Only a small number of Supervolcanos exist across our planet, but have the potential to prove catastrophic for mankind if ever to erupt. Governments across the globe have considered the impending threat of a Supervolcanic eruption and how they might deal with it.
In this competitive, solo and co-op game, you play one of a number of thermal power companies, contracted by the government to tackle the Supervolcano threat. Each player plays simultaneously to establish power plants and harvest super heated steam from deep inside the volcano.
Players must balance the challenges of building their operation and local populations, whilst keeping the magma chamber pressure under control. Fail to meet your quota and the resulting eruptions and quakes will see those precious populations disappear!
Whether you race against your competitors or simply the Supervolcano itself, you will need to act quickly to build your operation and avoid a potentially terrifying outcome for mankind...are you ready?
How to Play Supervolcano
The aim of the game is to achieve the most victory points by providing therms (heat) extracted from the Supervolcano to local populations, which consist of workers and civilians. Only civilians can earn you victory points, but workers are needed to build power plants and connect pipelines to new settlements to grow. You decide how you allocate your populations as they grow, in order to boost your chosen strategy.
Each round is split into four main phases (Construction, Generation, Population & Volcano) which for the early game can be played by all players at the same time, so there's little down time in between turns.
Construction
Players use their connected settlement's workers to construct their heat network, either by building a power plant/s or pipelines to connect to settlements. Power plants constructed closer to the Supervolcano crater will generate more therms, but will be further from the bigger population centres of the cities to sell these to. Build closer to the map edges to harness a bigger population, but accept a lower output or bigger build distance to gain generation bonuses.
Generation
Players will total their power plants' therm output and decide how to supply this to connected populations. If heat (therms) can be provided to all of a settlement's civilians, it will grow, giving you more population, either additional workers to construct your network or more civilians to sell therms to.
Population
If the civilian population has been fully provided with therms, then it will grow and another civilian or worker will become available to you. At certain population levels, a 'Specialist' will become available for you to add to your workforce and will give a special bonus.
Volcano
With the Supervolcano's magma chamber pressure constantly increasing, each player has a target to meet each round in order to keep it under control and avoid disasters that will cause their populations to leave. Players compare their therm generation each round to the target to see if this was met.
Decide how much risk to take, when to create workers or civilians and how many power plants to build. With limited settlements and time, and the growing threat of a Supervolcanic eruption, can you build your therm network and grow populations to earn those all important victory points before time runs out?