Game: Road to the White House

Thread: Re: This would be a great online game.

Jonathan Degann — 2008-10-15T05:20:41+00:00

This won't help you much but...

I agree. Good game. Too much record keeping. Perfect to be computerized.

Thread: Re: A Road Less Traveled

Rikolus — 2008-06-26T21:35:41+00:00

Excellent Review! Very concise and helpful.

And darn it, you convinced this is ANOTHER one that I just gotta have!

Thread: Re: Help, missing basic rules

stephen newberg — 2008-03-07T02:11:00+00:00

After having been working on this since before Xmas, Mayfair seems not to have liked my posting here, or at least it built a fire, as a copy of the missing rules showed up today by first class air mail.

Thanks for the offer, George. Really appreciated, and was about to be taken up.

Best
Stephen

Thread: Re: Help, missing basic rules

The Blue Max — 2008-03-01T05:44:58+00:00

Yes I have it and will see about getting it to you, please e-mail me at bergovoy@yahoo.com

Thread: Help, missing basic rules

stephen newberg — 2008-02-26T01:48:34+00:00

I am getting absolutely no where with Customer Service at Mayfair after a number of emails, so, does anyone have access to a copy of THE ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE? I just need a copy/scan/whatever of the introductory/basic rules sheet, front and back. I think the front is posted here, but it may also be there is another booklet completely, but it is pretty obvious that the regular rules booklet relies on you having and using the basic rules booklet it mentions, but does not repeat.

Any help appreciated.

Best,
Stephen Newberg
newbergwong@shaw.ca

Thread: This would be a great online game.

riledguy — 2007-09-26T20:58:14+00:00

I got a chance to play this game this weekend and though I did terribly I did enjoy it. One thing though is that for a game that can have huge swings in luck I felt it should be a bit shorter. The decisions made and the turns go pretty quick the only thing that really slows this game down is the record keeping and cross referencing. If you could get these down the game would play a lot faster and smoother with less room for error.

This made me realize how perfect this game would work if it were an online game. Either real time of play by post. All the math record keeping and cross referencing would be done for you and all that would be left is the meat and potatoes of the game which in this game is very well done.

I know there are a number of sites online that have games. Anyone here ever work on any of those? How had is it to make a play by post game? Road to the White House would rock as one.

Thread: Re: A Road Less Traveled

hposner — 2007-08-03T01:50:20+00:00

thanks for the review.
I agree it's a grossly underated game, especuially if you go the extra mile and factor in the double and treble values around the primaries.
It is a long game, though, and to use the primaries system you need to print up some charts or tits all too complictaed. It's a shame they didn't include some in the game itself.

Thread: Re: A Road Less Traveled

gabriellaov — 2007-04-16T14:01:31+00:00

Hi, I was trying to find some Political Game, and I found that this one contains the most certains elements of a political campaing. I want to give it to m y husband for our anniversary, since he loves boardgames, and also he is an active politc. But we life in the Dominican Republic and I was wondering if I can build something like this base on our cities and political issues. But I can't find all the elements so I can used them as reference. Can Anyone help me?!?!?! THANKS in advance!

Thread: Re: need help with issues and surrogates

eleran — 2006-09-28T18:29:59+00:00

What type of help do you need? I will be glad to answer anything I can.

Thread: Re: A Road Less Traveled

dkearns — 2006-08-29T12:55:18+00:00

Road to the White House is one of the most stressful games I own. There's so much going on and the ups-and-downs are intense. Under-rated.

Thread: Re: A Road Less Traveled

fastfingers — 2006-08-29T01:06:49+00:00

Nice review.

Thank you.

