(Board game) Mr. President: The American Presidency

[MrPotatoTed]

Of course.  Ugh.  My relationship with Congress is now close to rock bottom, and bipartisanship is completely gone.  Neither my opponents nor I have any chance of advancing our legislative proposals now.

The good news is the public and the media both side with me.  My public approval improves to 34%.  I decide to increase my PR efforts to priority 4, decreasing my homeland security efforts to priority 5.

What could possibly go wrong?

Edited July 5, 2023 by MrPotatoTed

[MrPotatoTed]

War updates:

Saudi Arabia vs. Yemen:  Yemen is winning so far,  but both sides are losing troops and Yemen is much more at risk of running out of forces and having to surrender.

US vs. Taliban:  The US is winning the war, but still a long ways to go and with serious questions about just how long we intend to keep fighting.  My media relations drop to neutral.

Edited July 5, 2023 by MrPotatoTed

[MrPotatoTed]

The continuing war in Afghanistan drops my approval to 28%, increases tension in my cabinet, and destabilizes the South/Central Asia region to the point that it's the equivalent of African stability (lowest level).

Whoops!

[MrPotatoTed]

Fighting in the new civil war in the South/Central Asian region intensifies, increasing the regional crisis level.

The ceasefire in Eastern Europe ends -- the civil war there starts again, and the crisis level increases -- one block away from disaster.

The middle eastern ceasefire ends but the peace is still fragile.  The ceasefire civil war goes away and is replaced by an unstable state.  Crisis level in Middle East decreases by one, moving back from the brink of disaster.

The ceasefire in Africa remains in place.

 

[MrPotatoTed]

We launch a devastating cyber attack on the Taliban (which is a funny concept to me, as I don't imagine it being a very cyber-esque organization to begin with, though I could certainly be wrong).  We greatly weaken their organization.

I begin gathering intel on the largest terror cell in the Middle East (which also happens to be the largest terror cell in the world).

I move my Marines from the Middle East to the Indian Ocean, where they can cover both the Middle East and my Taliban war in South/Central Asia (albeit not as effectively as they could cover a single area).

I move my Air Force from the US to the South/Central Asia, doubling the amount of Air Force forces I have against the Taliban.

I move my Spec Ops from Africa to the South/Central Asia, doubliny my spec ops troops there as well.  Yep.  We're going full "troop surge."  
 

[MrPotatoTed]

I (literally) invest my economic turn in improving my relationship with Saudi Arabia/Gulf States.  They're now "very close" allies who will hopefully help in our struggles against Iran.

And just like that...we're officially at the six month mark of our first year in office.

Man...it's been a wild six months!

[Umbrella]

I'm going to assume you haven't read the end of turn rules yet.  I didn't either until I got there, and ended up with a nasty surprise!

[Blockmon]

like looking at the game reviews and you guys playing this game, my god its heaven. I always have played presidental election games and when searching for one to play as president not in an election, there was never a game for it(it even lead me to AMPU). 99 + 19$ of shipping cost = 118$, I am 99% close to buying this game just out of the sheer will to support the devs for making a game like this. I hope to hear about more of this game from both of you and May you guys lead the country to greatness.

[MrPotatoTed]

China Acts

Faced with economic problems (thanks, COVID!), China decides to distract folks from their economic woes by going on the offensive, switching to the more aggressive "Posture 2."  

Fan-frickin-tastic.

Our relationship with China falls to neutral.

China improves their Strategic Recon/Intel Gathering capabilities (though it took them three tries to succeed and they're still behind US in this regard).

China steals secret military plans and gives them to the Taliban.  You assholes.

China improves their economy to "recovering" (neutral)

China gets 5 actions:
1)  China successfully deals with a level of terrorism in Central/South Asia.
2) Dealing with internal infrastructure issues (no impact)
3) Launches a cyber attack on India, increasing the regional crisis level in the South/Centra Asia region.  Also launches a devastating economic cyber attack on the US.  The US drops into stagnation while also increasing our domestic crisis level.
4) Adds influence in Middle East and Central/South Asia.  They're now able to build a base in Asia/Pacific and are just one influence away from being able to build bases in the Middle East and Central/South Asia -- that's probably not ideal.  Tensions go up across Asia.
5) China builds a military base in Asia/Pacific.  Fuck.  My relationship with Congress falls to the lowest level (adversarial) and public approval rating falls all the way to 22% and my relationship with China falls to distrust.

