While there are many, many games I enjoy playing, there are only a very few which hold a special place in my heart. Acquire does; it was my first introduction to the world of Avalon Hill games. Civilization does; I've spent many nights and mornings playing it, and I still enjoy it nearly as much as any other game out there. And last but certainly not least, there's Mr. President.
Mr. President, one of the classic 3M bookcase games that Avalon Hill dropped when they took over 3M's game line, is certainly a straight forward game. Its a game for two or four players, where the objective is to win the presidency by gaining a majority of the electoral votes. Electoral votes are won by campaigning in each of the fifty states, plus the District of Columbia - whoever campaigns more wins, with a built-in edge to either the Republicans or Democrats breaking ties.
From simple beginnings, though, can come tough and often crucial decisions. The US is divided into four sections for campaigning: East, South, Midwest, and West, with 12-14 states in each area. Campaigning is done using two decks of cards, one for presidential and one for vice presidential campaigning, which are combined for the two person game. Each card, with two exceptions, can be used for campaigning in just one of four different states, with varying levels of effect - a single card can be used to garner between 1 million and 20 million votes. The two exceptions are the home state cards, one each for the president and vice president, which can only be played in the home state of the respective candidate.
Each turn, the player looks at her hand, containing between 6 and 10 cards depending upon her candidate's campaign rating, and chooses where to campaign during that turn. She then rolls two die, determining the two, three, or four states where her candidate may campaign during that turn. Each state has a number between 1 and 12 (in a few cases, two states share the same number); the player may campaign in the state indicated on each die, plus the state indicated by the total of the dice. If the player has no cards for any of the states, she has "blundered" and must place the top card from her unplayed deck into the undecided voter stack. She may then go the the home state of their candidate (either candidate, in the two person game). While there, she may play any cards for that state, but must also draw an event card. The event cards contain a mix of positive and negative events, such as missed turns and press endorsements.
The difficulty, of course, is in choosing what section of the country to campaign in. Each card can only be played once; since most cards that provide significant votes in one location provide significant votes in three or four locations, it's often a quite difficult choice. For instance, securing New York often requires giving up California and convincing your opponent(s) that you're still serious about the state.
Of course, simple campaigning isn't the only choice - particularly when using the advanced rules, which I'd strongly recommend. In addition to campaign strength, each candidate has ratings for financial support, press support, fund raising ability, and advertising ability, plus between two and five issues they're affiliated with. Each rating is tied to an additional vote-garnering option.
The simplest of these options is to simply go home. This can be done whenever a 7, 11, or doubles is rolled. This is similar to blundering, but doesn't cost a campaign card. This is also where press support comes into play - should a press endorsement be drawn, press support determines in what part of the country the campaign cards received can be played.
Nearly as simple, and easier to do, is fund raising - a player must simply declare before their turn that he wishes to do fund raising. He then determines not where he'll campaign, but instead where he'll raise funds, and finally determines the amount of money raised - up to $5 million.
The reason for fund raising is, of course, advertising. Whenever a player rolls a 7 or doubles, she may advertise, using the financial support of her candidate(s) combined with and funds raised. She then advertises by taking a number of cards from the undecided voter stack equal to her candidate's advertising rating, and casting them in the region she had initially chosen. The cost of advertising varies by state, but must only be paid once for as many cards as can be played there. After that, however, no further advertising may be done in that state.
The final option for a player who rolls a 7 or 11 is debating. Debates are with the opposing candidate running for the same office, and are completed by risking one to four campaign cards, one per region, and attempting to roll one of a specific list of numbers. The more issues a candidate is affiliated with, the easier it is to do so; also, if you are affiliated with the issue being debated, as chosen by the challenger, you get an extra roll. If someone wins the debate, they are allowed to play all the campaign cards; in the case of a tie, each player casts the cards they risked.
Each state may be campaigned in a limited number of times, from two through five, depending upon the size of the state. In certain cases, such as debates, though, recording of votes on the tally board is optional, allowing for additional campaigning.
"OK," I can hear you say, "why not just campaign in only the big states? Why waste a card in Hawaii if it can be used in Florida?"
Well, you see, there's a very interesting little endgame feature. Once one player is out of cards, the other player(s) have one turn to play as many addition cards as they can. Then all remaining cards are added to the undecided voter stack, along with twelve initial cards (three from each deck, chosen randomly) and those added during the game. Each party, whether represented by one player, or two, then adds up the number of states they campaigned in. Whichever party campaigned in more states then gets a number of undecided voter card equal to the difference; all remaining undecided voter cards are divided equally among the parties. These cards are then freely, but still secretly, played. Finally, the votes are tallied up, the electoral votes awarded, and a winner determined.
The greatest strength of Mr. President is undoubtedly the internal balancing. The quest to tie up the big states is balanced by the need for a wide campaign. The candidates themselves are well balanced; candidates with particularly strong campaigning ability are nearly always weak in other areas, almost exclusively displaying poor debating skills.
As an aside, while I've generally played using the advanced nomination rule, where you get your choice from seven candidates, an interesting variation might be to simply deal out the candidates while still using the other advanced rules. This would then require players to explore alternate strategies. With a choice of candidates, fund raising becomes a lost art, as a strong campaigning ability (usually the first thing looked for) negates the need for heavy advertising, and thus the need for fund raising.
Mr. President is certainly not without its weaknesses. It's out of date, as a result of which I'm somewhat surprised at election time when they show Florida with more than 17 electoral votes. Luck can play too large a factor, too - particularly with press endorsements. With four players, it's not the most engaging game, as both of the players on a team have the same goal; at some points, the second player on the team becomes truly superfluous. Finally, it's politically incorrect, which will undoubtedly bother some potential players.
But it can be played in an hour, is almost always close, and is one of the few two player non-abstract, non-wargames I can recommend. Its also a game my wife, who's a non-gamer, will willingly play. I'll admit, for me part of the joy of playing comes from nostalgia; I first played the game as a teenager when a friend and I were looking for new games, and went through his parent's collection. Since then, I've played it as many times as any game,and it's still enjoyable.
It's also a game that's not likely to be revived anytime soon, and thus one you have to keep an eye out for. Avalon Hill has never, to the best of my knowledge, produced the game. It's easy to understand why - releasing the game again would require a fair amount of effort to re-balance the campaign cards to match the current electoral vote totals, and to re-evaluate the built-in edges. Fortunately, while Mr. President is not the easiest game to track down, it's not the most difficult or expensive either.