Election

This U.S. election game is played with two decks of cards. The Rollcall deck, backed with stars on blue, contains a card for each state, showing an outline of the state, the cost of campaigning for the state, the number of electoral votes it provides, and one of eight symbols representing different power blocs. The Campaign Deck, with red and white striped backs, consists of five types of cards used to capture states: Campaign contributions (money), Splinter Party, Favorite Sun, Endorsement and Party in Power. The state card deck is shuffled, and the first six states are laid on the table. Each player receives a hand of seven Campaign cards. On each turn, he uses his hand to take states either from the table or from other players. Once he has made as many moves as he desires and can afford, he ends his turn by drawing two more Campaign cards from the deck. States on the table can be obtained by discarding campaign contributions greater than or equal to the campaign cost of the state. No change is provided. States can be taken from other players by using the other cards. Using Endorsement, a player must pay 1.5 times the normal cost to take a state from another player; using Favorite Son, he pays only the normal cost; and using Splinter Party, he pays only half the normal cost. The most powerful card is the Party in Power, which allows the taking of one state from each opponent for half their normal costs - but the player must take and pay for a state from each player. The final element to strategy is the assembly of power blocs. When a player manages to assemble three or more states with the same symbol, he pays $1M per state and places them in front of him as a group. After that, only the top card is vulnerable to attack, and the attacker must pay double the normal cost. Once the last state has been taken, electoral college votes are tallied and the player with the most votes wins.