Thread: A Road Less Traveled

BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-28T00:09:11+00:00

A Road Less Traveled: A Review of Road to the White House

Overview
Road to the White House is a game about politicians fighting to win their party’s nomination for President of the United States. While it is not a perfect simulation, it includes so many elements of a real political campaign that you can learn a little about elections. And it really gives you the feeling of fighting it out for every vote. While some people are inclined to become worked-up about politics, this game is presented in a more light-hearted manner that will hopefully smooth over any such issues. Since all the candidates are presumed to be from the same party, the parties are never mentioned.

A small note- the pictures I included come out really small. But they are all available under the game listing in a larger size if you want to actually refer to them.

Components
The game comes with a board showing the USA with cities marked based on their value in votes (see below) and lines showing possible routes for movement. (NE corner shown)

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Also included are the Rule Book, Candidate and Special Event cards, Candidate Player Aid Sheets, Pads of Score sheets and Candidate Creation sheets (for use with the Advanced rules), pawns for each player and their possible Surrogates (other people that will campaign for you), a small white chip for each issue, and 4 dice (8-sided but showing 1-4 twice).

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Basics
Each player takes the role of an individual politician. In the basic version of the game the players use the pre-made politicians. There is a very wide selection available, and they portray a wide range of prototypical politicians. Many of the names are puns, including such politicians as Senator Red Knech, Congressmen Tre Hugger, Anne Serious, and General Rollie South.
Each politician has a card and a player aid sheet that gives their various characteristics. Each one has a Home State, a Charisma rating (0-3, very important), starting money(also important), Surrogates, ratings in a range of positions, and any special bonuses or effects.

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Aside from Charisma and money, the heart of a candidate is his position on the issues. There are a huge list of positions, many of which have two sides (Pro or Anti). For instance, a candidate might be in favor of Foreign Aid, or against. Each position is rated from +1 to +6 (the higher the number, the more important the issue is to the candidate and the more they are known for this position). The positions that have two sides are: Abortion, Banks, Blacks, Business, Catholics, Defense, Drugs, Ethnics, Environment, Foreign Aid, Gay Rights, Gun Control, Medicine (socialized), Hispanics, International Conflicts, Jews, Labor, Oceans, Oil Companies, Trade, Tyrants, Welfare Rights, and Women’s Rights. Other issues have no anti- side, such as Aging, Agribusiness, Aid to Cities, Balanced Budget, Civil Rights, Consumerism, Clean Government, Crime Fighting, Family Preservation, Farms, Higher Minimum Wage, Highways, Housing, Jobs, Public Transportation, Space Program, States’ Rights, and Tax Cut.
Positions matter in two ways: Random Events (see below) and Active Issues. There are 25 Issues, and each one encompasses one or more positions. For instance, the Environment issue includes the positions Protect (pro) and Exploit (anti) Oceans, Preserve (pro) and Exploit (anti) Environment, Pro- and Anti-Oil Companies, and Agribusiness.

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There is a limit to the number of Issues that can be active at once. One in a two player game, 2 for 3-4 players, and three for 5-6 players. Active issues have the follow effects. While the issue is active politicians that hold a relevant position can get bonuses in certain states. Once again, with the Environment issue, politicians with Protect Oceans get their rating in votes automatically in Washington State when Environment becomes active (but only the first time), get a bonus equal to their rating in votes if they visit in New Jersey, get a bonus equal to their rating in votes once in California, get a bonus of 1 vote for each stop in Oregon, and get a bonus of 1 the first time they stop in Maine. These bonuses are available as long as Environment remains one of the current issues.
Another possible benefit of issues are gifts of money or surrogates from organizations that may back the candidate based on their positions. For instance with Environment the League of Conservation Voters will award $12 and a Surrogate for (4 d4) number of turns. Each player rolls a (d4) die and (in this case) adds their position values in Protect Oceans and Preserve Environment. Any politician that has Exploit Oceans or Exploit Environment is not allowed to roll. It is easily possible that one candidate might automatically win their support if their ratings are large enough. Of course, if everyone is close or no one has really staked out a position in this area then the dice will really determine who gets the prize. All of the endorsements and Automatic bonuses only occur the first time the issue becomes active.
The third effect Issues and positions have is in Debates (see below).
Since there are so many possible effects from various issues (where a candidate might have several positions), the game comes with Candidate Aid Sheet that combine all the effects and list them under the issue name on the sheet.

