- GAMES Magazine Advanced Strategy Game Nominee 2005
- Spiel Des Jahres Recommended 2005
- International Gamers Awards Best Strategy Game Nominee 2004
- 2-6 players
- Ages 12 and up
- 120 minutes
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Technical Details
Product Specifications
| Main Language(s): | English unknown, English published |
| Model Number: | RGG240 |
| Number of Game Players: | 6 |
| Number of Puzzle Pieces: | 1 |
| Assembly Required: | No |
Product details
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Product Description
Manufacturer's Description
Power Grid is the updated release of the Friedemann Friese crayon game Funkenschlag. The latest cooperative publishing effort from Friedemann Friese and Rio Grande Games,removes the crayon aspect from network building in the original editionwhile retaining the fluctuating commodities market like McMulti and an auction round intensity reminiscent of The Princes of Florence. The object of Power Grid is to supply the mostcities with power when someone’s network gains a predetermined size. Inthis new edition, players mark pre-existing routes between cities forconnection, and then vie against other players to purchase the powerplants that you use to supply the power. However, as plants arepurchased, newer more efficient plants become available so you’repotentially allowing others to access to superior equipment merely bypurchasing at all. Additionally, players must acquire the rawmaterials, like coal, oil, garbage, or uranium, to power said plants(except for the highly valuable ’renewable energy’ wind/solar plants),making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximumefficiency while still retaining enough wealth to quickly expand yournetwork to get the cheapest routes.
Product Description
A strategy game of planning with surges of energy!
Power Grid is the updated release of the Friedemann Friese crayon game Funkenschlag. The latest cooperative publishing effort from Friedemann Friese and Rio Grande Games,removes the crayon aspect from network building in the original edition, while retaining the fluctuating commodities market like McMulti and an auction round intensity reminiscent of The Princes of Florence.
The object of Power Grid is to supply the most cities with power when someone's network gains a predetermined size. In this new edition, players mark pre-existing routes between cities for connection, and then vie against other players to purchase the power plants that you use to supply the power. However, as plants are purchased, newer more efficient plants become available so you're potentially allowing others to access to superior equipment merely by purchasing at all. Additionally, players must acquire the raw materials, like coal, oil, garbage, or uranium, to power said plants(except for the highly valuable 'renewable energy' wind/solar plants),making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximum efficiency while still retaining enough wealth to quickly expand your network to get the cheapest routes.
Contents:
2-sided game board (Germany / USA), 48 power plant cards, money, over 200 wooden pieces
Age 13+ for 2 - 6 players
Playing time: approx. 2 hours
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Durability:
Educational:
Fun:
If there was one game that deserves to join Settlers of Catan in knocking the age-old family classics off their dusty shelf, then it's this beautiful German game.
The premise is simple - each player has a energy company with the aim of becoming the first player to power enough pre-determined cities. To do this, they must first obtain various power stations of differing energy sources such as coal, oil, uranium, garbage, buy the necessary resource from the stock market and then place their respective markers on a city, paying a cost to link up from one location to the other. The map has differing costs for certain links, with the idea that the shorter the distance, the less you have to pay. The number of cities they are able power determines the amount of money they receive at the end of the turn.
If this sounds a little dry, then the real "juice" of the game is in the mechanics of these respective stages. Players must bid for Power Stations and here the chance to foil or mess up someone's chances are great - you could force someone to pay much more than they had envisaged, but at the same time you could end up purchasing one that you really had no great interest in buying. Choosing what station to bid on is crucial. In the energy resource stage, you can hike the price of a resource needed by a competitor by buying in bulk, and in the marker stage, you can block them off from making connections, forcing them to pursue an alternative.
What makes this game work is determining who goes first on each stage, which is always allocated to the person with the least amount of cities powered, ensuring that they have a chance to play catchup. It's an intriguing game that takes a potentially esoteric theme and produces some great fun. As there's no luck involved, every turn you take produces a number of hard decisions to make, which is what all great boardgames should be about. Some budgeting/maths skills won't go amiss, but this is a great game to teach kids about money and how the stock market works without having the sense of ruin that Monopoly or Settlers can provide. Although you can make decisions that affect other players, it's not direct confrontation.
The components and artwork might not be initially appealing, but they're sturdy if a little simple. My only complaint would be that the money in the game is rubbish and somehow devalues it, but it's not enough to knock off a star. Simple wooden counters would have been much more appropriate. Nevertheless, this is a true classic of the boardgame genre and there are also a number of expansions available.
