Add your own Tips, Strategies, & House Rules! Vote for tips that you think are useful.
Tips & Strategies (49)
Add your own Tip, Strategy, or House Rule
You must be logged in to add a comment.
- 01Arkham Horror
- 01Arkham Horror: Innsmouth Horror
- 01Arkham Horror: The Lurker at the Threshold
- 01Arkham Horror: Miskatonic Horror
- 01Arkham Horror: Kingsport Horror
- 01Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage
- 00Spirit Island: Branch And Claw
- 00Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
- 00Twilight Imperium (4th Ed.)
- 00Thunderstone Quest
- (updated once every hour)
- Check out our users' favorite games!
- (152) 7 Wonders
- (149) Dominion
- (144) Pandemic
- (135) The Settlers of Catan
- (120) Carcassonne
- (115) Ticket to Ride
- (97) Small World
- (96) Munchkin
- (92) Arkham Horror
- (91) Forbidden Island
- (# of user reviews, updated every 12 hours)
- 25 Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
- (# of hearts given, updated every hour)
- 5 BattleTech
- 3 The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
- 2 The Voyages of Marco Polo
- 1 Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
- 1 Dungeon Lords
- 1 The Hobbit: On the Doorstep – Saga Expansion
- 1 Port Royal
- 1 Thebes
- 1 Great Western Trail
- 1 RoboRally
- (# of times played, updated every 12 hours)
- see all new games >
-
Hasty Baker
19-Aug-24, GoChuckle -
Mythic Quests: The Card Game
7-Nov-22, BoardGaming.com -
Mythic Dungeon Crawler – A Solo Card Game
27-Sep-22, BoardGaming.com -
Lost Ruins of Arnak
28-Dec-21, Czech Games Edition -
13 Monsters
4-Dec-20, Twisted Stranger B.V. -
Forgotten Waters
4-Dec-20, Plaid Hat Games -
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Core Set
18-Nov-20, Paizo Publishing -
Unlocking Insanity
5-Oct-20, Petersen Games -
Planet Apocalypse
5-Oct-20, Petersen Games -
Marvel United
1-Oct-20, CMON, Spin Master Ltd. -
Draconis Invasion: Wrath
23-Sep-20, -
2 Minute Dino Deal
5-Aug-20, Petersen Games -
Mythic Challenge: The Card Game
2-Aug-20, BoardGaming.com -
Viscounts of the West Kingdom
27-Mar-20, Garphill Games -
Glamazons
14-Feb-20, Prettiest Princess - see all new games >
- see all upcoming games >
-
Gravity Warfare
2018 Q4, Smart Iguana Games -
BANG! The Dice Game – Undead or Alive
2019, dV Giochi -
Hasty Baker
2019, GoChuckle -
Penguinramids
2019 Q4, dV Giochi -
Origami: Legends
2019 Q4, dV Giochi -
Decktective: Bloody-red roses
2019 Q4, dV Giochi -
BANG! The Duel: Renegades
2019 Q4, dV Giochi -
Buy It Or Don’t
2019 Q4, Binks Games -
Four Levels
2019 Q4, Four Level Productions -
Unlocking Insanity
2020, Petersen Games -
High Noon
2020 Q4, High Noon Inc. -
Quantified
2021, Quality Beast -
High Frontier 4 All (4th ed)
2021 Q2, Ion Game Design, Sierra Madre Games -
Legends of Sleepy Hollow
2021 Q2, Dice Hate Me Games -
Game of Energy
2021 Q2, Ninex Games - see all upcoming games >
Recent News
- New Game Adds – What Do You Want?
9-Feb-22|13 comments - Winter Gaming and Gift Giving
17-Dec-21|11 comments - Games Added – Dec 4
4-Dec-20|8 comments - The holiday shopping season is upon us!
30-Nov-20|5 comments - Technology, table top games and the coming holidays
19-Nov-20|8 comments - Support Mythic Kingdoms – Get BG Rewards
11-Aug-20|10 comments - Tournament of the Mythic Kingdoms: Illustrated Playing Cards
1-Jul-20|15 comments - How have games been helping you, your family and friends?
10-Apr-20|12 comments - Games Added (March 27)
27-Mar-20|7 comments - What are you playing during your Stay-At-Home?
