Review #11: Power Grid

# of Players: 2-6
Playtime: 2-3 Hours

Core Mechanic: Network Building/Auction

Theme: Industrial

Type: Euro
Weight: Heavy

Year: 2004

Rating: 9.5*

This is the definitive network building game for me. One of the earliest games I played, at first I was overwhelmed by how complicated the rules seemed to be. Five phases per round, auctioning, resource management, and network building - this was a heavy game. But after a few rounds, the different mechanics of the game came together and it was a really good introduction to games with different phases. It left a strong impression on me and continues to rank highly.

Each player represents a different power company and the winner will be whoever can power the most cities at the end of the game. As previously mentioned, the game is played over several rounds, each of which is split into five phases. The first phase determines player order. As a great catch-up mechanism, depending on the phase, players will go in either forward or reverse player order. The next phase is the power plant auction in which players will bid for different power plants that they will use to power cities. Besides minimum bid price, power plants differ in the number of cities they can power and the resources they will use. There is a limit to the number of power plants each player can have, so as they game proceeds they will have to discard older ones to access more advanced power plants.

The third phase is buying resources from a common market. As resources are purchased which decreases the supply, the price of the resource goes up. If multiple players have power plants that require the same resources, there will be competition for the same resources which may influence which power plants are purchased in later rounds.  In the fourth phase, players will add cities to their network paying both the cost of the city and the cost of the connection.  The further away new cities are, the more expensive it will be to connect them, but there are limits on the number of players that can connect to a city so this cost may need to be paid in order to expand.

Finally, the last phase of each round is when players will earn cash based on the number of cities that each player can power based on the power plants and resources he or she has.  The resource market is also replenished based on a set schedule and the power plant market is advanced.  Each round is played the same way and rounds are grouped into three stages, or “Steps”, with each one advancing the power plant market further and also increasing the number of players that can be added to a city.  Once a certain number of cities are added to a network, the game will end after that round.

This is a great game because it is almost a compilation of a few different mini-games, which means the gameplay never gets stale.  I would say that it is not a very stressful game, but there are a lot of numbers to crunch and more often than not players will take out their calculators to try to divide up their cash among resources, city connections, and power plants.  Long-term planning is essential as well as being able to predict the resource market.  The game scales well between the different player counts as the number of regions you play in on the map gets restricted. Once you get bored of the base map, there are a significant number of expansions featuring different locations around the world that not only offer a new layout but also nice twists on the rules.

I have always enjoyed playing this game, which might also be influenced by my day job in the power sector. Still, it is considered a classic by most who play board games and I have to agree with that sentiment. As such, this game belongs in every Essential and Collector collection. It is heavy though, both in terms of rules and game play, so would only be appropriate for the Heavyweight collection. But I wouldn't want it any lighter and throughout the years, I haven't found a game that could replace the feeling that this game generates.