Campaign Trail: Advanced Solo Mode Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Setup
• Solo Play Cards
• Register Track
• AI Party Turn
• Direct Action Happens Automatically
• Human Player Turn
  • Politick Actions
  • Dirty Politics
  • Candidates
• Debate
  • Debate Topic Section
  • Rabbit Trail Section
• Election Day
• Cooperative Play

Game Components

In order to play solo or co-op, in addition to the normal components, you will need to use:

• 1 Solo Play Deck (50 cards total) for each AI party you want to play against
• 5 Register Track Cards
• For playing against the green party, you will need the green party components from Campaign Trail: Green Party expansion

Setup for solo Democrat vs. Republican AI party shown

Setup

1. Choose the parties for all human and AI players. Place voter tokens for those parties near the game board. Set up the Electoral College track and committed voters on the board as normal (use 2-party rules for committed voters if playing against one AI player)
2. Assemble the register track using the 5 register track cards (lay out cards consecutively in number order) and place near the game board.
3. Place 12 voters for each AI party on the register track, three in each of the first four spaces.
4. Shuffle each solo play deck that you are playing with. Return any unused solo play deck to the box.
   • Place 10 cards of the solo deck in each month space (Aug, Sep, and Oct)
   • Place 10 cards off to the side of the board where the debate track will go
   • Return the remaining 10 cards to the box. They will not be used this game.
   • For additional AI parties, repeat the previous steps. You will have to place the 3 stacks of 10 cards off the board below the month spaces.
5. Set up the other cards and resources as normal, including candidate cards and starting resources for the human players.
6. Set up the debate arena and debate topic cards and debate cities as appropriate for the number of parties.
7. When setting up the action card deck, shuffle and place the entire deck to the side of the board within easy reach.
8. All AI players go first, starting with the first one set up, and continuing in the order of setup. The human player takes the last turn each round.
9. The game flow is just like the multi-player game. You will play the month of August, then do a debate, then play September, then do a debate, then play October, then the game is done.

Solo Play Cards

The Solo Play card has three sections, a register action section, a direct action section (can be advertise, campaign, or politick), and a debate section. The register action section shows how many voters you will place on the register track if the AI player takes a register action. The register action section also shows a diagram of the register track with a number of spaces filled with voter tokens. You will use this to determine if the AI party will take a register action or a direct action.

The direct action section shows how many voters will be placed in each state on the board. It also shows the threshold value for each state (given as a number on the state). A state will only receive voters from the register track if the AI party's lead in that state is less than the threshold value. If the AI player's lead is greater than or equal to the threshold value then no voters are placed in that particular state.

The debate section is only used in the two debates. It shows which topics the AI player will move on its debate track and which (if any) rabbit trails the AI player will introduce or respond to.

Note: The type of direct action on the Solo Play card does not affect the AI party turn at all. The type varies from card to card so that the human player may make use of politick actions that give bonuses when an opponent plays a specific type of direct action.

Register Track

The register track is where the registered voters for the AI parties are stored. Assemble the track by placing the 5 register track cards (they will have a different back than the party decks) in numerical order.

The register track is divided into 10 spaces. Each space on the track can hold up to 3 voters from each party. A space with three voters is "full" for that party. If all of the register track spaces are full, any additional voters required to be placed on the track are not placed and are lost.

When adding voters to the register track, always start from the left and move to the right. When removing voters from the register track, always start from the right and move to the left.

AI Party Turn

1. Draw the top card of the current month deck for the AI party.
2. Determine register or direct action
   • Compare the filled in (with gray cubes) spaces on the card with the spaces on the register track.
   • If the highest completely filled space (contains 3 voters) on the physical register track is less than the highest filled space on the register track section of the card, the AI party takes a register action.
   • If the highest completely filled space (contains 3 voters) on the physical register track is greater or equal to the highest filled space on the register track section of the card, the AI party takes a direct action.
3. Register action: Take the number of voters shown on the register action of the card from the supply and place them on the register track (3 voters per space starting with the leftmost non-full space and going left to right). After registering, the AI party's turn ends.
4. Direct action: For each state that is colored on the map on the card, determine if the AI party has the majority and leads by a number of voters equal to or greater than the threshold value (the number given on each state). If the AI party is losing the state or winning by fewer voters than the threshold, move the amount of voters shown on the card (number of cubes shown directly below direct action icon) from the register track to that state. If the AI party is leading by the threshold or more, do nothing with respect to that state. After taking the direct action the AI party's turn is over.
5. If you are playing with additional AI parties, repeat steps 1-4 with each AI deck. Each AI party has its own voters on the register track, and only those voters are counted during that AI party's turn.

See the flowchart on page 18 for a graphical description of the AI party turn.

AI party turn example: Phil is playing the human vs. two AI parties Solo Play variant. He is playing Libertarian and has assigned the Democrat to the first AI party and the Republican to the second AI party.

Phil draws the top card of the Democrat AI deck for the Democrat turn. The card shows the fifth space on the register track as the highest with cubes filled in. He compares this to the physical register track and sees that the Democrats only have four spaces with the required 3 cubes.

Since there are less than 3 Democrat voters in the fifth space, this will be a register turn. He adds 6 voters to the register track (1 in the fifth space, 3 in the sixth space, and 2 in the seventh space).

Next is the Republican turn. Phil draws the top card of the Republican AI deck. This card shows three spaces filled in on the register track. The Republicans currently have voters up to the seventh space in the register track so this will be a direct action turn.

The states shown on the card are AZ, WA, and CA with threshold value of four, four, and five, respectively. He compares these thresholds with the Republican lead in each of these states.