That...didn't go great.



 

[MrPotatoTed]

Looking around the board, I see a whole lot of priorities to address.  (I'd also like to increase regional stability in many areas of the globe, but don't have that power independently -- need allies to do it on their turn).

In no particular order --
1)  Catch up to Russia in strategic missile technology.
2)  Catch up to China and Russia in cyberwarfare technology.
3)  Reduce the conflict between Israel and Iran
4)  Reduce Iran's ability to produce nuclear misssiles.
5)  Improve my relationsip with Congress.
6)  Improve the economy
7)  Improve my domestic crisis (from China's cyber attack on our economy)
8 Take out terrorists in the Middle East
9)  Reduce the regional crisis level in Eastern Europe
10) Win the war against the Taliban
11) Reduce the level of the rogue state in Afghanistan
12) Deal with China (a generic catch-all, as they've become a major problem in many areas)
13) Reduce China's influence in the Middle East to prevent a base being built there.
14) Reduce China's influence in Central/Southern Asia, to prevent a base being built there.
15) Increase public opinion of me

...should be super easy.

Barely even an inconvenience.

[MrPotatoTed]

NOTE:  I've also added "improve relationship with India" to my priority list.

I decide to focus on Iran's nuclear capabilities.  The UN already helped us remove their ability to actual deploy nuclear weapons, but I want to reduce it further to give us a little breathing room.

I launch a cyber attack on India's nuclear program.  The attack causes temporary setbacks in their development -- they won't be able to advance their marker for a while.  I just saved the world!  (For now...)

Iran knows we did it and tells Russia and China.  Tensions rise for Iran, Russia, China, and Israel.  Our conflict level with Iran increases (I didn't realize it when I chose this action, but it could have caused them to blame Israel instead, which would have led to Iran invading Israel.  Luckily, that didn't happen here. Ha.)  Iran takes defensive measures, increasing their influence in the Middle East and helping a terror cell to continue to grow.

 

[MrPotatoTed]

I try hunting down several terror cells, but fail.

So I try again!  

And fail again.

 

Fuck.  We follow the top left "C" section for now -- but this event is recurring, which means that I now have a directive to get rid of unstable states in the Middle East (no easy task, and there's currently four of them) or else they'll turn into civil wars...which is an additional problem as I already have a recurring issue card that makes civil wars cause even more problems.  Shiiiit.

[MrPotatoTed]

 

This could have theoretically been a nice card to get -- but I spent all of my Action Points in the first three months of my Presidency.  Ha.  

Unable to spend the AP, my relationship with Canada falls from "Very Close" to "Close", while Central America's regional crisis level increases by one -- they're on the verge of blowing up in a bad way.

I add "fix relations with Canada," "Reduce Central America crisis level," and "Repair unstable states in the Middle East" to my priority list -- I'm adding things faster than I can remove them, three-fold.

On the bright side, doing absolutely nothing for our neighbors is a big hit in the US.  My public approval climbs to 26%.

[MrPotatoTed]

 

This would be super devastating...

But surprise, mofo's!  I have the "Superstars on the NSC" White House Resource card. 

I'm able to cancel out this card and remove it from the game.  Thank god.  Haha.

[MrPotatoTed]

Ugh.  I have no AP to spend, of course.

South America used to be the ONE region in the world where I had no urgent problems to solve.

[Ich_bin_Tyler]

13 hours ago, Blockmon said:

like looking at the game reviews and you guys playing this game, my god its heaven. I always have played presidental election games and when searching for one to play as president not in an election, there was never a game for it(it even lead me to AMPU). 99 + 19$ of shipping cost = 118$, I am 99% close to buying this game just out of the sheer will to support the devs for making a game like this. I hope to hear about more of this game from both of you and May you guys lead the country to greatness.

