Revolution of 1828 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Goal
• Flow of Play
  • 1. Prepare
  • 2. Campaign
    • Election Tiles
      • Delegate
      • Smear Campaign
      • Campaign Action
  • 3. Count Votes
• End of the Game
• History
  • John Quincy Adams
  • Andrew Jackson
  • The Election of 1824
  • The Smear Campaign of 1828
  • Why This Election Is Called a Revolution
• Credits

Components

• 78 Election Tiles: 45 Delegates (9 each of 5 colors), 9 Smear Campaigns, 24 Campaign Actions
• 1 Game Board
• 5 Elector Figures and 1 Editor Figure (1 per Campaign area)
• 78 Vote Tokens (25x1, 23x2, 15x3, 15x5)
• 1 Linen Bag

The Smear Campaign tiles have different illustrations for thematic reasons and are identical for game purposes.

Setup

1. Put the game board on the table.
2. Place the 5 elector figures in the center of the board's 5 Campaign areas of matching color (New England, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Central, South Central).
3. Place the editor figure in the center of the board's Press area.
4. Collect the 78 vote tokens nearby.
5. Put all 78 election tiles in the bag, then shake and mix the tiles.
6. Choose the starting player. (How about the player who last voted on anything?)
7. Give the bag to the starting player.

The game board has six areas: five Campaign areas and the Press area. Each area has three parts: a center box for unclaimed pieces, and a box on each board edge for the player on that side. These rules refer to the box on your board edge as "your side" and to the box on your opponent's edge as "your opponent's side."

Now you can start the game!

Goal

Collect more Votes than your opponent to become President of the United States!

To reach that lofty goal, take the election tiles that suit you best and hinder your opponent. Election tiles garner you the allegiance of electors and let you use smear campaigns to skew the populace in your favor. Should you also use the powerful Campaign Actions to your advantage and make sure the press looks the other way, nothing will stand in your way!

Flow of Play

Revolution of 1828 is played over four rounds, and each round has three phases:

1. Prepare
2. Campaign
3. Count Votes

At the end of the fourth round, the game ends.

1. Prepare

In this phase, you'll fill each area on the game board with random election tiles.

For each of the 6 areas, draw 3 election tiles from the bag and place them face-up in the center.

The color and type of the drawn tiles don't matter in this phase. Simply place three tiles on each area, and move on.

2. Campaign

In this phase, you'll take turns campaigning around the country, picking up election tiles and using their effects. The starting player takes the first turn during this phase.

On your turn, you must take 1 unclaimed election tile from an area of your choice.

Unclaimed election tiles are those in the center boxes of the game board's 6 areas.

If you take the last unclaimed election tile from an area, immediately claim its elector or editor by sliding its figure to your side, and take an extra turn.

If you claim an elector, you have garnered their favor this round. However, if you claim the editor, this is bad—their watchful eye is on you this round.

If no unclaimed election tiles remain on the game board, this phase ends.

Election Tiles

There are three types of election tiles: Delegate, Smear Campaign and Campaign Action. When you take one, resolve its effect as listed below.

Delegate

Immediately: Place this Delegate on your side of the Campaign area of matching color.

Smear Campaign

Immediately: Place this Smear Campaign on your side of any Campaign area. It counts as a Delegate. (It's like a Delegate of wild color!)

Take care—Smear Campaigns are dangerous! If the watchful journalistic eye of the editor is on you at the end of the round, Smear Campaigns will cost you dearly.

Campaign Action

There are seven types of Campaign Action tiles, as listed below. Once you use the effect of a Campaign Action, place it in your Campaign pile, on the side edge of the game board.

Though you must take an election tile on your turn, you may take a Campaign Action that you cannot resolve. Basically, as long as you take a tile, you're good!

Agenda Immediately: Choose an area with at least 1 unclaimed election tile. During your opponent's next turn, they must take an unclaimed election tile from the chosen area.

Campaign Rally No immediate effect. Persistent: While an area has an unclaimed Campaign Rally, players cannot choose to take an unclaimed election tile from that area except for the Campaign Rally. (Yes, that's all it does! It doesn't have an immediate effect when taken.)

Financing No immediate effect. At the end of any of your turns, you may remove 1 Financing and 1 other Campaign Action tile (even another Financing) from your Campaign pile and return them to the box to immediately take an extra turn.

Gerrymandering Immediately: Take any 1 unclaimed election tile and place it in the center of any other area with at least 1 unclaimed election tile. (An area may hold more than 3 unclaimed election tiles.) Gerrymandering ignores the effect of Campaign Rally. (You may take a tile other than a Campaign Rally from its area.) If you take and use Gerrymandering to empty two areas on the same turn, claim both electors or editor, as normal, but you will only take 1 extra turn (not 2).

Momentum Immediately: Tip over 1 elector or the editor. If a player claims an elector or editor that is tipped over, they do not take an extra turn. At the start of the next round, stand up all the tipped-over electors and the editor. If you tip over an elector or editor that is already on a player's side, Momentum will have no effect.

