A Simple Guide to Power Grid for Beginners

Welcome to my beginner’s guide to Power Grid! If you’re new to this fascinating game, I’m here to help you understand the main concepts and strategies. Power Grid is a board game that challenges your skills in resource management and strategic planning.

Power Grid is played on a game board that represents a region divided into different cities. Each player takes on the role of a power company, aiming to supply electricity to as many cities as possible. The goal is to generate income and expand your network while competing against other players.

Understanding the Basics

Managing your resources is crucial in Power Grid. You start the game with limited funds and resources, so it’s important to plan your moves carefully. You’ll need to buy power plants, fuel them with resources, and build connections to cities. The more cities you power, the more money you’ll earn.

You’ll also need to keep an eye on the supply and demand of resources. Prices can fluctuate, so it’s important to time your purchases wisely. Additionally, managing your money is crucial. Balancing your investments in power plants, resources, and network expansion will be key to your success.

Developing Your Strategy

Power Grid offers multiple ways to victory. One strategy is to focus on efficiency by upgrading your power plants and using resources effectively. Another strategy is to expand your network rapidly, capturing valuable cities before your opponents. The key is to find the right balance between growth and efficiency that suits your playstyle.

Another important aspect of the game is the auction phase. This is where players bid on power plants and resources. Bidding strategically can give you a competitive edge and secure the best deals. Pay attention to your opponents’ strategies and adapt accordingly.

Tips for Success

Here are a few tips to help you excel in Power Grid:

• Plan ahead: Think several turns ahead and anticipate your opponents’ moves.
• Manage your money: Balancing your finances is crucial for long-term success.
• Adapt your strategy: Be flexible and adjust your plans based on the changing game dynamics.
• Invest in efficiency: Upgrading your power plants can give you a significant advantage.

Remember, Power Grid is a game of strategy and careful planning. With practice, you’ll become a master of resource management and dominate the world of power supply! Enjoy the game!

Alright, hear me out. We’re about to dive into the world of civic engineering and have some serious fun with Power Grid! Wait, don’t leave just yet. I promise it’s way more exciting than it sounds. This game combines Economics, Route Building, and an Auction/bidding system. It has unique mechanics and turn order that will challenge you to think outside the box. Trust me, the strategies that work here won’t work in other games. And hey, it’s been consistently ranked in the top 5 board games on Board Game Geek, so you know it’s something special. So, don’t judge a game by its theme. Sure, a game about monsters battling it out might sound cool, but after spending 10 hours hunched over a Titan board, you’d definitely reconsider your initial excitement too.

Power Grid may sound like a bit of a grind, but let me tell you, it’s a thrilling strategy and economics game that has me hooked every time I play.

When you first lay eyes on the board, you can’t help but notice the massive maps that cover both sides. One side depicts the United States, while the other showcases Germany:

These maps are filled with dark cities just waiting to be powered up. It’s your mission to generate power by strategically using Power Plants and Resources. The game adjusts its features based on the number of players. For instance, in a 2 or 3 player game, you’ll select 3 neighboring regions to play on. These regions are color-coded and each contain 7 cities. When there are 4 to 6 players, you’ll use 4 to 6 regions, making sure they’re all adjacent. I’ll provide a summary of how the game scales up at the end of this guide once you have a better grasp of the game’s mechanics. At first, this may seem a bit awkward, but after a couple of plays, you’ll see why it’s necessary.

When you play the game, you’ll start with 50 Elektro – that’s what we call the currency in the game. The goal is to power as many cities as possible to win the game, with money being the tiebreaker if needed. However, it’s a good idea to spend your money wisely and not worry too much about the tiebreaker. You’ll use your Elektros to bid on Power Plants and buy resources to power them.

As you play, you’ll need to keep track of the Player Order and the Score. You’ll have wooden houses in your chosen color to mark the cities in your network, and two of these houses will be used on the scoring tracks.

For this turn, the yellow player goes first in the order.

The red player has 12 cities in their network, and the blue player has 13.

Hey there! Let me break it down for you. In this game, you don’t have to power every single city in your network. But hey, the more cities you do power, the more Elektros you’ll earn. And guess what? Powering the most cities in the last round is actually how you win the game!

Now, let’s talk about creating your network of cities. You’ll need to place your houses on the map strategically. Take a look at Savannah: it’s split into 3 sections, each numbered 10, 15, and 20.

