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Campaign Trail box art

Campaign Trail

Game ID: GID0058201
Collection Status
Description

Campaign Trail is a strategy board game in which players pit their campaign skills against one another as they vie for the Presidency of the United States.

The confetti is flying, the champagne is flowing, and you have just accepted your party's nomination for President of the United States. Now it's time to hit the Campaign Trail! How will you chart your path to victory? Engage in grass roots campaigning, advertise, sling mud at opponents, fundraise, debate, and so much more! But be sure to avoid revealing those skeletons you have buried in your closet. The candidate who best manages their resources and connects with the public on key issues will win the presidency!

Campaign Trail uses card driven actions to implement your strategy. Your goal is to have the most voters for your party in enough states to win a majority of electoral votes. If you have the most voters in a state you are awarded that state's electoral votes (victory points). At the end of the game the player with the most electoral votes wins and is declared the president!

On your turn you play a card and take an action from that card. Each card has a choice among 4 of the game's 6 actions. You may (depending on what is on your card):

Fundraise - Add money to your war chest to be spent later on advertising campaigns and campaign rallies.
Register - Add voters to your registered voter supply so that they can commit to vote for you in the various states.
Travel - Move your candidate around the United States to set yourself up for large campaign rallies in key states.
Advertise - Create and implement advertising campaigns based on the issues of the day. Each time you advertise you will receive voters in the states that care about the issues you covered.
Campaign - Hold local campaign rallies where your candidate is located. Campaigning allows you to gain large numbers of voters in the state(s) you are in and adjacent to.
Hold Event - Hold various political events. Some may give votes, some may increase resources, all are helpful.

In addition to the base of card driven mechanics and area control, you will have a candidate card which gives you an individual player power. You will also have the opportunity to debate the current issues with your opponent. And finally, through the use of event cards, you can build up an engine to help out with resource production.

Year Published
2019
Transcript Analysis
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 3
This page: 3
Sentiment: pos 3 · mix 0 · neu 0 · neg 0
Mentions per page
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Showing 1–3 of 3
Video t-ZLgzMJhNI Ryan and Bethany Board Game Reviews top_50_list at 1:09 sentiment: positive
video_pk 62355 · mention_pk 154882
Ryan and Bethany Board Game Reviews - Campaign Trail video thumbnail
Click to watch at 1:09 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • Educational insight into the Electoral College
  • Clear demonstration of math-driven campaigning
Cons
  • Long playtime; requires time commitment
Thematic elements
  • electoral strategy and state-focused campaigning
  • American presidential election
  • educational political simulation
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • electoral math — Players navigate states to accumulate electoral votes and win the election.
  • state-by-state strategy — Players allocate efforts to states to maximize electoral votes and win the election.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • The action selection and so whatever action you choose when it's your turn to choose everybody else also gets to take that action just on a lesser scale.
  • the two player variant of this is perfection it gives you the exact same feel of a higher player count
  • it's tight there's not a lot of time to do all the things that you need to do
  • it's all about the math and it's all about the area control
  • this game just stole the show on the drive home
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video uYNVXp6Q-PA Board Game Co general_discussion at 6:42 sentiment: positive
video_pk 3114 · mention_pk 9118
Board Game Co - Campaign Trail video thumbnail
Click to watch at 6:42 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • Acquired at BAXON
  • Viewer encouragement to play
Cons
  • Still unplayed despite encouragement
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • I know the games I play. I know the games I love to play. And I know the games that I theoretically want to play but don't actually play.
  • I need at least one of those two things in play - either high personal interest or good reputation
  • Designers, reviewers, other people mentioned
  • I'm going to be trying to be more mindful about reality as opposed to the desires that I have
  • These tend to be less of a priority. Like occasionally I dive into an unplayed game that isn't a review copy, but more often than not if I'm diving into an unplayed game, review copies do take precedence
  • I have so many euros I love and so many that I'm behind on
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video 5Kry7ELGvsw Before You Play top_10_list at 12:37 sentiment: positive
video_pk 3112 · mention_pk 9067
Before You Play - Campaign Trail video thumbnail
Click to watch at 12:37 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • fun team dynamic and engaging debates
  • strong interaction and negotiation during turns
Cons
  • political theming can be polarizing for some groups
  • rules can feel dense for casual players
Thematic elements
  • democracy, campaigning, and alliance-building in a four-party system
  • US presidential election in a political area-control framework
  • team-based, debate-driven
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • Area Control — players vie for geographic influence across states via voting power and positioning
  • hand management — card play and debates shape what you can do next and when you can act
  • Team coordination — two-player teams cooperate to manipulate the map and topics
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • it's basically discussing our top 10 games that were new to us in 2022
  • this is like a podcast today
  • Weather Machine ... would have made this list if it came out this year
  • it's a pure Euro for sure through and through
  • hirelings ... game changer for the two-player Root
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
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Showing 1–3 of 3
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