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Stuart Wynne sticks a goldfish bowl on his bonce, points his homemade rocket in the general direction of space and boldly goes where no Ed has gone before...

For many years you have been the ruler of Epsilon, a system on the very edge of known space but living in perfect peace... until now. During routine testing of a new hyperdrive engine, four alien civilizations have been uncovered: Hitotsu, Futatsu, Mittsu and Yottsu. Peace treaties are soon signed by all involved, but no-one seriously believes these are going to last long, it's just a breather before the action can begin. Each of the alien races has built a starbase in which they claim is their territory.

Whichever opponent you choose to take on is effectively selecting the skill level - I'd advise you to start with the inexperienced Hitotsu.

You and your opponent start with a starbase each and there's six or so planets between you. Your first priority is to build up the resources, population and military hardware of home planet. But weapons, spacecraft and so on all cost money, so the coffers need to be kept stocked. The way to do this is by taxing the citizens. Be careful though: high taxes can reduce growth rate and morale.

In addition, citizens must be fed; armies trained and equipped. You can have up to 24 platoons of soldiers, which can be outfitted with three types of armour and weaponry, each more expensive than the last. Once you have your home planet well-stocked you can start sending out terraforming ships so you can colonize other planets.

The entire game is icon-driven, a really neat system which makes the game easy to get into. A well-written 96-page manual and superlative presentation with lots of lovely animated touches soon get you hooked. There are, in fact, several different control screens allowing you to handle various aspects of your campaign. There's a Buy Screen where various sorts of ships can be purchased and the Navigation Screen where you send ships off into the unknown.

Cargo Bay allows you to control the amount of cargo coming and going from each planet, while Platoon Management is where troops are trained and equipped. The Government Screen is where you watch over your colonies, Planet Surface lets you set up horitcultural and mining stations, Spying gets vital enemy information (for a price) and Combat Control allows you to kick alien ass. (Combat is fairly simple, consisting of landing troops and setting their aggression level - victory depends on their numbers and equipment.)

As you make your war preparations so are the enemy, and at various times throughout the game (usually where the army is concerned) the aliens will accuse you of breaking the peace treaties (although they are probably doing the same). Terraforming planets usually warrants a warning, and it takes this period to keep an eye on the enemy's activities. When a planet is ready to be colonized send along a solar satellite, and horticultural and mining stations to build up the energy, food and mineral levels. But with both sides expanding it's inevitable that you will meet at some point, and then all hell will be let loose.

This is one strategy game that no-one should miss. Beautifully presented and imaginatively structured it easily wins a Sizzler and will keep you playing for ages!

There are six different craft for you to buy in Supremacy:

1. Cargo Cruisers: Can also carry 1,850 civilians

2. Solar Satellites: Provide power

3. Atmosphere Processors: Terraforms barren planets so that they can be colonised.

4. Mining Stations: Extract minerals and fuel.

5. Horticultural Stations: Provide food.

6. Battle Cruisers: Move platoons, and 4,500 passengers which can be frozen for storage!

All these craft can easily be moved between planets, most require crews and fuel, but if things turn bad you can always scrap them for resources.

There are four types of planet, all of which can be terraformed:

1. Volcanic: Best for minerals and fuel.

2. Desert: Good for providing energy.

3. Tropical: Good for food

4. Metopolitan: Give impressive tax yields.

Who would have thought the state-of-the-art Amiga Sizzler would fit in just 64K? Admittedly, a few animation effects are missing, and there are fewer planets, but everything else is in there and it's all great fun to play.

The icon system had me hooked right from the start, but the finer points of galactic domination need practice to master. My first playing tactic was to build a huge army and attempt to flatten all in my path!

Unfortunately frequent natural disasters coupled with bad management of the colonies on my part allowed me to enjoy Probe's nicely done death sequence. But this flexibility in the game is its real beauty: you choose just how nice or nasty you want to be. Of course, assembling a large army is the main objective, but even the weakest of your opponents is tough to beat.

Several times I've reached his home base with about four battle ships full of troopers and been killed off after one hell of a fight.

Strategy buffs and closet tyrants are well catered for in Supremacy.

Presentation 90%
The actual game is a single load, with multi-load limited to the intro, where you choose your opponent, and the outro. The icon control system is great and the 96-page manual sets the scene very nicely. There's also a free poster and save/load feature.

Graphics 88%
Colourful and well-drawn, with a neat rotating star field. Excellent for a strategy game.

Sound 75%
Excellent title tune, okay sound effects.

Hookability 91%
Thanks to the icon system, the game is easy to start playing.

Lastability 92%
But the sheer number of planets, coupled with four alien opponents to beat, will keep you burning the midnight oil for a long, long time.

Overall 91%
The ease of play and sheer tyrannical power makes Supremacy one of the best strategy games around.