1960: The making of a terrific game!

1960: the making of the president is a game that follows the course of the tightly contested Kennedy-Nixon presidential election. The game covers nine turns of campaigning in states struggling to win support mixed in with battling on issues and gaining media support to achieve victory. Each turn, the players in engage in a variety of actions attempting to lay claim to the most electoral votes in November. The game also highlights the critical Nixon-Kennedy debates by giving this event its own individual turn! As a result, each turn is an agonizing decision to decide how to use your political resources in chasing after that elusive 269 electoral votes!

Playing Time: This is excellent as the game lasts only 90-120 minutes. The pace is quick and the action fast and furious with little rule book checking necessary after the first play or two. This is a game that one could play once or twice in an evening, especially given the short set-up time.

Map: The map is a mounted one (I shall pause here as any wargamers can applaud if they feel the need! ) and very nicely done. The map shows all fifty states and their electoral votes. The regions are color coded and the colors are well chosen as once swift glance at the map easily tells one which region is which. The map also contains spaces for the playing of special event cards, playing of campaign cards, and the game turn track as well.

Game Pieces: The only real game pieces are the wooden blocks used to denoted a support in states or strength in other areas (like the issues and media). The cards show the various events of the 1960 campaign as well as having points for campaign actions and rest.

Rules: The game is a card driven game (CDG) where information on the cards drives ALL the activities of the game. In each turn, the players decide who has the initiative and then alternate playing cards for events or points to be used for campaigning, media, and issue support. Players can place as well as replace support cubes in states as they travel across the country squeezing the flesh and kissing babies in the drive to collect votes! At the end of each turn, players place cards in their campaign areas for two reasons: in the first part of the game, they are building points for the debates the winning of which transform into state support. The second is battling to do support checks in various states on the election day. The players also earn momentum markers and endorsements for each turn depending on how they handle the issues. Momentum markers can be used to block or trigger events while endorsements can give players the edge in hard fought over states when election time rolls around. The players battle back and forth in such a manner for eight turns (including the special debate turn) before resolving election day. In the end, victory is achieved by having the most electoral votes, which will be either 269 or the most votes, depending on what happens with certain Southern States

Things I like about the game:
● Nice rules. The rules are very clear, the rule book is VERY well done and organized. I especially like the players aid on the back cover: that is neatly and efficiently organized!
● The tension! This game is awesome in this respect!!! I have played this now both solitaire and FTF and this ranks high in the tension ranks!
● Choices. Like any well made CDG, there are too many choices and not enough resources, much like real life!
● The cards. I think these are very nicely done. The newspaper effect is a nice touch!
● You (usually) only get to go through the deck once! Off the top of my head, I cannot think of another CDG that does that! And even if you go through more than once, you don’t go very far so you must be very careful when deciding how to play your cards.
● The ability to trigger and block events. Very cool!

Things that can be annoying:
● The luck element. If you get a bunch of cards with events good for you opponent, you will be in for a loooooooong hand
● No dice to throw! I sometimes find myself either twiddling my thumbs or I grab dice for the sole purpose of shaking them while my opponent takes their turn! Actually, I only jest here, but, as a die hard wargamer, this lack of dice IS bit disconcerting.

Overall evaluation: = I’d rather staple my tongue to the wall for a month! = wargamer heaven!

Map= Very well done. Functional, informational, and aesthetically pleasing.
Pieces= The cubes are what they are. The cards are very nice.
Rules= Very well thought out. Excellent presentation and they are easy to grasp. The triggering and support checks are especially nice. I like how the designers portrayed various aspects of the American presidential campaign.
Playing Time: So long as you don’t play with PONDER MAN! The playing time is excellent.
Ease of set up: Only a matter of minutes, especially if you leave the state seal markers off!
Overall: I really like this game. Even though I am a die hard wargamer at heart, I can see playing this game quite often. To me, war is indeed politics by other means, so this political conflict, and the way it is portrayed, catches the flavor of all the political maneuvering and surprises that occur in the course of a presidential campaign. I highly recommend this game to ALL types of gamers (yes, I have played Eurogames, so I can make this statement despite my heavy wargamer credentials); in essence, there is something here for every type of gamer, IMO. Bottom line, brass tacks: The time and money investment you make in 1960: The Making of the President will not disappoint!!!!!

Very nice review ! I rate it

And interesting avatar...

Thanks and thanks.
I think the interesting thing is most people don't know the original meaning of the word realpolitik. The 19th Century version(which is my type) and the 20th Century version are not the same thing!!!!!

if you want that to change, you could make it more convenient by providing links in your profile. i assume this wikipedia entry is a fair starting point.

No, actually it is not. This essence of realpolitik is missing there as well. Perhaps I'll put something somewhere in my profile about it, although I am not sure where to put it so people will see it.

if correct, you'd probably be doing best service to the subject by editing the wikipedia entry yourself. as for your profile, putting it in the main section where you discuss your personal history and such seems like a good location. i think those that take interest in your ubergeekbadge would start by looking there. i don't know if this is a derail or not, since you're the OP and you raised the subject yourself. if it is, my apologies

As is yours.




Great game review. Made me order just now.

*applauds*

One of the few things that bugs me about GMT's CDGs is the lack of a proper board. Even the "Deluxe PoG board" is a bit cruddy.

Not so long I may say, because on top of that bad luck for you, it must be in conjunction with a turn where your opponent has 3+ momentum markers. If he only has 2 such markers, you can play first the 2 events that are not so bad for you hopping he catchs them (in this is like a poker game where you bluff for all of it ), and for the the rest of the turn you are free to go. The only time this happen to me I (as Nixon) had the card that allowed me to discard any number of cards from my hand and draw that same number (I just discarded 6 Kennedy only events!!). If I didn't had that card there where 2 events that I could play first hopping for my adversary to catch them and spend all the momentum markers, before I had to play the really bad ones (for me).

BTW: Great review!!!