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How does an issue become active, you ask? Well they come up from Random Events and through the Candidates raising them themselves. At the start of the game there are no active issues. Each player can raise an issue once (for $1), and revive an old issue once as well (for $2). They can only do this when there are less than 2 active issues. So at the start of the game there is an opportunity to raise new issues. Players get the chance in the order of highest Charisma. Ties are broken by rolling the dice. Since there are limited open issue spots the lower Charisma candidates are often hampered by this.
Each Issue lasts for 2d4 turns. If they are not replaced by Random Events (which usually happens in my experience), someone gets a chance to revive an old issue or bring up a new one (once again in order of Charisma).

Turns
Road to the White House lasts for 20 turns, which represent weeks in the Primary season. At the beginning the player with the highest Charisma decides who goes first (ties are broken with die rolls). It is advantageous to go last in my opinion, since you can react to the actions of the other players.
At the beginning of a player’s turn, they can buy Surrogates ($2 per turn), which gets you an extra pawn to use to get votes or raise funds. Surrogates purchased in this way begin the in Candidates Home state. They can also buy airplane tickets for their candidate and/or surrogates ($1 each).
Then the player decides whether he wants to raise funds. Each piece could raise money, but only is a major city (5 or more). If the candidate raises money, he gets 2d4$. Each Surrogate that raises money earns d4$.
Each remaining piece, Candidate or Surrogate, that didn’t raise money gets to move and gain votes. The player rolls a d4 for each moving piece. After seeing the result of the roll, the player decides which die to use for moving which piece. On a roll of 1, 2, or 3, the piece moves along the colored lines from its current location to a neighboring city. A 1 can move along a red line, a 2 can move along a red or yellow line, a 3 can move along a red, yellow, or blue line (the longest). (See the Map pictured above).
When a candidate moves, he can get a bonus for his Charisma. If the number on the die the Candidate uses for movement is equal or less than his Charisma, then they earn bonus votes equal to the die used in votes. So if a Candidate with a 2 Charisma uses a 2 to move, he gets 2 extra votes, and if he uses a 1 he gets 1 extra vote.
Each 4 gives an airline flight (in addition to any purchased before rolling), which allows the piece to move from any major city (5 or more in size) to any other major city. No Charisma bonus is earned for an airline flight.
When a piece arrives in a City, the player earns votes in the state where the city is equal to the city’s value, plus any bonuses earned for Charisma or issues. One advantage of Surrogates gained from Issue cards is that they share the Candidate’s position bonuses for the issue(s) they were earned with, if any. Some cities are split between two states. In this case the larger value is gained, but the player can allocate an amount up to the lower value to the other state. They can only gain bonuses in one state or the other, not each.
Players are required to announce the number of votes gained, but the other players are forbidden from recording that information (though they are allowed to try to remember it of course). Players record thier own vote totals on the sheet provided.

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Anytime a player’s piece (Candidate or Surrogate) ends their movement in a city with another player’s piece, there can be a debate. Either player can call for a debate. If one side refuses, then they lose half the value of the city in votes. If the debate is held, each player rolls 2d4. Candidates and Issue Surrogates get to add the level of any position(s) listed on an active Issue. So if Environment is an active issue, a Candidate adds the position levels of all the positions for that issue. One Candidate might get +3 for Protect Oceans, while the other one could get +4 for Exploit Oceans. So each Candidate rolls and adds all their bonuses. The higher total gains votes equal to the difference between the results, and the loser loses half that much as well. Clearly Candidates with active issue positions love to get in debates with Surrogates and Candidates that do not.

In addition to moving, each 1 that is rolled on the movement dice result in a Random Event (which are resolved before movement).

