Introduction and Turn 1

This is the first entry in a tutorial for Victory Point Games "Swing States 2012 - The American Presidential Election Card Game".  I will be doing a blow for blow account of a recent game I played.  This way, you can follow along and see step by step how the game is played.  I've tried to cover all the concepts in the game, and because of this, there are things that I do that may not be the best move for the situation.  I did that to demonstrate certain concepts.  I'm pretty sure the game was played without error, but one or two may have slipped in.  If so, just go with it.  There are also rule references in case you want to look up a particular point.

The set up is for a generic Democratic candidate with the party Convention in the South.

The game is broken into five phases. 

1) Ready Phase
2) Headline Phase
3) Events Phase
4) Action Phase
5) Scandal Phase

For details, refer to the Player Aid Mat.


Turn 1 -
1)  Move Presidential Nominee (P.N.) to Campaign HQ, V.P. Nominee (V.P.) to Border region.  Make sure to flip both over to the non-Used side.

2)  Card #42 (Mining Accident Renews Coal Debate) drawn.

3)  Campaign (i.e., defense) in the Midwest (rule 9.1).  No Dice Roll Modifiers (DRM's).  Die roll = 6, which is an automatic success (rule 5.2).  Therefore, no effect.

    Place Scandal marker in West region and Defend.  -1 DRM for scandal.  Die roll = 3, modified to 2, which is a failure.  Move marker down one slot to Nevada. 

    Since a natural odd number was rolled, flip the marker to the "Advertising" side.

    Move Campaign Finance (CF) marker on Players Aid Mat to $4 (started at $2, added the $2 from the lower right corner of the card).

4)  Pay $1, move V.P. to West, do Damage Control to remove Scandal marker and flip V.P. to Used side.

    Pay $2 to do Fundraising, increase War Chest (W.C.) by one (to +1).

    CF marker is at $1, will save that for next turn.

5)  Scandal cleared, no effect.

Status at end of Turn 1: