Naturelich Games

After introducing the so called Easter Gamers to Power Grid (actually the 2nd edition of the German version Funkenschlag) we played a short introductory four-player game. I tried to explain the rules but the whole concept of the game probably became only apparent after we had gone through stage one of the game. As the rules recommend we stopped right there and decided to go for another game. This one was a three player game. Since I am currently in Osnabrück with my family we took the Northern region of the map making sure that both Osnabrück and Düsseldorf were in play (anyone showing local patriotism here?).

MM was to move first. Due to the low connection cost she decided to take Essen and Duisburg but did not go for a third city. Maybe this was an error as I was able to take three surrounding cities stealing a lot of valueable territory away from her. Since in the first stage of Power Grid players may not build a plant into a city already occupied by a different player this made it a little bit difficult for MM to expand. However, my devilish maneuver did not pay off as MM was able to take Osnabrück the next turn (paying the additional connection cost). Looking at this now, I consider my moves less than optimal as I was forced to take a pretty expensive detour myself. Well, next time I'll play it a little bit more nicely. PJ was the one who really enjoyed us two getting at each other as he was able to buy the entire Northern part of Germany. He had started in Hamburg and build a powerplant on turn one that was capable of delivering energy to two cities. Since this particular plant required three oil resources to fuel it, I would consider this pretty high cost but it helped him to take the lead.

We played a little while until all had connected six cities. I was actually quite a little bit behind (with only five) but decided to accumulate money for a possible expansion in stage two. In the second stage of Power Grid, players may build a plant in a city even if there is already one plant positioned in that city. This gave me the chance to get back into the game as I was able to buy enough resources and cities cities that would have been pretty important to the other players. In the second stage of the game everyone expands pretty quickly - I found this a very interesting mechanism and had not foreseen this at all. MM had decided to spend a lot of money to bug PJ and myself in Eastern Germany. This was a very good move, I think as it kept her in the game and she was able to regain a little bit after she had been leading for a long time. Is this game always working in waves?!

As we got closer and closer to stage three only very little resources were available. I had just taken the lead and was last to buy new stuff. The problem in my situation was that I had to spend a lot of money on resources to fuel all my plants which did not leave much for expansion. The other two had already gained a considerable amount of resources but were a little bit short-sighted. They were clearly going to build new plants (which would put me in the last position). I therefore decided to create an articifial scarceness of resources by stockpiling as much waste and oil as I could buy. This was probably the winning strategy that the others had not seen. Of course it was the first full game, but nonetheless it really must have been my lucky day.

The rest of the game went pretty easy. MM and PJ went to connect more cities which put them into the lead. This gave me primary access to the resource market. I abused this power by buying as much of everything as I could. As a result, in the next turn, the were unable to make use of all their plants giving me a substantial monetary advantage. At that time, the plants available for buying on the market were not really suitable for an additional expansion. It took another round until PJ was able to buy a thirty-something wind plant (capable of delivering energy to 4 cities!) for the ridiculous price of 105 Elektra. Hilarious! All three of us wanted this one badly (due to the articifial lack of resources on the market) and the auction just went crazy. In the end, PJ made the right decision as this won him second place. Given the money and resources I had stockpiled I decided to stay in last place. This helped me keep my advantage on the resource market, while the others were not able to expand to 17 plants (which ends the game quickly). I only had to wait for the right moment and bought a highly expensive power plant which made it easy to both build and energize all 17 cities. I have taken some images to show the final position in the game and the winning combination of plants (after the resources had been used to produce the energy).

Altogether, I seem to like Power Grid a lot. I like the market mechanisms and all the economic stuff. I am now looking forward to try a different map. Maybe France, maybe the US...

The final board position

The winning set of power plants