Power Grid - Review

Sometimes we take electric power for granted. I woke up this morning to the
beeping of my electric alarm clock. After hitting snooze, I finally got out
of bed to my electric coffee maker and started the morning brew. When I
came into the store today, I flipped the switch and the lights came on, just
as I suspected it would. I powered up my computer today and started this
review, all thanks to the magic that is electricity.

However, how often do we stop to think where that power comes from? I mean,
it really isn’t magic, is it? Friedemann Friese and the good folks over at
Rio Grande Games offer us a great game that takes us inside the world of
supplying power to the masses. From coal to solar, from oil to fusion,
Power Grid offers us a chance to build an energy empire, and empire building
has never been so much fun.

Power Grid’s premise is simple: supply power to the most cities to win.
Players not only need to purchase power plants and the necessary resources,
but they need to build substations in the cities in order to power them.
The game quickly becomes a delicate balance of shrewd investment and money
management and it is that tension that makes the game so enjoyable.

Each turn is comprised of five phases. First, players bid on the power
plants that will supply the power to their cities. While this sounds easy,
players do need to weigh their options carefully. For example, a coal plant
might be the cheapest option there, but it will cost more to power in the
end. The wind power plant might cost more today, but since wind is free, it
offers certain cost benefits in the next phase of resource purchasing.

Speaking of which, resource management offers another set of management
possibilities. Often a player will avoid a certain type of resource just
because all the other players invested too heavily in it. For example, if
you are the only player with a nuclear power plant, you may have the
opportunity to power many cities for a low cost later in the game when
Uranium becomes more plentiful. Proper money management in this phase is
crucial.

Next up is building of the substations. In order to expand your power
network, you need to pay the initial building fee plus the connection fee
from a city you already have a plant in. If a player has a plant in Kiel
(on the German map) and wants to go to Flensburg, they would pay 10
“electros” plus a 4 “electro” connection fee. This is another area that
requires proper planning, as some of the connection fees are quite high.

Once you’ve built, you power the cities to receive money for the next round.
While it is advantageous to power as many cities as possible, the game
builds in law of diminishing returns. Sometimes, later in the game, it
becomes more advantageous not to power all your cities if it will cost you
more to replenish the resources than the payment for powering.

As you can see, the game contains many tough decisions for the player to
decide. It’s not a tough game to play, but it is one of agonizing
decisions. Since you never have enough money to do everything you want to
do, deciding what to do is the core of the game. This balance of ensuring
all facets of your energy empire creates an enjoyable tension in the game
and one that I quite enjoy.

The game board itself is standard, with pleasing artwork and well laid out
spaces for the various facets of the game. The power plant cards also
sturdy and should hold up well. The resources and substations are colorful
wooden pieces that are very nice. Admittedly, I am a game snob so wooden
pieces add a lot to a game for me, but having the resources in various
colors and different shapes makes the game not only more enjoyable but
easier to play. At a glance, I can tell what resources are in the bank
along with on my opponent’s cards.

If I have one complaint about the components, the paper money comes with the
game shows wear quite easily. Money frequently moves from the bank to the
players hands and back again during the course of a game and the paper isn’t
designed to hold up to the handling it gets. I would not let this deter you
from picking up the game in the least, but I would plan to replace the money
at some point (Monopoly money would work great).

I could fill this conclusion with lots of funny puns relating to the
electric industry or some bad reference to this being a “powerful” game. I
will spare you my lame attempts at humor because this game is just that
good. At the end of the day, I used to recommend four games that everyone
should have in their game libraries. Now, I recommend five. I don’t think
it takes a powerful brain to figure out what the newest entry is.