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There are three main types of Random Event cards. Endorsement cards give benefits like those gained from Issues. There is usually a competition between candidates based on positions, and the winner gains votes, surrogates, and/or money.
The second kind of event is a News card. This represents some kind of International event that makes candidates with certain positions look good or bad. Typically this makes each candidate gain or lose votes in the state they are equal to their position level times 3 or 5, plus gain or lose votes in each adjacent state equal to their position level times 1 or 2.
The third type are the Issue Event Cards. These make the Issue listed on the card into an Active issue, which knocks off the issue with the least time left to run. Since these are relative frequent, it is possible for new issues to keep coming up and preventing there being an opening for a Candidate to raise an issue, further hampering low Charisma Candidates from raising the issues they care about.

Finally, money is indeed the mother’s milk of politics. In addition to buying Surrogates and Airline flights, money can be used for other things. One is polling. For $1, the player can “poll” 100 Electoral Votes worth of states. When they poll a state, each other player announces how many votes they have earned in that state. The poll-er has to announce as well, but they are allowed to fudge their votes by plus or minus 30 votes. Especially at the end of the game, there tends to be quite a few polls as players try to figure out where they can tip the scales.
Another use of money is for advertising. A player can spend up to $5 a turn on advertising. Each $1 gets a player two votes in a selected state. Often this a much more cost effective way of “visiting” smaller and more distant states.
But probably the greatest use of money is buying an election organization in a state. Each player can build organizations in as many states as they can afford, and some Candidates start the game with them in certain states. The basic level is a 2x organization. This costs 1/5 of the Electoral Value of the state in $. What this does is doubles the value of any positive number of votes the player earns in that state. Additional levels can be bought for the same price and adds an additional .5 bonus (2x, then 2.5x, then 3x etc.). Players can also earn a free organization by visiting a state (only by coming from another state) 5 times.

Endgame
After the last turn, the results of the election are determined. Going state by state, each player announces how many votes they have in that state. The player with the most votes gains that state’s Electoral votes. At the end of the round when all the states have been examined, the player with the lowest total is eliminated. Then that player’s controlled states are re-examined, and the remaining player with the most votes in that state now gains control of it. This continues until one player has a majority of the Electoral Votes (not just a plurality). In the first round ties are broken by rolling dice, but in later rounds ties are resolved in the favor of the player that has a higher total in the previous round. Since there are often a reasonable number of states that no one visits, this can become very important.

Things Left Out
I haven’t even touched on some other, minor aspects of the game; including dirty tricks, Candidate creation, and spin doctors. Rules are also included for a more realistic system for using the dates Primaries take place chronologically, and setting up a general election campaign.

Gameplay & Strategy
Playing Road to the White House presents the player with dilemmas each turn. Where should he commit his resources, especially his Candidate? Should he raise money or earn votes? Poll now or wait? All vote totals are relative, since it only matters if you have more than the next player to gain control of a state. So players have to watch what the other players are doing, protecting “their” turf while attacking in the states where they think they can take control. Also, since vote totals are secret things can get even murkier. As the end of the game nears, it is also important to get an idea of which player(s) are likely to go out first, and maybe move into at least second in those states? Not to mention that the states are not equal at all. California is huge of course, but New York, Texas and Florida are worth a lot, as are many Midwest states. Different Candidates have different strength, so every game is different. If one player is a senator from Texas, they are likely to start with a big lead there. Other players might not “waste” the effort to contest that state, which means that player has earned a lot of Electoral Votes with minimal effort. On the other hand, if two (or more) players get in an endless war over California, then a third player can clean up elsewhere.
As an example, take the VP Candidate pictured above. While he doesn’t look that great on the surface, he can be surprisingly powerful. Since he starts with 3 votes in each state, if he is not eliminated in the first round of balloting, he can usually sweep up a lot of the states that the loser in the first round may have taken an otherwise uncontested lead in. He also tends to do very well in all in smaller states where players don’t pay much attention. Given how many of them there are they tend to add up to a lot of votes overall.
Some Candidates are rich in money, others in issues or starting organizations. “Businessmen” double the value of any money they earn from Issues and Events. High Charisma can also be extremely useful –extra votes, raising your issues, and going last are all helpful.

