(Board Game) Mr. President: The American Presidency 2000 - 2020

[MrPotatoTed]

Hi all, this will be my official playthrough thread for the insanely detailed President board game I first mentioned here.  The boardgame is available for purchase here.  Online versions are available for free on Vassal and Tabletop Simulator...but they require the booklets and charts that come with the boardgame, so it isn't possible to play without it. 

My boardgame will be arriving tomorrow, but I've found enough information online to understand what the opening moves are up until Russia or China act (at which point I need the booklets that are only available in the boardgame box).  So I'll get things started on Vassal until they arrive tomorrow.

We are the newly elected, unnamed President, taking office sometime in the modern era.  (There are a variety of scenarios: 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020.  There's also a sandbox for an unspecified year, which is what we'll play for this first game.  "Easy" difficulty is strongly recommended for the first few playthroughs, but I'm jumping into the "normal" difficulty.)

I draw two random, positive traits for my President.  I draw Efficient (+4 Action Points per turn) and "An Ally's Best Friend" (+1 to one ally's relationship per turn).  We can use action points for a variety of things -- we have a set number that we can use once per turn (year).  Some actions require action points.  We can also use them to re-roll dice under certain circumstances, take extra actions, etc.  They don't carry over, so we want to make sure we spend them all every year.  Think of them as political capital.

Allies are Canada, UK, NATO, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Israel, and Saudi Arabia/Gulf States.  Our relationship with each ally can be estranged, close, or very close.  The higher our relationship, the more effectively we can partner with them to help achieve our global objectives.  They also act independently at times, however, and certain allies such as Israel, South Korea, and India are especially likely to stir up shit that can spin out of control for us.  

I choose a random Vice President.  I randomly select Bill Hansen as my Vice President.  Bill has a skill level that would help with war rolls...but that is outside the scope of the Vice President, so I am cursed to have a useless VP.  He'll still be allowed to make attempts at domestic and diplomatic actions, but he gets no bonuses at anything that he can actually touch as a VP.  

I select a Chief of Staff.  In addition to VP, there are three key cabinet positions:  Chief of Staff (domestic), Secretary of State (diplomacy), and Secretary of Defense (war).  For each of these, I draw three random politicians and choose one to keep.  For Chief of Staff, I randomly draw Eric Massey, Kelly Borgeson, and Allen Box.  Massey and Borgeson both give me -1 on domestic rolls (that's good -- you generally want low numbers on everything, so "-1" is actually a bonus).  Box gives me a bonus action every turn, which is also good...but I think I'd rather have the roll boost.  Massey and Borgeson are identical for this purpose, so I choose Kelly Borgeson in the spirit of having the first female Chief of Staff in US history.  The other two politicians get shuffled back in, possibly to be drawn later.

I select a Secretary of State.  I draw Andy Lewis, John Long, and Rick Campbell.  Ugh.  None of them offer any help at all on diplomatic rolls, which means they're likely bad options for a Secretary of State -- but we have to choose one.  Lewis is useless across the board, but both Long and Campbell offer +1 Bonus Action per turn.  I choose John Long as Secretary of State.  The rest get shuffled back in.

I select a Secretary of Defense.  I draw Raoul Sanchez, Barry Wallace, and Henry Hanes.  Hanes is of no help at all in this role, but both Sanchez and Wallace offer -1 for war rolls.  I select Raoul Sanchez as my Secretary of Defense.  The rest get shuffled back in.

Those are all my named cabinet members (the rest are referenced collectively by just a general 'cabinet effectiveness' meter.  But I also get to draw a card from the White House Resource deck, indicating one other area where my administration shines.  I draw "Outstanding Homeland Security Chief."  He will allow me to remove one terror group from the US per turn, and will also let me raise my homeland security level at several points throughout the game.  

Overall, not a great cabinet, but not terrible either.  My Vice President is useless and my Secretary of State isn't great, but I've seen worse.  Diplomacy is going to be a challenge, but at least our Secretary of State gets double the actions per turn so he can keep trying even though he isn't a natural in the area, and the President is good at keeping our friends close with his special skill of being able to boost our alliances.

