Power Grid

Belatedly, a note of last week's Thursday game: Power Grid. There were five of us this week, with the Professor absent but MaOldie returned to the fold. I arrived a little late after transport problems to see them setting up the map I had played at Pasteboard and Plastic: Japan. The map is very tight and, with five players, expansion was often very difficult. It seems my experience with the three player game hadn't helped much as I struggled to increase my power supply. There seemed to me a lot more passing than usual as the power stations on offer were unattractive upgrades if they improved things at all. I never had any problem with running my motley collection of wind and nuclear as no one else was competing for my fuel. In the end the uranium restock was comfortably re-supplying my two nuclear plants at no great cost.

Unfortunately the combination was not enough to supply my sad blacked-out citizenry in a couple of places so I clearly was not going to win. I had the opportunity to influence the game only by bringing it to an end in Petra Pan's favour but I left myself one city short of the requirement and her to conclude the game herself. Despite two losses in a row, Power Grid remains one of my favourite games and I look forward to a return soon, albeit perhaps on a different map.