During the game, there are 3 steps. In the first step, you can only build your house on the 10 spots. The 15 spot opens up for building in the 3rd step, and the 20 spot becomes available in the 4th step. See that house in the 10 spot of Raleigh? It’s built by the player in red, and it blocks the yellow player from building there until the 15 spot opens up in Step 2. Pretty sneaky, right?

Here’s a key thing to remember: once you’ve built in a city, you can’t build there again. So with that red house sitting in Raleigh’s 10 spot, they won’t be able to build in the 15 and 20 spots. Let the strategic city-building begin!

When you want to establish a presence in new cities, you have to make sure they are linked to your network using pipes. Say Red wants to expand into Savannah – in order to do so, they will need to connect from either Atlanta or Raleigh. The cost of the connection itself is borne by the Pipes. In this situation, both routes have a cost of 7, leaving Red with little choice. To set up shop in Savannah, Red will have to pay a total of 17, with 7 going towards the connection and 10 for securing a spot in the city.

Hey, guess what? Yellow isn’t blocked from building in Savannah! So, here’s the deal: if it’s Yellow’s turn, he can connect from Washington or Pittsburgh and make his way to Savannah by paying for all the connecting pipes. From Pittsburgh to Raleigh to Savannah, there are two pipes, each costing 7. That means Yellow can pay a total of 24 to build in Savannah (7 + 7 + 10). And let me tell you, that’s a better option than going through Washington, where the total cost to connect would be 5 + 3 + 7 + 10, which equals 25 Elektros.

Now, here’s something cool. In step 2, the game opens up 15 spots, allowing Yellow to build in Norfolk and Raleigh for 15 Elektros instead of the 10 available in the first step. So that’s how your network of cities will be built during the game. In that picture, Red and Yellow each control 6 cities. It’s time to power them up now!

To get started, you’ll need Power Plants! These are special cards that come from a deck of Power Plant cards. As you play the game, you can control up to 3 Power Plants at a time. If you want to get a fourth one, you can choose to discard any one of your existing Power Plants. Let me explain how they work:

Take a look at these Oil Power Plants. You can easily recognize them by the Oil Barrels shown at the bottom. The number in the top left corner is the minimum starting bid when you are looking to buy a Power Plant from the market. The number of barrels tells you how much oil you need to power this particular plant. And the number on the house shows how many cities this Power Plant can light up when you use it. It’s worth noting that the more expensive Power Plants tend to be more efficient in powering your cities.

So, let’s talk about these thingamabobs called Coal Power Plants. They work pretty much the same way as those Oil ones, except they use coal instead. In the early stages of the game, coal is plentiful and cheaper than oil. But as you progress, it starts to become a bit scarce and a tad more expensive than oil. I’ll show you a nifty resource table for each step once we’ve covered the Power Plants.

Now let’s move on to the Power Plants that run on Garbage, yep, you heard me right. Garbage! In the beginning, it might be a bit harder to come by, just like in real life. But as the game goes on, you’ll see it piling up. The thing is, there aren’t as many of these Garbage-fueled plants available in the deck. So, if your fellow players stay away from the Garbage market, you might have a better chance at snagging this resource for yourself.

Hey there! Did you notice those power plants with the dual oil/coal icons? They’re pretty cool because they’re hybrids, which means they can be fueled by either coal, oil, or a combination of both. This gives you a bit more flexibility when it comes to the market.

Now, let me tell you about the Step 3 card. It’s like a little marker that gets placed at the bottom of the stack. As the turns go by, the expensive cards will be taken out of the market and put at the bottom of the deck. When you finally reach the Step 3 card, it’s time to move into step 3 and start building on the 15 spaces in the cities.

Here’s a nifty tip for you: the 50 cost power plant is a fusion-fueled one. It’s special because it doesn’t require any resources to power up to 6 cities. Pretty neat, huh? If you have the means to afford it earlier rather than later, go for it! It’ll save you quite a bit of elektros in resources.

Hey there! Let’s talk about Uranium Power Plants. So, at the start of the game, Uranium is a super rare and pricey resource. Now, if you’re the only one who snags some Uranium early on, it can be a big win for you later. Why, you ask? Well, because Uranium can power multiple cities using fewer resources. How cool is that?