I randomly draw the top five public legislation priorities and one campaign promise: From most important to least, the public demands legislation action on "lingering domestic issue," "Privacy legislation," "Gun legislation," "Expand NASA funding," and "Social Security."  In addition to these areas I'll be judged on, I also ran on a campaign promise to address "Healthcare reform."

I set my personal legislation priorities.  There's a chart that indicates what bonuses each legislative proposal can get you if it passes, but I won't have that until tomorrow.  So for my top three priorities, I'll follow the public's lead: "Lingering Domestic Issue," "Privacy Legislation," and "Gun Legislation."

You'll note the topics are all pretty generic and non-partisan in their descriptions.  This is intentional.  Also, every bill has an opponent version.  So my party wants to pass "Privacy Legislation," but my opposition party wants to pass "Opponent Privacy Legislation."  

There are also separate "Landmark Legislation" bills on a variety of topics, ranging from a balanced budget to Space Colonization.  Those can generate some big-time legacy points, but aren't included as potential priorities in this stage.

Now I randomly draw Congressional Friends and enemies.  My friends include Barry Gibson and Sara Riley.  They're both radicals (as opposed to moderates), which I think is going to be a problem.  But they both are excellent at media spin and have a higher combined legislation score than my enemies, Charles Gates and Alan Coleman.  I should be slightly more likely to pass laws and much more likely to spin whatever happens in Congress in my favor, thanks to my friends being more powerful/skilled than my enemies.  But my friends' radicalization means that I'll have trouble reaching bipartisanship.

Finally, I draw 3 Cascading Crises Cards to indicate the mess the previous President left for my plate.  Cascading events usually start bad -- but have the potential to get even worse as the game goes on, requiring your ongoing efforts, attention, and resources to mitigate them.

1) "China expands testing of anti-satellite weapons."  Uh-oh.   This causes regional tension in the Asia/Pacific region to increase +1.  Relations between the US and China begin trending downward.  Tension markers are placed on China, Japan, India, South Korea, and Australia.  

If regional tension gets too high in a given region, a regional crisis can break out, with devastating consequences.  We're only about half way there right now in the Asia/Pacific region...but all those individual nation tension markers can be bad news too.  Too much tension can make our enemies and even our allies become overly aggressive and take bigger risks with more devastating consequences.  We need to mitigate that tension to the best of our ability.  Good thing we have a Secretary of State who *checks notes* sucks at diplomacy.  Ugh.

The nature of a cascading event card means that not only can it happen again later in the game, but also that each time it does, the effects tend to be even more devastating than the previous time -- unless we find a way to mitigate it.  In this particular instance, mitigation means making sure our space warfare abilities are higher than China's.  China was already beating us on this front even before the event card was played though, so we have our work cut out for us.  We need to beat China in the space war race -- either by boosting our capabilities or by sabotaging theirs somehow.

2)  "Iran Defies IAEA; Imports Nuke Components from Russia."  The Iran nuclear development tracker advances to "Miniature/Mating Warheads."  Tension increases for Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia/Gulf States.  Regional tension increases as well to the maximum level, creating a regional crisis.  I roll on the regional crisis chart for the Middle East.  I roll a 1 on a D10, which is great news because low numbers are always better for rolls.  Add +1 for low stability in the region.  -1 for each "very close" ally (Israel), +1 for each civil war in the region (Syria, I guess?  There's a civil war marker in the middle east, unspecified which nation is fighting it).  So my end result is 2, which is still low thankfully.  Regional alignment (which was already really low) falls further away from being aligned with the US, making it even harder for us to influence this region.  Great.  Perfect timing, as Iran and Israel tension is increasing and if Iran has nuclear weapons when they go to war, that's an automatic game over situation.  Add it to the list of things we need to mitigate: we need to decrease the tensions between Iran and Israel, and/or sabotage Iran's nuclear program.

3)  "Rogue State Swells With New Recruits."  There actually aren't any rogue states on the map yet, so the instructions tell us to create a level one rogue state in the middle east.  Yippy.  As if we didn't already have enough problems there.  Our mitigation plan is to make sure the rogue state doesn't increase in size (which creates all kinds of insanity) -- ideally, we'll remove the rogue state, but worst case scenario we can't let it expand.

Our global situation is quickly becoming a mess.  Good thing we have an ineffective Secretary of State to not help us out at all!  ha.












