Lets start a tip thread

from PolMach Forums
This game is difficult. I dont know about you guys, but I could use some advice. How should I beat Gore in campaign mode?
47,572 views 61 replies
Reply #1 from PolMach Forums Top
I agree we need a tip thread. Unfortunately I don't really have any tips yet as I can't beat the 4th opponent in campaign using Bush. I'm actually learning more about politics than anything else, but it is a lot of fun
Reply #2 from PolMach Forums Top
I've been wondering how others are doing with this game. I found the early campaigns to be a breeze and figured everybody was having the same luck as I was. I've made it to the 8th level with Clinton (his opponent is Reagan), and the 7th level with the Republican Teddy Roosevelt (his opponent is LBJ). I have a ton of tips, but don't know where to start. Winning the first couple of campaigns is super easy-- vs. Clark, Carter, Richardson, Rice, Schwartzenegger, Hayes, and Ford. I have never lost a state to Clark, Rice or Carter when playing with a strong opponent. I haven't learned anything about politics, and instead have learned that this game is unrealistic in many ways. It is still fun to play and can be challenging and a bit addictive--but it has a lot of room for improvement.
I can pass on a few tips if you're interested and I hope I haven't given away the names of some of the opponents in the later rounds.
Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
My tip is always drop a webmaster, spin doctor, and smear merchant in New York and California if you are the GOP candidate. With smart ad placement, it will be very difficult for the Democrat to win either state.

If the Democrats lose California and New York, its next to impossible for them to win the election. This kind of tactic is the only way I've been able to use a custom candidate and progress past Clinton.

The game is a little easier if you play the default candidates.
Reply #4 from PolMach Forums Top
I actually played the last campaign trying to win without New York or California (playing as Republican Bush). In the games I won, it seems California is always the deciding votes so I wanted to try and win without it. Anyways, that didn't work.
Reply #5 from PolMach Forums Top
jscott991 how do you go to New York and California ? I can't understand how to go to states other than the six marked in the beginning - Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennesie, North Carolina, Alaska and Texas. When I right-click somewhere out of these states my candidate just doesn't move ;( I see the computer does it easily but I can't Please help
Reply #6 from PolMach Forums Top
The tougher AI candidates do something to boost their national appeal easily (it could be just endorsements and TV ads I suppose) but that makes it nearly impossible to hold all the traditional "Red" states. Its just too expensive.

Its much more economical and, actually, a lot easier to just win California as a Republican and forget about the popular vote and lots of the little states.

This isn't realistic but its how to beat the AI levels that have a massive advantage. If anyone can duplicate Bush's feat in 2000 (winning so many states) against the AI levels beyond Clinton, I'd be very impressed.
Reply #7 from PolMach Forums Top
Veselin, I have no idea what is causing you difficulty. My only tip is to make sure you have your candidate selected when you try to move from state to state. Otherwise, talk to the designers. You might have a bug.
Reply #8 from PolMach Forums Top
BTW I just noticed the topic about "no states visible" and I have similar problem. Do you have 4 squares and 2 triangles that the map is divided into? If you don't have - I am downloading SP1
Reply #9 from PolMach Forums Top
Its weird b/c I always start out strong (leading by 6/7 points in more than 40 states) by gaining a lot of endorsements. But in the later levels it seems like the opponent's money supply is limitless. The last few weeks they are putting up 2/3 television advertisements every turn. They turn the tables with their seemingly inexhaustible money supply. Any thoughts?
Reply #10 from PolMach Forums Top
The cpu opponent seems to get money from mystery donors out of nowhere. I have gone so far as to play a game and try to track what the opponent is doing (how he/she is spending their turns), and there have been times they have used more ads/speeches/politcal capital per turn than their endurance allows. Sounds fishy to me. But screw 'em.

