HQ Levels: Most Return on Your Investment

After thinking about which level of HQs are best for getting the most $ per week, I took a look at them:
HQ 1 Cost $250,000 Return $10,000/week = $25/$
HQ 2 Cost $750,000 (250 plus 500 upgrade) Return $30,000/week = $25/$
HQ 3 Cost $1,750,000 (250 plus 500 plus 1000) Return $90,000/week = $19/$
So, as you can see, you get the same amount of $ for building 3 HQ1s in three different states as 1 HQ2 in one state....I see no real advantage of having any HQ2s, just HQ3 built at the beginning of the game, and HQ1s in all the important states.

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Hi,
The numbers above tell you in how many weeks you recoup your investment. After 25 weeks you make your money back on HQ1 & HQ2, after 19 weeks you recoup HQ3. But... After 26 weeks you would be ahead $30,000 with HQ2 and only $10,000 with HQ1. So, HQ2 is worth it if you have at least 26 weeks left when you build it.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2415

Another thing to bear in mind:

If you build level 3 HQ's in the first 3 weeks then by Week 30 you will have an additional $1 million in cash (over how much you spent) for every 3rd level one you build. When I play, I usually build 3 level 3 HQ's early on. By week 35, that's $4 million net.

Let's say instead of spending that $5 million on those 3 HQ's let's say you had 20 1st level HQs instead. Ignoring the overhead of having to move around a lot more (losing 20 stamina which is equivalent of nearly 2 turns). You'd have, by week 35 only netted $2 million. But it's really worse than that because the recouping is so much more gradual and you'll have lost 20 stamina moving as opposed to 3. That's a difference of 17 stamina or 2 endorsements.

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And let's not forget the advisors you get with level 3 HQs which can be used to build up awareness in less contested states freeing your candidate to concentrate elsewhere.

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Yeah, level 3 HQs are pretty sweet.

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They are, but against the upper level AI, don't sink all your money into them.

If you fall behind early in the ad race, you will be destroyed, regardless of how much your HQ's earn over a 40 week campaign.

I tried to defeat a tough AI opponent using a new strategy built around 4 Level 3 HQ's, but you have too little money to respond to the very early TV attacks the cheating AI levels throw at you.

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I played on tough and I found having 2 level 3's as well as 4 or so level 2's was plenty. While the computer was doing pretty good earlier on I turned things around eventually and ended up winning 342-196, though most of the states like Ohio and California where within a few points so a minor shift towards the comp would've basically reversed that electoral college count into his favor.

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