President Forever 2008 + Primaries Help

Tutorial (Beta Version)

This tutorial was written by one of the President Forever 2008 + Primaries wizards, scenario designer Electric Monk.

Intro

Note: this is a Beta version. Feedback appreciated!

Welcome to President Forever 2008 + Primaries, an election strategy game. The purpose of this tutorial is to lay out a basic course of action in the primaries or in the general election, as well as to provide advanced tactics to be used against human players.

It is recommended that you take at least a quick look at the Help File so that you know what the buttons do, and what the map tells you. However this tutorial will generally try and give a cursory explanation so you can follow along without the Help File.

President Forever comes with several scenarios - currently 2008, 2004, 2000, and 1992 - and a number of unofficial scenarios have also been made. These unofficial scenarios can be found at http://www.theoryspark.com/scens.htm .

Your first step is to select the scenario that you wish to play, along with the options relating to that. To do that, start President Forever 2008 + Primaries. Click New Game. Click Scenarios. Select the scenario and click OK.

For the purposes of this tutorial we will going back and forth between a generic run-through and a specific play-through of the 1992 primary campaign and general election. Your options should look like this:

Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2. (need screenshots)

We will be playing through as Mario Cuomo, Governor of New York and a potential candidate in the Democratic primaries of 1992. We’ll play 1992 because it’s one of the easier elections for the Democrats, and is
much more fluid in the general election section than 2000 or 2004 (which means more states are in play). Mario Cuomo because he starts with a lot of money and polling numbers similar to Bill Clinton, his main opponent. (Note: In real life, Mario Cuomo declined to run for President.)

Your VP choice mainly counts in their home state, and you’re free to choose whoever you’d like (although we won’t get there for a while, as we’re starting in the primaries). Ann Richards, Governor of Texas, is an interesting choice if you’d like to try and take Texas and move it back into the Democratic column.

The 1992 map, with Cuomo in the race looks like this at the beginning:

Main map: Screenshot 3 (need screenshot)

Cuomo is strong in the North, the Great Lakes, the Far West, and New England. Cuomo is also competitive in a number of Rocky Mountain and Mid-Atlantic states. Clinton essentially owns the South and the
Border states, and remains competitive in the Rocky Mountain and Mid- Atlantic states.

In this particular election a brief analysis says that Cuomo must hold his current block, and win in the states where he is competitive as he sits only a couple hundred delegates below what he needs. Clinton, on the other hand, needs to break into the Cuomo belt somewhere - or gain the endorsement of a couple other candidates. Note that Iowa is owned by Tom Harkin, favourite son of the state. This makes Iowa much less important than it usually is. New Hampshire is in flux, and thus will be an important target.

In a generic primary California and New York are key. However, Cuomo is already doing well in those states. Therefore we are free to focus on New Hampshire and other states earlier. Remember that winning
early states gives you additional momentum - making New Hampshire crucial. The downside is that winning New Hampshire gives you a handful of delegates so you must be prepared to ride the New
Hampshire momentum into stronger positions in other states with more delegates.

Your opening turns are important. You must figure out the states that you want to target with your crusaders (i.e. the Strategy screen) as well as figuring what your general plan to take the nomination is. With
Cuomo we’ve established the states we want to target - maintain his current position, and improve marginally in a few other states.

Generally speaking you want to take as many big states as possible (Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, and so forth) and also as many early states as possible (Iowa and New Hampshire, but also South Carolina,
Nevada, and more in 2008).

The First Turn.

Your first turn should lay the groundwork for the next few months. Pick a theme of three issues that are important (in order of declining importance: purple, red, orange, yellow) with no more than
one issue attacking someone else if you’re running a more negative campaign. For 1992 you might pick Leadership, Economy, and Free Trade / Attacking Clinton.

You then select a Crusader (either Ted Kennedy, or your wife - Kennedy is suggested since he is more powerful). Usually the best idea is to pick either the strongest crusader, or the one who lasts the longest.

Then select a couple states and start FootSoldiers. In 1992 for the first turn New Hampshire and South Dakota are reasonable. Cuomo is well down in South Dakota, but it’s an early state and there are several months to work on it. In a generic primary for the first month or so you want to target California, New York, and probably New Hampshire and/or Iowa.