The key to winning the game is in political capital. If you don't have a lot of money to spend, buy political capital. Save it up. Buy fixers. Don't put 'em out on the map until late in the game. What I have noticed is that the opponents will start using operatives if you do. So don't do it until late. Then buy up a lot of them in the final few weeks. I have won lots of difficult games in the last weeks of campaigning just by putting smear merchants (the best), and spin doctors in key states. Use some fixers to eliminate their operatives. You can easily win 6 or 7 more states this way, playing the electoral college advantage. I've lost the popular vote by tens of millions but squeezed out victories.

Also, when you're in a state, check out the state details screen. You will see thumbs up and thumbs down by each issue and a number. Sometimes your numbers are so far behind your opponent's that its best to bail on that issue and try to distract the voters with less important ones that you dominate.

Get a webmaster or two and don't be afraid to use him. He makes ads cheap to maintain. Put him in a close state and put some tv ads there for a while. When the voters start coming around to your pov, stop the ads and move the webmaster to another close state. Your opponent will spend much of his/her time playing catch up.

Basically, stick to the states you know you can win or are close, and ignore the others. Spend your early weeks (the time up until you chose your VP) building HQ and political capital. Each HQ gives you money, and you're not spending a lot of ads yet, so you can build up a pretty good war chest to tackle the later weeks.

Lastly, you can ignore the tv appearances. They really don't do much. If you want to see the effect your answers have on issues, open the questions editor and see the numbers. It's not a bad idea to open the issues editor and see those numbers too, as you will get an idea how positions are supposed to affect the voters. (Note: they don't. It's crazy because a Republican can get the Nat'l Assoc. for Women endorsement or Dems can get the Nat'l Gun Owner's Assoc. and it doesn't seem to tick off their base too much).
The game is really just about timing and math. Issues don't really matter.
Sorry for the long reply. I've got other tips and problems if you're interested.
Reply #11 from PolMach Forums Top
Well im gonna mess with it and see if i can pull it off. if i come back swearing like whoa then you'll know i failed
Reply #12 from PolMach Forums Top
While I am not an expert a few things that have helped me may help others so here goes.

1. Pay attention to everyone saying to build HQ's. It is incredibly important to your ability to advertise later in the game. And don't just make small ones, build them babies up.

2. Make use of web masters. Cutting the cost of tv ads by 3/4 is a huge deal when you get to candidates that require you to fight back with a massive tv ad campaign.

3. If you are out of money and still have stamina consider using it on political capital rather than fund raising or flying to a new state.

4. A well timed endorsement at the end of a tough game can move the swing states in your favor. I like to save up enough capital to pick up an endorsement in the last week.

5. Pick your battles. Not every state has to be won. If you notice your opponent spending massive energy on California, maybe letting him have it isn't a bad idea and will let you concentrate on the midwest.

6. You get an operative everytime you upgrade to a 3rd level HQ. These operatives are a good way to pick up smaller, more ignored states without having to spend direct time and energy on them. Picking up an operative in Texas and slowly move him north state by state is a good way to pick up states.

7. Don't forget to move your other operatives. I found myself just leaving my VP and other movable characters in states the entire game. These people move and help in both smaller states and battleground states.

Hope these help someone.
Reply #13 from PolMach Forums Top
Thought of another. In an above post it is suggested to move web masters around. I prefer to place one in each of two or thress states and do all of my tv ads in those states until week 31. Since tv ads have national appeal it is a good wat to pick up support in other states without spending a buttload on newspaper and radio ads everywhere.
Reply #14 from PolMach Forums Top
Great tip LastStand. I think the webmaster should be fixed, however, because if you put two or more in a state they actually GIVE you money for having ads running. The maximum you should be able to deduct from an ad campaign should be 100% (meaning no cost for maintaining an ad, not negative cost)

--James
Reply #15 from PolMach Forums Top
I haven't experimented with multiple web masters in a single state. I think the max should be 75% no matter how many ads WM you have.
Reply #17 from PolMach Forums Top
Okay, appearently I have a very "cheap" way of winning according to the guy I played last night, but it works, and I have minor difficultly beating George Washington and Tommy J.

