Campaign Manager 2008: The Review

Jason Matthews and Christian Leonhard, designers of the 1960: The Making of the President boardgame, have just released Campaign Manager 2008 (through Z-Man Games).

Besides being about politics and having a bit of an area control idea, Campaign Manager doesn't have a whole lot in common with the earlier game. It sacrifices depth for speed: where 1960 might take 90 minutes to 2 hours to complete, Campaign Manager will probably finish in 30 minutes once the players are familiar with the rules. 1960, even though vastly simplified from Matthews' earlier award-winning Cold War CDG Twilight Struggle (designed with Ananda Gupta), still shows some American war game roots through the tight historical basis of its cards and the "chrome" of its debate sequence and endorsement rules. In contrast, Campaign Manager is more of a euro-style game, whose theme happens to be politics. Superficially, it reminded me a bit of Reiner Knizia's Battle Line, which hides its gin rummy roots behind a ancient battles theme.

The central conceit of Campaign Manager 2008 is contained in the title. In the weeks before the election, the contest has narrowed to 20 battleground states which each candidate must win to push his total past 270 electoral votes. The states, represented by nice thick placards, contain information on its number of electoral votes, the two dominant demographics in the states--for example, Clinton Democrats versus Jewish Conservatives--and where the state stands in connection to the two issues the candidates will fight over, the economy and defense. As states are won (rather than election day itself, think of a campaign reaching the point where it concedes the state and pulls its workers and advertising out) and new states come into play, you have to decide where you will place your resources. Each state begins with Red, Blue, and Undecided voters on each of the two issues. The campaigns are working to gain all the voters on the dominant side of an issue. If the dominant issue in a state is defense, for example, once one of the campaigns is able to shift all the voters concerned with that issue to his side, the state falls in his column.

Broadly speaking, the rules are simple enough. The Obama and McCain players each have separate decks of 45 cards each. They each have 10 of the 20 battleground states apiece. The game begins with the players going through their decks, pulling three cards and keeping one, to create a smaller deck of 15 cards they will cycle through over and over again. The cards obviously have different effects so you can try and fashion the deck according to your style of play or how you think the game tends to go. For example, the McCain deck has a card titled "Back To Baghdad," which allows him to gain support in the Defense issue in a single state and then draw another card. A first play or even a quick thumb through the card set makes clear that defense is McCain's dominant issue. But you have to balance your deck so that you aren't totally devoid of choices on the economy side. And vice versa for the Obama player. Once the game begins, each player's choice is to draw a card (you have a beginning hand of three) or play a card. There are 4 states on the board at any one time. When states are won, the winning player gets to decide which of his 10 states to bring out next. There is also a chaos-causing "Breaking News" mechanic that occurs when the new state comes in: you flip over a card with a cute little "ZNN" logo and implement its effect, usually in the just played state. For example, the Obama player could have happily just won New Mexico and decided to put Pennsylvania out as the new state, flip over the ZNN and bark out a curse as "Reverend Wright Resurfaces" causes all undecided voters in the new state to become Red Voters.

So there are a few more twists and turns in the rules, but that's honestly pretty much it. Since you only have the 15 cards in your deck, once you get going--unless you suffer badly from analysis paralysis--the choices should be made pretty quickly, again making for a 30 minute playtime. Another potential roadblock to speedy enjoyment is the player who can't see a picture, say of Sarah Palin or a mention of Afghanistan without treating you to a 30-minute dissertation of their view on the subject--if you're playing with that guy, add two hours to the playtime. Although I think I enjoy Campaign Manager 2008 more than 1960, Mr. or Ms. NPR is less likely to eyerollingly hold forth on Quemoy and Matsu, which is certainly a point for the earlier game.