Next up is creating an ad. It makes sense to create advertising about issues in your theme. For 1992 your first ad should probably be Leadership/Cuomo & Television. This is to boost your name ID and sway as
many undecided voters to you as early as possible.

At this point there are only 4 extra CPs. So researching a scandal on Clinton will have to wait until next turn. With your 4 extra CPs in hand, click on New Hampshire and then Endorsers. The most powerful
endorser in 1992 is Speaker Tom Foley, so throw your 4 CPs into influencing him. Save your PIPs (Political Influence Points) for later.

We’ve used up all your CPs at this point, but candidate activities are allowed to go beyond the CP limit by around 25%. In a primary with 21 CP/Turn that means you can go up to 26 or so. In a general
election with only 5 CPs that limits you to 6-7 CPs, depending on your candidate’s Stamina.

For your first turn we’ll Barnstorm New Hampshire twice in a row, take a Rest day, and than Barnstorm New York and California once each in order to solidify support there among undecided voters. In a
generic primary it might make more sense to focus on New York/ California a little more in the first month, and then target New Hampshire.

Candidates can handle around 4 events a week (be they Barnstorming, or speeches) without losing too many Energy Points (EPs). Higher Stamina candidates can do 5 or even more, lower Stamina candidates
can only handle 3.

That’s it, for the first turn. To recap: picked a theme, started a crusader, began building a FootSoldier organization, started Advertising production, worked towards an endorsement, and went to a
couple states to Barnstorm.

Opening Phase: Groundwork

The rest of the first phase of the game (roughly speaking, until Iowa) is similar. Once you run out of crusaders, or if you want to slow FootSoldier expansion, you can begin creating scandals on your main opponent (Clinton, in the primary we’re playing). FootSoldiers should go up to the limit (of 5) in New Hampshire and you should expand them into contested states as well as trying to keep a couple in important states that are yours but have lots of undecided voters.

Your candidate sticks with barnstorming, and adds a speech once in a while. Your focus should gradually widen from locking up New York/ California to visiting states where you’re competitive and always
making time for the early states - New Hampshire in 1992.

Week 2 is more of the same as the first turn. Perhaps start a scandal, or visit some states you’re within a couple points of taking the lead - but overall pretty similar. If your advertising isn’t good (power 4+), scrap it and start over. If it’s “Successful” instead of “Highly Successful” scrap it when you get better ads, but as long as the power is 4 or better hang onto it for now.

Week 3 should see you doing well in New York & California and in 1992 as Cuomo they can now be disregarded unless things change. In a generic primary you may have to keep Barnstorming a little longer. Week 3 also means you should start your next crusader and if you haven’t yet researching a scandal on the opponent would be good.

Weeks 4-8 are widening your campaign across big states and early states, as well as contested close-run states. A spiral outwards as you dilute your focus.

Weeks 9-12 (December) is closing back in on New Hampshire and other early states and contested states. Hopefully you’re doing well in a number of big states and can go there less often. This is a good time
for more speeches, as voters are probably tired of your barnstorming in New Hampshire and other well-travelled terrain.

Coming into January and the first contests in that month or the next (depending which year you’re playing) you should be first or second in the national polls with major states locked up, and early states at least even with your opponents. You should also have a fairly large FootSoldier organization with 3-5 in early states, and 1 in as many second wave (Super Tuesday) states as possible. Note: FootSoldiers have to be re-created in a state after a certain number of days.

Two things do require a bit of discussion before we move on to the second phase of the primary campaign.

Endorsers.

Against a human player the endorser struggle is tense and epic at times, but when facing the computer it is a simpler proposition. You target the best endorsers and use extra CP on them. If you don’t have
the CP to spare, or if you’re in a dead heat for the endorsement you use PIPs to push you over the top.

Your goal is to save your PIPs and use momentum in the main race to persuade endorsers to come on board. However momentum might not be yours in the primary campaign, and so you must carefully conserve and apportion your PIPs to fight back against an opponent’s momentum.

Checking endorsers each turn and making note of how fast you and your opponents are gaining is key. If the trend line changes against you, can you use PIPs to win? Or is that merely throwing them away to eke
out a narrow win? (Not sure what this means.)