 

Edited June 28, 2023 by MrPotatoTed

[Ich_bin_Tyler]

Just wanted to pop in here and say I, too, just got the game and can't wait to play it soon!

[Willthescout7]

I desperately want this game but can’t justify $99 dollars at the moment, especially since I dropped $100 on another one 2 weeks ago

[10centjimmy]

1 hour ago, MrPotatoTed said:

unnamed President

We know it's President Froats

[MrPotatoTed]

49 minutes ago, Willthescout7 said:

I desperately want this game but can’t justify $99 dollars at the moment, especially since I dropped $100 on another one 2 weeks ago

Send the other game back for a refund. Haha.

[MrPotatoTed]

1 hour ago, Ich_bin_Tyler said:

Just wanted to pop in here and say I, too, just got the game and can't wait to play it soon!

Send me uploads of all the books! I can’t wait 24 more hours!  Hahaha

[Willthescout7]

7 minutes ago, MrPotatoTed said:

Send the other game back for a refund. Haha.

My cat has already eaten the pieces so no can do😭

[MrPotatoTed]

 

11 minutes ago, Willthescout7 said:

My cat has already eaten the pieces so no can do😭

Send the cat back for a refund.

[Willthescout7]

Believe me, I’ve thought about it

[MrPotatoTed]

2 hours ago, Ich_bin_Tyler said:

Just wanted to pop in here and say I, too, just got the game and can't wait to play it soon!

Ok, here’s my plan.  Send me your phone number and I’ll text you every time I need you to look something up.

*phone rings*
 

Tyler:  …hello?

 

ME: Look up chart 7 in the China book, table 3, part 4A:

Tyler:  Dude, you said you’d text.  Not call.

ME: I did.  And you didn’t respond to my text even though I gave you one whole minute to do so.

Tyler: Dude, its 3:17 in the morning.

ME:  *openly crying into the phone* This is the only time I have to play!

 

;c)

[MrPotatoTed]

RESTART!

Well, I was playing on the Vassal version because it's super easy and intuitive to use -- but it turns out its not fully set up for a normal start (I wondered why the Middle East looked pretty peaceful, ha!)

So I've switched over to the Tabletop Simulator version instead.  Which means restarting.  Fun!   Ha.

I draw two random, positive traits for my President. This time, I get "Media Savvy" and "Teflon."  Uh-oh, getting Donald Trump vibes this time.  Haha.  Media Savvy gives us +1 to our Media Relations meter per turn.  (Media Relations tends to impact our public approval rating, and our public approval at the end of each year impacts how many legacy points we gain or lose.  Legacy points are how you're judged at the end of your Presidency, seeing where you fit (if you do) on the list of greatest Presidents of all time.

Teflon gives us a -2 on Presidential scandal rolls.  Again, lower is better so that's a huge boost -- we may not have to fear acting a little scandalously from time to time.  Score.  

I choose a random Vice President.  I randomly select Krista Hallsten.  OH HELL YES.  Krista appears to be one of the best VP options in the game, having the ability to give -1 in domestic AND diplomatic rolls AND gets +1 bonus action.  (She also helps with war rolls, but only if she's Sec of War, which of course she is not.)  Having Krista as our VP will be a big help on every front.  

I select a Chief of Staff.  From the three names I randomly draw, I choose Eric Massey.  He's an okay choice, offering -1 on domestic action roles.  (I would have liked to get someone who also had a +1 bonus action, but beggers can't be choosers.  Could have been worse!)

I select a Secretary of State.  I draw another three names, and choose Allen Box.  Box is a perfect Secretary of State, giving us -1 on diplomatic action roles AND +1 Bonus Action.  

I select a Secretary of Defense.  Unfortunately, all three of my random draws for Secretary of Defense are duds.  I choose Andy Lewis, who doesn't help us at all.  (Neither did any of the other options, of course.)

So war is going to be a weak area for us.  Let's try to be agents of peace.  Haha.

My random draw from the White House Resource deck is "Talented and Beloved First Lady."  She gives me a +2 on public approval.  (It's technically a +4, as we're jumping from 40% approval to 44% approval...each approval box is a 2% jump.)  We can also choose to get a boost in media relations or party relations.  
s
Media relations mostly help our public approval.  Party relations mostly help our re-election odds.  Of course, I'm already media savvy, so I'll have my lovely wife focus on our party relations instead.  I earn +1 party relations from her sleeping around with party donors.  Whoops.  I mean hosting well-attended Sunday Brunches.