Conclusions
Road to the White House is not that highly rated on BGG, and I think that this is unfortunate since it probably causes some people to miss out on a great game. It definitely is longer than a lot of Euros. I also place it as a Medium weight game, a little heavier than Puerto Rico and Settlers, but not as heavy as a real old fashioned Avalon Hill rules-fest (I happen to like rules-fests so I don’t mean that badly). Nevertheless Road to the White House is a rich game that rewards a group willing to make an investment in it.
The thrill of your issue coming up lending you a key endorsement, biting your nails as you ponder going to Pennsylvania or New York for the final time, groaning as you discover someone has 3 more votes than you in Maryland, picking up a key state in the second round of balloting, it all is waiting for you in Road to the White House!

You Like it If You:
- Are a political junkie
- Like something a little longer where you can build your strategy over time
- Like games where you have nearly complete freedom of action (you pick what you do and what strategy you’ll follow).
- Like games with secret (or semi-secret) information
- Like games that are different each time with no “winning” strategy.
- Like a moderate amount of confrontation. You can’t directly effect another player, but since votes are relative you can challenge them by threatening to pass them in a particular state.

You Won’t Like It If You:
- Hating reading more than 4 pages of rules (the basic game works out to about 6-8 pages).
- Want a game that will be over in 2 hours or less.
- Keeping track of a lot of little details and really working over a game.

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-27T01:56:59+00:00

Candidate Player Aid Sheet for the Vice President Character (both sides)

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-27T00:52:19+00:00

Candidate Card for the Vice President Character (both sides)

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-26T20:39:08+00:00

First Things (front) - Quick Game Summary

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-26T17:29:47+00:00

Issue Cards (back)

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-26T17:24:53+00:00

Exterior Box Side

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-26T17:10:12+00:00

Issue Cards (front)

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-26T17:08:21+00:00

Various Kinds of Event Cards

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-26T17:08:14+00:00

Player Vote Tally Sheet

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-26T17:07:59+00:00

Exterior Box Side

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BobDodgerBlue — 2006-08-26T16:49:38+00:00

Candidate Creation Sheet

Thread: Game improved by elimination of this rule?

ellephai — 2005-12-17T06:36:30+00:00

This game has a sort of "starter version" that you can play first to get familiar with the game, rather than trying to attack the full complexity of it at once. We started on the starter version, and only when we moved to the full game did we realize we had misinterpreted a rule. We didn't like the rule, and have now eliminated it by house fiat.
In starter mode, we found one of the toughest things was keeping up with how many votes everyone had in each state, and we tried to think of easier ways to do this. When we turned to the full game, we were horrified to find that one of the things you can spend money on is a maneuver (I think it's "polling") that allows you to find out partial information about how many votes the other candidates have. This of course made us realize that vote totals were supposed to be secret. Whoops.
Upon reflection, though, our feeling was that vote totals are not really secret, and can't be, because every time an opponent gains some votes, they do so in open play and everyone knows about it. So it's just rewarding whoever has a better memory, a better recordkeeping system, takes quicker notes, or is more willing to go through the tedium of keeping up with it all. Some may feel that being able to remember what's happened is a legitimate game strength and should give an advantage. But we feel the game is supposed to be about strategy, not the equivalent of card counting. So we've axed the secrecy aspect. And a step further: we created a "tote board" that shows everyone's vote totals at all times. (It's an Excel spreadsheet running on a laptop that we sit on the table where everyone can see it.) We liked the tote board so much that now we pretty much just keep the vote totals there, instead of individually, which has eliminated a lot of fiddly individual record keeping, helping to move a long, slow game along a bit faster.