• CA: Dem - 3 voters, Rep - 2 voters, Lib - 2 voters; Dem up by 1
• WA: Dem - 0 voters, Rep - 3 voters, Lib - 1 voter; Rep up by 2
• AZ: Dem - 1 voter, Rep - 5 voters, Lib - 0 voters; Rep up by 4

In CA the Republican is behind, and therefore does not meet the threshold. Phil places 3 Republican voters from the register track into CA. In WA, the Republican is ahead by 2 voters, but this does not meet the threshold of four so Phil takes 3 Republican voters from the track and places them in WA. In AZ, the Republican is up by 4 voters, which meets the threshold so Phil does nothing.

Direct Action Happens Automatically

A few of the Solo Play cards will not have the register track section but will instead say "Direct action happens automatically". In this case you do not compare anything with the register track. Instead follow all rules for a direct action; however, place voters on the board from the undecided voter supply (you will still evaluate each state's threshold individually).

Human Player Turn

After all of the AI parties have taken their turns, the human player takes their turn following the rules from the standard game with the following modifications.

Politick Actions

The following politick actions cannot be played in Solo Play:

• Local Funds Dry Up
• Sabotage
• Travel Costs

The following politick actions are modified when used in Solo Play:

• Backlash – If the AI party takes a direct action with the advertise icon, the Backlash politick action takes effect and you gain 3 registered voters.
• Campaign Advisor – If the AI party takes a direct action with the campaign icon, the Campaign Advisor politick action takes effect and you draw one card.
• Committed Donors – If the AI party takes a direct action with the politick icon, the Committed Donors politick action takes effect and you gain $30M.
• Connections – If the AI party has the majority in your home state, no player gets the $10M.
• Change of Plans – You may play Change of Plans on the AI turn to force the AI party to take a register action instead of taking a direct action (even if there are enough voters on the register track). Add the voters shown on the card to the register track. If all of the spaces on the track are full, do not place any more voters – the extra voters are lost. You may not play a Change of Plans on the "Direct action happens automatically" cards.
• Unprepared – Shuffle any cards set aside for the debates and draw 1 at random. Put this card in the box. It will not be used in this game.

Dirty Politics

When playing a Dirty Politics card, the following actions are modified when used in Solo Play:

• Flip Contributors – Take the money from the board instead of from another player
• Sway Minds – Remove the number of voters shown from the register track and add that same number to your registered voters.
• Scandal – You must always choose for the AI party to lose registered voters and voters in ethically minded states.
• Intimidation – If the AI card shows a direct action marked with the campaign icon and one of the states (no matter if it's under the threshold or not) is in the region you are in, then the action takes affect. Remove 2 voters from the register track, and gain 2 voters to your registered voters.

Candidates

Some candidates will make for a more difficult game as described below:

• The Newcomer – The Newcomer will result in a more difficult Solo Play game due to its disadvantage of starting behind in voters on the board and available resources.
• The Party Favorite – The Party Favorite will result in a more difficult Solo Play game due to only being able to place 3 voters in a state for each campaign action.

Debate

Refer to the section on debates in the main rule book for all debate rules. This section will just cover the AI debate turn. The AI player will use the 10 cards previously set aside for its debate. Shuffle these cards and draw 1 each turn to see which issues get moved on the debate track. The AI player(s) will always go first, in the same turn order as the game.

The debate section of the Solo Play card has 2 sections: the debate topic section and the rabbit trail section. For the AI debate turn, evaluate the debate topic section first followed by the rabbit trail section.

Debate Topic Section

This section shows a grid (2 rows, 3 columns) which corresponds to the 2 rows and 3 columns of issues on the Debate Topic card. The AI player will move the issue that corresponds to each check in this grid. If there are 2 checks in a particular place in the grid, then the AI player moves that issue 2 spaces.

Debate topic section example: Given the following solo play card and Debate topic play card. The AI player would move the "taxes" issue (first row, first column) 1 space on its track and would also move the "foreign aid" issue (second row, third column) 1 space on its track.

Note, if one of these had had 2 check marks the AI player would have moved that issue 2 spaces on its track.

Rabbit Trail Section

This section shows consists of a row of 3 to 6 issue icons as well as a number under the first icon. The number indicates how many rabbit trail issues the AI player will either put out or move up on its track.

After the debate topic section is fully resolved, examine the rabbit trail section. The AI player will activate the number of rabbit trails given by the number below the first icon. A rabbit trail is always defined as an issue not in the original set of topics. Starting with the first icon and moving down the row left to right, evaluate each issue to determine if it is a valid rabbit trail. If the issue is not part of the original 6 debate topics then place that token on the first space of the AI player's debate track if it is not already on the debate arena. If it is on the debate arena, then move that token 1 space on the AI player's debate track. Repeat this process until you have placed or moved the number of tokens equal to the number given under the first icon.

Rabbit trail section example: Given the following solo play card and debate topic card. The AI player will get 3 rabbit trails. The first issue is "surveillance state". It is not part of the original debate topics so is a valid rabbit trail. The AI player will place that token on space 1 of its track. The second issue is the same so the AI player will now move that issue 1 space.

For the third rabbit trail, the AI player will place (or move if already on the debate arena) the "reproductive rights" issue since the third and fourth issues are both part of the original debate topics.

Note, if an issue appears twice it counts as 2 of the total rabbit trails and is moved (or placed and moved) twice.

Election Day

The game ends after the AI parties have played the last card from their October decks. The human player(s) gets one last turn, then the game is over. The party with the most electoral votes is the winner!

Cooperative Play

To play a co-op game, take turns as described above, with the AI parties going first. But, each AI party takes two turns in a row each turn (draw 2 cards and resolve them in order). After the AI parties are done, each human player takes one turn, then the AI parties go again, and so on.

See the flowchart on page 18 for a graphical description of the AI party turn.