Power Grid

Power Grid – Review

Power Grid is not a short game but it is a lot of fun and engages players’ math and auction skills.

Power Grid is:

• Designed by: Friedemann Friese
• Published by: Rio Grande Games
• Number of players: 2-6
• Playing time: 120 minutes
• Player ages: 12+

Rio Grande Games is a publisher of many fine games and their dedication to quality and excellent customer service sets them apart. The version that I am reviewing is for the Rio Grande version.

This game is about buying power plants, bidding on resources (coal, oil, garbage and uranium) and expanding into cities and finally powering those cities with electricity! At first look, it may appear to be less than thrilling but it is far from that! In fact, it is a very exciting game!

The winner of the game is the one that is able to power the most number of cities at the end of the final round.

The game is procedural and proceeds through 5 phases. In each phase, the player takes a specific action defined for the phase. Each phase is relatively short and thus makes for a quickly paced game. A game with six players can take a little over two hours. Shorter games can be played by fewer people in about an hour.

The game is played over several rounds where each round consists of 5 phases:

• Determine Player Order
• Auction Power Plants
• Buy Resources
• Build Cities
• Bureaucracy

Each player begins with 50 elecktro (currency to purchase plants, resources, cities). The first phase is to determine player order.

The second phase is an auction where a certain number of power plants are put up for auction. Each power plant requires a particular resource and can power a certain number of houses. At the begining of the game, the power plants are weak and require more resources. Later on, they get more powerful.

In player order, a power plant is chosen and is then bid on. The successful bid wins the plant and that player is no longer eligible to bid on a power plant for the remainder of the round.

Each player can have at most 3 active power plants.

In the third phase, in reverse player order (last to first), players buy resources to power up their power plants.  The more resources that are bought, the more expensive it becomes. I consider this to be the fun part of the game because by carefully managing (or extending) your cash, you can ensure that you snap up the resources at the best prices.

During the fourth phase, in reverse player order, players expand their electricity network by buying stakes in cities. At the beginning, there can only be one player per city, then two, and finally 3 players per city.

And finally, in the fifth phase, players consume resources to power up cities. The more cities a player supplies with electricity, the more money they get for the next round.

The winner is the one who, at the end of the bureaucracy phase, powers the most number of plants. If there is a tie, then it is the player with the most money who wins!

Power Grid is an excellent game. I play this with my young cousins who are in elementary and middle school. They love the theme of getting power plants, buying resources and providing electricity to cities. It’s a simple game to teach but it is quite involved. There is a lot of mental arithmetic that you need to keep track of.

Power Grid is a longer game but is accessible to a greater range of players and ages. If you have a chance to try this game out, I would strongly recommend you do.

The best part about Power Grid is that there are several expansion maps you can play on. Each map has slightly different conditions which give the game longevity and excitement!

Happy Gaming!

For Sale

For Sale – Review

For Sale is a card game that is usually considered to be a “filler” game. This designation is typically given to games that are meant to fill time between some longer games. Filler games take between 15-20 minutes to play.

This card game is designed by Stefan Dorra and has been recently republished by Gryphon Games in 2008/2009.

For Sale is:

• Designed by: Stefan Dorra
• Published by: Gryphon Games
• Number of players: 3-6
• Playing time: 20 minutes
• Player ages: 6+

The version that I am reviewing is for the Uberplay version. The new version has a few minor graphics changes and card size changes.

There are two parts to this game; In the first part, players bid on properties. Once all the properties have been sold, players then try to sell their properties for the highest amount.

The player with the most amount of money at the end of the game is the winner.

There are two decks of cards. Property cards and Cheque cards. There are 30 of each. Players begin the game with a small amount of money to bid on the property cards.

In the first part of the game, property cards are flipped up and players take turns bidding on the cards until players drop out of the auction. Every time a player chooses not to continue with the auction, they pay half of their current bid and take the lowest valued card.

The last player with a bid is the winner and pays the entire bid to take the highest valued card.

Once all the property cards have been auctioned, then the Cheque cards come out. The fun part of this second set of cards is that you use your acquired property cards to bid on the Cheques.

Players place a property card face down in front of them and simultaneously reveal their cards. The player with the highest property card takes the highest valued Cheque; the player with the next highest property card takes the next highest valued Cheque and so on.

The winner is the one with the most amount of money in Cheques (and any remaining money from the property auction).

