Heat up for the United States elections with the Campaign Game

For those heating up for the elections in U.S.A from the comfort of your living room couches, check out the Campaign Game to kill some time. It is a board game setting and you can play as one of the 6 candidates available. From the Democrats, we have Barack Obama, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. Or you can play as a Republican - Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson. Choosing one candidate or another gives you no special advantages in the game but hey, I am sure we have our own favorites. :P So far, I have only tried the single-player mode despite there being a multi-player option. The reason is simply that I don't have the patience to wait forever for someone to hook up with me. Back to the game. Besides you, the candidate, you also have henchmen to help you. There are 4 different units to choose from, each with their individual strengths and weaknesses. They are Spinmeister, Hatchet Man, Fundraiser and Operative. The Spinmeister has a long attack range and can slow down opponents. However, his damage is relatively low. The Hatchet Man is the guy on the front line. Though he has a small state capture area, he is a good melee soldier who causes high damage and can hit more than 1 unit simultaneously. The Fundraiser is basically a "cleric" who heals. Though she moves slower than the rest, she has a large state capture area. Last but not least, the Operative can go "undercover" and disappear from the opponent's sight. When he hits a unit or state when "undercover", the damage is awesome. One disadvantage though is his relatively low power i.e. he dies more easily. There are 7 states in all on the map for your opponent and you to battle for. When you manage to "color" all the boxes making up a state with your "presence", you capture the state. When this happens, your opponent cannot move his units onto your area. To do so, he must attack the state like he attacks a unit. Once the power of the state reaches 0, you lose control of your place and it is free game for all again. In case you are wondering what the benefits of claiming states are (beyond the obvious result of winning the game), you get income every turn based on the number and size of states you have. You need this money to use some of the more interesting special abilities of your candidate. You can read the complete FAQ here. For the single-player mode, my favorite strategy is a simple and brute-force one. I choose 3 Hatchet Men as my starting force. When the game begins, I focus my effort on killing off the opponent's units by ganging up on them. You need not worry about the computer gaining areas or making a lot of money - the AI is just too plain dumb to use the cash effectively. For instance, it does not hire new henchmen even when it can well afford it. So once you eliminate his henchmen, you can either gang up on your enemy candidate or practise guerrilla warfare from the safety of your controlled states. And yes, this is for the "hard" difficulty level. For the "easy" level, er... you don't need much strategy. So whether you are interested in the American politics scene or not (I am not), this is a very fun game. If you find it confusing initially, just let the first game be a warmer. You will rock after that. =) The Campaign Game is available at http://www.campaigngame.us or http://www.kongregate.com/games/thup/campaign-game . And oh, it is a flash game so you just need your browser. PS.: Check out the coolest attack in the game. Turn on your speakers and "slap" your opponent! :P