I randomly draw the top five public legislation priorities and one campaign promise: From most important to least, the public demands action on "Tax Reform," "Energy Independence," "Welfare Reform," "Expand NASA Funding," and "Immigration Reform."  Additionally, I was elected thanks to my campaign promise to work on "Cyber Security."

I set my personal legislation priorities.  There's a chart that indicates what bonuses each legislative proposal can get you if it passes, but I won't have that until tomorrow.  So for my top three priorities, I'll follow the public's lead: "Tax Reform," "Energy Independence," and "Welfare Reform."  Sorry, NASA and immigrants.  Maybe next time.

Now I randomly draw Congressional Friends and enemies.  I have since learned that for a normal game, you use the more radicalized version of your friends and enemies.  Luckily though, my friends Sally Myers and Tom Isao are stronger legislative leaders than my enemies Anahi Vasquez and Dora Nieto are.  Additionally, my friends are very media savvy and my opponents are not.  I have a good feeling about how things are going to go in Congress, even if we do only control one chamber right now.

Finally, I draw 3 Cascading Crises Cards to indicate the mess the previous President left for my plate.  Cascading events usually start bad -- but have the potential to get even worse as the game goes on, requiring your ongoing efforts, attention, and resources to mitigate them.

1) "North Korean Naval Provocations Threaten ROK (Republic of Korea, or "South Korea"): North Korean Gunboats Harass Shipping.  North Korean submarines deploy into the sea."  Uh-oh.  The regional crisis level in the Asia/Pacific region increases by 1.  North and South Korea each gain +2 tension markers.  The North/South Korean conflict meter heats up by one as we get closer to war.  Because cascading events have the potential to keep recurring at higher and higher impact levels, this could absolutely spiral out of control into full out war on the Korean peninsula...and our Secretary of War sucks.  If I can maintain the status quo, we may be okay.  But if I take my eye off the peninsula, North Korea can sink a South Korean destroyer, possibly plunging us head first into war and causing unknowable chaos along the east Asian seaboard.

2) "China Pushes Territorial Claims in South China Sea -- More Island Building."  Another +1 to the regional crisis meter in the Asia/Pacific region.  China gets a tension marker, and adds a China influence marker to the region.  Chinese-US relations begin to deteriorate.  Shit.  This whole Asia/Pacific region is starting to look like a powder keg about to explode.  

3) "Iran Subverts Gulf Stability."  A new "Unstable State" appears in the Middle East.  The Regional crisis meter increases +1 on the meter, hitting the maximum level and causing a Regional Crisis.  Iran and Saudi Arabia/Gulf States each gain +2 tension markers.  I roll on the regional crisis table: oof.  Low numbers are good...but I rolled a 7.  And then had to add a +2 on top of it due to the instability, civil war, and rogue state already in the region.  A 9 on a D10, where low numbers are better, is obviously very bad.

Regional stability for the middle east plummets to the lowest level.  One of the biggest terror groups (level 2) gets bigger (level 3).  One of our allies in the region (Israel or Saudi Arabia/Gulf States) decreases their relationship with us by 1.  I roll -- Saudi Arabia drops from "Close" to the US, to "Estranged."  Russia gains +1 influence in the middle east.  Russia already had one, so they're just one Middle East influence away from being able to build a base in the Middle East -- which is one of the three things they need to accomplish to earn an automatic victory, and we haven't even started playing yet.  Fucking yikes.

Not that it matters as much in the grand scheme of things, but I also lost -2 approval for Iran's actions here, dropping me back down to my original 40%.  

Iran also kicks off a refugee crisis as many from the Middle East flee into Europe, raising the Eurozone Regional Crisis Meter +1.  

Jeez...remember when we were worried about the Koreas?

I miss that.

[MrPotatoTed]

Now we're ready to play!  

We begin by calculating our AP (a form of political capital that can be spent in a variety of ways.  We'll want to spend it all -- it doesn't carry over year to year -- but we also want to keep some handy for the unexpected.  We start with 15 for a normal game, plus +2 for our current level of cabinet effectiveness, so 17 AP.

