Election 2012: Romney vs. Obama

After four tumultuous years, President Barack Obama announced he was running for re-election. His challenger, Mitt Romney, survived an at-times brutal primary season to emerge the victor. Can you run a campaign to lead your candidate to victory? Each player starts the game with a set number of cards: several common cards that represent issues (such as Economic Growth or Immigration), demographics (such as Hispanics or Single Women) or regions (such as the Midwest or the Northeast). Each candidate also has many candidate specific cards with special abilities. Each player secretly forms an "Agenda" with these cards. Each player then also places Campaign Tokens--representing the efforts and money they put into campaigning--on each of these Agenda cards (or on random events that want to "spin" their way"). These Agendas and tokens are revealed simultaneously and resolved. Players earn support in each "Swing State" (the game starts with 16 swing states, although more can be added as the game progresses) by "winning" these issues, demographics, or special abilities. Players battle these states until election day, when the electoral votes are awarded and a victor is determined. Other campaign tactics--such as selecting a Vice President, gaining grassroots support, and using advertising to change a region's major concern about issues--also come into play. This is a print and play game. Print and play instructions are included in the files section.