Supremacy
Edwin Arlington Robinson

There is a drear and lonely tract of hell
From all the common gloom removed afar:
A flat, sad land it is, where shadows are,
Whose lorn estate my verse may never tell.
I walked among them and I knew them well:
Men I had slandered on life's little star
For churls and sluggards; and I knew the scar
Upon their brows of woe ineffable.

But as I went majestic on my way,
Into the dark they vanished, one by one,
Till, with a shaft of God's eternal day,
The dream of all my glory was undone, --
And, with a fool's importunate dismay,
I heard the dead men singing in the sun.

Supremacy was a board game published by (wait for it) Supremacy Games. To get a feel for how the game played, think Risk on steroids. In addition to building armies, players had to build navies, generate income to pay for their forces, manage stores of three varieties of natural resources (grain, oil, and minerals), and possibly build nuclear and/or satellite weapons. For those desiring yet more complexity it had about ten different expansion packs dealing with warlords, ``Unconventional'' forces, neutron bombs, missile submarines, random events, and who knows what else.

I can't say for certain whether or not I would call Supremacy a good game. I played it for many years, and would still be playing it today if my gaming group hadn't scattered to the four corners of the earth, so it must have had some appeal. On the other hand, if we ever actually finished a game in all those years, history does not record it. Supremacy games went on pretty much forever. Typically we'd start playing on a Friday afternoon after everybody finished work and school, and by sunrise the next morning somebody would be tired enough of the whole mess to make a kamikaze run at one of his rivals. About an hour later, whoever managed to scoop up the remnants of the two combatants most effectively was usually declared the winner. I think most of what kept us coming back was the faint but insistent hope in each of us that one day he would be the one to score that legendary, first ever, real victory. To my recollection, it never happened.

Su*prem"a*cy (?), n. [Cf. F. supr'ematie. See Supreme.]

The state of being supreme, or in the highest station of power; highest or supreme authority or power; as, the supremacy of a king or a parliament.

The usurped power of the pope being destroyed, the crown was restored to its supremacy over spiritual men and causes. Blackstone.

Oath supremacy, an oath which acknowledges the supremacy of the sovereign in spiritual affairs, and renounced or abjures the supremacy of the pope in ecclesiastical or temporal affairs. [Eng.] Brande & C.

 

© Webster 1913.

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