Bull Moose Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Candidate Characteristics
• Board
  • State Boxes
  • Rail Hubs
  • Support Cubes
  • Cards
• Set Up
  • Turn Order
• Sequence of Play
  • Hand Management
  • Movement
  • Rail Hubs/Express Trains
  • Placing Support Cubes
• Election Preparation
  • Empty States and Party Symbols
  • Support
• Absolute Plurality
• Election Results
• Games with Fewer than 5 Players

Introduction

Bull Moose stages this race to the final vote with an electoral system inspired by the Popular Vote. Players take the roles of the candidates and use cards to run their campaigns, placing and moving cubes on the board. Cards can be used for their numerical value or for the effects of the action described in the text. The election result of each state is decided by Absolute Plurality (at least double the cubes of the other players) or, failing that, by a random draw.

Candidate Characteristics

Each candidate has a special ability for the whole game. The actions of the Republicans, Progressives, Socialists and Prohibitionists are carried out in turn order.

• Republicans: Reposition one of your cubes within the region you occupy at the end of the turn. The Republicans cannot place cubes in California or South Dakota.
• Progressives: At the end of the turn, add a cube in a state of the region you occupy. The Progressives cannot place cubes in Oklahoma.
• Democrats: When you play a card for its numerical value while you are in a Southern state, you gain a cube in that state.
• Socialists: You gain a cube in every state where you are involved in a tie for the majority with other players.
• Prohibitionists: At the end of the turn, move an opponent's cube from a state of the region you occupy to another state of your choice in the same region. Republican and Progressive cubes cannot be moved to a state where they are not on the candidate list.

Board

The board shows a map of the United States of about 1912, when there were 48 states. The map is divided into 4 regions: West, East, Center and South. The five candidates are shown together with the symbol of their party in turn order, with Taft of the Republicans in first position.

State Boxes

Each state on the board has a box with a number, which represents the electoral votes for that state. Most states also have one or more party symbols, which represent its Political Leaning. States with circular boxes and no party symbols are the swing states.

Rail Hubs

States with the rail hub symbol allow movement to another state that has the same symbol. A detailed explanation of rail hubs is on page 4 (see Rail Hubs/Express Trains below).

Support Cubes

Each player has support cubes of the same color as his or her token. Small cubes are worth one support point, large ones are worth five support points.

Cards

Each player has a personal Campaign Deck of 28 cards. Each card can be played in one of these four ways, at the player's choice:

1. For the numerical value: the card can be used to move your token on the board and/or to place support cubes in the state currently occupied by the token.
2. As a movement action, if it shows the rail hub icon (see Rail Hubs/Express Trains on page 4).
3. For the action described in the text, applying the effects described on the card. Cards with an opponent's symbol allow you to remove one of that opponent's support cubes, while those with the Eagle symbol can be played against any opponent with the same effect. When a card is played in this way, the removed cube is moved to the Popularity Box.
4. By adding a support cube to the Support Box if the card has a Senator or Press Support symbol.

Set Up

Each player receives the Campaign Deck, the support cubes and the player token of the color of his or her candidate. The tokens are placed on the board as follows:

• Taft - Republicans (red) - Ohio
• Roosevelt - Progressives (green) - New York
• Wilson - Democrats (blue) - New Jersey
• Debs - Socialists (white) - Indiana
• Chafin - Prohibitionists (yellow) - Arizona

Turn Order

Use any method you like to assign the candidates to the players. The Republican is always first in turn order and play proceeds clockwise, following the images of the candidates on the board.

Sequence of Play

A game lasts seven rounds. In each round, the players have four turns each, playing one card per turn from their hand. When the last player plays the last card, the special abilities are carried out and the hand is restored. At the end of the seventh round the result of the election is calculated.

Hand Management

Each player shuffles his or her deck and draws eight cards. Among these, the player chooses four cards to keep in hand and four to put back on top of the deck. On each turn, each player plays one card. When the last player has finished the fourth turn, the hand is restored: the first eight cards of the deck are drawn (including the four seen previously) and the choice is made again. This continues for the rest of the game, until the last draw phase, when the players draw the last four remaining cards.

