Every action in these games is a tradeoff. There's no button that just makes you win, and no move that's always wrong. A canvass that dominates one week is wasted the next. An attack that breaks a front-runner can stain the person who threw it.
These are the operative's guides: what every move buys, what it costs, and how to know when it's the right one. Pick a game.
The coalition, the convention, every weekly move, and the general election that sends you the bill.
Television only helps you in November when you spend it in the swing. Pounding your base wins the nomination and never makes the seat safer.
Every play, the war chest, and the two numbers running underneath the poll you're staring at.
Persuasion times turnout. Not plus. Times. Your supporters only count if they vote, the mayor's people already do, and a lead in the poll can lose on the night.
The triage, the money, every play, and how to read a slate you didn't pick.
Three seats is the board. The hardest call in the game is the race you choose not to fund, and directors who can't make it lose boards while winning races.
The platform, the endorsements, the ground game, the air war, the knife and the debate. Every action card, and the trap inside it.
A deep base turns out. It doesn't shield you. Attack ads take the most from the wards where you're strongest, and the rival who aims there first takes your city off you.
Hold a swing seat in a bad year for your party, with a record you can't run away from.
A governor's race with no party behind you. Climb high enough to matter, then try to hold it as both parties' voters come home.
A Senate seat decided by ranked ballots. First choices keep you alive through the early rounds. Second choices win the final one.
You run a state party trying to win back a chamber. Eight candidates, a PAC air war, and a decision every round about whether to fight in the air or on the ground.
A ballot measure, and an electorate that hardens as the campaign runs. Persuasion bought early is worth more than persuasion bought late, and that changes everything.
Seven real House seats, each with its own twist. One guide for the whole series.
Never the candidate. You don't give the speech, you decide whether the speech is worth the week. Every one of these guides is written from that chair.
The board is where it gets tested. Go and lose one on purpose, then come back and read why.