Part 12: - Week 4

Week 4



Alright, we've reached the first big milestone - week 4! Not necessarily because of anything special that happens, but I'll be giving you a full sheet of up-to-date information every four weeks, starting now, so be sure to check the spreadsheet for that - but not now, now we have an update to get through. I'll also give you some more campaign strategizing at the end.

This week seems to be a pretty simple affair.



First of all, we need to get ourselves an endorsement, and you wanted to get one Republican one before sniping a Democrat one, and in particular...



...you wanted the foreign policy one. I'm pretty sure that is the objectively right choice in this situation. A Fighting ISIS bonus is always welcome, and there seems to be an awareness bonus that goes along with an endorsement in the states where one of the two relevant issues is in the top five. Fighting ISIS is in the top five in every single state.



Next, we move to California and "raise awareness", which given our brokeness means "give a speech". In particular, give a speech on Securing The Borders, as I lied earlier. Fighting ISIS is not in the top five issues in California, and only California. Fucking hippies. Now, we have a problem. All top five issues in California are issues where we don't win with the Independents. Addressing Climate Change they like, we dislike. Legalization of Marijuana they're neutral on, we dislike. Securing The Borders they dislike, we like. Supporting Gay Marriage they like, we dislike. Abortion Rights they like, we dislike. This is basically a complete and utter showstopper, because since we built an Outreach Center in California, we're locked into these five as the only issues we can use in this state unless we find a way to change that - and getting an issue you can't use in a state into the top five is basically impossible. It requires one of two things:

1) Spamming TV ads - and we don't have money to do that.
2) A random event occurring. I've mentioned these before, I think - they're like the events that happen at the beginning of a campaign mode campaign, they give a massive boost to a particular issue. If we got that to happen, we'd at least have one issue available that we could win on.

Essentially, what this means is that winning California has become less likely than Gary Johnson winning the presidency. Not winning a state. Winning the fucking presidency. Any and all resources we put into this state that are not related directly to getting our awareness up to 100% are completely wasted. I genuinely did not consider what I'm going to coin "issue deadlock" to be a problem for us. If I had, I would have heavily advocated against building an Outreach Center in California for that very reason. And now we've spent way too much money on that building to replace it. Welp. Anyway, back to the speech. What kind of speech can I give when Independents side with Michelle on every issue?



Well, we could do this. Just fucking imagine this speech happening. The internet would be in flames, the GOP would be in flames, the fucking world would be in flames. Ted God Damn Cruz attacking Michelle Fucking Obama over wanting more border control.



And as if reality itself has rejected this as a possibility, it had fuck-all of an effect. It only raised awareness by 1%.



This is not a winning battle, my friends. Next up, I was supposed to either go to California or Texas, depending on which one had more awareness.



Well, thanks to that bomb of a speech, it's still Texas.



So, due to our funds problems, we're going to have to fundraise a lot earlier than I normally would. What are we going to get out of this?



...that's acceptable, I suppose. I'm just way too used to pulling in 300K+. Well, that's it for this turn, let's see what week 5 has in store.



Political opportunity!



Another good one! Like it says, the Media Darling boosts all our ratings by 10%, but she cannot be moved after being placed. Because of that, I like to keep her around until late in the game, then place her in one of the battleground states that have developed.

Also, this is a good time to mention what I'm going to do with political operatives. I'm going to not put anything relating to them up to a vote. Instead, for simplicity's sake, I'll take over this part of the campaign, and run it in such a way that it aids the goals that you have for the campaign. You can micro a lot with operatives, and that doesn't lend itself to voting at all. So for now, the Media Darling sits alongside the Money Man at the ready when I need them.



Michelle's turn is once again focused on building. This time, it's a Campaign HQ in Ohio and an Outreach Center in New Mexico (not pictured). This is getting out of hand, she's going all over the place with these. I'm genuinely not sure how effective this is compared to building up a few HQs, so no advice from me there.



We once again have enough PR Clout to get an endorsement, but like you voted earlier, we're not getting one this turn and instead saving up for a Democrat one.



Finally, here's the stupid polls again. We're going to work out how this shit works eventually. Fighting ISIS got a big boost, which makes sense, and we gained in the popular vote and total issue score, but we lost ground in the electoral vote. Again, makes no sense. Now, before we get to the voting...

THEMCD'S HOT CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES, TIPS AND TRICKS

_{This is great, thanks to Friend Commuter!}

Alright, so where do we go from here on out? Well, first, let's look at the spreadsheet for that. Now, in general, not a lot has changed in the race. As of now, we're still building up. However, we have some problems. One, we have no money. Two, without money, our chances of raising awareness in California without political operatives are slim. Three, without money, we can't build the HQs that get us Political Capital points we need for operatives. We're in a pretty tough situation. What would I do for the next four turns? That's a tough one.

Maybe focus on Texas? We need money, that much is clear, and we aren't getting money out of California right now because we can't raise awareness there. Later in the campaign, we'll be able to put operatives there and shit, but right now, it's not happening. In Texas, we can just throw out the standard red meat to the base and get big boosts. Do some shit on Gun Rights, Securing The Borders and Abortion Rights and we should be well on our way to a good amount of awareness to fundraise with. Once we get the money, we get some options, but right now we don't have it.

If we do adapt this plan, I'm going to need to make a decision on how to use the Money Man, because we're going to see two big fundraising sprees in that case - one early in Texas and one late in California. The one in California will pay more money for sure, so putting the Money Man there will increase net payout. But maybe having more money early is more important, even if the "more money" ends up being less money overall, because spending early is more effective than spending late? Tough call, honestly.

Finally, take a look at the new column I added - "Lead vs. Undec[ided]". This should be a pretty good stat for you to look at - essentially, it shows you how volatile a lead in a state is by subtracting the amount of undecided voters (which are a lot easier to swing to your side than the voters from the opposing side) from the percentage lead the current leader has, then dividing by two. So for instance, look at Wyoming. We're currently getting 60% of the vote, Michelle is getting 25%, and 15% are undecided. Our lead is 20 percent points over the amount of undecided voters, meaning that even if Michelle managed to get all of the undecided voters on her side, she would still need to flip 10 percent points off of our voters to get a tie, which is essentially impossible unless we completely ignore the state and she focuses everything on it. So the greater the "Lead vs. Uncec[ided]" number is, the more secure the lead is. The lower it is, the more unsecure the lead is. Wasting time trying to fight in a secure state can be what turns your campaign from a win to a loss, and vice versa is the case for finding and fighting the unsecure states. So I hope you can make good use of that number.

VOTING

So as usual, I'm going to need a State, an Action and an Issue. Advisory on which endorsement to take will also be taken into account.