Power Grid
In Power Grid, players compete to build up electrical networks from scratch and be the player to power the most cities at game end
Designer	Friedemann Friese
Publisher	Rio Grande Games
Players	2 to 6
Age range	12 and up
Setup time	approx. 20 minutes
Playing time	120+ minutes
Random chance	Medium
Skills required	Auction, Resource Management
BoardGameGeek entry (more...)

Power Grid is a multiplayer German-style board game designed by Friedemann Friese and published by Rio Grande Games. It is also well-known in its earlier version, Funkenschlag, published in Germany by 2F-Spiele. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x1648, 430 KB) Summary Photo by G Hinkle, taken for use on Wikpedia. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... Friedemann Friese is a German board game designer, currently residing and working in Bremen. ... 1. ... Rio Grande Games is a publisher of German-style board games in English. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article is confusing for some readers, and needs to be edited for clarity. ... Puerto Rico, a popular German-style board game German-style board games are a broad class of games that feature simple rules, modest length, and attractive components. ... Friedemann Friese is a German board game designer, currently residing and working in Bremen. ... Rio Grande Games is a publisher of German-style board games in English. ... 2F-Spiele is a German publisher of board games. ...

In the game, each player represents a company that owns power plants and tries to supply electricity to cities. Over the course of the game, the players will bid on power plants and buy resources to produce electricity to provide power to the growing number of cities in their expanding network. The term company may refer to a separate legal entity, as in English law, or may simply refer to a business, as is the common use in the United States. ... A power station (also power plant) is a facility for the generation of electric power. ... Electricity (from New Latin Ä“lectricus, amberlike) is a general term for a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. ... A city is an urban area, differentiated from a town, village, or hamlet by size, population density, importance, or legal status. ... A power station (also power plant) is a facility for the generation of electric power. ... Rainforest on Fatu-Hiva, Marquesas Islands Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified (natural) form. ... Electricity (from New Latin Ä“lectricus, amberlike) is a general term for a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. ... For other uses, see Number (disambiguation). ... A city is an urban area, differentiated from a town, village, or hamlet by size, population density, importance, or legal status. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Components

• 1 board (map, scoring track, resource market) on both sides (Germany and U.S.A.)
• 132 wooden houses (22 each in green, yellow, red, blue, lilac, and natural)
• 84 wooden tokens (24 coal (brown), 24 oil (black), 24 garbage (yellow), 12 uranium (red))
• money (in Elektro)
• 5 summary cards: order of play/payments
• 43 power plant cards (42 power plant cards and 1 "Step 3" card)

Rules

The game comes with a double-sided board with a map of the United States of America and Germany on either side. After a map is chosen and placed in the middle of the table, each player selects one area. There are six areas, each of a different color: red, teal, brown, yellow, purple, and blue. The players collectively choose the areas, the only restriction being that the areas must be adjacent. (The players may begin building their networks on the first turn in any of the colored areas.)

The players each choose a color and take the wooden houses in that color. Each player places one on the Scoring Track (which relates to how many cities this player has connected) and one on the Playing Order track. The Resource Market is then prepared based on a grid found on the back of the booklet, adding the wooden tokens representative of four fuel sources: coal, oil, garbage, and uranium. The number of tokens placed on the Market depend on the number of players in the game. Players also receive $50 in Elektro (the game's currency) to start with. Coal Example chemical structure of coal Coal (pronounced ) is a fossil fuel formed in swamp ecosystems where plant remains were saved by water and mud from oxidization and biodegradation. ... Petro redirects here. ... This article is about the chemical element. ...

The Power Plant Market is then laid out. Power Plants are depicted on 3"×3" cards and are numbered 03 to 50. Each Power Plant card indicates the initial cost, the type of fuel it needs to run, the amount of fuel it can store, and how many cities it can power. Eight cards (03 through 10) are laid out for the Power Plant Market in a two-by-four grid to start the game. An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ...

