Automa for the people: The Primary review

"Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening."    

Bill Clinton

When I started this blog I said I was going to stray away from automa. I honestly had not played a lot of it and had heard it's like playing both sides of a two-player game. A friend who has been solo gaming much longer than I told me that some of the best games are automa. So based on her recommendation I went to my shelves to see what games I already own that have automa. The truth is I have several, so why would I not at least give them a shot. I decided to start with the primary because I love this game as a multiplayer game. I am big on political games and this one stands out for me because you are NOT running for president, only for your parties nomination. As a multiplayer game it eliminates some of the tension that occurs when you play a game and have to pick parties for the presidency. Do you, know what else eliminates that? a Robot.

A Word From The Publisher...

Congratulations on your candidacy in The Primary! Outwit your opponents during a presidential primary election by traveling the country, hosting rallies and fundraisers, advertising, and gaining the favor of powerful Super PACs. Regions across the country will vote during the eleven rounds of the game and you will have to predict your opponents’ strategies in order to earn the most delegates and win the game! Good luck, candidates!

How To Play

The Primary is played over 11 rounds, each with 4 phases: News, Action, Vote, and Organize.

In the News phase, 1 News card is drawn and its effect is applied to the current round (In solo mode there are instructions for the elec-o-bot on this card for that round). You may be forced to move, get an extra action, or gain influence, etc - be prepared to adjust your strategy!

In the Action phase, players select 4 Action cards from their hand and commit them face down in a queue. Will your opponents try to swoop in and steal an election? Will they go all-out in an attempt to win over the Super PAC? Choose wisely!

Once all players have committed their 4 Action cards, they take turns executing their actions one card at a time. Bus and Plane cards provide some flexibility and the Positive Ad / Negative Ad cards can be used anywhere!

During the Vote phase, 1 or more regions may vote (or none at all - a nice break from the stress of campaigning.) The player with the most influence in the regions voting wins delegates, getting one step closer to victory!

The player with the most delegates at the end of the game wins!

Did you say robot?

Indeed, the deadly and calculating Elect-O-Bot 9000. It's not we candidate you want, It's the candidate we deserve (Que Terminator 2 music). He's pretty straight forward. You move the bot to the corresponding region and the add cubes and take away cubes. From there you roll the die to see how many super PAC cards they have. Cold and calculating, just like a politici..... Robot.

The Takeaway

This game is still great even solo! It has three levels of difficulty and I look forward to getting stomped on each one of them (I lost my first game because I got overconfident in my lead and did not put a cube in Texas, therefore, giving the bot all the delegates. I eventually lost by 3.)

The replayability is very very high. Every game you randomly pick different times each state votes. Combine that with the random event cards and no two games are ever going to be exactly the same (except the losses on the hard level, I assume those will be exactly the same for me). If you looking for a lightweight election game with lots of decisions I highly recommend The Primary. And be honest, you know if elect-o-bot was on the ballot this year you would think about voting for it.