For a game that takes about 20 minutes to play, there is quite a bit of fun inside!

This is a very easy game to explain and that is why I love this game. It is very easy for kids to pick up this game as well. It also helps that the illustrations on the cards are cute.

All the kids I’ve played with always bid very high for the “Space Station” (value 30) just so they can say they live in a Space Station. While this is fun for them, they don’t quite get that it is the relative value of the cards that is important on the auction.

Still, they have a great time and are always begging me to play it with them.

For Sale is a very quick game and is very accessible to a broad range of players and ages. I would highly recommend that you play this game when you get a chance.

Happy Gaming!

Ticket to Ride: Europe

Ticket to Ride: Europe – Review

Since Alan Moon first designed Ticket to Ride in 2004, it has since become a great success and has spawned a family of games bearing the Ticket to Ride name.

The original Ticket to Ride consisted of a map of the United States. Since the successful launch, new maps now include Europe, Germany, Switzerland and the Nordic Countries.

In fact, there is even a Ticket to Ride Card Game and a Ticket to Ride Dice Expansion. This review is about Ticket to Ride: Europe. While the games share many rules similarities, there are a few changes in each version.

Ticket to Ride: Europe:

• Designed by: Alan Moon
• Published by: Days of Wonder
• Number of players: 2-5
• Playing time: 45-60 minutes
• Player ages: 8+

Days of Wonder is the publisher of Ticket to Ride and their production is superb. The game comes in a beautiful square box with plastic molded trains in 5 player colors.

The cards are nice and sturdy. The map is beautifully drawn, 6-fold board with a nice linen finish. The map is clear to read and is, for the most part, geographically accurate.

The game is essentially a set collecting game where you collect sets of various cards. You use these cards to build routes between cities on the map. The goal of this game is to score the most points by building routes to connect your destination tickets.

At the beginning of the game each player receives:

• 4 train cards
• 1 “long route” destination ticket card
• 3 destination ticket cards
• 45 trains of a particular player color (not related to train cards at all)

Each player must keep at least two of the four destination ticket cards.
Now the game begins…

On your turn during the game, you can perform one of four actions:

• Draw destination tickets (pick 3 and keep at least 1)
• Build a route by playing train cards
• Pick up two train cards
• Build a Station

What is wonderful about this game is that the players are constantly engaged as each turn means only choosing one of four actions. This keeps the game play fast and smooth.

The destination tickets that a player was dealt at the beginning of the game decides the course of play as this is the one of the major ways to score points. For each completed destination ticket completed, players add points to their score.

If destination tickets are not completed, players will instead subtract the value of the ticket from their score!

During the game, there will be tension between the players as they race to build track to finish their destination tickets in order to score the most points.

The values of destination tickets range from about 6 points to 20+ points.

In TtR:Europe, there are a few new twists that are different from the base game, Ticket to Ride. The additions are:

• Stations
• Ferries
• Tunnels
• 6 “long distance” tickets

In the original game, it was difficult to complete your route if someone claimed a route before you did. With the Europe map, it is now possible to build a station that will allow you to make use of another player’s route to complete your ticket. I feel this makes the game a bit more “gentle” to newer players.

Each player gets 3 stations to build. Any unused stations are worth 4 points at the end of the game. The first station you place costs one card; the second, two; the third, three.

Ferries are another addition to the map. Ferries are built like a normal route but require between 1-2 locomotive cards per route.

Tunnels are the most confusing part of the game to the players I have explained it to. Tunnels are fraught with risk and to simulate this, players announce their intention to build a tunnel. Next, the top three cards from the face-down deck are revealed. If any card matches the cards you played, then you will have to pay one additional card from your hand per card that matches.

If you don’t have the cards, your action is wasted but you do get your cards back. The best time to build a tunnel is when the face down deck is nearly depleted.

The “long distance” tickets ensure that each player has a chance to complete tickets worth between 20-22 points. This creates a more equal starting hand than that provided by the original Ticket to Ride game.

Ticket to Ride Europe is a well thought out game that offers a lot of fun for players. It is a highly interactive game and is very engaging. The more you play this game, the more strategies unfold.

I prefer Ticket to Ride: Europe over Ticket to Ride. It is because I feel that it is a bit more friendly toward newcomers. However, the additional rules about ferries and tunnels may be slightly complicated for some players.

What is really nice about Days of Wonder is that with the purchase of the board game, you are able to visit their website and play the game online.

Happy gaming!