The New Campaign Trail

[Independents for Nihilism]

Hey, I'd forgotten about this, glad to hear it's back with mods. But before checking those out, I gave 2016 a spin on normal as Clinton/Kaine which I don't think I'd done before, and basically inverted the results. Didn't expect to pull out FL, though Michigan was closer which I won by less than 40,000k votes.

[Independents for Nihilism]

Just ran a fairly generic centre-right game as Nixon/Agnew on normal, sabotaged the peace talks and won OTL+PA. I need to try something more unique sometime!

[Independents for Nihilism]

Tried to beat Dewey as Truman and underperformed, deadlocking the EC thanks to Strom Thurmond. Somehow I've never even considered this outcome. I got the plurality of the popular vote but Dewey got the plurality in the EC. The end blurb suggested one could serve as the other's VP in this situation, was this actually considered? Also I pasted the map code below but it doesn't seem to want to display in my preview - hopefully it'll show up for real.

[Independents for Nihilism]

Lost as WJB in 1896 while winning a majority of the popular vote. Moderated slightly on tariffs but stayed progressive most everywhere else and stuck with the 16:1 silver stump speech. In the end, I trusted the Iowa governor to pull that state out for me and neglected it myself. I believe it was the second closest state that could have flipped the election, the other being Michigan. I wonder if WJB could win in 1900 in this scenario?

[Independents for Nihilism]

I'm incompetent at loading mods so I'm still playing the default campaigns - here's 1976 where I won as Ford while losing the popular vote. I spent my last night in Pennsylvania and managed to pull it (and also Hawaii somehow) out and win.

Ford/Baker - 48.8%
Carter/Mondale - 49.2%

[Independents for Nihilism]

Turns out my whole issue with loading mods is that I was entering the game before loading them. Now that I've got them working, here's a classic Kerry win, where I flipped Ohio (and also Iowa) but lost the popular vote (Bush actually won a majority). Notably, the polls had me losing Wisconsin going into election night, if that had held then it would have been an electoral tie. That would have been fun to see.



Kerry/Gephardt - 48.7%
Bush/Cheney - 50.2%

[Independents for Nihilism]

My goal in life now is to deadlock the Electoral College as Perot, but Clinton just seems too popular, even when I focus on attacking him and he tries to play Giant Steps on Arsenio Hall. The best I've been able to do is Maine, Montana and Nevada.

[Independents for Nihilism]

Slick Goddamned Willy strikes again! I pulled out ALL the stops to get ahead here, and went hard against both Bush and Clinton to pull ahead in both Ohio and Texas, and yet I still come up short! GA appears to be the tipping point which Clinton won over Bush by just under 10k votes. MO was also very close, going to Clinton over me by 22k.



Clinton/Gore - 36.3%
Bush/Quayle - 33.6%
Perot/Stockdale - 29.3%

[Independents for Nihilism]

Won OTL+FL as Biden/Demings, I wonder what the takes on FL's trend would be with this margin?

[Independents for Nihilism]

With apologies to the memory of Bob Dole, won this big, beautiful 413 EV map as Clinton in '96, and just cracked 50% in the popular vote too. I ran mostly moderate, occasionally threw some red meat to the base, attacked congress whenever I could and didn't make Bill Clinton Tetris.

[Independents for Nihilism]

With Apologies to Walter Mondale, or, Nader Does Another One: one EV win by McCain/Pawlenty over Obama/Biden, while losing the PV by 3 and a half points.



McCain/Pawlenty - 62,873,628 - 47.4%
Obama/Biden - 67,691,779 - 51.0%

[Independents for Nihilism]

"With Further Apologies to Walter Mondale," or, "Anderson does a Nader": victory as Carter/Kennedy in 1980 while losing the popular vote by, you guessed it, three and a half points. Michigan decided it for me by a margin of under 5000 votes (0.12%), and Pennsylvania was the next closest, which I won by about 21000 votes (0.49%). I won the first debate, lost the second, but the hostage rescue was successful, and I generally tacked toward's Kennedy's more liberal policies.



