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Our 'How to Play' series teaches you how to play some of the very best board games available on the Zatu store. We also share some sneaky hints and tips on how to get the better of your rivals. This week we take a look at Power Grid.
Initial Set-Up
In Power Grid, pretty much all boards set-up in a very similar fashion. Fill the fuel to the defined amount, give each player 50 Electros, set-up the initial market of power stations with the deck of power station cards dependent on the number of players. With almost all boards there will be a current market of power stations – those which can immediately be bought, and a futures market – those that will likely become available.
In the initial set-up the power station's futures market are guaranteed to become available, later in the game it can be more random. Then, once all is set-up, you randomly determine player order – this is the only time player order will be random.
Power Grid - Turn One
In player order auction power plants. Player one enters the auction first and each player must buy one, and only one, power plant. This means that player one must make an initial bid. Once a power plant has been bought the lowest number station in the futures market becomes available to purchase and a new power station is added to the futures market. This continues until all players have bought a power station. After every player has a power station, turn order is re-determined in order of who has the highest number power station.
In all future turns, turn order is determined at the start of the turn. The player with the most cities is first in player order, with power station numbers in order of highest rank acting as a tie breaker.
In turn one there are a few things to consider:
Power Stations
At the start of Power Grid, the power stations available are not very desirable to anyone, these are going to be in order of 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, and 10, with only the 03, 04, 05, and 06 initially available for purchase and the others in the futures market.
Personally, I never bother with the 07 or the 08 unless I am forced into it, and I’m highly unlikely to bid more than one above the face value on anything. These power stations are going to become obsolete pretty soon and there really is no reason to spend more than is absolutely necessary.
Future Turn Order
Remember if you build connections to two or more cities in turn one and have the highest ranking power station, in all probability you will be going first next turn. This means you will likely get stuck with the a poorer selection of power plants in turn two, and because you buy fuel in reverse order those below you in turn order will snaffle up the cheapest fuel.
Initial Placement of Connected Cities
Be careful here, if you are building to connect two cites keep those connections cheap – the cheaper the better. Even more important is to avoid placing somewhere where you might be blocked in. This is the one benefit of being higher up in the turn order – it is easier to avoid being blocked into a corner, and easier to block or make expansion difficult for an opponent.
This said, getting into a closely contested turf war is never good and is best avoided because it rapidly becomes expensive for all parties. Ultimately, in turn one, all I'm ever bothered about is not being blocked in and spending the minimum of Electros on power station and fuel, and sometimes as a second objective not ending up first in player order.
Future Turns
- Determine player order – The player with the most connected cities, highest number power station being the tie breaker, then the second ranked player and so on.
- Auction power plants – In turn order, players may only buy one power station per turn and may elect to buy none. Remember if the player whose turn it is to make the initial bid declines to do so, he is out of the entire auction phase for this turn. As each station is bought potentially better ones become available from the futures market and draw deck – This might be a very good reason for not being high up in the turn order.
- Buying fuel – In reverse turn order.
- Building – Building and expanding the network of cities in reverse turn order. Remember that in step one only the 10 Electro section of a city can be used, so players can only connect to empty cities, though they can connect through cities occupied by another player, by paying all the cumulative connection costs. This is why avoiding being blocked in, especially in early stages, is really important.
- Bureaucracy – Using fuel and taking income from the number of cities supplied. Resupply the fuel market. Remove the highest number power station and place it on the bottom of the draw pile. Add a new station from the top of the draw pile and rearrange the power station market in numeric order
Some Things to Consider
Fuel Stockpiling
Power stations can be used to stockpile fuel for the future, each station can hold twice the amount of fuel it can use, and can only hold fuel it can use - you cannot for example store coal on an oil powered station. Stockpiling can be really useful in that it drives up the cost of fuel for opponents; this is a good reason to consider having early access to buying fuel and not being too far up in the turn order. It is also worth bearing in mind that fuel can be moved from one station to another if necessary.
Bidding Wars
It is very rarely, if ever, a good idea to get into a bidding war on any power station. There are possible exceptions, the Eco plants for example. To be honest, if a power station cannot power five or six cities I’m generally not going to waste much cash on a bidding war, on these big stations I might, these are the ones needed to win the game.
Math
Don’t worry about the math. I cannot stress this enough. I never worry about the math. If you don’t get into a bidding war and keep expanding in pace with everyone else you’ll almost certainly have enough cash for what you need to do.
Step Two
This occurs when someone builds seven cities. On the next turn, the 15 space on each city can be used. Players cannot place a second token of the same colour on the same city, so cities get opened up to other players. It can be a very good idea to be lower in turn order to take advantage of the potential for rapid expansion.
Obsolescence
Power stations can be discarded in various ways:
- Players may only have three power stations, when they buy a fourth they must discard one. Fuel can be moved to another power station of the correct type if it has capacity to stockpile.
- If at any time there is a power station in the market with a number equal or lower than the number of cities any player has, it is immediately removed from play and a new station added from the draw deck.
- If all players pass in the auction, the lowest number power station is removed from play and a new station added from the draw deck.
Step Three
In step three there is no longer a futures market, instead there are six power stations available for auction. When one is bought, add another power station to the market from the draw deck.
Game End and Win Conditions
The game ends at the end of phase four of a turn where any player builds to a specific number of cities. In a three or four-player game this is 17 cities, and it is less in a five or six-player game. The winner is the player who can power the most cities on that turn. Electros are a tie breaker.
Final Hints on Strategy
- Being in the lead is not always bad and obviously at some point if you're going to win you do need to be in the lead. Being high up in the turn order limits your options, if you're in a position where the limits are not a problem then it is where you should be.
- If you build the number of cities to end the game and you can only power 14 of them you will win if your opponent's can only power 13. For this reason it might be really important to keep an eye on fuel availability. There is little worse that having that oil station which powers six cities and insufficient oil to fire it up.
- In reality, you need to collect the right power stations, these are almost invariably those which can power five or six cities and this is why I never get into bidding wars on lesser stations.
- I cannot stress this enough, don't worry about the math.
- Instead, worry about manipulating turn order to get access to the right power stations and the necessary fuel, and maybe at time the right opportunities to build your network of cities.
