Supreme Ruler 2010

How beautiful is the Earth! How it teems with life! How it is populated with so many diverse and fascinating cultures! And, of course, how eminently conquerable it all is! If you harbor similar thoughts as these, then do I have a game for you! It is Battlegoat Studios' Supreme Ruler 2010 and it is the ultimate simulation of global conquest. Don't take my word for it, just read the manual's forward by Larry Bond…yes, that Larry Bond! When a developer can get a renowned author, and wargamer, to sign on with a project, you know you have something special.

Supreme Ruler 2010 is a simulation that puts you in the position of complete authority in the fractured and chaotic world of the early 21st Century. Briefly, as the story behind the game is unusually complex and well-conceived, the collapse of the American economy precipitates a world depression of epic proportions, leading to the fracturing of nation-states into warring regional power blocks. The United Nations, unable to cope with the resulting political and economic chaos, ceases to exist and is soon replaced by the powerful World Market, a collaboration of leading regional powers, which seeks to bring order from chaos by any means necessary. It is in this brave new world that you are given the reigns of power---for better or worse.

One of the first things that strike the player is the vast amount of options you are given at the outset of your career. It is not exaggeration to say that, with over 200 possible regions for you to control, the entire world is your plaything! Your would-be dictatorial profession can begin in any intact country, such as South Korea or Norway, newly independent regions of former nations, such as Oklahoma or West Virginia, or city-states such as Moscow or Houston. Added to this cornucopia is three ways to play the game: as a single scenario, a specific mission, or a campaign game. In a single scenario, you are given a goal to achieve. For example, as supreme ruler of New York City, you are tasked with keeping your area (New York City and Long Island) intact, both economically and territorially, amid rising tensions due to a pending state-wide unification vote. A mission is more colorful in that it entails something very task-oriented. For example, in the mission "Paris Attacks," you are required to throw back the Parisian forces and then launch an offensive of your own, ultimately finding the enemy commander's command and control vehicle and destroying it. Finally, the campaign game is a series of scenarios that take you from regional commander all the way to an ultimate bid for global control itself!

Once you make your initial selections, including the novel idea of allowing the player to chose whether or not the game runs in real time or in time-based turns (i.e., 8, 12, 24, or 48 hours), you are taken to the main map screen. It is here that you will be spending all your time, plotting your bid for control. The maps themselves are fairly standard top-down affairs, albeit these are derived from NASA satellite imagery, that show important features such as towns, bridges, power stations, military units, airbases, and, of course, natural resources. Along the top, a status bar displays the date and time, income, and your approval rating. Nearby, a zoomed-out regional map can be seen. The bottom right contains an email inbox, from which you will periodically receive communiqués, from your various staff members, notifying you of some important news, such as an increase in military tension, or requesting a decision on a particular matter, such as responding to a diplomatic offer from the World Market. The bottom left contains tabs to access the various departments that are vital to running your region. It is here the true depth of the game can be seen.

These tabs are how you will be principally interacting with your region. For example, there are tabs for your departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Commerce, and Interior. Each of these departments, as per the real world (though, truthfully, this game is so complex that you often forget that this is not the real world), has its own department minister, classified by political affiliation as well as skill ability. These ministers function as AI personalities who will assist you in various ways. Through their own political inclinations, or via priorities you can set for them, they will run their portion of your growing empire. Don't worry, each of these ministers can be replaced at will. If you don't like Dan Black, the liberal Treasury Minister, fire and replace him with the conservative Margaret Somos! Think conservative Defense Minister Jeffery DeBeers is too hawkish? Replace him with moderate Richard Byrd! Who says human resources cannot be fun?

Of course, the purpose of these ministers is to alleviate some of the micro-management that could overwhelm the player in a simulation of this depth. And, make no mistake about it, there is more depth in this game than the Laurentian Abyssal! Almost every conceivable civic function can be accessed through your various departments of state, such as setting tax rates, spending on education, infrastructure improvement, defense research (of which there is an immense research tree), military salaries, DEFCON status, loan payments, and on, and on, and on. The depth of control is simply amazing! So is the amount of information feedback, covering industrial sector performance, energy output, even immigration levels! Incredible!

The military, in particular, is covered with extraordinary depth. Besides an amazing amount of military units and equipment that can be researched and built (air, land, sea, and space)---from the contemporary M1 Abrams tank, Ohio-class SSBN, and the F-15 Strike Eagle, to a number of futuristic units---each unit is also rated in significant detail. There are 24 potential ratings a unit can have, from the standard attack and defense values, to supply and efficiency factors as well. Units can also be given special training to gain experience outside of combat operations. Furthermore, each unit has a specific dollar amount for upkeep that must be met, imposing a realistic limit on the size of your forces. And, as above, this is just a representative sampling of the depth of information inherent in this portion of the game! Needless to say, it takes a deft tactical and strategic mind to combine all the various units into a functional (and affordable!) fighting force, lending even more realistic complexity to an already complex simulation.

Too much of a good thing….

Okay, I can hear you saying "Fine, fine…but how does it play?" Fair enough, as that is the only factor that truly matters. In my humble opinion, all the aforementioned depth is apparent in a typical session of SR2010---and that is the problem. Despite the presence of assisting ministers, and a very streamlined interface, the game easily gets away from you. Battlegoat should be commended for taking every available step to make the steep learning curve as easy as possible, from providing an in-game tutorial mission, walk-through Adobe Acrobat documents, and a wonderfully comprehensive printed game manual (how rare these days!), but the game just contains too much complexity for mere mortals. Managing a productive economy alone is a Herculean task! When combined with the diplomatic and military spheres---ouch! I think a big part of the problem is that the ministers do not prove all that helpful in actual game play. Despite their stated abilities and political persuasions, I have them to be little more than the rudimentary AI functions found in this type of game. They seem to handle the basics competently enough, but as soon as things get complex, you quickly find yourself doing their job as well as yours.

Another problem I have with the game is the combat resolution---despite the quantification of numerous attributes, when push comes to shove, it is strangely abstract. Yes, the many different types of units, as well as terrain, provide the player with abundant tactical and strategic options, but the actual combat is sadly lacking. When diplomacy fails, and war is declared, you are treated with a show of armies moving to combat, aircraft flying to targets, reconnaissance aircraft keeping tabs on enemy movements and the usual assortment of clichéd battle sounds. But I have found that managing the actual combat is quite dull. Little explosion graphics indicate battle damage with the victor eventually advancing before the retreating enemy, but that is about it. Considering the depth of the rest of the game, I would have expected detailed combat reports with specific loss and damage indications. Alas, in this regard, the game only provides a very superficial battlescape. After all the work it took to get your forces ready for the big fight, it comes as quite a letdown.

I will compliment the game on its diplomacy system, it is perhaps one of the most sophisticated I have ever seen. Just about every conceivable diplomatic offer is possible, even criminal extradition treaties! Also, one can present a particular "face" when making an offer, from "threatening" to "pleading." Your minister's diplomatic skill also comes into account during negotiations. In general, I found the AI to respond in a reasonably intelligent fashion, as far as these things go. To this mix, the World Market adds a diplomatic wildcard. At times, I found this powerful world organization to have inscrutable motives, making diplomatic offers that seemed to guarantee a skirmish rather than avoid one. Nonetheless, all things considered, I do believe that this simulation is one of the few that treats diplomacy as a sin quo non rather than just icing on the cake.