Power Grid |
Power Grid is the updated release of the Friedemann Friese crayon game Funkenschlag. The latest cooperative publishing effort from Friedemann Friese and Rio Grande Games,removes the crayon aspect from network building in the original editionwhile retaining the fluctuating commodities market like McMulti and an auction round intensity reminiscent of The Princes of Florence.
The object of Power Grid is to supply the mostcities with power when someone’s network gains a predetermined size. Inthis new edition, players mark pre-existing routes between cities forconnection, and then vie against other players to purchase the powerplants that you use to supply the power. However, as plants arepurchased, newer more efficient plants become available so you’repotentially allowing others to access to superior equipment merely bypurchasing at all. Additionally, players must acquire the rawmaterials, like coal, oil, garbage, or uranium, to power said plants(except for the highly valuable ’renewable energy’ wind/solar plants),making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximumefficiency while still retaining enough wealth to quickly expand yournetwork to get the cheapest routes.
Number of players: 2-6
Length: 90-120 minutes
- Ages: 12 & Up
- Brand: Rio Grande Games
SKU: 65513200240
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Customer Reviews Of This Game
Average Rating
Paradise Valley Mall Game Daze Employee Recommendation, 4/2009
Blake-
Power Grid is a game that you can’t judge by its cover. On the cover, at first glance you see a man in a lab coat checking meters, and you think to yourself “Is this a game about working in a power plant?” Once you move past the box and get in to the meat of the game you will thank yourself for not being turned away. First off the game can be played with 2 or up to 6 players, with each player changing the dynamic of the game. The game works around the concept of limited resources, and the resources become more or less available depending on how many people play at once. The same thing happens with the play space. At the beginning of each game every player chooses a section of the map that they want to be available for development. Any section that has not been chosen can’t be built upon for the rest of the game! This can be very frustrating, since the goal of the game is to power cities and connections between cities play an integral part in how you get power there. In one game this was a total plan breaker for me when I had budgeted to be able to expand to another city and still be able to purchase the resources that I needed, but the link that I had been looking at the whole time was one that was out of play. That is the glory of Power Grid, however: the economic system that they’ve built in to the game. It all revolves around making sure you are the most efficient – and as a side-effect, most wealthy – power tycoon playing. The means to achieve this lies in the power plants. Each one runs on one or two of 5 major resources: coal, oil, garbage, nuclear, or green energy (i.e. wind, fusion, solar, etc) and each one is more or less efficient and more or less expensive than the others. The most efficient power plants won’t be easy to obtain either, as each player has the opportunity to bid on power plants that are for sale. All-in-all Power Grid is an exciting experience, where you can be competitive with your friends and still know that when you’re all finished you will walk away from the table satisfied.
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