When a card is played, it is placed in its owner's personal discard pile and is not used again during the game.

If the cards County stumping, Rail pass, Barnstorming and Whistle Stop are played for the effect described in the text, they remain in play for the whole round, until the next draw phase. In this case, the played card must be placed on the board next to the candidate, so that everyone can see it, and removed only at the end of the round.

Movement

When playing a card, players may choose to use its numerical value to obtain Movement Points to spend to travel to other states. Moving to an adjacent state costs one Movement Point. If the value of a card is higher than 1, it can be used both for movement and for placing cubes. The player may choose to move first and then place cubes, or to place cubes first and then move, in whichever order he or she prefers. For example, a player can use a card of value 3 to make a move, place a cube and then move again. Or the same card can be used to place a cube, move, and place another cube in the new position. Entering a different region does not imply additional costs.

The states in the East region are all considered adjacent. Moving within this region always costs one movement point, as does moving between this region and the adjacent states (Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia).

Ending movement in a state already occupied by other candidates costs one additional movement point for each candidate already present in it. A player who merely passes through an occupied state does not have to pay additional costs.

The Progressives and Republicans cannot campaign (place cubes) in certain states, but can still stop in them or pass through them.

The cards Rail Pass, Barnstorming and Whistle Stop allow a player to move into an occupied state without paying a penalty, and their effect can be used to place cubes. Since the effect of the Whistle Stop card remains active for the whole round, its movement bonus can be used to maximize the Movement Points of cards played later in the round.

States at the extremities of the map are not considered adjacent, so Utah is not adjacent to New Mexico and Colorado is not adjacent to Arizona.

Rail Hubs/Express Trains

Cards that show the train icon can be played to activate the Express Train action, which allows the player to move from a state with a rail hub to any other state with a rail hub that is not already occupied by other players. When you decide to use a card in this way, you cannot also use it for its numerical value or for the effect described in the text, and it must be discarded.

Placing Support Cubes

Support cubes can be placed using the effect of the text on a card, or using its numerical value, but not both.

If you choose to play the card for its numerical value, you may:

• Use the numerical value to move the token to another state.
• Place support cubes in the state you occupy.
• Perform both of the above actions in any order, if you use a card of value 2 or higher.
• Add cubes to the Support Box if the card shows a Press or Senator symbol. If you choose to use the card in this way, there is no minimum number of cubes that must be assigned to the state; you may distribute them freely between the occupied state and the box.

If you choose to play the card for the effect of the text:

• If the card indicates that the player must occupy a state or region in order to place or remove cubes, the player must already be in the place in question to be able to use the card in this way. However, a Whistle Stop, Railpass or Barnstorming card already in play can be used for any movement that is necessary.
• If the card indicates that a player may place or remove cubes from a state or region occupied by an opponent, the player may do so.
• Two party conventions were held in California because of the split of the Republicans, so this state has two boxes. When a player is in California, he or she must place the token in the larger box, but may choose to place support cubes in either one or in both boxes.

Election Preparation

Once the last card has been played and the special abilities carried out, the Election begins. There may be empty states on the board, which will receive cubes in relation to three categories: the party symbols on the board (the Political Leaning cubes), Support and Popularity.

Empty States and Party Symbols

All empty states receive support cubes. The cubes obtained on the basis of the party symbols present on the state, or because it is a swing state, are called Political Leaning cubes. To calculate the Political Leaning of a state, apply these rules:

• If the state has the Democratic symbol, it receives a Democratic cube.
• If it has the Republican symbol, it receives a Republican cube.
• If it has the Republican and the Progressive symbol, it receives a Republican cube and a Progressive cube.
• If it has the Progressive symbol, it receives a Progressive cube.
• If it has no symbols (swing state), it receives one cube for each party in play.

Support

In addition to the method already described, in this phase cubes are also added on the basis of the Support and Popularity boxes. The support cubes of the winner of the Press Support Box are added to the empty states. The support cubes of the winner of the Senator Support Box are added to the swing states. Sometimes some swing states can also be empty; in this case these states can receive cubes from both boxes. In addition, popularity cubes can be added to all states.

