In A War of a Madman's Making, there are three major stats you need to manage:

• Budget
• Cabinet Popularity
• Great Leader Favor
  

Your Budget represents the amount of money you have available for decisions that require cashflow to complete. This can include anything from requisitioning extra forces to establishing your own private security force.

If your budget drops below 0, it's not necessarily game over - but keep in mind you won't be the only one who knows about the deficit!

Your Cabinet Popularity represents the opinions of those who surround the Great Leader - specifically, the ministers and upper military brass.  Unlike Budget and Favor, Popularity is tracked separately for positive and negative gains.

If you do or say something to impress the cabinet (or someone says something on your behalf), you gain Positive Popularity.  Likewise, if you embarrass yourself, you gain Negative Popularity.

Your Favor represents how well-liked you are by the Great Leader himself.  If your Favor drops to the red (which is 0 at the beginning of the game, but increases as the war progresses), you immediately lose the game.  You'll have to twist the truth a bit to keep yourself out of the red for the duration of the war - but lie too much and the Leader might catch on. 

To put it in video game terms, your Favor is your health bar.  Your interactions with the Great Leader should be directly informed by where you stand with him. 

And that does it for the three major stats!  There are a few other under-the-hood workings in this War of a Madman's Making that we'll reveal in later updates.  Stay on your toes!

Try out the free Beta and drop your feedback in the comments or in our Discord!  We have a healthy community of friendly people who have provided invaluable bug fixes and excellent suggestions for expanding the world-building.  Come join in on the fun, and get your name added to the in-game credits as a Playtester!

https://discord.gg/XxYtYqYVwx