*******First off a Disclaimer*******
I am a Canadian, there are some things that may be common sense to an American like how many electoral votes a state has. I had no clue playing for the first time. This may sway my opinion of the game. Then again, it may not.
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Tonight I had the opportunity to play 1960: The Making of A President. The game is brought to us by Z-Man games, and was created by Christian Leonhard and Jason Matthews. It is a two player game game that recreates the 1960 American Presidential race between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. The point of the game is to win the most electoral votes and become the “leader of the free world”. The game is supposed to run 90 – 120 minutes long. I’ll spare you the details but lets just say that for the first game we played history would have been dramatically changed.
1960:Making of a President is refered to as an Area Control game with card management. The game is broken down into 9 turns, 7 of which are regualar action phases. The 6th turn recreates the debates and the 9th turn is the actual election. A normal turn consists of playing your cards as events, or as campaign points to gain states for the election (by placing your cubes on the appropriate state), influence the media or weigh in on the issues. You get to play 5 cards a turn, one after another against your opponent. Once the 5 cards are played, there is a momentum phase and then the Campaign Strategy Phase.
I think the most unique part of the game was turn 6: The Debates. In this phase you use cards that you have saved to win on the 3 main issues of the day: Defence, the Economy and Civil Rights. The cards play the biggest role in winning so you need to pay attention to the cards you give yourself for the debate round. Winning the debates give you extra state support cubes to place as you see fit.
Ok, to be honest this game seemed a little daunting at first. There is a lot going on and a lot of different actions you can take during your turn. Luckly the instructions are pretty well written and there is a handy player aid to guide you through each of the turns. Also I didn`t realize the value of some states over the other which certianly affected my strategy. In the end I had fun playing it and I look forward to trying it out again. If you are looking for a decent 2 player game that has a pretty unique theme, then I suggest you try out 1960:Making of a President.
