This page details core mechanics of the game.
- Political Position: there are eleven of them.
- Extreme Right →
- Far Right →
- Right →
- Somewhat-Right →
- Center-Right →
- Center
- ← Center-Left
- ← Somewhat-Left
- ← Left
- ← Far Left
- ← Extreme Left
Information[]
User Stats[]
Campaign Strength[]
Campaign Strength is a measure of the organization and effectiveness of a user's campaign. It's value can be anywhere from 0 - 100, and it cannot be affected by other players. It does, however, decrease slowly over time. Campaign Strength is a crucial component in every election in BFTH.
State Reputation[]
State Reputation is a measure of how respected a user is by the voters in their state. This is the most elastic variable in BFTH elections. It can be increased by the user, who can run their own ads, but also decreased by opponents through attack ads.
National Reputation[]
National Reputation is the same as state reputation, but on a national level. It only affects Presidential elections.
Political Capital[]
PC Generation[]
Political Capital (PC) is a secondary "currency" needed to complete many actions in BFTH. Unlike money, PC generates at a set rate that cannot be increased directly by players.
The only way for a player to increase PC generation is to be elected to certain positions. All players start out with a base level increase of +6 per hour. Being elected to positions results in the following additional PC generation:
- President: +10 per hour (+16 Total)
- Vice President: +9 per hour (+15 Total)
- Cabinet Official: +8 per hour (+14 Total)
- Chief Justice: +8 per hour (+14 Total)
- Associate Justice: +7 per hour (+13 Total)
- Speaker, Senate Majority Leader, President Pro tempore: +4 per hour (+13 Total including Senator/Rep Bonus)
- Senate Minority Leader, Senate Majority Whip: +3 per hour (+12 Total including Senator Bonus)
- House Majority Leader: +3 per hour (+11 Total including Rep Bonus)
- Senate Minority Whip: +2 per hour (+11 Total including Senator Bonus)
- House Minority Leader, House Majority Whip: +2 per hour (+10 including Rep Bonus)
- House Minority Whip: +1 per hour (+9 including Rep Bonus)
- NGA Chair: +3 per hour (+12 Total including Governor Bonus)
- NGA Vice Chair: +2 per hour (+11 Total including Governor Bonus)
- Governor: +3 per hour (+9 Total)
- Senator: +3 per hour (+9 Total)
- Representative: +2 per hour (+8 Total) #to be reworked as +4/seat %
- Party Administration: Additional +3 per hour
- Caucus Administration: Additional +2 per hour
- State Party Administration: Additional +1 per hour
These increases DO stack. If you can hold more than one position, you will get the bonus for them.
PC Cap[]
Once a player has accumulated 75 PC, their PC generation will decrease by -1 per hour. It will continue to decrease by -1 per hour for every 15 PC they accumulate over 75. This means that the higher a player's PC generation, the higher their cap will be.
Example for base level player:
- 0 - 75 PC: +6 per hour
- 75 - 90 PC: +5 per hour
- 90 - 105 PC: +4 per hour
Fundraising[]
Fundraising in Battle for the Hill happens automatically every hour. However, the amount of money raised can be increased by the player, through two different fundraising stats. Both of these stats decrease slowly over time.
PAC Fundraising[]
Each level that PAC fundraising is increased results in the player receiving an additional $2000 per hour.
Grassroots Fundraising
Each level of Grassroots fundraising only increases money per hour by $750. However, there are no electoral consequences for this type of fundraising.
Changing Positions, Moving States, and Switching Parties[]
Just like in real life, some in-game options can hurt your stats, or have direct electoral effects. All electoral effects will decrease over time.
Changing Positions[]
Changing your positions on the user settings page will directly affect your elections. The amount of this effect is dependent on how far you move your positions. Moving from Center Right to Center does not have nearly as much of an effect as moving from Far Right to Far Left.
Moving States[]
Voters usually don't like when you move to their state to run for office. For moving states, you will receive an electoral penalty for carpetbagging. Your state reputation will also be reset. The amount of state reputation you start with in your new state will be dependent on your national reputation.
Changing Parties[]
When you change parties, you basically have to start building yourself up from scratch. You will lose 50% of your national reputation for doing this, and your donor bases will be cut in half as well.
Elections[]
General Elections[]
How does election polling work?[]
Elections take into account a number of different variables by taking a poll every 15 minutes. All election variables are used when calculating the result of a poll, along with a small amount of error.
How are election results determined?[]
The result of an election is determined over the entire 24 hour election cycle. Every poll that is taken contributes a small amount to the final election result. However, the last hour of polling is worth more than early polling.