27-Mar-20|13 comments
Usually when our group plays (we’re all fairly new to strategy), we only have one person replenishing supplies for the game.
It should be noted that not only do the supplies increase proportionately with the number of players, but the economy of the game is subtly different for each tier.
The most obvious example of this is the uranium market in a 5 player game. In phase two, a whopping three uranium is put back each turn, making it a great market for two people easily. Not so with trash, it stays the same, supply will not meet demand with two people in the trash market.
Make sure you have a handle on the nuances of your specific market to be a conscious player and have a leg up on your opponents!
The “green” power plants often turn out to be “Fools’ Gold”. New players tend to get into bidding wars to overpay for these environmentally-friendly plants. It is usually impossible to hold onto them for more than 2 turns before they become obsolete, due to the larger power plants that become available. The windmills look nice and may give you a warm, happy feeling on the inside, but they tend to keep you from being able to power the most cities (and win).
If you can grab an early big lead, and can keep it going, then you might win due to the larger income compensating for the higher expenses. If not, then a close 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) is a huge advantage.
“Drafting” the first place player allows you many advantages: getting more choices in the power plant auctions, buying resources first, expanding your network first. Those advantages are designed to allow players not in the lead a chance to catch up.
GAME THE SYSTEM! Hold back buying cities: don’t have most, have the second most. Each city generates more income, but it’s a sliding scale. The more cities that you have, the less each one is worth. Your first city generates 11 extra income. Your tenth only generates an extra 7 electros. Also don’t forget that ties in turn order are resolved by the previous turn’s order. If you were in fourth place last turn, then don’t be afraid to tie for the lead if you are making your big push: you will go, at earliest, 2nd, and yet have the same income as the leader for your potentially final round.
The most important thing: Don’t buy too many power plants! Buy selectively, as every plant is a major investment. Buy at most three early or mid-game plants, and an early 5-7 production plant is a huge advantage to own. Try to NEVER own more cities than you can actually power with your plants.
Avoid the heavily contested starter areas on the map and look for longer chains of connections or ways to block in those cheap starter areas.
Ex. on the Kores map everyone jumps on the free connection city blocks, and doesn’t look at how much it costs to get out of that area, or how easy it is to block them in. The east coast is a better start than the central free cities because you have an escape plan and a fast track to block out those players competing for the cheap start.
Take a constant look at the power plants of your opponents. Watch, what resources would they need in order to power them up. If there are a lot of – let’s say – coal plants in play don’t buy another one even if it looks like a bargain.
Watch for reverse situations too! If there is few plants using a given resource in play you may buy one at higher price than you would have done in average circumstances. Your additional expense will pay off soon in cheaper fuel for your plant.
Power plants are expensive, and it’s money you can’t get back. Try to buy as few power plants as possible. If you only buy 5 the whole game you should do fairly well. This means try to make the 3rd plant you buy one that will last you the rest of the game, i.e. something with at least a 5 capacity.
Don’t connect as many cities as you can afford and don’t worry about powering all your cities. Save up for a final push to claim more cities than your opponents in one turn. You’ll be near the end of the turn order for most of the game, which means you get first choice of resources (make your opponents buy resources for higher cost) and first pick of cities to connect, but last pick for power plants. The benefit of last pick for plants is you can buy them at cost after the others have paid more than their plants are worth. Won’t they be jealous when you get the Nuclear Fusion plant for only 50 Million!
Sometimes getting a plant that uses three resources at time is worthwhile just to hoard resources and drive the price up for other players. If you can exhaust a resourse, all the better.
A common winning strategy is to sit on your money and go last every turn in order to go to the market first. Many players are uncomfortable being in the lead for any length of time due to this financial penalty. It is possible to win the game and go first every single round, if you can manage to:
1) offset the increased fuel cost with additional income from powering more cities than anyone else;
2) diversify your power plant types to avoid running out of fuel when everyone else tries to hoard it; and
3) avoid bidding wars at all costs.
You would never guess that paper money takes up as much time as it does. When you switch to poker chips this game runs quicker and it’s much easier to count your money. I don’t like regular sized chips so I bought a specialty set from meeplesource.com . I never use paper money with any of my games anymore. Everyone I play with loves the chips!
