Race To the White House

This is a great game. As someone with a background in political science, I also think it's a great tool for anyone who wants to learn about the US electoral system including campaigning, historic candidates, the Electoral College, and even simply all the 50 states + DC.

Very difficult to understand

This game is lots of fun and great for its educational value. It’s a little complicated to figure out, but worth it. It’s complexity and innovation is impressive!During each of the eight weeks of the election, each player gets a turn (simply means that there are 2x8 turns for this portion of the game). On his turn, a player travels to a different state in an attempt to gain influence points (IP) there so that he can have an advantage when the game reaches the election night phase. For example, Nevada starts with an advantage of two IP for the democrats (the number is written on the board). But if someone plays there, that advantage can change in favor of the republican player; or the democrat player can up his advantage and get more than two IP’s. Players know whether the IP points in each state are more or less than the original advantage by the blue or red chips that are placed on the state when advantages change from the original.To land on a state, you can travel there for free from adjacent states or you can use your money points to fly to a nonadjacent state. Each player chooses a candidate and goes around the map using that candidate’s energy points, home state advantage and superpower.For example, let’s say you are Jimmy Carter. He has 14 energy points that he can use up throughout the game to allow him to campaign in different states. Campaigning gains you IP points in the state you do it in. Any state with less than eight electoral votes costs one campaign energy point for 1 IP; more than 18 electoral votes it costs three energy points for one IP; states with 9-17 electoral votes costs two energy points to get 1 IP.Carter’s home state is Georgia, which means that he gets an advantage of 6 IP points there, giving him 6 of Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. This will give him a higher chance to win that state on election night.Carter’s special power is to get one extra national IP. That is what he starts the game off with. IP points are very useful since it gives the player who owns it an extra IP’s that get added to each and every state on election night.But national I.P’s can be changed throughout the game by using a. money points, which allow you to buy national IP’s through advertising, b. action cards, which instruct you to either gain or lose IP’s (each player has an opportunity to use one of his five action cards on his turn), and c. environment cards, which are drawn at each turn (for example, one called “debate” tells both players to roll the dice and the one with the higher dice role gains some IP points).After each player gets eight turns (or eight weeks) we get to election night. Then, every round (or hour) the dice is rolled in each state in the order that it occurs in real live election nights.By then, each player has a certain number of IP points in each state. The player in the lead in each state then rolls the dice for that state to see whether they win or lose the state. For example, let’s say that the democrat player is in the lead in Nevada by five IP's. So he roles the dice and gets a four. The game provides a chart which says that getting a four means that he keeps his lead. Because there is no resolution in that state, the dice get rolled again the next hour. So the next hour, he gets an eight and according to the chart, an eight means that he wins the state’s six electoral votes. This state’s fate is sealed so it need not be played in the next hour. Each state gets a turn rolling the dice until its winner is determined. When all states’ electoral winners are determined, the numbers are counted up to determine the final winner.

We were excited to learn the game, but the rule book is not very easy to understand. After spending a couple of hours reading the rules aloud, we still couldn't figure out how to begin. The website for the creators of the game has been taken down and Amazon reviewers have not been able to answer our questions about how to get started. There seems to be no place to get help with learning how to play this. If we ever learn how to play it, we might love it, but right now it's destined for the back of the closet.

Such an awesome game! Full of cleverly observed funny details and really smart game play. Race to the White House allows you to battle it out for your candidate--with candidates from both the recent and distant past represented (want to see Jimmy Carter get back in the game? Forever a Bernie Bro? Feeling nostalgic about George W? Now's your chance). Play the "People Like Us" card (part of the "populist outrage combo) to increase your lead; or see what happens when you play the "Solidarity Forever" card and make a pro-union statement. Lovers of strategy games (Risk, Diplomacy, Settlers of Catan), will love this smart, funny and engaging game. And for anyone who feels like they'd like an election do-over -- here's your chance, and this version promises to be a lot more fun than the last one!!

Wow! Such a fun game! I recently received the one I purchased through the Kickstarter campaign and have been playing non-stop. I thought the whole Trump-Clinton election debacle had soured me on politics... but all I really needed was a darkly humorous, complex and incredibly fun board game! Who knew?! If you're an armchair political critic, part time satirist, gun toting redneck, or a tree hugging liberal then put your money where your mouth is and see if you can become President!

For less than half the price of a Complete Body Unitard, you can get more than twice the enjoyment... and far fewer moments of debilitating embarrassment. Family fun, education, and political catharsis all mesh together in this unforgettable game. Highly recommended.

Awesome concept … if only candidates for President had played this game while growing up they might actually understand the system of government they're overseeing.Looking forward to the 2020 post-apocalyptic sequel, Race to the Fallout Shelter