Carter/Kennedy - 44.8% - 38,744,140
Reagan/Bush - 48.3% - 41,724,188

Also, why on earth does the EV calc load Ed Clark as a default third party, and not Anderson? Weird.

[Independents for Nihilism]

"Al Gore is Cursed Across All Possible Universes" or "Perot Does a Nader": a bloody 271-267 loss as Gore/Bayh in 1996b, naturally while winning the popular vote (41.7-40.3). I was certain with Perot that strong, he would have taken more from Dole, but what can you do. Deciding state was WV, with a margin of about 5k votes.



Gore/Bayh - 267 - 43,341,439 - 41.7%
Dole/Kemp - 271 - 41,825,624 - 40.3%

[Independents for Nihilism]

"Walter Mondale Apologizes, Could Not Find Beef" or "Nobody does a Nader, sort of": A tie in 1984 as Mondale/Hart. The game was just as surprised as I was to get this - the end screen was just "undefined". Anybody know what would have happened in a contingent election like this?

Closest states were Missouri (where third parties weren't even on the ballot) by about 3300 votes, and Delaware by 400 or so which was just barely within the total for both third parties. Considering Maine doesn't allocate votes by congressional district in game, I wonder how that would have broken down, since the margin there was only about 4000 votes as well.



Mondale/Hart - 269 - 45,811,424 - 49.3%
Reagan/Bush - 269 - 46,568,850 - 50.1%

[Independents for Nihilism]

G O R E S L I D E
O
R
E
S
L
I
D
E



Gore/Bradley - 345 - 53,023,950 - 49.4%
Bush/Cheney - 193 - 51,103,352 - 47.6%

[Independents for Nihilism]

Tried the Mastriano mod, was winning until results from Philly came in. Ended up losing by about 9000 votes. Stop the steal!

[Independents for Nihilism]

"I won before they called California, but as if there was any doubt those hippies would vote for me. Getting a concession call from Bush was the biggest relief of my life, because now I knew I'd never have to see his damn monkey face again. Before stepping on stage to give my victory speech, an aide suggested I swap out my gold Day-Date for a Timex. I told him to shove it. At the podium, surrounded by enough confetti to turn Staten Island into even more of a landfill, I hit all the beats those fools wanted. I'd maintain our country's so-called positive course while leading us into a more prosperous 21st century under fresh, innovative leadership, and the screaming throngs were so like putty in my hands that it was even more pathetic than usual. I nearly gagged."

"Yet for all the praise I couldn't help but glance over to Donald. I wanted nothing more than to hurry up and head to his suite for the after-party. He'd be sure to have a bunch of girls there, from those Yugoslavian countries we've been bombing. I wondered what it would sound like if one of them fell from the penthouse and splattered on Fifth Avenue. She wouldn't be missed. I think about this while I'm telling the audience that I'll expand job opportunities for all Americans, as if anything I do would stop this nation from filling with cashiers selling made-in-China crap. I could tell them anything else while I have them under my control. I could break from the script, tell them they're all squealing pigs, or that their taste in what they call fashion and music is so gauche it makes me sick, and yet I don't. I am simply not there."



Bateman/Trump: 362 EVs, 50.2%
Bush/Cheney: 176 EVs, 47.0 %

(Thanks to Liminal/Lawer for helping solve my EV issue)

[Independents for Nihilism]

"Where's the Nuclear Freeze?" No wonder he won California!



Mondale/Clinton: 293 EVs, 50.3% PV
Reagan/Bush: 245 EVs. 49.1% PV

[Independents for Nihilism]

Am I the only one who thinks the Hitler mod is in incredibly bad taste? The subreddit seems to be enjoying it too much if you ask me.

[Independents for Nihilism]

Am I the only one who thinks the Hitler mod is in incredibly bad taste? The subreddit seems to be enjoying it too much if you ask me.

I mean it portrays the NSDAP accurately (and not whitewashed) and without slurs and such, there are disclaimers abound, and the endings actually mention scenarios of Hitler's undoing. Definitely does a respectful job compared to some... other mods of horrible figures.