The game is then played over a number of rounds. In each round, five phases are followed:

The Germany side of the board

The USA side of the board

1. Determine the Player Order
2. Auction Power Plants
3. Buying Resources
4. Building
5. Bureaucracy

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x1658, 609 KB) Summary Photo by G Hinkle, taken for use on Wikpedia. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x1658, 609 KB) Summary Photo by G Hinkle, taken for use on Wikpedia. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1300x930, 410 KB) Summary Photo by G Hinkle, taken for use on Wikpedia. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1300x930, 410 KB) Summary Photo by G Hinkle, taken for use on Wikpedia. ...

Phase 1: Determine the Player Order

The colored player tokens on the Playing Order track are rearranged based on the number of cities that player has connected. The player with the most connected cities is placed on the first spot, and the remaining player token are placed in descending order of connected cities. Ties are resolved by the player with the higher-numbered power plant going first. (On the first turn, the player order is random.)

Phase 2: Auction Power Plants

During the first turn, every player is required to buy a power plant. During other turns, purchasing a power plant is optional. However, each player is limited to owning a maximum of three power plants at any one time. If a player already owns three power plants and purchases another, one of the power plants must then be discarded. During the first round after power plants are purchased, the player order is redetermined according to the normal rules.

The leading player starts the auction phase, selecting a power plant for the auction and making the opening bid. The opening bid must be at least the number listed on the Power Plant card. In clockwise order, each player who hasn't bought a power plant this turn has an opportunity to bid or pass. If he elects to pass, he is out of the bidding for that Plant. Once the Plant is purchased (everyone else has passed), then the cost of the highest bid is paid to the bank, and the player places the Plant in front of him. The highest remaining player who hasn't bought a power plant this turn opens the bidding for the next plant, and so on, until everyone has purchased one plant or passed on buying this turn. If, when it is a player's turn to chose a power plant to bid on, he may pass but he is then not allowed to purchase a power plant during that turn.

As power plants are purchased, they are replaced from the draw pile. During Steps 1 and 2 of the game, only the lowest-numbered four power plants (of the eight displayed) are available for purchase. During Step 3 of the game, only six power plants are displayed but they are all available for purchase.

Phase 3: Buying Resources

Starting with the player in LAST place on the Playing Order track, and working backwards, players purchase the resources that their Power Plants can use or store. Players pay the cheapest going rate on the Resource Market. Because of the reverse player order in this round, players that are behind (have the fewest connected cities) pay less for resources. As the resources are purchased, players place them on their Power Plants. They can buy as many as the icons on the Power Plant card indicate, times two. That is, a Power Plant can store an extra set of resources.

Phase 4: Building

During this phase, a player seeks to expand his power network. This phase is also played in reverse player order, thus, players that are behind have better choices for purchasing connections to cities. Each city is divided into three sections and labeled "10", "15", or "20". At the beginning of the game, players will place their wooden buildings on the "10" section of a given city. This costs 10 Elektros. The player can branch out into another city, paying the connection cost (the number on the pipe connecting the two cities) plus the 10 Elektros for setting up in that city. Later in the game, the sections marked "15" and "20" can be used as part of a player's network (Steps 2 & 3 respectively), but in the initial Step 1, only one player may occupy any given city.

The payout schedule leads to geometrical increase in network growth and a rapid transition from early to late game

If at any time, a player has equal or more cities than the lowest-numbered power plant displayed (available for purchase), then the lowest-numbered power plant is removed from those available for purchase and is placed in the discard pile. The power plant is replaced with the card from the top of the draw pile, then the available power plants are sorted from lowest to highest. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (800x769, 143 KB) Summary Photo by G Hinkle, taken for use on Wikpedia. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (800x769, 143 KB) Summary Photo by G Hinkle, taken for use on Wikpedia. ...

Phase 5: Bureaucracy

Every player "fires" their power plants, consuming the resources that were purchased and earning the player money. The player's plants produce the electricity for the number of cities that it can support, assuming the player has that many connected cities in his network. For example, the #10 Power Plant card can power two cities with two coal. The resources used are removed, and the player is paid in Elektros based on a provided scale. The more connected cities that are powered, the more money the player earns.

