Power Grid

Today's review is of the 2004 release, Power Grid.  For 2-6 players, it takes 2 hours.

Overview
You are a power company, vying for dominance in the industry.  You'll buy power plants, each requiring a number of resources (coal, oil, trash, uranium, or wind) to power a number of homes.  You'll purchase resources to fuel those plants.  You'll extend your distribution by adding more cities to your network.  And, most importantly: you'll earn cash each turn based on how many cities you power.  The game ends when a player has presence in 17 cities.  At that point, whoever can power the most cities wins.  Do you have what it takes?

game components; image from here

The game is played over rounds.  Each round has the following phases (simplified for brevity):

1. Determine player order.  
- The player with the most cities goes in slot 1 and is the first player, next most in slot 2 and so on.  This determines order for the round.  Some phases will go slots 1-X; others will go in reverse, from slot X-1.
2. Auction power plants
- The first player chooses to bid on one of 4 power plants (see below illustration), with a minimum starting bid equal to the number on the card.  When a plant is purchased, a new one is drawn and placed in the market, inserted in the lineup based on its number (example: 14 would be placed between 11 and 23).  Though 8 plants are visible, only the 4 lowest numbered are able to be auctioned.  Since the draw deck is random, that means the order will change as players buy plants and new ones are inserted.  Power plants are auctioned until each player buys one (they cannot buy more) or passes.  Nobody can own more than three power plants, so as the game progresses players will have to discard earlier purchases to remain at three.

power plants; only the bottom row is available for purchase.  image from here

3. Buy resources
- This order is reversed: the last player buys resources first.  They cannot purchase more than twice what their available plants require.  Cost will vary based on the available number of a resource (bottom track on the board, as shown in the picture above).  The more a resource gets depleted, the more expensive it gets.  So if many people have coal plants, coal increases in price.
4. Build
- Order still reversed: the last player expands to new cities if they wish, paying city and connection cost each time (you'll want your cities close to minimize connection fees).  Cost and how many companies can be in a city depends on step*.
5. Bureaucracy
- Back to normal order: the first player uses resources to fire plants and power cities, spending resources and collecting income based on the number of cities powered.  Resources are then re-stocked a certain amount depending on the number of players and step*.

Rounds continue until the aforementioned victory condition.

*The game is played in three "steps."  During step 1, only one company can be in a city; step 2, two companies; step 3, three companies.

Review
Ironic aside: my home lost power when reviewing this game.  Coincidence? ...

This game is solid.  A lot of interesting aspects and good mechanics (I particularly liked the auction and resource costing systems).  It's clearly well thought out.  But it has one drawback- and it's significant enough to move it from "great" to "good" in my book.  All games have three 'segments'- the early, mid, and late game.  Designers must balance each so that they matter without prematurely ending the game by allowing a player to build an insurmountable lead (if a player can get an insurmountable lead in the early game, the latter phases become irrelevant, and those trailing lose interest).  I see that flaw in this game- I believe victory can be determined early on, or at least require leading players to make serious mistakes to let others catch up.  That sours an otherwise enjoyable offering.

Rating: B+