The premise is simple - each player has a energy company with the aim of becoming the first player to power enough pre-determined cities. To do this, they must first obtain various power stations of differing energy sources such as coal, oil, uranium, garbage, buy the necessary resource from the stock market and then place their respective markers on a city, paying a cost to link up from one location to the other. The map has differing costs for certain links, with the idea that the shorter the distance, the less you have to pay. The number of cities they are able power determines the amount of money they receive at the end of the turn.
If this sounds a little dry, then the real "juice" of the game is in the mechanics of these respective stages. Players must bid for Power Stations and here the chance to foil or mess up someone's chances are great - you could force someone to pay much more than they had envisaged, but at the same time you could end up purchasing one that you really had no great interest in buying. Choosing what station to bid on is crucial. In the energy resource stage, you can hike the price of a resource needed by a competitor by buying in bulk, and in the marker stage, you can block them off from making connections, forcing them to pursue an alternative.
What makes this game work is determining who goes first on each stage, which is always allocated to the person with the least amount of cities powered, ensuring that they have a chance to play catchup. It's an intriguing game that takes a potentially esoteric theme and produces some great fun. As there's no luck involved, every turn you take produces a number of hard decisions to make, which is what all great boardgames should be about. Some budgeting/maths skills won't go amiss, but this is a great game to teach kids about money and how the stock market works without having the sense of ruin that Monopoly or Settlers can provide. Although you can make decisions that affect other players, it's not direct confrontation.
The components and artwork might not be initially appealing, but they're sturdy if a little simple. My only complaint would be that the money in the game is rubbish and somehow devalues it, but it's not enough to knock off a star. Simple wooden counters would have been much more appropriate. Nevertheless, this is a true classic of the boardgame genre and there are also a number of expansions available.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Durability:
Educational:
Fun:
I can't tell you how good this game is. No, I don't have shares in the company. It's a game of strategy with enough luck to keep things interesting. You need to anticipate what your competitors will do and try to outwit them. You can also say things like, "I'm going into Osnabruck for 25 electro dollars", which you don't do much of in real life! It's one of those games that sounds complicated when you read the rules but when you start playing, it's obvious. I first played this with friends who had the original German version, "Funkenschlag", and this is almost identical. It's the best board game I've ever played. Highly recommended. It only loses one durability point because the play money won't stand up to extended play.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Durability:
Educational:
Fun:
Powergrid is a game for 2-6 people (best with 3-5) that takes about 60-90 minutes. It can be played and enjoyed by adults and children age 10+. In Powergrid, players have to buy power stations and fuel to power their network of cities. I've played it successfully (although non-competitively) with children age 7, and I've played a competitive cut-throat game against experienced adult games. It's a great alternative to Monopoly as a family game...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant, fun, frustrating and challenging
Power Grid is regarded as one of the best boardgames there is. It has a great aution phase, a city building phase and a resource buying phase. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Denison
Great Game
Played this game for hours over Christmas, much more entertaining than the rubbish on TV. The time just flew by. A really good game, must consider getting the expansion packs. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Debmboy
Power Grid
This is an excellent game made to the usual high standards exhibited by the German games industory. The game is based on building power plants to provide electricity to a series of... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Moleman
Power(grid) to the people
Powergrid is a great adult board game. It is designed for 2 or more players, but would actually be better played with at least 4 in my opinion. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Sarah
Greate game for the beginner and advanced board gamer.
Powergrid is a greate game, easy to learn, quick setup, it takes some thinking to be good at it and there is different ways you can win. Greate game.
Published 16 months ago by Krongaard
not boring at all - a superb game
great environmental theme - makes you kids think about what it takes to keep the lights on - that aside the game mechanics work really well with lots to think about and not too... Read more
Published 21 months ago by N. Artingstall
power grid board game
Initially you think this game could be boring, but once you start playing it is far from that. You can't rely upon luck like in many board games. You have to use some fore thought. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2010 by A. M. Dalziel
POWER GRID - power to most of the people!
I rated Power Grid 8 out of 10 on boardgamegeek where it has an average rating of 8.20.
I avoided playing Power Grid for a while, because it looks complicated. Read more
I avoided playing Power Grid for a while, because it looks complicated. Read more
Published on 12 Nov 2009 by EYE of NiGHT
Getting Better
Played this over Christmas and took quite a while to learn. After playing the game through once the second game was much better but took 2 1/2 hours to complete. Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2009 by Mr. David James Manby
A great game!
For those game players looking for something beyond Monopoly this is just the ticket. Clever mechanics and variable set up make this game both ejoyable and replayable. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2007 by Mr. J. Garrett
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