More concisely, 96 polls will run during an election cycle (4 per hour for 24 hours). Each poll will contribute to the final election score with the following weights:
- Poll 1 - 92: ~0.7% of final score
- Poll 93 - 96: ~7.5% of final score
What variables get used in calculating elections?[]
- Campaign Strength
- State Reputation
- State Party Strength
- National Party Strength
- State Election Laws
- User Social/Economic Stance vs State Social/Economic Stance
- Party Social/Economic Stance vs State Social/Economic Stance
- Legislative vote effects
- PAC fundraising
- Incumbency
- Penalties for changing positions or moving states
Primary Elections[]
What's the difference between primaries and elections?[]
Primaries pit members of the same party against each other to determine who will represent the party in the general election. For the most part, they function the same way as elections, with a few key differences:
One component from elections is removed:
Party Social/Economic Position vs State Social/Economic Position
And two components are added:
- User Social/Economic Stance vs Party Social/Economic Stance
- Endorsements
How do endorsements work?[]
Endorsements are intended to give a party more control over which candidates are running. Anyone in a party can endorse anyone in any race. A few factors are taken into account when determining the power of an endorsement:
- In-state vs Out-of-state: Out-of-state endorsements are much weaker compared to those coming from in-state
- Position held by endorser: An endorsement from an in-state representative, senator, or governor is much more powerful than an endorsement from someone with no position. An endorsement from the President is also extremely power, even though the President might be "out-of-state".
What does primary "status" mean?[]
OPEN: This means the primary is open and you can join in to run for a position
CLOSED: 24 hours before polls close for a primary, the primary status will change to "closed". This means the primary can no longer be entered.
ENDED: This means the primary is completely over. The winner has been determined and has moved on to the general election.
Governors[]
What can the governor do?[]
The position of governor is a bit different from the other positions in the game. It will allow you to access the state administration page, where you can do a few different things.
How do governors move state positions?[]
Governors are able to set left or right economic/social positions for their administration, along with setting an importance level for each one. State positions will then slowly move towards what the governor has set.
If a governor moves a state's stances the maximum amount (4 Shifts), it will take around 3 terms (24 days) for the stances to move completely. Note that this means if a states stances have been moved all the way to the right, then it will take a left-wing governor 6 terms to move the positions all the way to the maximum left, and vice versa.
Also note that state positions can only be moved a certain amount. Alabama is not going to become left-wing, and Vermont is not going to become right-wing. You get 5 Shift points in total, and can only shift an axis by 4 max.
What do election laws do?[]
The governor is allowed to choose from 3 different election law types:
- Push for partisan laws: This will help members of the governor's party in elections, but will hurt the governor's own re-election.
- Demand fair election laws: This is the neutral option that has no effect on any elections. This is also the default option for a state.
Presidential primaries[]
Presidential primaries occur over a five day period.
THE CHART BELOW IS OUT OF DATE AS DELEGATES ARE DIFFERENT BETWEEN DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS.
State | Delegates | |
---|---|---|
DAY ONE | ||
Iowa | 44 | |
New Hampshire | 24 | |
Nevada | 35 | |
South Carolina | 53 | |
DAY TWO | ||
Alabama | 53 | |
Arkansas | 32 | |
Colorado | 66 | |
Georgia | 102 | |
Massachusetts | 91 | |
Minnesota | 77 | |
Oklahoma | 38 | |
Tennessee | 67 | |
Texas | 222 | |
Vermont | 16 | |
Virginia | 95 | |
Kansas | 33 | |
Louisiana | 51 | |
Nebraska | 25 | |
Maine | 25 | |
Michigan | 130 | |
Mississippi | 36 | |
Arizona | 75 | |
Florida | 214 | |
Idaho | 23 | |
Illinois | 156 | |
Missouri | 71 | |
North Carolina | 107 | |
Ohio | 143 | |
Utah | 33 | |
Washington | 101 | |
Alaska | 16 | |
Hawaii | 25 | |
Wisconsin | 86 | |
Wyoming | 14 | |
DAY THREE | ||
Connecticut | 55 | |
Delaware | 21 | |
Maryland | 95 | |
New York | 247 | |
Pennsylvania | 189 | |
Rhode Island | 24 | |
Indiana | 83 | |
West Virginia | 29 | |
Kentucky | 55 | |
South Dakota | 20 | |
DAY FOUR | ||
California | 475 | |
Montana | 21 | |
New Jersey | 126 | |
New Mexico | 34 | |
North Dakota | 18 | |
Oregon | 61 | |
TOTAL | 3,922 |