	Espionage is resolved, if any.
4.	Battle is resolved, if any.
5.	Loyalty is checked for everyone simultaneously.
6.	Prosperity: All empires gain population.

1. Movement

In a turn, a player may move his pieces a number of spaces equal to their movement rating. But, pieces must stop if:

1.	They enter an undiscovered land,
2.	They enter a swamp or highland without roads, or
3.	They now share a land with enemy population (Agents are the exception—they must stop when they reach a space occupied by enemy agents.)

	Population restrictions: Most lands can only hold 3 population (plains may hold 4 and wastes hold 2). On any given land, you may not have more pieces of each type than the maximum allowed. So on a highland space you could have 3 population, 3 agents, and 3 leaders, but no more than 3 of any of these kinds of piece. You may briefly share a land with enemy units before espionage and battles are resolved, but you may not send more units into a land than could fit under normal circumstances.

	Discovering land: Whenever a piece enters an undiscovered, face-down land, the piece must stop, and the land is turned face up.

	Agents: Agents must stay within one move of a leader or temple. Agents left at the end of the turn on a land which is too far away to reach a friendly leader or temple in one move are discarded.

	Roads: If you have roads on a land, pieces may enter that land at no movement cost.

	Longboats: 1st level navigation allows you to move warriors, agents, and leaders, but not population, 4 spaces by sea; the first move must be from land to ocean, and the last move must be from ocean to land. However, when you use longboats in this manner, you must roll a die; all your pieces are killed by a storm if the roll comes up 6.

	Docks: If you have docks on a land, you may move any number or kind of pieces through any number of ocean spaces from this land, to any land bordering the sea.

2. Labor

Every land containing two population which did not move this turn generates 1 unit of labor. Lands with either roads or docks on them also generate 1 extra unit of labor. This labor must be used immediately to make these things:

Agent: Costs 1 labor. Place one agent token on a land occupied by a leader or a temple. You can’t have more Agents than population counters in your empire.

Leader: Costs 2 labor for each existing leader. Add a leader token to a land with a leader or temple.

Development: Costs 2 labor, or 4 labor if this is the second development on the land. Important: Until you have learned farming, you may not have development tokens on lands except for those of your home type! Developments represent buildings for whatever technological advances your empire has made thus far. 

Lands with 1 developments might have…
•	Farmsteads: Wells and irrigation provide allow your populace to settle as farmers. Farmlands count double for prosperity (see later).
•	Walls: High stone walls protect against assault, and enemy attackers fight at –1 strength.
•	Temples: A structured religious organization is in place, keeping order, foiling espionage (–1 stealth to foreign agents), and training leaders and agents.

Lands with 2 developments might also have…
•	Aqueducts: Aqueducts allow water to be transferred in large quantities over great distances, allowing efficient, large scale farming. These lands support 2 extra population.
•	Roads: Paved roads allow even population which moved in on this turn to generate labor.
•	Docks: Docks provide 1 labor per turn from trade.

Knowledge: You may only attempt this once per turn. Cost 1 labor. Roll a die, with a +1 bonus if your people are literate, and +1 for each additional labor spent; on a success, you learn a 1st level knowledge. On a failure, nothing happens. You may only learn a 2nd level knowledge on a critical success, and you must already have at least one 1st level knowledge in the same area. Here is a list of all available knowledges:

	AGRICULTURE: Food production. Without such knowledge, a society subsists from foraging.
	Level 1: Farming. Allows you to develop lands other than your home type. Once you have farming, developments include farmsteads which boost prosperity.
	Level 1: Domestication. Your pieces get +1 move.
	Level 2: Aqueducts. Lands with 2 developments get +2 to their maximum population.

	INDUSTRY: Crafts, metalworking, and trade.
	Level 1: Walls. Your developed lands have walls which reduce the strength of enemy attackers by –2.
	Level 1: Steel. Your pieces get +1 strength.
	Level 2: Roads. Lands with 2 development tokens have paved roads which allow free travel into the land, and provide 1 extra labor per turn.

	CULTURE: Law, the arts and sciences, and also the level of “civilization” of your society.
	Level 1: Temple. Lands with a development on them have temples, where you may recruit leaders or agents. Also, enemy agents are at –1 stealth here.
	Level 1: Literacy. +1 to learn new knowledges.
	Level 2: Monotheism. Increase your unity by 2.

	TRAVEL: Essentially seafaring ability, but also the amount of exploration carried out.
	Level 1: Longboats. Your race may use longboats to travel 4 spaces by sea.
	Level 1: Linguistics. Your agents are +1 stealth.
	Level 2: Docks. Lands with 2 development tokens have docks. Docks provide 1 labor per turn if there are no roads, and your pieces may set sail from lands with docks.

3. Espionage

Once agents sit on a land inhabited by enemy population, espionage ensues.

