Supremacy - Virgin RRP œ29.99 - œ34.99
     (Strategy/simulation for ST (reviewed), PC and Amiga)

I've always been a bit wary of strategy games as I usually seem
quite unable to balance all the different factors involved. When a
game is produced in which you not only have to manage the
resources of between 1 and 32 planets and their inhabitants,
govern and tax the people, train and equip an army and then see
off an alien invasion with the correct battle tactics - and the
whole thing comes complete with a daunting 96 page booklet - it's
enough to make you want to throw in the towel before you start!
Luckily, Supremacy is deceptively easy to get to grips with, in
the early stages at least.

The basic story is fairly simple. You are the leader of a planet
called Starbase at the heart of the Epsilon galaxy. During
research into a hyperdrive, your scientists discovered four new
dimensions, Hitotsu, Futatsu, Mittsu and Yottsu, each containing
between 6 and 30 planets, all of which were barren. It was further
discovered that each planetary system acted as a buffer zone
between an alien dimension and your own. Activating the hyperdrive
had somehow caused Starbase to appear at the edge of the system,
and very soon after, it was noticed that another planet had also
appeared, at the other end. Oh dear.... It looked like the aliens
had the same idea.

A bit of investigation showed that not only had the same thing
happened in the other three systems but Starbase was now somehow a
permanent part of each of them. This was good in some ways as it
meant colonisation of the systems would be easier, but it also
opened up the possibility of attack by the aliens - not only on
Starbase, but via Starbase into Epsilon itself. Even if Starbase
was removed from the new dimension back to normal space or
even destroyed, the aliens might follow the trail, and, anyway,
who wants to be thought of as a coward? The only other course is
to get cracking on terraforming the planets, colonise them, train
your armies and show those aliens what you're made of by taking
over the complete planetary system and their planet too before
they try to do the same thing to you.

The four systems have different difficulty levels, so the easiest,
Hitotsu, where your opponent is the gorilla-like creature Wotok
and none too bright, has just 8 planets including Starbase and
Wotok's home planet. The hardest, Yottsu, has 32 planets and
you'll be up against Rorn, a real fighting machine if ever there
was one, strong, evil and rumoured to be a trans-dimensional
being, nowhere near human and not necessarily mortal. I'm no fool;
I started with Hitotsu and Wotok!

There's a basic early-stages guide to the Hitotsu scenario in the
manual which is worth trying just while you familiarise yourself
with the controls, which doesn't take too long. All the game is
mouse-controlled (apart from naming planets, ships etc) and uses
icons. First of all, you need to set up horticultural stations and
mining stations on the surface of Starbase to provide food,
minerals and fuel for your growing population, and put a solar
satellite generator into orbit to produce energy. Then you can
start establishing your army (a total of 24 platoons of 200
soldiers is allowed), training them and equipping them with a
variety of weapons and armour.

Meanwhile, you can send off an atmosphere processor to the closest
planet to you and wait for terraforming to take place. Your
opponent will make threatening noises at your actions but who
cares! Once terraforming is complete, you can begin to
establish a new colony on the virgin planet, shipping
horticultural stations and so forth to them from Starbase as
needed and by the time the colony is up and running, your first
few platoons should be ready to be transported to it in your
shiny, new battle cruiser, just itching to make their presence
felt.

By now, your opponent, despite his lack of brain cells, is doing
the same thing, colonising planets from his end of the system.
Sooner or later the two of you will meet up for the first time and
it will become clear just who HAS mastered the art of supremacy!

As I said at the beginning, this isn't normally my sort of game
but I did find it surprisingly enjoyable though I don't reckon I
would have much hope against the likes of Rorn in the most

difficult scenario, not yet anyway. My first few games were
disastrous with the population dying like flies because not enough
food was being produced or my opponent getting too much of a grip
on the system before I'd terraformed my first planet. But once I'd
sorted out what I was doing wrong and managed to balance the
economy of Starbase a bit better, I found that I could terraform
planets quicker than Wotok and, eventually, I was the one to start
the first battle and win it! Unfortunately during the battle the
mouse pointer froze on the screen so I couldn't reap the benefits
of my victory, so save often in case it happens to you (it's
very annoying, believe me!)

Four save positions per disk are allowed and you can format a new
save disk from within the game which is great. There's nothing
more frustrating than realising you haven't got a spare formatted
disk when you've just achieved something in a game.  Saving and
restoring can be a mite unreliable so, again, save frequently in
case you can't manage to restore one particular save.

If you want a good introduction into strategy games, I'd say,
try Supremacy. It's good fun, you'll be able to find a difficulty
level to suit yourself without any trouble, even if you're a
complete novice at these sorts of games like me, and, who knows,
you might even win!
                                         Sue