The Presidential Game- TOS Review

 The Presidential Game

We have participated in local and state politics, brought Teenpact to our State, campaigned around the country, have friends in office from the deep south to the upper Midwest, call our elected officials on issues and vote. So, really, what can we learn from a game like this? Plenty.

Mainly the electoral college, which is not all that easy to understand. The object of the game is to win 270 of the 538 electoral votes.

Players are divided in to 2 teams. Each roll of the dice elicits a decision to "campaign" or to "fund raise," the results of which determine how one's chips will be distributed. In addition there are political cards to earn while fundraising- you know, campaign favors.

It's almost like the real thing, sans the Starbucks.

This game combines chance and strategy to bring your kids a great political experience (which doesn't always happen in real life). They can only fundraise in 4 states, each state requires a different number of chips to "take it" and the games lasts a pre-determined number of "weeks" (read, rounds).

Team scores can be kept track of in one of 2 ways- on the tally sheet enclosed or on your computer through a Electoral WebMap, accessible by the code provided. You need to update the game after each turn, but let me assure you that this is a highlight of the entire game! Cub and Flower practically knocked each other down in order to update the map after each turn. Above is our map at the end of one game.

Master strategist Big Grinner won this round.

With each game you will find  a high quality, professional game board, dice, chips, score-cards and hours of fun!

 Not only that but playing will most likely illicit questions about our political system- it did here, anyway. Questions such as, what makes a democracy or a republic,what's the difference between the popular vote and the electoral college and what's the real difference between Democrats and Republicans.

This game would be a great addition to any study on American History, U.S. Government, the electoral college or politics for homeschools, co-ops and even schools.

Feeche's only criticism of the game was that there was no 3rd or 4th party to siphon off votes. What I appreciated most was how easy it was to learn, the fact that it gave my younger and less strategic minded kids a chance of winning and the fact that it addresses a difficult concept in easy to understand terms (game playing). Good, clean fun for everyone- highly recommended!

 

$35.00, designed for ages 11 and up (but my 10 year old played it with no problem)

   

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