I gain +1 media relations thanks to my media savvy trait.  We now have a "friendly" relationship with the media.  

Next, I need to choose a region to focus my intelligence collection efforts on.  We have several bursting situations on the Asian Pacific Coast I'm worried about, but the priority has to be the Middle East which is awash in endless problems that I have no idea how to begin fixing.  Middle East it is!

Now, thanks to our strong economy, I can focus on two Strategic Capabilities tracks I want to try to improve.  There are seven options, and we can see where we are on the track compared to Russia and China for each option.  We're only behind in two areas: Cyber warfare (behind Russia and China) and Space Warfare (behind China), so naturally those are the two I try to improve. 

I fail at improving our space war capabilities, but I at least do improve our cyber warfare level -- we are now tied with Russia and China in our ability to wage war in the newest frontier: cyberspace.

Finally (for this section), I'm going to rank the six cabinet priorities.  What I choose as my top priority will be the easiest to build up, what I choose as my lowest priority will be a struggle.  I rank them from top to bottom as improving cabinet effectiveness, improving relations with congress, improving the economy, addressing domestic crises, improving homeland security, and finally improving public/press relations, in that order.  I feel I can ignore PR because I'm media savvy "and" have a beloved spouse...we'll see if I come to regret that decision one day!

[MrPotatoTed]

It's action time!

President Me decides to burn an action point to Request Rapid Capabilities.  This lets me choose one Strategic Capabilities track that will be much easier to improve, going forward.  I consider sticking with cyber security, but I'm uneasy about the fact that the only area we're truly behind in is Space Warfare.  I can't have China shooting down our spy satellites and conquering the moon or whatever.  So I place an emphasis on Space Warfare improvements, moving forward.

Vice President Hallsten gets two actions, and a -1 on each roll.  I'll have her try to broker peace with the Taliban -- she fails, increasing the strength of both sides of the war.  Whoops.

For her second action, she'll try to improve the alignment of the Eurozone to be more pro-US.  She succeeds!  (This will help me remove Russian influence there later, hopefully.)

[MrPotatoTed]

I'll stop there for the night.  Tomorrow, I'll work on the Chief of Staff, Secretary of State, and Secretary of War's actions.

[Umbrella]

11 hours ago, MrPotatoTed said:

RESTART!

Well, I was playing on the Vassal version because it's super easy and intuitive to use -- but it turns out its not fully set up for a normal start (I wondered why the Middle East looked pretty peaceful, ha!) - I'm using Vassal, and once you get your game, you'll see that there are certain things you need to setup.  Basically, anything that is drawn (tension chits, UN sanctions, etc) is not already on the board since that will change from game to game.  Also, one thing I've noticed in Vassal is that you can't flip the friends/enemies chits.

I draw two random, positive traits for my President. This time, I get "Media Savvy" and "Teflon."  Uh-oh, getting Donald Trump vibes this time.  Haha.  Media Savvy gives us +1 to our Media Relations meter per turn.  (Media Relations tends to impact our public approval rating, and our public approval at the end of each year impacts how many legacy points we gain or lose.  Legacy points are how you're judged at the end of your Presidency, seeing where you fit (if you do) on the list of greatest Presidents of all time.

Teflon gives us a -2 on Presidential scandal rolls.  Again, lower is better so that's a huge boost -- we may not have to fear acting a little scandalously from time to time.  Score.  

I choose a random Vice President.  I randomly select Krista Hallsten.  OH HELL YES.  Krista appears to be one of the best VP options in the game, having the ability to give -1 in domestic AND diplomatic rolls AND gets +1 bonus action.  (She also helps with war rolls, but only if she's Sec of War, which of course she is not.)  Having Krista as our VP will be a big help on every front. - She seems the best.

I select a Chief of Staff.  From the three names I randomly draw, I choose Eric Massey.  He's an okay choice, offering -1 on domestic action roles.  (I would have liked to get someone who also had a +1 bonus action, but beggers can't be choosers.  Could have been worse!)

I select a Secretary of State.  I draw another three names, and choose Allen Box.  Box is a perfect Secretary of State, giving us -1 on diplomatic action roles AND +1 Bonus Action.  

