Wait, there’s a Masque of the Red Death board game?! Whaaat? Runs to the local store website
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I’m falling out of love with Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.
The last couple of cases have been a bit underwhelming. When it’s good, it’s great, but when it’s not it can be baffling. And I say that as a big Sherlock Holmes fan.
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Is that just the big version of Supremacy? I played Supremacy a lot when I was a lad - can’t imagine playing a bigger version of it!
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I’ve had Duelosaur Island for a while and played it twice as soon as it arrived, but not played it since. I think it’s probably better than I think and I haven’t really been able to explore how it works and different strategies yet, but the first couple of plays just left me thinking ‘it’s fine’.
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Indeed it is…plus more stuff. Mega Supremacy keeps the same number of playable power blocks: six standard + two (with the Middle Powers expansion). These factions are staffed by teams of three comprising: CinC/Diplomat, Military/Technology Minister, Economic/Diplomat Minister. The rules state teams can be composed of four players with the additional person assuming the diplomatic role, but from what I’ve read, that player didn’t have a whole lot to do other than bookkeeping in practice, so while in theory the game could actually be played by a maximum of 32 people, 24 seems more manageable (!?)
In this photo, the Mega Supremacy rules are in the loose leaf binder on top of the 1st edition box. It looks more daunting than it really is because the pages are sleeved, and the last half is composed of blank forms (peace treaties, trade agreements, non-aggression pacts, forms for keeping track of your superpower’s SSBNs, etc.)
The game does require the large map too, and while I have an unused paper original, I had two bespoke vinyl-printed, waterproof maps made because I’m insane. 
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If you ever get the conference center rented and gather up 22 other people and need a 24th, let me know! I don’t usually go for spectacles of that magnitude, but it certainly sounds like an experience.
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Truthfully, I think a game would require at least 25 people: 24 players and an umpire/game manager.
As I stated elsewhere on the forum, I recently learned that the overall design for Supremacy was stolen by Robert J. Simpson from the original designer back in 1984. RJS had been a playtester for the game (then called CinC) and had modified the original rules by ditching the Diplomacy-style, simultaneous movement, and tech trees (7 years before Sid Meier’s Civilization!). The whole affair is still a REAL sore spot for the original designer (understandably) and he is reluctant to divulge any more than he already has, but I would love to get my hands on a copy of the original CinC rules.
Failing that, I may have to try my hand at Board Game “Modding”. Meh, at least it would keep me out of trouble! 
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Based on what I know about it, I’d probably crib a few chapters out of the megagames book and say you may want somebody to represent the “media”: a way of allowing the teams to keep track of everything that’s going on. Essentially, somebody taking notes and publishing them as though they were a newspaper.
It really sounds like a fun weekend.
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Possibly, but I don’t know how that would mesh with the rules governing the maintenance of your superpower’s covert intelligence service/special forces. (Yes, that is it’s own thing. It’s the gray box at the bottom of the colorful stack of expansions on my shelf. Honestly, I have never even opened it.)
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I would be amazed if a lot of megagame mechanics came from a game like this in the first place.
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I know that Mega Supremacy was used in an academic setting multiple times by at least a few US Army OCS or ROTC classes as an introduction to global strategy back in the late '80s, but info on their sessions is hard to come by.
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Huh. On a whim, I went over to the Command Post Games site (they publish the revamped version: Supremacy 2020) and they have a set-up guide for their version of Mega Supremacy and it does have a press pool.
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So much cross-pollination with (the little that I know about) “Megagames”
(basically all I know about megagames is from watching the SUSD megagame gameplay/documentary videos)
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They’re basically an offshoot of the staff level map exercises that started to become common during the mid-late 19th century, although those were focused solely on maneuver and logistics. The various incarnations of the German General Staff and the United States Naval War College were the most avid users of these games and exercises in the run up to WW2.
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Here’s a potted history of Megagames. (my favourite part is the game with the mobile guillotine.)
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Since having to revert to home working, my dining room table has become my home office. That means I have no table for any gaming at the moment, which limits the type of thing that can be played comfortably.
Of all the games I can’t play, I really want to sprawl out the Peloponnesian War the most. Seems daft I can’t even get a solo game to the table at the moment!
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You’ve got floors, haven’t you!?
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I’m not adverse to setting up across the floor, but only for quick games. Plus with a 4 year old, floor games are only for after her bedtime unless I want the game to devolve into something completely ad hoc according to her whims.
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Big one my friends and I are missing is Seafall. It’s easily found at bargain bin prices these days and last year I’d picked it up for about £20, expecting it to be hit or miss but figured it was worth giving a go.
Playing through the campaign at regular(ish) roughly monthly intervals we’re about half way through and have absolutely loved it. Lockdown’s put a long pause on that for now, and although my mate has suggested trying to sort out some way to play it over video call, that’s simply not a viable option.
Might arrange for us all to stick a holiday in at work when restrictions are eased off enough and spend a day just binging on it 
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One of the many benefits of my boy coming over this week, was it allowed us to knock a few games off our shelf of shame…I mean, shelf of opportunity!!!
That said, there are a few big ones still on it that I want to play soon;
The Edge: Dawnfall - arrived right after lockdown, and it was the more rules heavy/complicated game when I chose between it and Godtear (which I ordered after Christmas for a better-than-KS price).
Deep Madness - arrived late, right before Christmas. Had it arrived on time, it probably would have gotten played. However, as I gave my son Gloomhaven for Christmas, that took the lead for our “big co-op” to play together. I was getting ready to get it sorted and played when lockdown happened. I’ve read the rules and sorted it, so it is on the short list.
Inis - been on the shelf since before Christmas 2018. I grabbed it for a great price on Amazon, when it was extremely difficult to find here. Its punched and sleeved, but I haven’t done more than glance at the rules. This must be corrected!
Forbidden Stars - the “biggie”. Found this at a OLGS when we were fairly new to the hobby, but it screamed to me. .I’m hoping to play it this summer, but with everything going on, I’m not sure. Like Inis, it’s a DoaM game that works well for 2, and that was why I grabbed it.
There are a handful of others, but as I said, those are the “big ones”.
A few that came off the shelf for their first game this week;
Godtear
Oceans
Street Masters (I had played solo a couple times, but we played our first few co-op games)
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