Power Grid Recharged

Loved demoing this at GenCon and had to pick up a copy for myself of this classic euro game.

Lots of strategy and supply the energy network in the most efficient way!!!

I had played this game years ago and really enjoyed it. I had already bought it for friends and finally got it for myself. It's multifaceted strategy or you can totally ignore strategy and still have fun. My wife didn't want to stop playing it and she's not into strategy games. The resource market is I think the best feature of the game. It's fun and keeps track game different, as does which power plants come up. My only criticism, is that the directions are a little confusing. After a play through or two it makes sense though.

I swapped my old edition of this game for the recharged edition. After roughly 15 years after Power Grid’s initial release, this hallmark game deserved a few updates. I couldn’t pass up these few tweaks which make gameplay smoother. Although this edition isn't necessary, fans of Power Grid will more than likely appreciate all the changes. Most of the updates bring more information onto the board and accessible to all players instead of hidden in the Rulebook. Components The wooden resources have changed to look more like their respectable energy sources: a rubble of coal, an oil drop, a garbage can, and a symbol for nuclear; instead of cubes, cylinders, and other prisms in various colors. This easily differentiates between the resources and they are less likely to roll around. The paper money is the same unfortunately... as well as the wooden houses. The Rulebook (in my opinion) has a better format to follow, which made referencing during the game easier. There are star symbols on the resource slots to mark the starting resources. This is excellent addition instead of rifling through the Rulebook for that information. Includes an auction piece to indicate the power plant under auction. Not a needed improvement, but nice it's included. Also handy step “barriers” to clearly show when the next step would activate. This is a must for me because it is one less thing players have to remember when the next step happens or the end of the game. An easy fix with an old edition is to use components from other games which would function the same way. This edition also has “resource refill” cards for each player count that is easily referenced during the game instead of the back of the Rulebook. The last change I'll mention is that the starting power plants have plugs in the sockets on the back of the cards. This was a great idea to easily differentiate the different power plants and allowed for rules to be less confusing when referring the two types. Now for the rule tweaks... • USA map - coal pool. Interesting to have coal always accessible but at a premium cost. It opens the game up to more strategy options. Probably a regional thematic change. • Germany map - no restocking nuclear once the #39 (red) Power Plant has been bought. Small change that reduces the over powered-ness of that Power Plant. Probably a regional thematic change. • Start with 1 more garbage slot available. Makes garbage Power Plants more attractive from the start of the game. • Starting (plug) power plants are shuffled. I like this change because of the variable starting power plants. After a while in the original Power Grid edition, using the same setup got old. It is worded oddly in the rulebook, but the information is all there. • $1 discount token: Brings a new strategy to the auction phase. I really like this change because often in the original edition the lowest power plant on the available market is usually less attractive and gets over-looked. This changes the appeal of lower power plants which could be potentially a cheap investment. • 2-player Against the Trust: this variant I haven't explored enough because I own the robots expansion, therefore I have no need for this variant. Personally, I think the robots is a better AI option. Against the Trust tries to do the same but without extra components. It works okay but like I said, I'm impartial to the robots expansion.

Stands the test of time as one of the best games to come out in the last 20 years.

This is an older game, but still engaging. I love the turn order and market price mechanics. If you have the largest network, your opponents get first choice of the resources and where to expand. It's a fun game filled with strategy and one of my favorites.