How to Play 1960: The Making of the President

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Place state seals

Position the 50 state seals face-up on their corresponding states on the board

Place initial support cubes

Add support cubes to states as indicated by the candidate icons printed on each state box, with each icon representing 1 starting support point

Position candidate tokens

Place Kennedy's token in Massachusetts and Nixon's token in California (their home states)

Set up issue tiles

Place the three issue tiles on the indicated spaces of the Issues Track

Initialize turn and phase markers

Place the turn marker and phase marker on the first spaces of their respective tracks

Distribute player components

Each player receives their colored cubes, their candidate card, and 2 momentum markers

Fill the political capital bag

Each player places 12 cubes of their color into the political capital bag

Prepare campaign deck

Shuffle the campaign cards and place them face-down near the board as a draw pile

Prepare endorsement deck

Shuffle the endorsement cards and place them with the endorsement markers face-down near the board

Set aside debate board

Place the debate board nearby; it will not be used until Turn 6

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Draw new cards

Each player receives 6 cards for turns 1-5 (before the debate) or 7 cards for turns 7-8 (after the debate)

Determine initiative

Perform an initiative check by drawing cubes one at a time until one player draws 2 cubes of their color; that player decides who acts first each activity phase

Select card usage

Choose one of three options: play the card's event, use campaign points (CP), or play your candidate card

Collect rest cubes

Take rest cubes shown on the played card and place them in your rest cube zone

Resolve normal events

Read and execute the event text, then remove the card from the game

Handle presidential events

Place debate events, election day events, or preempt events on the corresponding board locations for later resolution

Campaign in states (B1)

Spend CP to add state support cubes in the region where your candidate token is located (1 CP per cube)

Perform support checks

When campaigning in states owned by your opponent or where their candidate token is present, draw cubes from the bag; only your color cubes succeed

Bypass support checks with media

If you have media support in a region, skip support checks for owned states in that region

Move candidate token

Spend 1 CP to cross each regional boundary; movement within a region is free

Advertise in regions (B2)

Perform support checks equal to your CP; successful draws place media support cubes in any regional advertising box

Take positions on issues (B3)

Spend 1 CP for the first cube on any issue, 2 CP for each additional cube on the same issue during the same action

Allow event triggering

After resolving CP actions, your opponent may spend 1 momentum marker to trigger the card's event

Preempt events

Before resolving your action, spend 2 momentum markers to prevent your opponent from triggering the event

Gain campaign points

Play your candidate card for 5 CP, resolved like any other card

Exhaust the card

After use, flip the candidate card to its exhausted side; it cannot be used again until restored by a specific event

Reduce momentum

Both players lose half their momentum markers (round down)

Shift issues

The player with the most media support cubes on the board may swap two adjacent issue tiles on the Issues Track

Gain rewards

Collect momentum markers and/or endorsement cards based on which issues you lead (3rd place: 1 momentum; 2nd place: 1 momentum OR 1 endorsement; 1st place: 1 momentum AND 1 endorsement)

Place endorsement markers

When drawing an endorsement card, immediately place the endorsement marker in the indicated region

Reduce issue support

Remove 1 support cube from each issue tile

Save strategy cards

Place 1 card (turns 1-5) or 2 cards (turns 7-8) face-down in your campaign strategy card area; Gathering Momentum cards cannot be saved

Add rest cubes to bag

Both players place their accumulated rest cubes into the political capital bag

Discard remaining cards

Any cards left in hand are discarded

Determine initiative

Perform initiative check; the initiative holder wins tied debate issues

Retrieve strategy cards

Both players take their 5 saved campaign strategy cards as their hand

Set the stage

Move all three issue tiles from the Issues Track to the debate board in corresponding positions

Conduct debate rounds

Both players simultaneously reveal one card, placing it next to the debate issue matching the card's debate icon on the appropriate candidate's side

Resolve completed issues

When either side has 2+ cards on an issue, the player with higher total CP wins; winner receives state support cubes (2 for first issue resolved, 3 for second, 4 for third)

Apply debate events

Remember to apply any presidential debate event cards in play during the debate

Conclude debate

After all issues are resolved or cards exhausted, discard all strategy cards and proceed to Turn 7

Add bonus cubes

Each player adds cubes from their stock equal to their media support, then places all media and issue support cubes into the bag; exchange remaining momentum markers for 2 cubes each

Determine initiative

Perform initiative check to determine who resolves campaign strategy first

Execute campaign strategy

Each player takes 4 cards from their strategy area; for each card, perform 3 support checks for the state(s) named on that card

Resolve election day events

The initiative holder determines the order to resolve any election day event cards

Award unclaimed states

States without support cubes go to the player with an endorsement marker in that region, or to the player matching the state's support color if no endorsement exists

Winning

How to claim victory.

Count electoral votes

Each player collects the state seals for all states where they have support cubes and totals the electoral votes shown on the back of each seal

Achieve majority

The player with at least 269 electoral votes (majority of 537 total) wins the game

Apply Unpledged Electors

If this event was played, states where Kennedy leads with fewer than 4 support cubes (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi) are not awarded to either player

Break ties on states

If electoral votes are tied due to Unpledged Electors, the player who won more states wins

Break ties on support

If still tied, the player with the highest total state support cubes wins