GaryHarris

After rewatching the final season of The West Wing on DVD, I decided to run that contest in TPM2008. The Presidency was contested by Democrat Matthew Santos (Jimmie Smits) and Republican Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda). I have game tested this matchup by winning two close elections - one for each side at the Painful level. (Close, but not quite as close as on the show). It makes an interesting matchup because Arnold Vinick, a pro-choice economic conservative, is an unusual although plausible R

Sometimes when I land on a question mark state, the promised specialist is not forthcoming. It says a storyteller or Hollywood friend has joined my campaign, but I don't get one. And this is NOT because my opponent got there first. In one bizarre twist on this problem, a Storyteller appeared several turns later in the original state, but this tardy windfrall only happened once.

Justin, After you deploy your money man, leave him on your clipboard until you are ready to use him. Remember that awareness level in the state and national popularity also affect how much money you will raise. When you do plunk him down, most likely in California, start your fundraising right away. I generally devote two full game turns to it. Otherwise, a fixer may deprive you of the money man. When I see an opponent's money man sitting in a good state, I immediately zap him with a fixer.

Tomthebitx is right that Level-3 HQ's are the most cost-effective for generating $. I was wrong before to say they were equivalent. However, I still don't think they are a good bet in most game situations. You can't "forget about awareness," since turnout is vital to holding your base states and winning some of the swing states. Since awareness can't go above 100%, much of the awareness from Level-3 HQ's will be wasted. The Republican candidate in particular needs to win lots of small states. Th

Well, the number of consulting offices you build will depend on how many operatives you want. For me, the 7 points per turn generated by a top-level consulting office is about right, and it takes longer to get to that total if you build the equivalent total of 7 Level-1 consulting offices. And traveling to 6 more states to build them costs you an extra $150,000 you could probably find other uses for. The multi-state strategy for consulting offices has one significant advantage, however: you get

Also, building only Level-1 HQs allows you to build them in many more states, and they will make much more difference in the mid-sized states which receive very few campaign visits. Your travel budget and fatigue are slightly greater, but your future income stream is the same; and the nationwide awareness benefit is much greater (since it can never exceed 100% in any state).

I disagree with the idea of building Level 3 Campaign HQs. They do not yield more bang for the buck. (Each $250,000 spent yields $10,000 income per turn.) The big, closely contested states will reach 100% awareness well before election day with only a 1-Level HQ, assuming you campaign in them. Once 100% awareness is attained, HQs have only a money benefit, not a vote-generating one. (If your awareness is lagging, rush in a consultant for a few turns to goose it up.) The Operative generated by a

Like everyone else I'm just feeling my way, but I've already won the campaign game through all the levels as a Democrat (Obama-Kerry beat Washington-Nixon at the Painful Level with 46% of the popular vote but 272 Electoral Votes). And now I'm ready for the highest level Democratic foe: JFK. So I think my comments may be somewhat useful. I'll confine this post to comments on Operatives. These can be divided into 3 types. 1) The PR specialist , speechwriter and fash

I'm still learning the 2008 game, but I've already beaten all the Republicans in the Campaign Game and am ready to face the highest level (JFK) as a Republican, so my tips are probably worth something. I'll focus on consultants in this post. 1) Using consultants correctly is key. Note that the consultant, intimidator (and in a different way the webmaster) function on every turn, cumulatively, whereas the spindoctor and smear merchant only affect the instant of a calculation. A consul

Washington disavowed parties but was a closet Federalist. Jefferson and Hamilton competed for Washington's support; Hamilton won. The Federalist Party had a distrust of popular politics which proved its undoing, but it's not that unfair to trace a party lineage of Federalist to Whig to Republican, just as Jefferson's Republicans are the forerunners of the Democrats. Of course, the issues have shifted and in some cases reversed, but someone - I don't remember whom - said this. "If Jefferson and H

I've been playing election games since the early 1960s, starting with board games. All try to balance playability and realism. The Political Machine achieves that balance better than any other game-type simulation I've seen. A county level sim would cease to be a game, IMHO.

Yes, I was astonished to get to the final level of the Campaign Game as a Republican to find JFK, not FDR, as the opponent. I'm a Dem, and I like JFK, but he barely (and questionably) beat Nixon in 1960. FDR and even Andrew Jackson were much more formidable political candidates. Kennedy's ratings are also inflated, starting with his stamina and credibility numbers. I would also like more flexibility in customizing candidates, and not so that I could create a supercandidate to win more easi