In way too may games of Power Grid with my friends, we always forget the rule that states: “If, at any time during the game, there is a power plant in the actual market with a number equal to or lower than the number of cities any player has, players immediately remove it from the game and replace it with a new card from the draw stack.” It’s only after a couple of turns that we realize we should have remembered that rule long ago! So, don’t forget about this important rule, or else the game will get frustrating, and when you finally do replace the card, your strategy-minded opponents will agonize over the potential advantage they’ve lost.
When racing with bicycles or cars, you always want to be behind someone to reduce the amount of air resistance. The same applies to Power Grid. You’ll get each resource a few elektros cheaper, you’ll get to pick your network expansions first, and you’ll have a bit more freedom during the auction phase.
Often times other players will open a bid on a power plant at face value and when bidding increments at 1 or 2 elektro, prices tend to inflate quite high.
If you really want it, first decide how much you are willing to pay…either open a bid or counter bid at +10 or even 20 elektro, without batting an eye, and you just might scare the competition out.
My experience has been, with this method, I end up paying less on the plant and subsequently, if the plant is efficient, less on resources too.
Agree on a set number of turns to try it out first. Play a few turns to get the mechanics down, seeing who gets resources first, who gets first bid on power plant, etc. Then start over and play for real. It’s really going to maximize the enjoyment of newer players who might not understand pros and cons of being first or last.
Always remember you have to power a number of cities with only three powerplants. Buy plants that work towards that goal. Don’t spend too much money on ‘small’ plants.
It’s always good to decide when the game ends yourself, so be prepared to rush to the end if you’re on the winning side!
If an investment costs you more than you make with that investment, it’s a bad investment 😉
At the end of this game it becomes very tempting for players to start calculating their win chances. This can lead to long wait times and players simply getting stuck because they can’t calculate the right combination of power plant, fuel and expansions. To avoid this:
1. Calculators are banned!
Quite obvius but people will suddenly look at their phones and start tapping away at the calculator app, you must stop this from happening! So no calculators or phones.
2. Stage 3 hourglass.
When the game hits stage 3 you bring out a small hour glass (maybe something from a other board game with a small timer hourglass) or simply a timer of some sort. When a player has his turn he or she gets 1-2 minutes (maybe 1.5 minutes is the sweetspot) and if no action is taken when the time goes out he or she loses the turn. This is a hard rule but if enforced and practided it will force players to 1) think ahead and 2) learn to deal.
These two tips or rules should help avoid sludging down the last part of a awesome round of Power Grid.
Be careful during the bidding phase. Don’t get in a bidding war with you name. Make sure you don’t waste all you money on that new hot power plant. Assess your situation. Will that power plant help you in the long run? Or are you only going to use it for a couple turns and then dump it for the new hotness. Get what you need, not what you want.
Power Grid is a great game but can be the very definition of fiddly. One of the problems we always have is remembering the Step 2 trigger and the end of game trigger based on the number of players. As a game group, we could play with any number and so “forget” often what we need in each case.
I am now using two wooden “light bulb” markers on the city track to remind us when these two conditions are met. I found them at http://www.meeplesource.com/proddetail.php?prod=LightBulbs
I am in no way affiliated with them and get nothing in return. Just a casual customer that wanted to give them their proper due and help you if you find yourself in a similar situation.
I also used their Population discs to block out the unused cities in a game. They are a little small but have a nice green hue that looks like it belongs to the game.
When purchasing your plants, plan ahead to keep a range of numbers available. If you own two 3’s and one 2, you will be able to power from 2 to 8 cities, but you will be out of luck for 4 and 7 cities. If you had a 2, a 3 and a 4, you would be able to power from 2 to 9 cities, with 8 cities being your only gap.
Generally, when stepping up to bigger plants it is best to replace the smallest. In the above example, switching the 2 to a 5 is probably best. Keep in mind if you plan on buying many cities in one turn, as this may alter your plant strategy slightly.
This strategy will enable you to purchase less plants throughout the game, providing more money to spend on resources and cities.
Remember that the game ends when the requisite number of cities are connected not powered. If you can connect enough cities but only power twelve, you still win if you are powering more than anyone else.