The temptation, if you’ve invested resources into an endorser, is to throw bad PIPs after good. Resist! You must know when you’ve lost, and when you need to just give up on an endorsement. You also need to
know when winning one endorsement costs you several others, as an expensive victory is nearly as bad as an expensive defeat. (Do you get PIPs back?)

Mostly this takes practice, to know when and how to fight for endorsers. Focus on the trends of how fast you’re going up (versus how fast others are going up), and weigh what it costs to win a particular endorsement against what it costs to win other endorsements.

Advertising

In some senses you can consider advertising a separate game, or perhaps an entirely different level of the game. Money is your main resource, instead of CP/EP, and although the effects of advertising
impact the campaign - the campaign does not effect advertising. Your main concern is to always have some kind of advertising running in the early states, to usually have some advertising running in contested states, and to save enough money for the later and bigger states if you’re not doing well.

Obviously saving money is at direct odds to running as much early advertising as possible, so you have to pay attention and know when and where (and how) to use your advertising dollars. The air war, as
it is known, requires quality advertising and vast amounts of money.

You should try and get “Highly Successful” advertising, with a power of 4-5 or higher for television advertising, and at least 2 for radio/ newspaper advertising since they’re weaker (but, of course, cheaper).

Your line-up should consist (if you have money to run television advertising) of 3 or 4 TV ads, perhaps 1 radio/newspaper ad, 2-4 positive ads, and possibly 1-2 negative ads.

There are several consequences to negative ads. The first is that of blowback. Under blowback conditions your ad simply fails to run. This is dangerous because you may have been counting on the ad, and
blowback means you’ve wasted resources making an ad that doesn’t work.

The other main consequences is generating a negative news story about you running the ad, but it’s fairly minor and can be overlooked unless you’re in a tight race and need every ounce of momentum (in which case it becomes quite irritating).

Unless you’ve decided to run a relentlessly negative campaign, which can be done, it’s best to hang on to your negative ads until the early states are done with and you either need the negative advertising to slow down your opponents’ momentum - or you want to use the negative ads to hammer down your losing opponent.

Middle Phase: Win Big or Go Fish (For Delegates)

For the past several months you’ve built a FootSoldier organization and have travelled around visiting many states but staying focused on New Hampshire (along with other early states) and the big, important,
delegate rich states.

Essentially you’ve developed your campaign in order to take an early state victory straight to the nomination, or to take an early state defeat and turn the race into a delegate hunt aimed at winning Super
Tuesday (or countering someone else’s win) and to get the nomination the hard way. Basically you’re aiming to be John Kerry in 2004 - early victory - or Barack Obama in 2008 - win on the numbers.

2008 Obama Vs. Clinton, 1980 Kennedy Vs. Carter, & 1976 Reagan Vs. Ford are good examples of a tightly contested campaign that’s all about gathering delegates to win the nomination at the convention.

As Cuomo in 1992 winning New Hampshire should be enough to win the nomination, assuming you’re starting polling numbers hold up. Losing New Hampshire and other early states makes your life a lot tougher,
but given Cuomo’s strength should still put you in a strong position.

The middle phase is the delegate contest. Either turn your early state wins into momentum and quickly rack up the delegates, or fight hard for every delegate to win at the convention. Do well enough and the closing phase is a formality, do poorly and every last delegate is required all the way to the end.

There are a few basics to follow in the middle phase:

Targeting. Compress your crusader targeting via the Strategy screen to the next 14 days or so of states where you’re in tight races.

Advertising. Pick states that will have contests in the next week where you’re a couple points behind and hit them with advertising - as much as you can afford.

Barnstorming. Spend a couple days before the primary is held (ideally you’re there the day they hold the primary election) in each upcoming state.

FootSoldiers. As many as possible in as many states as you can.

Beyond that if you have the PIPs, getting other candidates to endorse you is a nice boost.

Closing Phase: The Delegate Hunt - or - General Election on Prep

The closing phase is variable. If you’re doing well it’s pretty simple, if a little boring. If you’re still fighting for the nomination it becomes desperate and scary.

If you’ve won the delegates you need to win the nomination, then your course is easy and each week should look like this: Issue Knowledge x2, Rest, Debate Prep x2, Debate Prep or Issue Knowledge (depending
on which needs more).

