First 5-player game of Power Grid
Saturday night, and for the first time we played a 5-player version of Power Grid. I have to say off the top, though, that I didn't like it...maybe I was playing with the wrong people, or maybe having 5 players is simply too much for this game, which lacks the tension of a close game among all players. In any case, we played the US map with the SW region excluded. The players are Ed John Harry Brian and I. Ed and John were newbies. And the game starts...
...with step 1 taking a long time...heh. I built at the gateway to the NW which had access to the cheap cities in central US and have a first crack at the expensive NW. Brian and John occupied the east coast, Ed started in the south while Harry was somewhere in the middle. Step 1 didn't end until most of the board was filled up except for the NW...heh. Brian could have triggered step 2 if he had built a connection that crisscrosses at least 4 other cities...heh. But he didn't, and John did.
Meanwhile, the power plant market was really bizarre. Even at step 2, there were some pretty useless plants still on the market. Because of that, I was way behind in getting the plants, since I only want to cycle the plants only once. I had two garbage plants and one wind plant powering a total of 6 cities for a long time, even after I've built past 6 cities. The others all had pretty steady growth in plant capacities while I lagged behind. I was called the garbage man, since I was the only one with garbage plants (which is a good strategy if I want to have resources, except garbage was never cheap). Ed was in a hurry to go home (since it was late), so there was one round where he built up to 12 cities from 7 or 8, and then we all tried to play catch up...heh.
Step 3 came pretty quickly after step 2, and then the big plants came out (this is where I forgot to perform the rule that says I should shuffle the plants after step 3 card came out...oops). There was a point where both Harry and Ed had capacity 14, the rest of us below that. If one of them built up to 15 cities, then the game would end, and presumably Harry and Ed had to compare money to see who wins. However, the one who builds to 15 would spend the extra money to build to 15, hence reducing his money supply. Harry went before Ed, and Harry built up to 14, but didn't want to build to 15 and take that risk. Wrong move. Ed could only build up to 14 during his turn and ran out of money. Doh for Harry...heh. Then came the final round...
The bidding for power plants was fierce this time around. John first bought a plant to bring his capacity up to 16. Then Harry and Brian bid for a 7-plant, and Harry got it, but at a very costly price. This brings Harry up to capacity 17. Brian bought a plant to bring him up to capacity 16. Then it was Ed's turn. There were two 6-plants on the market, one costing about 35, the other is the fusion plant costing 50, and no 7-plants. Ed needs a 6-plant to get him up to 17, so I could have raise the price with him so that his cost is around 50...but I didn't. Instead, I let him have the 35(?) plant at face value, and I bought the next plant that came up which (fortunately) was a 7-plant, at face value. So in summary, Ed and Harry had capacity 17, while the rest of us had capacity 16.
Fuel supply was plenty for everyone, so that's no problem. I built first, and I got up to 16 cities, which is ok. John was next and he could only build up to 15 cities, so he's out. Ed was next, and he built up to 17 cities and had only 3 dollars left! Doh! So I could have prevented him from building that 17th city and have a chance at winning! Oops... Harry was next, but he didn't have enough money remaining to win, so he decided that he would stop building (which I think is being a bad sport). Brian was last, he didn't have a chance of winning, but he said it best when he wanted to lose in a glorious way...heh. So built up to 17 cities and still had enough money left to keep building...heh. So Ed won during his first game!
In the end, John and Harry complained a lot about this game, and they give a lot of arguments about how bad Power Grid is when those are just reasons why they lost the game...so those are simply excuses for the elements of the game for which they cannot manage well. And I just hate to hear these things from them. It's a really good game!!! Anyway, here are the final scores...
...with step 1 taking a long time...heh. I built at the gateway to the NW which had access to the cheap cities in central US and have a first crack at the expensive NW. Brian and John occupied the east coast, Ed started in the south while Harry was somewhere in the middle. Step 1 didn't end until most of the board was filled up except for the NW...heh. Brian could have triggered step 2 if he had built a connection that crisscrosses at least 4 other cities...heh. But he didn't, and John did.
Meanwhile, the power plant market was really bizarre. Even at step 2, there were some pretty useless plants still on the market. Because of that, I was way behind in getting the plants, since I only want to cycle the plants only once. I had two garbage plants and one wind plant powering a total of 6 cities for a long time, even after I've built past 6 cities. The others all had pretty steady growth in plant capacities while I lagged behind. I was called the garbage man, since I was the only one with garbage plants (which is a good strategy if I want to have resources, except garbage was never cheap). Ed was in a hurry to go home (since it was late), so there was one round where he built up to 12 cities from 7 or 8, and then we all tried to play catch up...heh.
Step 3 came pretty quickly after step 2, and then the big plants came out (this is where I forgot to perform the rule that says I should shuffle the plants after step 3 card came out...oops). There was a point where both Harry and Ed had capacity 14, the rest of us below that. If one of them built up to 15 cities, then the game would end, and presumably Harry and Ed had to compare money to see who wins. However, the one who builds to 15 would spend the extra money to build to 15, hence reducing his money supply. Harry went before Ed, and Harry built up to 14, but didn't want to build to 15 and take that risk. Wrong move. Ed could only build up to 14 during his turn and ran out of money. Doh for Harry...heh. Then came the final round...
The bidding for power plants was fierce this time around. John first bought a plant to bring his capacity up to 16. Then Harry and Brian bid for a 7-plant, and Harry got it, but at a very costly price. This brings Harry up to capacity 17. Brian bought a plant to bring him up to capacity 16. Then it was Ed's turn. There were two 6-plants on the market, one costing about 35, the other is the fusion plant costing 50, and no 7-plants. Ed needs a 6-plant to get him up to 17, so I could have raise the price with him so that his cost is around 50...but I didn't. Instead, I let him have the 35(?) plant at face value, and I bought the next plant that came up which (fortunately) was a 7-plant, at face value. So in summary, Ed and Harry had capacity 17, while the rest of us had capacity 16.
Fuel supply was plenty for everyone, so that's no problem. I built first, and I got up to 16 cities, which is ok. John was next and he could only build up to 15 cities, so he's out. Ed was next, and he built up to 17 cities and had only 3 dollars left! Doh! So I could have prevented him from building that 17th city and have a chance at winning! Oops... Harry was next, but he didn't have enough money remaining to win, so he decided that he would stop building (which I think is being a bad sport). Brian was last, he didn't have a chance of winning, but he said it best when he wanted to lose in a glorious way...heh. So built up to 17 cities and still had enough money left to keep building...heh. So Ed won during his first game!
In the end, John and Harry complained a lot about this game, and they give a lot of arguments about how bad Power Grid is when those are just reasons why they lost the game...so those are simply excuses for the elements of the game for which they cannot manage well. And I just hate to hear these things from them. It's a really good game!!! Anyway, here are the final scores...
Ed: 17 capacity, 17 cities, 3 dollars left.
John: 16 capacity, 15 cities, 4 dollars left.
Harry: 17 capacity, 14 cities, 46 dollars left.
Brian: 16 capacity, 17 cities, 50 dollars left.
Me: 16 capacity, 16 cities, 12 dollars left.
Labels: Power Grid
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