Note: Even though the winners of Support and Popularity are calculated in sequence, all the cubes coming from these boxes are considered added to the board simultaneously, to prevent a player from reaching Absolute Plurality before all the support cubes have been added (see Absolute Plurality on page 7). Therefore, the Press Support cubes must be added to the empty states together with the Political Leaning cubes, completing one state before starting to count another. Empty swing states can receive further cubes from the Senator Support and finally, since Popularity cubes can be added anywhere, these too may reach the states that were initially empty.

Press Support (first draw): The support cubes of the winner of this box go to the empty states. After checking for Absolute Plurality in the box, take all the cubes present on it and draw one at random. The winner places all of his or her cubes present on the box in the empty states, as desired. If there are none, he or she places them in his or her starting state.

Senator Support (second draw): The support cubes of the winner of this box go to the swing states. After checking for Absolute Plurality in the box, take all the cubes present on it and draw one at random. The winner places all of his or her cubes present on the box in the swing states, as desired.

Popularity (third draw): Each player has a card that lets him or her obtain a cube in the Popularity Box, if played for the effect described in the text. Cards with an opponent's symbol can be played against that player, while cards with the Eagle symbol can be played against any opponent. When a player plays a card to remove cubes of one or more opponents, the latter receive a cube in the Popularity Box. There is no draw for this box. At the time of the Election, after the Support boxes have been resolved, whoever has the most cubes in the Popularity Box may place the difference between his or her cubes and those of the second in one or more states of his or her choice. In case of a tie, the players involved, following turn order, place in one or more states of their choice the difference between the number of their cubes and those of the player immediately following in the majority order. If all the players present in the box are tied, they all place one cube in any state, following turn order.

Example: No candidate has a cube in Kentucky. The Democrats have won the Senator Support and place the relevant cube in Kentucky. Since all the candidates receive a cube in that state, the Democrats immediately have Absolute Plurality over the other candidates. Technically all six cubes should be added and then five removed, leaving only the Democrats' one, but in practice it is not necessary to do so, because it is evident that the Absolute Plurality leads to the Democrats' victory, so there is no need to add and remove the five cubes. If you consider that the Prohibitionist player has won Popularity and moves a cube from there to Kentucky, in this state there are two cubes for the Prohibitionists and two for the Democrats.

Absolute Plurality

After the Election Preparation phase, check whether there is an Absolute Plurality in the states or in the Support Boxes.

• A player has Absolute Plurality if he or she reaches or exceeds double the cubes of the second in majority order. If so, the player automatically wins the state or Support Box in question, and from it all cubes are removed except those of the winner, in the case of a Support Box, and except for a single cube of the winner in the case of states.
• If two players contend for a state (or Support Box) and a third or fourth opponent does not have half the cubes of the first in majority order, his or her cubes are removed before the draw. Among the remaining cubes one is drawn, which is placed in the state or, in the case of a Support Box, which indicates the color of the cubes to be left on the box.

Example of Absolute Plurality: The Prohibition Party (yellow) has three cubes in New York, the Democrats (blue) have 4, the Progressives (green) have 2, and the Republicans (red) have 2. Since the Democrats have Absolute Plurality over the Progressives and Republicans, these two parties lose their cubes and the Democrats have to face only the Prohibitionists in the draw.

Election Results

After checking for Absolute Plurality, take the support cubes from one state and draw a winner, then repeat for every contested state: for each draw, put the tokens in a container and draw one at random. If there are large cubes in a state, change them into small cubes. For the sake of suspense, save the most important states for last.

Add up the electoral vote values (the numbers in the State Boxes on the board) of each player. The total of these values is 531. The candidate with the highest value becomes the twenty-eighth President of the United States. In case of a tie, the player who controls the most states wins. In case of a further tie, the players concerned share the victory.

Games with Fewer than 5 Players

In the Election Preparation phase, only the Political Leaning cubes of the candidates in play are added to the empty states.

• In a 3-player game: use the Republicans, Progressives and Democrats.
• In a 4-player game: use all the candidates except the Prohibitionists.