Follow your progress on the Players screen and adjust as needed to keep both your debating skill and issue knowledge roughly in line with each other.

(If you’ve decided to make an opponent VP once you’ve passed the delegate threshold you need to win, your VP candidate should do the same thing as your candidate.)

However, if you’re still fighting you’re denied the luxury of preparing for the general election. In this case the basics are the same as the middle phase, just frantic in slow motion. This is the time to hammer scandals down on opponents if you haven’t used them, as well as to go negative if you have advertising money.

Your candidate’s EP health is no longer important, and should be worn down as low as you dare (into the teens) to win. Use your candidate, but try not to let him collapse. However if your candidate’s collapsing means victory - do it.

One thing to watch out for is an opponent that stays in the race even after you’ve won, as this can weaken you for the general election by giving you negative momentum. (Note on using PIPs to get opponent to withdraw from race?)

The General Election

Although things change in the general election, the basics of the primary campaign do hold up. Note your bases of support, select the important swing states, and if possible try and grab an important opponent state to make them spend resources in their own backyard.

Scandals are somewhat more important, especially medium/high power ones (which should be saved for the last week), and so is the news.

Spinning the news is basically unimportant in the primaries, you have better things to spend your CPs on. However in a general election spin everything you can, as long as you still have the CPs to do everything else you want to do.

An opening advertising blitz is important, to gain the “Big Mo’” headline, as is winning endorsements. Your PIPs are replenished in a general election, so spend them freely to win the big national endorsers. (How do you get the “Big Mo’” headline?)

If you can win the Big Mo’ headline then you’re well set for several weeks, which gives you time to build a FootSoldier organization and to conserve your candidate’s EPs & money for later in the fight.

If you fail to win the Big Mo’ headline then you’re going to have to fight back as best as possible with targeted advertising in swing states as well as working your candidate harder.

Debates are of some importance, but what really counts is a “Triumph” level victory. Merely winning or losing isn’t to bad, but winning or losing hugely is a major (though rare) boost. (How do you get a “Triumph” level victory?)

The final turn of the general election is when you spend your money freely, ideally you can go national with one or more ads, to generate momentum heading into the voting booths. Hopefully you have lots of
FootSoldiers to bring you those undecided voters as well.

Good luck!

Case Study: 1980 Kennedy Vs. Carter

In the span of a mere four years it happened twice: the most powerful
figure of a party challenged a sitting President, came very close to
victory, and ultimately lost. In 1976 former California Governor,
former Presidential contender, and the most beloved figure of the
Republican Party - Ronald Reagan - challenged President Gerald Ford
for the nomination, and lost at the convention. In 1980 the heir to
Camelot, the leading liberal light of the Democratic Party, the not
terribly distinguished at the time Senator from Massachusetts - Edward
M. Kennedy - challenged President Jimmy Carter for the nomination, and
lost at the very beginning.

In the game of course it would be unfair to give you Kennedy’s
advantages, at the beginning, and so no matter what you do your
polling numbers will essentially switch with Carter - going from 50-30
to 30-50 … your job is to make that ground back up. The polling
number collapse reflects the historical Carter-Kennedy race which saw
Kennedy’s disastrous entrance coincide with the Iran Hostage Crisis.

So, already, as Kennedy you’re in a tough position. The proportional
allocation rules of the Democratic contest keep you closer, but
virtually every state by December is a Carter state. Your goal, then,
is to win on momentum and delegates. You probably can’t win both Iowa
& New Hampshire so skip Iowa.

It will hurt, yes, but there’s a number of good states after Iowa and
if you can string together a few victories things might pick up. In
1980 it’s especially important to target everywhere - you’re down
everywhere, and so at least hitting the 15% threshold for delegates
in Carter states (mostly the Southern ones) will help while you try
and win by enough in the big states.

Luckily there is no Super Tuesday in 1980 and therefore the big and
important states are spaced out. You must then gradually build to a
peak in each important state while staying over the 15% mark in
Carter states and trying to win, or lose narrowly, the smaller in- between states. It’s not easy, especially because you’ll go broke in
1979 just trying to minimize your polling numbers collapse.

However if you want the toughest non-human challenge President
Forever has on offer … it’s Senator Kennedy against President
Carter, and you will truly need luck to win!

Happy (Delegate) Hunting!