But wait, there’s more! These Uranium Power Plants are like the fancy Fusion Power Plants in that they don’t need any resources to power cities. Yep, you heard me right. They run on their own, saving you loads of resources. Of course, they’re a bit pricier and more sought-after, so you might have to fight for them in the auction. But trust me, it’s worth it for the long-term savings.

To begin playing the Power Plant game, you need to set up the Power Plant market and the Power Plant deck. First, remove the cards that are priced from 3 to 10. Arrange these cards in two rows of four, with the prices in ascending order. Next, place the Step 3 card and the Eco Power Plant card, which costs 13, off to the side. Now, shuffle the remaining cards and randomly take out the number of cards required based on the number of players you have. You can refer to the player number scaling chart for this information. Once you have removed the necessary cards, put the Step 3 card at the bottom of the deck and the 13 cost Eco Plant card at the top. Here’s an example to help you visualize the setup:

When you play Power Plants, there are two rows you need to know about. The top row is called the Actual Market, and this is where you can bid on plants during the Auction. The row below it is the Future Market, which shows the plants that will be coming into the Actual Market soon.

So let’s say it’s my turn to bid first. I see a 5 cost Hybrid plant in the Actual Market, and I decide to start the bidding at 5. The winner of the auction will get the 5 cost plant and replace it with the top card from the deck, putting it in order of cost.

Now, at the end of every full turn, the highest cost Power Plant in the Future Market gets taken out and put at the bottom of the deck. Then, a new plant is drawn and placed in order. This helps us organize the cards by cost, so the higher cost plants aren’t at the top anymore. It’s a pretty cool mechanic that keeps things random but prevents the game from getting too expensive too quickly.

When you own power plants, you need to purchase resources to keep them running. Each plant has a specific resource requirement, and you can store double the amount of resources needed on the cards. Let’s take the 3-cost Oil Power Plant as an example. It requires 2 Oil to power 1 city, so you can store up to 4 Oil on the card. Check out this visual representation of a fully stocked Oil and Hybrid Plant:

It’s important to buy resources in bulk for two reasons. First, the cheaper you can buy them, the better. And second, if you buy more resources before your opponents, they will have to pay a higher price. This brings us to how the Resource market works.

Hey there! Welcome to the Resource Market on the board. Take a look at the picture to see what each little wooden piece represents. See those cute little gold coins with numbers on them? Each square on the board has one of those, indicating the price of the resource it’s associated with. Pretty cool, huh?

If you’re in need of some coal right now, you’re in luck! There are 2 coal resources available for only 4 Elektro each, and 3 more available for just 5 Elektro each. That’s a pretty good deal, don’t you think? But if you’re feeling fancy and want to splurge a little, you can also get some uranium. However, be warned, it’s a bit pricier. Currently, there are only 2 uranium resources left, and they cost 14 and 15 Elektros each. So choose wisely!

The picture you see here shows the Resource Market after some players have already made their purchases. Ten coal resources, two oil resources, and one garbage resource have been bought. If we return those resources to their starting positions, it gives us an idea of what the game begins with. And you might notice something interesting – coal is abundant and relatively cheap when the game starts. Good to know!

Now, let me fill you in on something. At the end of each turn, new resources will be added to the Market. How many resources are available will depend on what step the game is in. Here’s a handy-dandy chart to help you keep track:

Hey there, let’s focus on the 4 Player chart first to get an idea. Take a look at it, and you’ll notice that during Step 1, five units of coal are added to the resources at the end of each turn. On the other hand, Oil, Garbage, and Uranium only receive 3, 2, and 1 units respectively. Things change a bit when we reach Step 3 though. Coal becomes more abundant in Step 2, but its availability drops in Step 3. Oil and Garbage become a little more abundant over time, while Uranium receives some extra attention in Step 2, but its availability stays the same in Step 3. These numbers are important to keep an eye on and compare with what your opponents are doing. For example, if three players in a 4-player game are competing for coal, it will become very expensive and hard to find.

It’s almost like you’re learning about economics, right? But don’t worry, it’s actually a lot of fun! Trust me!

Now that you have a little bit of knowledge about the game, let’s start playing!

Phase 1

When we start a new round of the game, the first thing we need to do is figure out who goes first. On the very first round, we can choose randomly by placing the houses on the Player Order track in a random order. I like to shake them all up in my hands and let them drop one by one, but you can use any method you like to mix them up. After the first round, the player order is determined by how many cities each player has in their network on the board. The player with the most cities goes first. If there is a tie, then we look at the cost of each player’s power plant. The player with the highest-cost power plant in front of them gets to go first.