Don't get me wrong, I get why people would hesitate with a mod surrounding the dictator that had upwards of 18 million executed for the crime of not being within his ideal characteristics, and led to upwards of 34 million dying in the ensuing European Theater of WW2, but I think it does the job regarding how to depict playable evil figures.

People are focusing on the "no slurs"/"historical accuracy" element in the aftermath of the 1948 mod with Strom Thurmond (which I thought was better alternate history than the one with Stassen - that one required too many leaps of faith wrt the aftermath of WWII) but I can't get past the fact that you're playing a game where you control the actions of f***ing Hitler. It's different from a documentary or a game where Hitler is a supporting player. It doesn't matter to me that it accurately portrays the level of antisemitism in Weimar Germany or that if I set the brownshirts loose it can backfire or whatever. It's asking me to make a simulacrum of those decisions and that's where I draw the line.

[Independents for Nihilism]

Played the Nixon '72 mod too, I kept up the ratf***ing because it's hard not to as Tricky Dick, but I came semi-clean on Watergate and looks like I got away with it. I won nearly as big as IRL, and Nixon is remembered as a two-term President alongside Jerry Brown and Donald Rumsfeld. Meanwhile, Bush Sr is invading Cuba... Seems like there's a lot of replayability to this one.



Nixon/Agnew - 503 EVs - 56.1%
McGovern/Shriver - 35 EVs - 42.0%

[Independents for Nihilism]

Finally managed to beat Ted Kennedy after admitting to Watergate in Nixon '72 (albeit while massively losing the popular vote) - guess Daley couldn't pull out another one. The Vietnam war dragged on until 1985, and in 2005 President Jesse Ventura begins normalizing relations with Cuba. The best part is that apparently beating a Kennedy and getting off scot-free let Nixon live another 10 years or so.



Nixon/Agnew - 276 EVs - 36,854,859 - 47.7%
Kennedy/Eagleton - 262 EVs - 38,765,528 - 50.2%

[Independents for Nihilism]

Dread it, run from it...

Played the new W. mod twice and after getting pretty handily beaten by Hillary on my first try, ended up with this semi-cursed map on my second against Punished "Venom" Al Gore in a rematch after invading Iraq. Also the colours switched back to Atlas standard which was fun. Some of the wonkier margins are thanks to a Ted Turner third party candidacy (lol) but at least I got Dubya to actually win a plurality of the popular vote this time around. Hard to tell if the ending screen saying the mission actually was accomplished was an unreliable narrator or not.



Bush/Cheney - 306 EVs - 58,825,954 - 48.0%
Gore/Biden 232 EVs - 58,665,612 - 47.9%

[Independents for Nihilism]

Did anyone happen to see that 2044 mod?

I was hoping to play it, but it seems to have disappeared.

That's why I asked, anyone know why?

u/butterenergy was disbarred by NCT HQ after he was found to have partaken in a racist conversation in the Discord server of... would you believe it... the Children of Dusk community.

I suspect I can count the number of decanonised mods on two fingers - 2044CoD and 1948 Identity War, which was itself accused of being overly racism-friendly (in its capacity as a playable mod).

They also banned the guy who made 1948Red (which I always thought was inferior to IW anyway, in a fit of irony) because he supported Ben Shapiro or something, and whoever made that one Tucker Carlson 2024 mod self-deported after controversy as well. Like most terminally-online zoomers, the ones who run NCT are pretty gung-ho about their purity tests.

[Independents for Nihilism]

In honor of the upcoming release of W.5 Final Mix, decided to take the fight to ol' Chappaquiddick Teddy while invading both Afghanistan and Iraq, and managed a fairly comfortable Electoral College win. Still barely lost the popular vote though, and barely any state voted above 50% for either candidate thanks to a pair of oddly successful third parties each appealing to different demographics (John Anderson and Jesse Ventura). It's a poisoned chalice, of course - if you lose to Ted with two wars going on, apparently Bush roars back in '08 with a vengeance. God help us all - but this universe produces a better version of the movie Vice with Christian Bale so maybe it's worth it.



Bush/Frist - 324 EV - 56,718,355 PV (46.5%)
Kennedy/Barnes - 214 EV - 56,789,712 PV (46.5%)