
- BGG rank
- BGG #9,503
- BGG rating
- 6.5
Junta: Las Cartas
- 3–6 players
- 45–60 min
- Complexity 2.1/5
- 2016

2004
Rules assistance for High School Election
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

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Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
High School Election is a board game released in 2004 for 3–5 players, 45 minutes per game, and ages 9 and up. It was designed by Ayumu Kitazaki and its main mechanics are Hand Management, Set Collection, and Secret Unit Deployment.
This is a game where you choose a character with some different stats, and then play cards and draw new cards from the stack until the stack runs out of cards. The one with the most "votes" in the end gets elected to high scool president and thus wins the game. It's a humour-based, hilarious but rather complicated card game where a lot of the enjoyment relies on you knowing the clichées in japanese animation concerning high school comedy. Though there's a lot of japanese text on the cards, it's playable without knowledge of japanese if you have a translation sitting nearby. Moreover, you learn what the cards do rather quickly. Game description There are two card piles: the play card pile and the "standard vote"-pile. The "standard vote"-pile contains only cards with a number of votes, 1 to 6 on each card. The play card pile consists of special vote cards (can be worth a lot, and also may have special powers), action cards (that affect other players) or event cards (all players have to sumbit to certain conditions). At your turn, you draw a play card and (unless it's an event card wich affets all players) may either take 2 actions OR draw yet another game card. Actions include drawing a standard vote card, playing a game card from your hand, or using a special power (from your special vote card or your character). The "standard vote" cards are kept hidden, people can see how many you have but not how much they're worth. The special vote cards however, (which are worth much, representing votes from whole clubs like the baseball team, the newpaper club and so on), are placed before you. These can be "attacked" by action cards, either nullified or stolen. Some action cards can cancel other action cards, and some special votes cards can be immune to attacks like these if you discard cards from your hand etc. So the game goes on until you've taken 2 laps through the draw pile of game cards. When the fourth event card is drawn, game ends immediately, and the person with most votes win. As said, much of the flavour of this game consists of clichées in high school anime. The names of the standard vote-cards are sometimes hilarious. Some one-vote cards are named "the ghost girl who nobody has ever seen", "the maid robot", "the one who secretly goes to a certain market selling certain home made comics", other cards include "the I don't know whatever" (3 votes), "the ones with a boyfriend" (2 votes), "the diet girls" (4 votes) et cetera. The special vote cards are typical high school clubs in japanese high schools. A very nice game but probably only for those who enjoy the style.
High School Election supports 3–5 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for High School Election is 45 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists High School Election for ages 9 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
High School Election has a complexity rating of 1.8 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
High School Election belongs to these categories: Card Game and Political. Its main mechanics are Hand Management, Set Collection, and Secret Unit Deployment. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of High School Election are: Ayumu Kitazaki. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists High School Election as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.