Finally...

[Taft 0]

I finally pulled off a blowout in the Australia scenario...100 seats and 50.468% of the vote for the Labour Party. 14 seats for the National Party and 36 for the Liberal Party.

Final stats:

Liberal: 3,745,669 votes (37.39591%), 36 seats

Labour: 5,055,091 votes (50.46889%), 100 seats

National: 665,412 votes (6.64332%), 14 seats

Green: 550,079 votes (5.49186%), 0 seats

What I found to be really interesting is the strategy involved...

I didn't run any ads for the first two weeks, instead waiting until I had two ads to run (one positive on me, one negative on Howard). Then, I started bombarding ads in pairs (with the exception of, occasionally, when I got a new ad...then I ran it several times to get it up to the same number of times run as the others). The result was that, with about $12.2-12.5 million in the bank at the start of the ad campaign (compared to a Liberal $6.9 million or so), I was able to simply bombard the Liberals down from 40/41% to 37%, and rise from 43% to 48%.

Another thing that helped was the fact that: A) I didn't lose any ads to backfiring and I did a lot of barnstorming in the Sydney area. The backfiring is obvious; the barnstorming helped me make about $100-150,000 in the first two weeks from the foot soldier boost. I also got an assist on election day from the Greens (most of whose votes defaulted to me).

One thing I also got to help was the fact that a large number of the close seats flipped my way...but if all within 1-4% (including Green votes at a 3:1 ratio of Labour-Liberal if they didn't get figured in already) had flipped, I would have netted 10 more seats. Then again, I did get 11 of 16 close seats as it was. All in all the most impressive result I've been able to generate so far with the Australian scenario.

[Taft 0]

Now...how do I grab a screenshot?

[simonvallee 0]

Either:

1- Press Alt+"Print Screen" then open up Microsoft Paint and use the paste option, then modify as appropriate.

2- Search and download the freeware MWSnap and use it to capture the window the game opens in.

If you want to post it, I recommend www.imageshack.us

[Taft 0]

Thanks...it wound up being harder to do than I anticipated, so I passed...but I did get the totals as you see...everything has to go right for Labour to get 50%...and I doubt the Liberals could manage it, honestly.

[sven 1]

In RL, no party has gotten a majority primary vote since 1975, when the Liberal/National Country parties got a combined majority.

Ever since then they use the inferior "2 party preferred vote" and on 2 occassions a party (combining the Libs and Nats) has won with less than 50% of this, in 1990 and in 1998.

So basically a minority has run Australia for 30 years now. And it fell as low as 1998, when the Liberal/National coalition barely got 40% of the vote and had a slim majority in the House of Representatives.

[Taft 0]

In that case, I'm guessing that I can manage a majority only through the exclusion of what I'd term the "rabble" vote (that is, scattered independents and minor parties that, under most circumstances, only get a few thousand votes in a given province at best). I know a few independents are placed with the major parties in the Australian scenario...that plus the exclusion of minor parties probably allows the Coalition and/or Labour party to get a majority much of the time.

[sven 1]

That would involve excluding about 20% of the population.

[Taft 0]

Well, yes. That's kinda my point. Only one of the minor parties (Greens) is represented. Also, the fact that you only get final preference counts (as opposed to first preference) doesn't help things, either. So, in most cases, the Greens' votes in about half of the districts get dumped to Labour. But...yeah. The game uses the two-party preferred vote, and majorities can occur there.

[Taft 0]

And I just topped off my all-time record again.

Liberal: 38 seats; 3,766,531 votes

Labour: 103 seats; 5,170,186 votes

National: 9 seats; 575,376 votes

Green: 0 seats; 560,104 votes

Ok. Several things were different in this run vs. the last one. First of all, there were ten seats where the split was either 51-48 or closer (but in favor of the Libs). The thing is, three of these were in the North Shore area (and yes, one of them was Howard himself). I won none of the close seats there...odd. The other thing was that I've learned the following order of ad production can be rather potent (if none backfire) as Labour:

1. Attack ad on Anderson.

2. Attack ad on Howard.

3. Pro-Latham ad.

4. Pro-Latham ad.

5. Attack ad on Howard.

Run the Anderson ad out before the final Howard ad needs to be made. As long as none of the attack ads backfire, this should win the election in a blowout.

Also, use the focused riding options on races that are 5-12 points down. These are races that will need a little extra help to be won. Races that are less than about 4 points down will usually come over if you're going to win; if they don't come over, you're probably going to lose...

[paulyt 1]

The only screenshot I have is getting 88 seats/48% with Labour. I have got higher though.

[bdog 1]

I saw the com get a majorty once well playing as the greens

[HabsFan21 4]

The only screenshot I have is getting 88 seats/48% with Labour. I have got higher though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Somewhat Ironic that Brown is the only one WITHOUT the Green background in his picture, eh?

[Hardrightconservative 5]

[paulyt 1]

Somewhat Ironic that Brown is the only one WITHOUT the Green background in his picture, eh?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've never noticed that. Normally I'm one to pick up on these things quickly.