Polling Immediately: Take 1 Delegate from your opponent's side of any Campaign area and place it on your side of the same Campaign area.

Special Edition Immediately: Take 1 Smear Campaign from your side of a Campaign area and give it to your opponent. They must place it on their side of any Campaign area.

3. Count Votes

In this phase, you'll score Votes for this round's campaign, as follows.

1. Compare the Campaign Piles If you have more election tiles in your Campaign pile than your opponent does in theirs, you gain 3 Votes. (Track Votes with vote tokens.)

2. Score the Campaign Areas Score Votes for each Campaign area as follows. First, compare your Delegates there with your opponent's Delegates there:

   • If you have more Delegates, you gain 1 Vote.
   • If you have more Delegates and your opponent has no Delegates, you gain 2 Votes instead.
   • If you have equal Delegates, you gain 0 Votes.

   Then, check: Have you claimed this area's elector? If yes, you also gain 1 Vote for each of your Delegates there (regardless of whether you have more than your opponent there).

3. Deal with the Press First, take all Smear Campaign tiles from your Campaign areas and place them in your Press area. Then, check: Have you claimed the editor? If so, you must give 1 Vote to your opponent for each Smear Campaign on your side! (Sadly, he's taking a close look at you, which costs you dearly.)

   You can't drop below 0 Votes. You don't "owe" Votes.

   Take all tiles on the game board, except Smear Campaigns in the Press area, and return them to the box. (Smear Campaigns in the Press area remain throughout the game.)

   Finally, give the bag to the other player, who becomes the starting player for the next round, then start the next round.

End of the Game

At the end of the fourth round, the game ends. (At this point, the bag will only have 6 tiles left.)

The player with the most Votes wins the game. They become President of the United States!

History

In 1828 the election escalated to a hitherto unknown degree. Why did this happen? To find out, let's look at the candidates and the preceding election of 1824.

John Quincy Adams

(Born July 11th, 1767 / Died February 23rd, 1848. President of the USA 1825–1829)

Adams—the sixth President of the United States, and son of the second president—was part of the country's political elite. After working as a lawyer in Boston for several years, he was appointed in 1794 as ambassador to the Netherlands, where he had studied at Leiden University. Later, he was appointed as ambassador to Portugal in 1796 and then to Prussia 1797. After a stint as an elected senator from 1803 to 1808 in the Federalists—incidentally, a party that dissolved not long after—he again took over representation of his country in Europe, this time in Russia for 1809–1814 and in Great Britain for 1815–1817.

His great foreign policy experience earned him appointment as Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President James Monroe from 1817 to 1825. During this time, he positioned himself for the post of president and in 1824 seized the chance as Monroe waived his candidacy for a third term, which he could run for at that time.

Andrew Jackson

(Born March 15th, 1767 / Died June 8th, 1845. President of the USA 1829–1837)

The son of Northern Irish immigrants, Andrew Jackson enjoyed at least basic education until tenth grade, because his family intended for him to be a clergyman. During the Revolutionary War, the British captured him, his mother, and his two brothers, one of whom died from torture. Shortly after their detention, his mother also died, leaving Jackson—whose father had died two months before his birth—to be orphaned as a teenager. Despite his lack of formal training, he worked with a lawyer to gain admission as a lawyer himself, starting as a prosecutor for Western North Carolina in 1788.

His political career began in 1796 as a member of the constituent assembly of the State of Tennessee. He was also sent as the state's first representative in Congress and a year later to the Senate. From 1798 to 1804 he served on the Supreme Court of Tennessee. Soon after, though, influenced by frequent discourses with President Thomas Jefferson, he withdrew from political life for a time, focusing on farming until 1812.

At this time, Jackson began his military career, becoming commander-in-chief of Tennessee's militias and driving the Muscogee tribe of Native Americans to Florida. He gained national fame by defending New Orleans against British troops in 1815. Six years later, he led the military governorship of Florida, recently taken over from the Spaniards, paving the way for Senator Tennessee's new Senate of 1823–1825. In 1824, Jackson ran for the presidency for the first time.

The Election of 1824

Since the dissolution of the Federalist Party around 1816, the US was a de facto one-party state. The Democratic-Republican Party, a forerunner of the modern Democratic Party, determined the political discourse, including the 1824 elections. But the party would soon split into two factions, one siding with John Quincy Adams and the other with Andrew Jackson, weakening the party and leading to its death.

Jackson pointed to his military honors and services in the Revolutionary War and the defense of New Orleans and Florida. Also, unlike Adams, he was a man of the people who had worked his way up without the privileges of an elite upbringing.

John Quincy Adams, in contrast, had already completed a term as president and gained much experience in this office. However, many citizens saw him as part of the establishment. He came from a politically influential family and was another link in the chain of past presidents, all of whom had come from Virginia or Massachusetts.

