Losing to McCain on Beginner in TPM 2008. Need some strategy tips!

In a lot of cases, the end game boils down to sabotaging both your opponent's issue ratings and his or her awareness in a state.

When I'm playing as a Republican candidate and want to win California I have to, basically, launch what we call an Intimidator Bomb. I hire about four-five intimidators and move them to states where the awareness is locked at 100%/100%; if both a republican candidate and a democratic candidate have maxed out awareness and the issue ratings for one candidate aren't drastically stronger than the other candidate's then a state will almost always lean to its typical party. California (and New York and Illinois) is a very hardcore democratic state so winning it as a republican is hard but it can be done. Dominate some of the most important issues and, towards the end of the game, make a point to use intimidators to lower your opponent's awareness in a state so that, if you're lucky, he may be 75% awareness while you're still at 100% come election time and you can steal the state.

Also, spend most of the early game building up your awareness. Build as many HQ's as you can afford, the normal HQ's will start bring in money, so you don’t have to spend so much effort on Fundraising.

A good role of thumb is to focus on awareness for the first half of the game, this is to make sure everyone knows you, then focus on the issues the second half.

One more thing, If a state already has a majority of your party, (Republican / Texas) (Demarcate / New York). Just like in reel politics it dose not pay to pander to the other side, it will hurt you with your party, and do you almost no good with the opposing party. So in this case you take the Bush 04 tactic and get as many of those people out to vote for you as possible. If they don’t know you (Awareness) or don’t believe in your stance on the issues you can lose those states simply by playing to the other party and not focusing on your own.

Are you using a custom candidate or one of the pre-defined characters?

-KnightAV

So, there are obviously many strategies to use for winning, and the one's you use depend a lot on the strengths and weaknesses of your candidate and their party, as well as the difficulty of the AI. Something that I would suggest is to not underestimate the value of cheaper ads and speeches, even if you have the money for TV ads. If you want to win a state (but you don't plan on focusing on it intensely like California or New York), stick a low-cost newspaper in it as soon as you can... this will give it plenty of time to raise awareness in that state and start to solidify your position on an issue you plan to carry the state with. But a newspaper isn't going to give you the high issue score you need, so I use speeches to raise my issue score in a state. Spending more stamina on getting those issue scores up by visiting state by state and giving speeches, rather than building up a bunch of cash, often gives you better results than assaulting a state with high-cost tv ads. Such tactics allow you to cater to each state better, as well. TV ads change your position on a topic throughout the whole country, regardless of whether the stance you are taking is advantageous in those states. This is mainly a concern for issues that independents go one way or the other on, depending on their state.

But I think the most important thing to do, my own personal strategy aside, is to use the political strategy map (F8) and pin down all the states you need to win, so that you don't end up neglecting the perfectly important smaller states by focusing only on the big states. Aim for more than the required number of states that you need to win; that way, if one of them looks unwinnable, you can give up on it and use your resources elsewhere. Also revisit the map if you find yourself losing too many of the states you were planning on carrying: sometimes you can find two or three states that your opponent has been ignoring that you can use to offset your loss with some quick speeches and operatives.

Custom.

Maxxed out Stamina and Charisma, lowered Experience to zero (I always have enough clout to get the endorsements I need regardless), everything else I left at a 4, 5, or 6.

For issues, I start +41 in Improving the Economy, -21 in Higher Gas Prices, and +21 in The War on Terror, all 3 of which improve my standings with dems, reps, and independents. The rest I drop one point into all issues which appeal to both Democrats and Independents.

Yet McCain still starts out with a 20 point lead in the beginning for some reason.

I put a basic HQ in almost every state I plan to make a play for, so my awareness is close to maxxed by the end of the game in all states I want to win.

I definitely have been focusing on awareness in the first half and issues in the second already, but I still can't seem to win. =(

Try playing with a non-custom candidate and you will see a big difference.

I think there is a bug where custom candidates do not receive the benefit of association with their chosen party.

McCain technically only has 2 issues set at the beginning also. War in Iraq (-90) and Immigration (-1).

The rest of his issue status is derived from his party.

If custom candidates were receiving the benefit of their party's platform, you would see a much more level playing field.

-KnightAV

I agree, it is much more difficult to win with a custom candidate. With mine, I basically, went the "Obama" method and gave her a golden tongue. Then we did endless speech tours across the nation. Beat Grant with 380 EV

I can cream anyone with Bill Richardson, because he's the man.