John Locke, ABBA and Trench Warfare: Supremacy 1914
I’ve been playing Supremacy 1914 for the better part of a fortnight, a free Java-based game in which you assume control of one of ten European powers in a pre-WWI setting. The first ‘Oooh’ point to this game is that it runs in literal real-time – that is to say, I’ve been playing for 11 days now and in the game it’s Day 11. This means that there’s not a lot to do once you’ve given your troops their orders, spent your daily intake of taxes and written threatening letters to the major powers of the continent – unless, of course, you end up playing with people who are also frantically refreshing the browser to pounce upon the latest political development, in which case a lot can occur.
I’ve been playing with some people from a forum, so everything was organised beforehand – if you’re going to delve into the servers on your own, you might be waiting ages for players to fill the space on the roster (as the game won’t start unless it has the required numbers), or be stuck with idiots who will use the diplomatic interface to inundate you with requests for “aan alianc” before getting bored with the real-time gameplay and sodding off back to Band of Battlefield Brothers in Armed Assault III.
The diplomacy, with the assumption that you’re playing with people who have a competent grasp of the English language, has so far (as I’ve not had a proper war yet) been the best bit because the players are left to their own devices on this. You can cajole, bribe, threaten and scare the hell out of your neighbours and – if you’re familiar with your co-players – can have quite a bit of fun with it all.
Which is why I am playing entirely in-character as John Locke from Lost, or should I say ‘Pope John of Italy’ (countries were randomly-assigned and the game thinks that the Pope is the Head of State of Italy). Pope John – a former regional manager of a Turin box company (REFERENCE!) – has so far helped his Moroccan trading partners (ruled by Jafar from Aladdin…) stamp out sabotage in Algiers, invaded Belgian-owned Switzerland (I don’t know why Belgium, either) to gain valuable lumber resources to feed Italian rail expansion, made friends with the Swedish leader (yep, Bjorn from ABBA…) by solving their coal crisis, and annoyed Austro-Hungary by accidentally tearing up a Mutual Protection Pact – although I still maintain that I got confused with the interface, rather than it being a thumbed-nose to my neighbour – and is very close to war with them as a result.
As far as the warfare goes, until you can expand your infrastructure and start building serious hardware like artillery and tanks (Note: There is a degree of naval combat, but naval units appear very high up the tech-tree) you’re restricted to infantry units, and the only tactics involved there are “Get enough of them – Run at enemy – Come back tomorrow and see if you’ve won”. Management of your production of materials such as Iron, Lumber and Oil are the key to unlocking the big guns (literally) because of how much material you have to expend to build the province improvements that get you them. If I had known, I’d have probably not sold off all my key goods while trying to make friends with the rest of Europe, but better luck next time – although, with that real-time system, ‘next time’ might even be sometime next year. I’m not joking.
As a wargame, it’s a good, accessible bit of fun with some fairly meaty strategic and tactical potential in the later game (I imagine), and a lot of variable options and opportunities. For instance, I think next time I’ll play in-character as Bennett from Commando. Or Luther Blissett. Or Sanjeev Bhaskar. Thoughts?