Phase 2

First things first, let’s talk about buying a Power Plant. You have the opportunity to bid on one in the Actual Market. But remember, only the player who’s first on the player order gets to pick one to bid on. You can choose to skip this phase and not bid on any plant, but if you do, you won’t be able to bid on any future auctions.

If player 1 decides to bid, they’ll select a plant and make a minimum bid on the card, or even higher if they want. The next player in line can either raise the bid or pass. If a player passes, they can’t join the current auction but can participate in the next one. Just keep in mind that once you buy a power plant in this phase, you can’t bid on any more for the turn.

When you buy a Plant from the Real Market, a new card is drawn from the deck and the cards in the future and real markets are rearranged in order from smallest to largest, with 4 cards in each market.

Now let’s talk about some interesting strategy. Being the last to bid in the Auction gives you an advantage. You can control how much someone pays for a plant because you get to bid last. Plus, you get to choose your starting card last. Since the plants are placed in ascending order, you’ll have access to the most efficient ones. You’ll also have less competition bidding on them. And if you’re the very last bidder, you won’t have any competition at all. That means you can get a plant at the lowest possible price.

Phase 3

Now is the time to purchase resources to fuel your plants. And guess what? The player who goes last actually has an advantage here! They get the first crack at buying resources, which means they can snatch them up at the lowest prices. So it’s a good strategy to buy as much as you can, and fill up your storage. This forces your opponents to pay more for their resources, muahaha! Keep in mind, though, that you can only buy what you can store. But don’t worry, you can always move resources around if you need to. For example, let’s say you have 3 plants and you decide to upgrade to a better one. You can transfer the resources from your old plant to the new one. Pretty cool, huh?

Phase 4

When it’s my turn to play, I get to go first again. This is when I can add more cities to my network by putting my houses in open spaces on the map. Remember, I have to pay fees to connect my houses to the ones I already have on the board. On my first turn, I choose a city to start in and pay 10 to put my house there. I can build as many houses as I can afford, but I don’t have to power all of them if I don’t want to.

Phase 5

In this phase, I’ll explain how Bureaucracy works, which involves powering your cities to earn more cash and managing the markets. I’ll start with the first player, who will decide how many cities they want to power. Then, they will use the required resources from their power plants to do so. The resources used will be taken from their storage and returned to the supply, not the Market. Each Power Plant can only be used once. For example, if you have a Plant that requires 2 coal to power 2 houses and you have 4 coal stored on it, you can only use 2 coal. Here’s a visual representation:

Once you have powered a certain number of houses, you will earn Elektros based on a chart on the back of your Turn Order reference card:

Hey, did you know that if you power 3 houses, you’ll earn 44 Elektros to use in your next turn? Pretty cool, huh? After we all get our cash, we’ll refill the resource market based on the Player Number/Resource table I showed you earlier. Oh, and we’ll also take the most expensive Power Plant from the Future market, put it at the bottom of the deck, and replace it with a new one from the top. Exciting times!

When you play the game, you’ll repeat these turns until the end game is triggered. In the beginning, you start at Step 1 with only 10 spots open on each City. As you progress, different Steps are also triggered, adding new twists and challenges to the game.

Step 2 kicks off before Phase 5, right after a player builds their 7th city during Phase 4. At this point, you’ll remove the Power plant with the lowest cost from the game. Then, you’ll replace it with a new Power plant from the top of the deck, making sure to rearrange all the plants again in ascending order. Additionally, you’ll now have access to the 15 cost spots in the cities, and the resupply numbers from the resource chart will change.

When the Step 3 card is revealed from the Power Plant deck, it triggers Step 3. In this step, the Power Plant market is condensed to just 6 cards. These 6 cards are now available to be bid on during Phase 2, adding more excitement and competition to the game. Furthermore, all the 20 Cost spots in the cities are now open, providing new opportunities and challenges to players.

Did you know that the game I’m about to tell you about has a rather unexpected strategy? It’s called [Game Name], and in order to win, you actually don’t want to be in the lead for most of the game. Let me explain why.