You can also get it for much cheaper at this online gaming store: https://www.gamenerdz.com/mr-president-the-american-presidency-2001-2020-preorder

They're trustworthy and I haven't had a issue in the years I've been buying from them.

[Umbrella]

I've got to laugh at this.  I see you are going up in flames spectacularly too.  

Don't forget, you can skip an action to get an AP back.  My problem is that in my game, every time I did that, something happened which forced me to lose an AP.  I don't know if it was just bad luck for me, but I don't know if gaining the AP was worth losing an action.

[Willthescout7]

Y’all are making me scared to play😂😂😂

[Umbrella]

It's super difficult.  Here are some notes from a turn in my first game.  Keep in mind, this was a turn where I could make good things happen.

Next step, media relations drop a level.

I can now do two domestic actions. My public approval and media relations are in the toilet, so I'm going on a presidential press tour. I finally pass a roll, and my media approval goes back up.

Next, I've got to improve my party relations. It costs me an AP, leaving me with only 2 for the rest of the year, but it works.

The final step is legislation. First off, since I have no friends in congress, and 4 opponents, all my bills end up moving further away from being passed. Secondly, since there is no cooperation at all, no bills will get passed this turn. And finally, as if I don't have enough issues, I roll terribly again, and now there's corruption. My secretary of defense is involved in a scandal. My party relations drop to the lowest possible level. My public approval is now at the lowest possible level. My RWC also drops a level. I should resign, but I'll soldier on.

My energy independence bill dies in congress. My enemies go on the morning news shows to trash me, but the joke's on them, my public approval can't go any lower.

Back to my scandal. I should have a +6 DRM, but have embarrassingly hit the +3 DRM max for this roll. If you guessed I rolled the worse possible result, you are correct. The investigation into the scandal shows that I was involved with it. I lose an AP, also RWC drops, and public approval would drop if it wasn't at the minimum. The scandal deepens, and I lose my last remaining AP.

Honestly, I don't know how this can get any worse. But I'm sure we'll find out.

[Willthescout7]

Truly the worst timeline 

[Blockmon]

Alright, I have made up my mind and will get the game. I am terrified on how I will do as hearing the playthrough of ted and umb have the worst presidencies I have ever seen. I also plan to even create unofficial mods to the game, I mean I even can imagine taking a system like this and bringing it to the age of the 1800s but with a lot of things changing. 

[Blockmon]

7 hours ago, Ich_bin_Tyler said:

You can also get it for much cheaper at this online gaming store: https://www.gamenerdz.com/mr-president-the-american-presidency-2001-2020-preorder

They're trustworthy and I haven't had a issue in the years I've been buying from them.

actually I wanted to know why is it cheaper there than the main website?

[Ich_bin_Tyler]

34 minutes ago, Blockmon said:

actually I wanted to know why is it cheaper there than the main website?

Sorry to hijack the thread but basically most board games are marked up twice their actual value. Most publishers sell at the msrp price but a lot of local and online game stores sell it for like 75% of the msrp. Give it a year and you could find the game like half price. Common pattern with many board games. 

[Blockmon]

18 minutes ago, Ich_bin_Tyler said:

Sorry to hijack the thread but basically most board games are marked up twice their actual value. Most publishers sell at the msrp price but a lot of local and online game stores sell it for like 75% of the msrp. Give it a year and you could find the game like half price. Common pattern with many board games. 

OHHHHH I FINALLY GOT IT, the game currently hasn't been released on retail meaning its still preorder in Gamenerdz thats why its cheap. While the GMT store has released the game if you buy it from them

Edited July 7, 2023 by Blockmon

[Umbrella]

11 hours ago, Blockmon said:

Alright, I have made up my mind and will get the game. I am terrified on how I will do as hearing the playthrough of ted and umb have the worst presidencies I have ever seen. I also plan to even create unofficial mods to the game, I mean I even can imagine taking a system like this and bringing it to the age of the 1800s but with a lot of things changing. 

There is also an easier version.  My next playthrough, I've been using a combo of the easy version and the normal version, and while it is still a little challenging, it's not quite as chaotic.  In hindsight, I should have started with that while I was learning the game.