This is pretty fun for a wargame and not often seen in most other grand strategy games later I bought the T-34/76 design from Stalin and was happily pleased to see US Army olive drab, with a nice big white star on the turret, of the first one to come off the assembly line. In one of my USA games, I bought the T-35 tank design from the USSR in 1936 and the Ju-86 transport design from Germany both were better than anything I could build until 1940/41. Players can not only build any type of unit allowed by their nationality, such as the US building the M4A1 Sherman or the M3 Bradley series but can buy or sell designs from other countries. The huge variety of unit designs is stunning literally thousands of types of land forces, aircraft and ships are modeled, both historical and (in the post-2020 campaigns) potential future units. While it is fine for gameplay, the ahistorical nature of this may turn off some hardcore grognards. Effectively, players are maneuvering large groups of small units on the map. One word of warning-as many players have noted, there are no “higher level” units (Brigades, Divisions, Corps, Fleets, etc.) in the game. These units can be sent on a variety of missions, from using Engineers to speed construction projects, to attacking enemy units. Deployed units, over several weeks, build up to full effective strength, reflecting the time required to train, etc. Units can then be placed in Deployed (fully manned) or Reserve (no personnel assigned but the unit is in mothballs) mode. Based on the requirements of the unit, reserve personnel are taken from the Reserve Pool (which is in turn based on a country’s level of military spending) and used to man the ship, squadron or battalion. A robust technology system takes the game from pre–World War II to the far future, providing for a variety of technology types, from new unit designs to developments that allow for increased prosperity of the citizenry.Īs noted earlier, individual units are constructed in Land, Air or Naval (and later, Missile) production facilities, at the battalion, squadron or individual ship size. Game play is fairly straightforward as a real-time game, units move, economies function, and diplomatic crises erupt unless the game is paused. Players can choose one of hundreds of countries to play, from historical superpowers (the USA and USSR) to ahistorical small countries, such as an independent Texas in the beloved “Shattered World 2020” scenario. All of the old favorite scenarios, especially my personal fave, the “Shattered World 2020” campaign, were updated to the new system.įor those of you unfamiliar with the series, which has its roots in a 1980s-era text game, the Supreme Ruler games are battalion-level global simulations with a detailed economic, production, political and diplomatic system. For a fan of the series, this was good news I was hoping for a massive update to the series, and this was it. The intent of the newest addition was to apply updated graphics, AI and additions, first released under Supreme Ruler 1936, to all of their past games. Consequently, I was happily surprised when BattleGoat announced a new game, Supreme Ruler: Ultimate, which would encompass not only the World War II era, but all of their previous games as well ( Supreme Ruler 2010, Supreme Ruler 2020, and Supreme Ruler: Cold War). The often odd “Sphere” system of international politics, while applicable to the Cold War scenarios, does not work well with either the World War II or post-1991 eras and can lead to some odd ahistorical alliances.Ī few months ago, I reviewed BattleGoat Studios’ Supreme Ruler 1936, a real-time grand strategy wargame that covered the World War II era and afterwards. Some minor graphics glitches, and as with all of the Supreme Ruler series, there is a relatively steep learning curve at start. What is there not to love with the ability to go from 1936 to 2070+ with a single nation, at battalion-level, while having dozens of new scenarios and campaign start dates to choose from?įailed Basic: Game AI, especially Naval AI, still needs improvement, even at the highest difficulty levels, to present a challenge to an experienced player. Substantial improvements to economy, graphics and game speed. Passed Inspection: Good update of all the Supreme Ruler series in a single package. Supreme Ruler Ultimate – PC Game Review By Robert Mackey
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