The game consists of several phases, and it ends after Phase 4 when a player has at least 17 cities in their network. You can’t buy any more resources or Power Plants at this point. But here’s the interesting part – the winner is determined in Phase 5 based on who can power the most cities, using their remaining money as a tiebreaker.

Now, let’s talk about the counter-intuitive strategy. Instead of trying to be the front-runner throughout the game, you’ll actually have an advantage if you hang back a bit. This allows you to have better positioning in the Power Plant Auctions, resource buying phase, and city connection phases.

By conserving your money and waiting for the right moment, you can make a ton of new connections and trigger the end game when you’re in a position to power the most cities. And that’s how you can secure your victory.

I want to emphasize that this isn’t the only way to win, but it adds an interesting twist to the game when everyone catches on to this strategy. It forces you to start looking for new ways to compete and stay ahead.

Hey there! I wanted to share with you this cool chart that shows how the player numbers scale in the game. It’s not crucial for understanding the game, but I found it helpful when I was playing.

Power Grid is a super popular game, and like all great games, it has expansions. Personally, I’ve been happy playing with the two maps that come with the base game, but if you’re interested, here’s some info on the U.S. expansions from Rio Grande Games. (There are even more expansions available in Europe and Germany!) Just keep in mind that you’ll need the pieces and cards from the base game to play these expansions.

Power Grid: Italy/France

Hey there! I want to tell you all about this cool expansion for Power Grid called Power Grid: Central Europe/benelux. It’s an exciting board game that adds two new countries to the mix – France and Italy! Let me break it down for you.

Power Grid: Central Europe/benelux

This expansion brings so much more to the table. We’ve got a brand new board with France and Italy, and some rule updates to make it even more interesting.

First, let’s talk about France. They are all about Nuclear Power! So, in this expansion, you’ll get a head start with Uranium Plants and more Uranium available earlier on. Plus, it’s gonna be cheaper for you. France knows how to make the most of the power of atoms!

Now, let’s move on to Italy. They’ve got plenty of garbage to throw around, but they’re not so blessed when it comes to natural coal and oil resources. Don’t worry though, you’ll find ways to make it work! Italy brings its own challenges and opportunities to the game.

So there you have it! Power Grid: Central Europe/benelux is a fantastic expansion that adds more depth and strategy to the game. I hope you give it a try and enjoy the unique power cultures of France and Italy!

In the Benelux map, you will find rules that offer faster access to Eco-Power and more Oil than Coal. Meanwhile, on the Central Europe map, Poland becomes a valuable source of coal, but there are stricter limitations on the use of Nuclear power.

Power Grid: Russia And Japan

Did you know that the power plant market in Russia has some strict restrictions? It’s also not easy to replace old power plants there. Over in Japan, the crowded environment means you have to start two separate networks, but there’s a catch – your first connections can only be made in certain cities, which adds more tension and competition.

Power Grid: Brazil/Spain & Portugal

So, here’s the deal. Brazil has got a thing for Biogas. They’re all about using it to generate electricity, which means they’re all about Garbage and Garbage plants. Those plants are like the holy grail for Biogas production in Brazil. And let me tell you, resources in Brazil are hard to come by. It’s like a mad scramble to get your hands on anything. The market for resources there is crazy intense.

Now, Spain and Portugal are in a whole different situation. They’re all caught up in the Uranium market. But here’s the twist – in Step 1, there won’t be any Uranium to be found. Zero. Zilch. Nada. But wait, there’s more! In Step 2, the supply is going to be flooded. Like, seriously flooded. It’s going to be raining Uranium. So, yeah, things are pretty unpredictable in Spain and Portugal.

And as if that wasn’t enough, in the same breath, we’ve got 3 massive Eco Power Plants being yanked out of the deck. It’s like a disappearing act, but not the fun kind. No, this makes resources even more crucial. They’re becoming as rare as a unicorn sighting.

Power Grid: China/Korea, you’ve got a whole other story to tell.

Have you ever wondered about the Korean Map? It’s split into two separate resource markets, one in the North and one in the South. What’s interesting is that China has a very strict and planned economy, so the Power Plants on this map will come out in ascending order for Steps 1 and 2.

Power Grid Deck

Now, here’s something exciting – there’s a brand new Power Plant deck available for this map! You can replace the old deck and change up your play. If you prefer, you can even build your own custom deck or use a random deck from both sets to add some variety to your games.