I select a Secretary of Defense.  Unfortunately, all three of my random draws for Secretary of Defense are duds.  I choose Andy Lewis, who doesn't help us at all.  (Neither did any of the other options, of course.) - An interesting thing about Andy, there's two of them.  The rules say you should discard the other Andy Lewis if you choose one.  The other one is amazing, so you probably should have discarded the sucky one.  It's an inside joke with the designer.

So war is going to be a weak area for us.  Let's try to be agents of peace.  Haha.

My random draw from the White House Resource deck is "Talented and Beloved First Lady."  She gives me a +2 on public approval.  (It's technically a +4, as we're jumping from 40% approval to 44% approval...each approval box is a 2% jump.)  We can also choose to get a boost in media relations or party relations.  
s
Media relations mostly help our public approval.  Party relations mostly help our re-election odds.  Of course, I'm already media savvy, so I'll have my lovely wife focus on our party relations instead.  I earn +1 party relations from her sleeping around with party donors.  Whoops.  I mean hosting well-attended Sunday Brunches.

I randomly draw the top five public legislation priorities and one campaign promise: From most important to least, the public demands action on "Tax Reform," "Energy Independence," "Welfare Reform," "Expand NASA Funding," and "Immigration Reform."  Additionally, I was elected thanks to my campaign promise to work on "Cyber Security."

I set my personal legislation priorities.  There's a chart that indicates what bonuses each legislative proposal can get you if it passes, but I won't have that until tomorrow.  So for my top three priorities, I'll follow the public's lead: "Tax Reform," "Energy Independence," and "Welfare Reform."  Sorry, NASA and immigrants.  Maybe next time.

Now I randomly draw Congressional Friends and enemies.  I have since learned that for a normal game, you use the more radicalized version of your friends and enemies.  Luckily though, my friends Sally Myers and Tom Isao are stronger legislative leaders than my enemies Anahi Vasquez and Dora Nieto are.  Additionally, my friends are very media savvy and my opponents are not.  I have a good feeling about how things are going to go in Congress, even if we do only control one chamber right now. - The Vassal version won't let you flip them, but that's OK by me.  I just leave their default radical/moderate values.  Also, depending on the number of moderates vs radicals, you are supposed to shift the track towards either bipartisan cooperation or the other direction.

Finally, I draw 3 Cascading Crises Cards to indicate the mess the previous President left for my plate.  Cascading events usually start bad -- but have the potential to get even worse as the game goes on, requiring your ongoing efforts, attention, and resources to mitigate them.

1) "North Korean Naval Provocations Threaten ROK (Republic of Korea, or "South Korea"): North Korean Gunboats Harass Shipping.  North Korean submarines deploy into the sea."  Uh-oh.  The regional crisis level in the Asia/Pacific region increases by 1.  North and South Korea each gain +2 tension markers.  The North/South Korean conflict meter heats up by one as we get closer to war.  Because cascading events have the potential to keep recurring at higher and higher impact levels, this could absolutely spiral out of control into full out war on the Korean peninsula...and our Secretary of War sucks.  If I can maintain the status quo, we may be okay.  But if I take my eye off the peninsula, North Korea can sink a South Korean destroyer, possibly plunging us head first into war and causing unknowable chaos along the east Asian seaboard. - Funny, I drew this as one of my initial cascading events as well.

2) "China Pushes Territorial Claims in South China Sea -- More Island Building."  Another +1 to the regional crisis meter in the Asia/Pacific region.  China gets a tension marker, and adds a China influence marker to the region.  Chinese-US relations begin to deteriorate.  Shit.  This whole Asia/Pacific region is starting to look like a powder keg about to explode.  

3) "Iran Subverts Gulf Stability."  A new "Unstable State" appears in the Middle East.  The Regional crisis meter increases +1 on the meter, hitting the maximum level and causing a Regional Crisis.  Iran and Saudi Arabia/Gulf States each gain +2 tension markers.  I roll on the regional crisis table: oof.  Low numbers are good...but I rolled a 7.  And then had to add a +2 on top of it due to the instability, civil war, and rogue state already in the region.  A 9 on a D10, where low numbers are better, is obviously very bad.

