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.

_DSC4713Power 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.

A Quick Overview

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.

Game Play

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.

_DSC4702The 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!

_DSC4708Summary

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!