Thread: need help with issues and surrogates

mizjones — 2005-07-16T21:45:22+00:00

what would really help us is step by step description of how to handle issues and more clarification about the different types of surrogates.

thanks all.

Thread: Preview

Jonathan Degann — 2000-07-09T18:09:36+00:00

It's so hard to play this game. It takes 4+ hours, requires a ton of record keeping, and the rules are just long enough to discourage people. But I highly admire the system and its work at simulating many of the details of an interesting contest. In other words, it's an American style game of the sort that is becoming outdated. So I use the availability of a con, the fact that it's an election year, and the willingness of my friend Tim Oates, who likes the game, to find the excuse to put it on the table.

I kinda wish I hadn't.

The essence of the game is that you are moving from one to four pawns around the country, landing in cities, and scoring "votes" in the appropriate state which are proportional to the size of the city. Each turn, you move and add votes to the states you land in. But there are twenty freaking turns and potentially fifty states to visit. You soon see why KH Schmiel only included 7 regions per game in Die Macher (still, a solid four hours), sacrificing realism for SOME playability.

There are many complications - all tastily simulated, but all hurting playability. You can sit out a turn and collect money. With money, you can buy "organization" in a state, acting as a multiplier to all subsequent votes you get in that state. You can buy "advertising" - most useful in buying votes in piddly states that you're too busy to visit. You can buy "surrogates" which are additional pawns who may travel, garnering votes, just like your candidate. You can buy "special flights" that help you get to places without the luck of the dice. We didn't even play with "dirty tricks".

The most characteristic part of the game comes in the "issues". Each player picks a politician with his own profile on how he stands on various issues. Then either through choice or chance cards, issues become "active". As long as the issue is active, politicians with a relevant stand will have bonuses or penalties when he visits certain states. (IMPORTANT NOTE: Anyone playing this game MUST photocopy the summary effects included in the special book, and give each player a card showing his own effects summary. Cross referencing the states listed on the issue card with the candidate's position is incredibly unwieldy.) Additional effects - lots of fun - of an issue being raised can bring a candidate a s*load of money, additional votes, or a free surrogate. I was ironically proud that my mildly racist candidate (there are much worse ones in the deck) was able to win a KKK surrogate in the south when the "Civil Rights" issue came up. One nice thing about this game - it strongly encourages role playing, but watch your mouth when other people at the convention, not in the game, might hear you shout "Elect me, and I promise to send every wetback in California packing his bags."

The climax of the game comes at the end, as you go down each state to see who has the most votes, thereby winning that state's delegates. There is a smart balloting system, in which the lowest scoring player drops out, giving his states' votes to the next strongest in each state. This continues, with players dropping out in each successive ballot until a winner is chosen.

Our winner, a convention pickup named Steve, made aggressive use of fundraising, frequently keeping his candidate back to raise money, and then using that money to build organization multipliers, typically in mid-sized states. I had the incredible misfortune of frequently missing several important states such as Texas and New Jersey by a single vote or two, and ended up being the first to drop out.

The game took us five hours and even then we had agreed to halt the game after four out of the five weeks. I was getting very ornery. The game just doesn't warrant the time, and there was too much downtime between turns, with people leaving the table. Still, I can't help but think that greater familiarity with the game, and better between-turn planning would have made this a manageable three hours. Steve, an otherwise smart and nice guy, had the absolutely infuriating habit of waiting until his turn, and then asking to check something in the rules! For cryin' out loud, what were you waiting for?

I just love the theming and the basic concept, but this game drags. So close, yet so far. I'd really like to see a more Germanic approach to the subject, but I also think that an American election game which doesn't involve all fifty states is missing the mark. Possibly, a simpler system could be created which focuses on the larger states, and handles the ones with less than ten delegates in a more abstract manner.

Rating: 4.