Regional stability for the middle east plummets to the lowest level.  One of the biggest terror groups (level 2) gets bigger (level 3).  One of our allies in the region (Israel or Saudi Arabia/Gulf States) decreases their relationship with us by 1.  I roll -- Saudi Arabia drops from "Close" to the US, to "Estranged."  Russia gains +1 influence in the middle east.  Russia already had one, so they're just one Middle East influence away from being able to build a base in the Middle East -- which is one of the three things they need to accomplish to earn an automatic victory, and we haven't even started playing yet.  Fucking yikes. - That's brutal.  Good luck!

Not that it matters as much in the grand scheme of things, but I also lost -2 approval for Iran's actions here, dropping me back down to my original 40%. - Rules clarification here.  It states that for the initial cascading events, you ignore any PA changes.  So you shouldn't lose the -2.  The thought is that you shouldn't be punished for what didn't happen on your watch.

Iran also kicks off a refugee crisis as many from the Middle East flee into Europe, raising the Eurozone Regional Crisis Meter +1.  

Jeez...remember when we were worried about the Koreas?

I miss that.

I made a few comments in red, since you don't have the rules yet.

[MrPotatoTed]

11 minutes ago, Umbrella said:

I made a few comments in red, since you don't have the rules yet.

Thanks!  Now expect 800 private messages to you all day long as I ask you to look up every chart for me until my game comes around 7 PM tonight.  Haha.

[Umbrella]

9 minutes ago, MrPotatoTed said:

Thanks!  Now expect 800 private messages to you all day long as I ask you to look up every chart for me until my game comes around 7 PM tonight.  Haha.

Which is about what time I'll get home from work, so you're still out of luck.

[MrPotatoTed]

1 hour ago, Umbrella said:

I made a few comments in red, since you don't have the rules yet.

Regarding your comment on how whether congressional friends and enemies are radical or moderate shifting the bipartisan tracker...

My two enemies and two friends are all radicals.  I assume that moves things -1 away from bipartisan cooperation?  Or is it a full -2?

[Umbrella]

I think it means you start on the leftmost "1" space, which I think is one over from the worst condition.  Moderates=radicals is the rightmost "1" space, and more moderates is the leftmost "2" space.

Sorry, don't have the rules or board in front of me, so this is from memory.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Umbrella

[MrPotatoTed]

Continuing my actions, as I can't possibly wait for the actual delivery of the game tonight (especially because I have a date tonight, 30 minutes before the game is supposed to arrive, ha).  

Chief of Staff Eric Massey: I'm torn between improving my economy or working on congressional relations.  Improving the economy is more likely to deliver results, AND would eventually help me with congressional relations...but will take longer to implement (I need two successful attempts to actually move the meter).

Working directly on Congressional relationships would give me a more immediate benefit...but is slightly less likely to work (50%, vs 60% chance of improving economy).

I'll have Chief of Staff Massey work on the economy (which is already in good shape, but making it perfect gives a lot of benefits.)  My initial roll on this is bad, so I spend an action point to roll it again -- I have to accept the second roll, but luckily this was worth it.  Massey helps improve our economy -- one more improvement and it will be at max level, which gives some helpful boosts.

Secretary of State Allen Box: I send Box to Eastern Europe to improve their alignment with the US.  He initially fails, but I spend an action point to reroll and then he succeeds.  One more success there and I'll be able to remove Russian influence from the region.  (Am I burning through action points too quickly?  Maybe!)

For his bonus action, I'll have Secretary Box remove Russian influence from the Eurozone.  He fails, but I spend an action point to have him roll again and succeed.  Russia is no longer influencing the Eurozone!

Secretary of War Andy Lewis: I instruct Lewis to focus on the Middle East, treating disease, building schools and clinics, and otherwise rebuilding war-torn infrastructure.  Huge success!  The Middle East is no longer trending against the US, I add a UN Goodwill marker to the region, and I remove a military footprint marker from the area, helping with long term stability in the area.

Lewis, I may have misjudged you.  You're not so bad after all.

[MrPotatoTed]

My game was supposed to be here by 7 PM and it never arrived.  I'm going to diiiiieeeeee.  ;c)

[MrPotatoTed]

On 6/29/2023 at 9:29 PM, MrPotatoTed said:

My game was supposed to be here by 7 PM and it never arrived.  I'm going to diiiiieeeeee.  ;c)

Update:  Still not here.

Status:  Dead.