The Campaign Trail Game Has Returned.

AnywhereButOTL

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This is probably the most I've ever lost the popular vote in an election by and still won. Proportionally it's about the same amount as Trump won/lost by last year. It's kinda ̶y̶u̶g̶e̶ impressive.
 

Galba Otho Vitelius

This is a personal first. I finally carried New York running as Bryan, on normal:

Here is the game link:

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/546613

I normally give the one big speech in New York and do nothing else, which leads to a fun comment but seems to have no effect. If I get the Tammany Hall question, if I accommodate Tammany Hall it always seems to cost me several states in the Midwest while never delivering New York. This was one case where working with Tammany Hall actually got Bryan New York. I didn't think this was possible on normal.

This might be the game randomizer. What might of worked was not just promising patronage, but stating that Bryan would fight temperance. I also got a question I've never seen before about a speech in Chicago that enabled Bryan to emphasize the pro-labor parts of his platform. I pretty much gave pro-labor answers to the questions, while kissing up to the segregationists without been too blatant about it, while going to the border states and the West Coast. There was also a question about expanding the navy I've never seen before, I had Bryan come out for expanding the navy, though I still opposed the Dole group in Hawaii.

I've found that the 1896 scenario gives the most varied questions. It seems to be the best developed of the scenarios. Bryan is fun to run with because of the unpredictability, you just have to be consistently pro-silver.

With this map, without carrying New York Bryan could have won by just carrying Illinois alone, or by carrying Indiana and either Iowa or Maryland, and these are probably more consistently obtainable paths to victory.

Oh, and Bryan lost the nationwide popular vote to McKinley by about 8,000 votes. His margin in New York was 995 votes.

This map actually pre-figures the New Deal coalition.
 

Manlex

Played 1916 campaign as Charles Evans Hughes on Normal difficulty. Not horrifically hard to win usually. But I personally have never won this particular campaign as a moderate, extreme peace candidate. I dare say, I have managed to do it after trying for a decent amount of time 577408
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Manlex

Pericles said:
How do you win as Hughes?
Click to expand...

For starters, don't run with conservative views, choosing Burkett over Fairbanks for VP would be a decent option that, if you intend to campaign as either a semi-progressive or moderate would be generally helpful. Going for peace is generally a good idea in this election as well. Generally try to just strike the right balance and if you can hold the different wings of the Republican Party together and choose the states you invest visits in wisely (I've found that Ohio and Indiana can swing the election in your favor if you steal them from Wilson) while maintaining control of the Northeast and West Coast by taking moderate stances - with some more progressive stances on Women's Rights and immigration laws. And make sure to not alienate the Irish-Americans or German-Americans, they can be instrumental in determining who wins
 

VidaLaVida

Pericles said:
How do you win as Hughes?
Click to expand...

In my experience:

-Focus on the Midwest as your key battleground, especially Missouri, Indiana, Kansas and/or Ohio.

-Run as, for the most part, a Progressive. It's OK to pick Fairbanks as your VP, but still, tout your progressive credentials, and moderately support the reforms that have taken place, making exceptions in a few places. Some of them are more controversial than others (Good ones to support: the Federal Reserve; the Federal Trade Commission; child labor laws; the 17th Amendment; state-by-state women's suffrage; workers' comp for federal employees; Tariff Commission. Things you might want to stay quiet on: the Clayton Antitrust Act; prohibition. Things to criticize: Louis Brandeis, the Adamson Act).

-Make yourself the peace candidate. Insist that Wilson is the true hawk, distance yourself from TR's hawkishness, and insist on America's neutrality. However, don't go overboard; for some reason, criticizing the manufacturing of more weapons is considered a bridge too far.

-Feel free to bait the Irish. It plays well in the Midwest.
 
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TooManyIdeas

TooManyIdeas

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Just barely scraping into the top three for the House vote as Douglas, despite my New York strategy failing miserably. The Civil War almost certainly happens pretty quickly after election day in this timeline.
 
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