The trick is definately, definately the large HQ's. Spend the first HALF (20 weeks) building as many as you can and raising money in CA, FL, GA, TX, WA, WI, MI, IL, OH, PA, NJ, NY, MA and NC. You should be able to build 10, and try to build them in battlegrounds. If you're a democrat, it's better to put one in TX then NY.

After your VP pick (try to get someone who has a lot of MONEY), spend 5-10 weeks getting endorsements and operatives.

Now, for the home streatch. You should have close to 10 million by week 30. Pick an oppenant strong hold and spend every stamina and every turn putting out TV ads (try to stick to the big 3 -- Homeland Security, Fighting crime, War on Terror) Those 3 issues seem to be high on most states.

-The HQs bring in 100k per week, so if you build them before week 20, you'll be making good profit
-TV ads are better then newspaper because they reach a nationwide audience

If nothing else, this explains how the oppent seems to have "mystery doners" -- you're about to beat him in how much money is spent.
Reply #18 from PolMach Forums Top
Thanks for the hints I never knew you could move operatives around like chess pices, I will be sure to do that in the future. I to had a problem flying to some states, I found the problem could be fixed by clicking on your candiate then clicking to the other state.

I do agree about the operatives they help alot, I launch a smear campain in PA after ignoring it for 30 weeks, with in a week the state was mine!
Reply #19 from PolMach Forums Top
Thought of a few more tips.

Make sure you pay attention to the political break down of each state when you pick your issues. Don't find your self helping your opponent by pressing his issue with his base for him.

Pay attention to the national polls. While the state polls are important, they don't matter a whole lot if you are losing 8 of the top 10 issues nationally. I can't count the number of games where I didn't even know what the number 1 issue in the nation was because I forgot to check the national poll. I am still bitter Carter beat me because I wasn't paying attention to prescriptions for seniors.

Losing an issue big time? Consider letting your opponent have it. This time Carter was way ahead on the environment in California. Instead of trying to catch up, I convinced the people of Cali that Carter was against free speech. Few million in tv ads and a handful of speeches and suddenly the environment didn't seem so important to the voters, granted it was overkill but I was bitter.

On that same subject, you can also push 2 or 3 issues up higher than your opponents main issue in a state. Use speeches and newspapers to pushs the other issues into the public conscience and again your opponents strength on that one issue isn't as important.

Use the fixer. Spin doctors and smear merchants are strong and can sway a state. Taking them out could very well be the deciding factor in you winning a close state.
Reply #20 from PolMach Forums Top
Last Stand, where do I find the national poll?
Reply #22 from PolMach Forums Top
Tip- keep pressing ctrl+m

This will automatically give you 5 million dollars. Use this each time you run low on money, and it will allow you to take out hundreds and hundreds of ads in all 50 states. You can effectively brainwash the public into voting for you.
Reply #23 from PolMach Forums Top
This will automatically give you 5 million dollars. Use this each time you run low on money, and it will allow you to take out hundreds and hundreds of ads in all 50 states. You can effectively brainwash the public into voting for you.


So thats how Kerry beat me, I knew I couldn't trust the guy

----
Any way, I found if I made political posses Say a consultant, a smear merchant, and a special, then move them around to state to state when the state became slightly red (blue for dems) I would wosh in, give a speech, do a fund raiser, and leave a radio add. Then I would move my posse to another state. I had two or three of these going at once, every time I got a new special, I got a few friends to stick with them and moved them around for a bit. It was very useful when I had to do a lot of fund raising or other wise preoccupied in other states.
Reply #24 from PolMach Forums Top
If you find yourself way behind on an issue, rather than defend yourself, just ignore it. Talking about and issue will increase it's importance to voters. if you're losing 20-80 on an issue, but only 8% of the public considers it important talking about it might mean that you're only behind 40-60 but now 18% of the public considers it important. So this is now a worse situation for you. If you're close behind and think you can pull ahead go for it, but otherwise just stress the issues your good at and you will attract quite a few votes.