During Steps 1 and 2, the highest-numbered power plant is removed from those displayed and placed at the bottom of the draw pile. During Step 3, the lower-numbered power plant is removed from those displayed and is put in the discard pile. The removed power plant is replaced from the top of the draw pile and the power plants available are resorted, lowest to highest.

Game steps

These phases are repeated until certain "steps" are reached. These are as follows:

• Step 1: Play as detailed above, only one player can occupy a given city.
• Step 2: After a player has connected his 7th city during the Building Phase, Step 2 begins. The lowest Power Plant in the market is removed from the game and replaced by a new one from the draw pile. Players can build in to the "15" spaces in cities.
• Step 3: When the "Step 3" card appears in the Power Plant draw pile, Step 3 begins and the game enters the final stretch. Players can build in to "20" spaces in cities, and new rules governing the selection and availability of Power Plants are enacted.

End game

The game ends after the bureaucracy phase once one player connects a minimum of:

• 21 cities for a 2-player game
• 17 cities for a 3 or 4-player game
• 15 cities for a 5-player game
• 14 cities for a 6-player game

The winner is the player who can supply electricity to the most cities with his network. Tie breakers first look at who has the most cities, then the most money.

Differences in editions

The corrected "29" plant

The "29" plant in the 1^st edition was printed with a capacity to power 3 cities. Friedemann Friese has made it clear that he intended this plant to have a capacity to power 4 cities. 2^nd edition copies of Power Grid have this correction incorporated. If you play with a 1^st edition copy, you should agree before play whether you will play the "29" plant as printed, or with the corrected capacity. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (800x783, 149 KB) Summary Photo by G Hinkle, taken for use on Wikpedia. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (800x783, 149 KB) Summary Photo by G Hinkle, taken for use on Wikpedia. ... Friedemann Friese is a German board game designer, currently residing and working in Bremen. ...

France/Italy

The France & Italy Expansion for Power Grid was published in 2005. The expansion requires the original game to play. As with the original, the board has a different map on each side: France and Italy. Along with the maps are small rule changes to reflect the power culture in these two countries. France, a land that has embraced nuclear power, has an earlier start with atomic plants and more uranium available. Italy has fewer coal and oil resources, but more garbage (called "waste" in the expansion rules), making Plant 06 a viable first plant. Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Benelux/Central Europe

The Benelux & Central Europe Expansion for Power Grid was published in 2006. The expansion requires the original game to play. As with the original, the board has a different map on each side: Benelux and Central Europe. Along with the maps are small rule changes to reflect the power culture in these two regions. Benelux (Economic union of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) has more ecological power plants and more availability of oil. Central Europe has rules changes in Steps 2 and 3, and limits on what type of power plant may be used to power cities in different regions (countries) of the map. Location of Benelux in Europe Official languages Dutch and French Membership  Belgium  Netherlands  Luxembourg Website http://www. ... Central Europe The Alpine Countries and the Visegrád Group (Political map, 2004) Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Power Plant Deck 2

The Power Plant Deck 2 Expansion for Power Grid was published in 2007. It was released at Spiel (the annual game fair in Essen) in 2007 and will be available for purchase in the United States around October 2007. Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Spiel is an American English slang word, or Scottish English dialect word, referring to a rant or monologue, perhaps of a dishonest or misleading nature. ... Essen is a city in the center of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ...

Awards

2005 Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

• Games Magazine Games 100
• Spiel des Jahres Recommended

2004 GAMES Magazine (ISSN 0199-9788) is a United States-based magazine devoted to games and puzzles, and is published by GAMES Publications, a division of Kappa Publishing Group. ... The Spiel des Jahres (German for Game of the Year) is a prestigious award for board and card games. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

• International Gamers Awards Best Strategy Game Nominee
• Meeples Choice Awards Top 3 of 2004

The International Gamers Award is an award for strategy board games and historical simulation games. ...

External links

• Rio Grande Games' Power Grid webpage
• 2F-Spiele's Funkenschlag webpage (German)
• Power Grid and Funkenschlag at BoardGameGeek
• Italy/France Expansion, Benelux/Central Europe Expansion and Plant Deck Expansion at BoardGameGeek
• Funkenschlag online at BrettspielWelt
• PowerGrid review at The Games Journal