	Assassination: If there are defending agents, each side makes a stealth roll with a bonus of the number of agents on its side, +1 if a leader is present,–1 on an enemy land with a temple. If the roll succeeds, an enemy agent is assassinated, or two on a critical success.

	Hiding: After both sides rolled, each side chooses whether its agents withdraw; if they do, they must move 1 space into a land inhabited by friendly population. Otherwise, return to assassination, above. Once all agents on one side are dead or fled, go on to victory.

	Victory: If the defenders won, generally nothing happens. If the attackers won, they must make a stealth roll with a bonus of the number of agents on the land; if it succeeds, then they may choose to take an action from the espionage options list below, but if the roll fails, then one of the agents is discovered and killed. After this roll is made, espionage is finished on this land.

	Espionage Options
	Scout: If battle is about to ensue, you can scout out their position to gain surprise—your warriors on this land get a free attack before the battle begins.
	Arson: Destroy one development token.
	Copy: A technology of your opponent’s choice (or your choice on a critical success) is copied into your own empire. You can’t copy a technology if a battle is about to begin on this land.
	Assassinate: If an enemy leader sits on this land, you may assassinate him.
	Poison: Kill a population—this is only allowed on a critical success.

4. Battle

If population under the control of different empires occupies the same land, combat ensues as follows.

1.	Attack: each population attacks by movement order.
2.	Summoning aid: the defender may bring in help.
3.	Retreat: warriors run away.
4.	Victory: the winner may roll to learn enemy tech.

	1. Attack: Each round, both sides roll 1 die against their warrior’s strength, +1 for every population on your side, and +1 if you have a leader present. (Remember to subtract 2 from the attacker’s strength if the defender has walls, or 1 if he occupies a highland.) If one side has faster movement than the other, then he rolls first, and the other side rolls after suffering any losses. If the result of the attack roll is a success, the opponent must remove one of his units. On a critical success, you may also choose one extra piece of any kind (even a development) to remove.
	If one side runs out of fighters, the other side is declared the winner; go to victory. If one side decides to retreat, go to retreat. Otherwise go on to summoning aid.

	2. Summoning aid: if the defender wishes to call for reinforcements, he can move 1 population in from any one adjacent land. If you have roads in the land, you may move in any number of population. Under the advanced rules, you may call in your allies to aid you; they are obligated to send all but one unit from the land to your aid or else break the alliance. When finished, go back to attack, above.

	3. Retreat: If one side wishes to retreat, he moves all of his population (and, at his option, any agents and leaders) one space away. Attackers must return to the space they left, but defenders may move into any land which isn’t occupied by enemy forces. Important: if your armies are fleeing from warriors with a higher movement rating, one population must be sacrificed to hold off pursuit.

	4. Victory: If the attackers won, they have a chance of learning from the defeated force. Make a roll, +1 if a leader was captured, +1 if both societies are literate, and +1 for each development on the land. If the roll is a success, one knowledge of the loser’s choice is copied; on a critical success the winner gets to choose.

5. Loyalty

After each player has taken his turn, everyone must check to ensure their population remains unified.

	Leaders: You automatically control any land with a leader on it. In addition, you may control a number of extra lands equal to your race’s unity rating, but these extra lands must be close enough for a leader to reach in one move.

	Agents: Even if there are no leaders on a land, if there are more agents than population, your agents may assassinate dissidents and spread propaganda, preventing civil war. These lands do not remain under your control, however, and population in lands held by agents are not allowed to move nor produce labor. These lands should be tilted slightly to show that they produce no labor.

	Rebellion: If something happens which reduces your sphere of influence below the number of lands inhabited with your population, civil war has broken out. All lands without leaders, without a temple, and without more Agents than population on them, rebel. Any agents left on rebelling lands must make stealth rolls to avoid being either killed by an angry mob or else tried and executed with a semblance of justice, which amounts to the same thing.
	Rebel lands become their own sub-race and will not acknowledge you as their master. Turn rebel lands sideways, replace all population with different colored markers, and add a new leader, to signify rebellion. On each following turn, they will automatically recruit one defensive agent until the maximum is reached. Then they will remain as they are, ready to fight off any invaders.

	Capturing rebels: A rebel land may be captured by any empire if one of two conditions is met:

1. 	A rebel population is killed in battle and the remaining rebels are outnumbered by your forces on the land, or
2. 	The rebel leader is assassinated and one of your leaders remains on the land to replace him.

	If either condition is met, the land and everything on it joins your empire; turn it back square. If failed attempts to capture the rebel land result in the loss of agents or a leader, on the following turns they will add a leader, and then agents, one per turn.

6. Prosperity

Each player counts up the number lands under his control. Lands tilted from civil unrest do not count, but lands with farmsteads count twice. If the total is less than 8, you may add 1 population to your empire on any land you wish. If the total is 8 or more, you may add 2 population to your empire, on any two different lands of your choice. (Remember to respect maximum population restrictions—no more than 2 allowed on wastes or swampland, no more than 3 on highland or forest, and no more than 4 on plains.)