In the final count, it looked as if Andrew Jackson would win the presidency with 41.4% of the popular vote, the clear winner against John Quincy Adams with his 30.9%. However, Jackson did not reach a majority in the Electoral College. There he gained 99 of the 261 electors, but he needed 131. In contrast to today's elections, six candidates took part in the election, so votes were widely distributed, making it difficult to gain a majority.

Under the law of the time, the election of the president was now assigned to the House of Representatives in a contingent election. One of the other candidates was Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House, who was ready for collusion against Jackson. As the Columbian Observer, a Philadelphia newspaper, revealed, Henry Clay procured the majority of the representatives' votes for Adams, electing him, and then became his Secretary of State. This went down in American history as "the corrupt bargain."

Another far-reaching consequence of the 1824 election was a change in United States political parties. Adams' supporters formed the National Republicans, the predecessor of today's Republican Party, while Jackson's supporters, drawing on Thomas Jefferson's political heritage, founded the Democratic Party.

The Smear Campaign of 1828

The election of 1828 divided the Americans in two camps. One group of voters claimed that Adams deserved a second term. On the other side, voters thought Jackson was the true winner of the 1824 election and was cheated of his presidency. Jackson himself, as confidants reported, had sworn revenge after the defeat, and so it is not surprising that the election campaign in 1828 quickly got out of hand. This was the first election in which success depended less on the content of the candidates than on their character. One famous smear against Jackson came in the Coffin Handbills, a series of pamphlets that accused him of assault, murder, and even summary executions of militiamen. As one said: "He has ever been a man of blood and carnage."

Andrew Jackson's wife, Rachel Jackson, was hit especially hard by the smears. She had married Jackson in 1791, but she was still officially married to another man until 1794, which Adams' followers used against her. Their claim was undeniably true, but this late divorce had happened over thirty years prior, so the Jackson camp was shocked when this topic was dredged up by his political opponent. This old story was uncovered by the Cincinnati Gazette, whose editor-in-chief was a close friend of Henry Clay—the same Henry Clay whom Jackson had hated since the events of the 1824 election.

But Jackson and his supporters didn't take the scandal lying down. They hit back, claiming that Adams had lived with his wife before their wedding ceremony, and that—much worse—when he was an American diplomat in Russia, he provided the czar with an American woman for sexual purposes. Furthermore, he was accused of pampering himself by purchasing a pool table, gambling, and breaking the Sabbath.

The allegations against Jackson, though true, are not serious in our modern view. However, the accusations against Adams were largely lies, though he managed to stifle them. Nonetheless, Andrew Jackson prevailed in his second political duel with John Quincy Adams by an overwhelming majority of votes. After his victory, his opponents complained that he won only with the voices of good-for-nothings and drunkards. But even today, his success is seen as the choice of the common people, the little man. However, his wife, Rachel, did not live to see his presidency—she died of a heart attack shortly after she bought a dress for the inauguration ceremony.

Why This Election Is Called a Revolution

Commonly, revolutions are political upheavals carried out by force and war. However, revolutions can also refer to profound social changes, such as the Industrial Revolution and Digital Revolution. The word "revolution" also applies to this election, as it fundamentally changed the political system of the United States.

For the first time, Andrew Jackson broke through the line of presidents who came from venerable, elite Virginia or Massachusetts circles, shifting the focus of political contenders toward the new states to the west.

It should not be forgotten that at this time, the US still consisted of only twenty-two states. Many of today's fifty states joined the union later. This ended the era of great influence from states that were important at the time of the founding and during the War of Independence.

It was not only the weighting of political issues that changed—political style also changed. Jackson may well be described as the first populist in the White House, as illustrated by his inauguration: Jackson opened the doors of the White House to his supporters, and hundreds accepted the invitation. The Capitol was not prepared for their numbers. They climbed around on the furniture with dirty boots, gorged on the food and drinks constantly brought in by the servants, and broke glasses and china worth several thousand dollars.

Once president, Jackson implemented many important electoral and economic reforms. So-called Jacksonian democracy expanded suffrage, pushed back the influence of the federal government on the economy, and restructured federal authorities. Though he did not run on a platform of bank reform, he also presided over what would be called the Bank War, which led to the abolishment of the Second Bank of the United States, whose deposits Jackson disbursed into various state banks, known as "pet banks."

One of the most prominent parts of Jackson's legacy, however, is his brutal removal and suppression of tens of thousands of Native Americans. In 1830, he signed the contentious Indian Removal Act into law. Though it was challenged in the Supreme Court, this law eventually forced the Cherokee and many other Native American tribes to leave their homelands, causing thousands of deaths. This shameful moment in American history is known to the Cherokee as Nunahi-duna-dlo-hilu-i ("the trail where they cried") and more widely as the Trail of Tears.

Credits

• Game Designer: Stefan Feld
• Illustrator: Alexander Jung
• Graphic Designer: atelier198
• Historian: Nico Wagner
• Editor: Matthias Nagy and Josh Yearsley
• Production Artist: Michelle Garrett

© 2018 Frosted Games, Matthias Nagy. © 2019 Renegade Game Studios. All Rights Reserved.