Winning and Losing

If all of your leaders are killed, or if your population is reduced to 2 or fewer tokens, your empire collapses, and you lose the game; each of your lands becomes an autonomous rebel land, the population of which can be obliterated by remaining empires at their leisure.
	But, you win if you can control more than 2/3 of the board (lands held by agents don’t count; you must legitimately control 2/3 of the lands), or if your empire is the last standing after all others have fallen into chaos. 

Strategies and tips

•	When creating your race, use picks which grant a bonus to unity. Dealing with loyalty can be hard while you’re still learning.
•	During play, remember where your leaders are.
•	Remember to keep agents on lands where rebellion and enemy attack become are likely.
•	Watch your leaders, and make sure not to try to control too much land—rebellion can be devastating.
•	When preparing to attack, make a leader and agents to move alongside the warriors. Also, it’s best not to attack without a clear advantage; the rules ensure that odds normally favor the defender, especially later on.
•	Learning new knowledges is difficult. Try to get them by fighting or spying on other empires.
•	As the game progresses, it’s better to concentrate your forces closer to your borders.
•	If you have good agents, it often works to send your warriors and agents against a superior force, gain surprise, kill who you can, and retreat immediately.
•	In the long run, races with bonuses to knowledge, labor, and prosperity do better, and it’s wisest to play such races conservatively and defensively. But aggression is better with races having bonuses to stealth, strength, movement, and unity.

Optional Lands

As desired, a player may declare that he is shuffling up to two of these unique lands into his pool of starting lands:

Realm of the Old Ones: This counts as a plains with a development token, guarded by three monolithic stone sentinels which fight as three ordinary population. 

Ruins of Xachadûn: This counts as a plains. While you inhabit Xachadûn, your empire’s knowledge rolls are at +1. However, at the end of every turn, the player to your left makes a roll. On a success, the sinister and nameless gods of ancient Xachadûn rise up to blast the souls of those who defile their land, and all pieces on the space die horribly.

The Pool: This counts as a forest. As an espionage action, you may spy out the secrets of the pool; if you fail, an agent drowns. If you succeed, you learn a new knowledge chosen by the player on the left. Each empire can only learn one knowledge from The Pool.

Faerie Forest: This counts as a forest where the laws of space and time do not follow normal paths. Pieces may enter the faerie forest as normal, but, any piece wishing to leave must teleport to another discovered forest space. You may not call in reinforcements to or from the Faerie Forest.

Glittergold Mountain: This counts as a highland. Two population, with knowledge in industry (walls or steel), may try to mine from the mountain rather than moving. The player to your left makes a roll. On a failure, your miners create 2 labor rather than 1. On a success, you get no labor, and instead lose 1 population in a tragic mining accident.

The Cave of Wonders: This counts as a highland. As an espionage action, you may spy out the secrets of the cave. If you fail, an agent is lost. If you succeed, you learn a new knowledge chosen by the player on the left. Each empire can only learn one knowledge from the Cave of Wonders.

Trogdor’s Realm: This counts as a wasteland with 1 development token, and one population token to represent a dragon. Trogdor fights at 4 move, and can only be killed on a critical success.
	Until he is slain, roll a die every turn to see where he goes hunting: a result of 1 indicates the land directly to the east, 2 the land directly to the southeast, and so on clockwise around Trogdor’s realm. Trogdor swoops in during the night to devour a population from this land before returning to his aerie.

The Pillars of Set:  This land counts as a wasteland with 2 development tokens on it. At the end of every turn you keep population here, you must sacrifice one of your agents to Set. Otherwise, the player to your left makes a roll; on a success, one population dies in a ferocious sandstorm.

The Black Bog: This counts as a swamp. When The Black Bog is first discovered, a terrible plague sweeps across the board, killing 1 population from every single land.

Kaiurn’s Barrow: This counts as a swamp inhabited by Kaiurn, a terrible wight (represented by a leader token), and his unholy lieutenants (represented by 3 agents). Only agents can find and slay Kaiurn, by killing his own agents and then making a successful assassination attempt against Kaiurn himself. If they fail, the barrow wight will replace his lost agents next turn. Killing Kaiurn reveals a single level 1 knowledge as chosen by the player on your left.
	Population may safely inhabit Kaiurn’s Barrow, but until Kaiurn is slain, roll a die every turn to see where he sends his agents: a result of 1 indicates the land directly to the east, 2 the land directly to the southeast, and so on clockwise around Kaiurn’s Barrow. Kaiurn’s undead agents appear during the night to kill all agents and leaders on that land before disappearing whence they came.

Send comments or criticism to harkenbane@juno.com.