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eHalcyon

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Power Grid strategy
« on: December 27, 2012, 03:07:57 pm »
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I played Power Grid for the first time last night.  It was pretty fun. 

We were somewhat forced to play outside of the rules a bit -- we started with 5 players (blocking off the pink territory) but our fifth had to leave early and we didn't want to restart even though we were all at only 1-2 cities at that point.  So we took him off the board and did not block off another territory.  We did adjust the other things -- restock numbers and number of cities to trigger end game.

I think the loss of the fifth player gave a large advantage to two of us.  We were on the German map.  Two players were in the west and south respectively.  I was central/east (first city was one that has a free connection to a second city) and another player was north, where there are many cheap connections.  This player and myself were in the lead most of the game.  The player who left was in the northeast; if he had stuck around then the three of us would probably have competed more directly for key cities.

In retrospect, it seems that a general "good" strategy would be staying relatively behind (for better turn order) until you are ready to race forward to a win.  But in the game, the two of us who were leading kept a commanding hold despite always going last on resource purchases and building.

The key purchase for me were a few relatively efficient oil plants.  There was very little competition for oil.  The key purchase for the north player was an early 3-city eco-plant at cost (when we were still all around 2 cities and he had lower numbered plants) which let him save a lot of money.  The cheap connections in his area were good for him as well.

In the end, I managed to win handily.  I managed to secure enough plants to power 13 cities (all middle tier plants -- 1 oil/coal for 4 cities, 2 garbage for 4 cities, 2 oil for 5 cities) while the player to the north could only power 12.  A third player who was behind most of the game managed to purchase a new 6 city coal plant that would let him power 13 as well.  However, I was now expanding into the north (on the 15-cost cities, but cheap connections) and on my last turn (right after the step 3 card was flipped too -- we never got to a step 3 auction) I bought up 4 cities in one fell swoop to trigger the end game.  I won on money.

It was odd because we got stuck behind a wall of low tier plants.  The 6 city coal plant was the biggest one anybody got, and it was purchased just before step 3 began.  Was our game unusually fast?  Was it due to the loss of the fifth player/bigger map area?  If we had moved on to auction in step 3, we would have been competing for bigger plants for sure.  But I managed to squeak through with just a capacity of 13.

I'm still puzzling over strategy, but I really enjoyed it.
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Kuildeous

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2012, 03:22:31 pm »
+1

I think I've played PG fewer than a dozen times. So I can't offer a lot of strategy.

I do know from experience how important it is to make sure that your three power plants will power up at least however many cities you need to trigger the end of the game. I get into a mindset where I want efficient plants dammit! And so I may buy a really sweet 4-city plant but end up ignoring the gas-guzzling 6- or 7-city plant. Then when the end of the game hits, I'm stuck powering only 12 cities even though I can afford the resources to power 30 cities. Meanwhile, the person who "overbid" on that plant I wrinkled my nose at is able to power up the needed 14 cities.

Efficiency and money do not win you the game. They can help you get to the point where you can win, but those are not win conditions.
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eHalcyon

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2012, 03:45:03 pm »
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I've been trying to find a few strategy articles online but there doesn't seem to be much available.  But the little I've seen seems to differ from the game we played.  It seems that typically players are all vying to actually power all the cities needed for end game.  But in our game, we never saw high capacity plants so we never got that far.  The end game trigger was 17 cities but the highest capacity anyone ever had was 13, and that's when I triggered the end game.
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Kirian

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2012, 03:58:33 pm »
+4

Losing the 5th player probably messed you up quite a bit; PG is really well-balanced and having that extra empty space is going to make things a lot easier for everyone.

Getting stuck behind a wall of low-tier plants can be frustrating but is somewhat common.  What's really frustrating is when just one person insists on buying one so that you can't cycle out the lowest one.

As far as strategy, you picked up on the key:  the game might as well be subtitled "Sandbag or Lose."  It's extremely difficult to stretch out to a lead and keep that lead, and doing so can be disastrous.  Other things of note:

Spend as much as you can, every time, unless it causes you to stop sandbagging.  This might include buying out extra resources to make them more expensive for others.  Obviously this has to be flexible; if you plan to really sandbag this turn and will have advantages next turn, save up some cash to take advantage of that next round.

Don't be afraid to bid high on power plants.  This is especially true if you won't be competing with anyone for that resource for a while.  If you only sort of want the plant, don't be too afraid to bid up just to force others to a higher price, though this is risky.  Make sure to count your money so you have enough to do what you want in subsequent parts of the round.  Hybrid power plants can be a life saver; wind power plants can be a trap.

If you're competing for resources, are earlier in the buy, and know you can afford it this turn, stock up to force others to pay more.  I've locked people out of winning by buying up extra resources on the last turn so they couldn't run their plants, which is an extreme but satisfying circumstance.

Don't let yourself get completely blocked while building cities.  At the same time, don't be afraid to take six cities with small connection costs, and let someone with a higher connection cost grab that seventh city, letting you build cheaper (and earlier) next turn.  Caveat:  several times I've seen a group of players all sit playing chicken at six cities each for two rounds or more.

There are situations other than endgame where you want to make a real run on the lead.  If you know everyone else is short on cash, and you can make a four or five city push to grab cash for subsequent turns (assuming your plants will support them!), do it.

Make sure you have enough capacity near the endgame.  Don't let yourself get stuck with three 5-capacity plants when everyone else has 16 total; you'll be forced into buying a 7-city power plant, and you might not have the chance to do so.  And if you get the chance, you may have to pay dearly for it.

A 5-capcity plant early in the game (turn 2, 3, 4) is worth sacrificing building this turn; you may well have it until the endgame.
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2012, 04:12:18 pm »
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Ride the turn order. Look for the rounds where you need cheap resources (or early building) and get in position. Look for the rounds where you won't be penalized for position and ramp up your income. Placement and positioning is very important and saves you the pennies that will eventually win the game.
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eHalcyon

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2012, 04:14:34 pm »
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Getting stuck behind a wall of low-tier plants can be frustrating but is somewhat common.  What's really frustrating is when just one person insists on buying one so that you can't cycle out the lowest one.

Is there a rule for cycling out the lowest plant?  I think we might have missed that one.  I'm not sure though, because the player who owns the game/has experience with it was the one managing the available plants.  I know we cycled out the highest plant at the end of every turn.


As far as strategy, you picked up on the key:  the game might as well be subtitled "Sandbag or Lose."  It's extremely difficult to stretch out to a lead and keep that lead, and doing so can be disastrous.

I recognize why it's good to strategically stay behind, but in the game I played I and the north player did indeed take the lead and (mostly) kept it.  I was first to 7, then jumped to 9 (could have gone to 10 but I did it to stay second behind the leader).  Then I jumped to 13, then 17 for the win.  I suppose that was unusual!




Thanks for the other tips.  I clued in on a few of them.  In particular, I recognized it was best to go for a different resource than the other players (a lesson carried over from 7 Wonders, which we played just before Power Grid), which is why my first plant was an Oil plant after two others had gone Coal.  Also, when I build up to 13 cities, I opted to go a more expensive route to pick up cities that were going to be contested, knowing that nobody was near the cities that were cheaper.  I picked up those ones on the last turn instead.

I think we as a group overvalued the wind plants, but it never really mattered.  I picked up the 1 city wind plant, which only really got used once, maybe twice (I got a much higher capacity plant after that and had to use it, making the wind plant superfluous).  The other player got a 3 city wind plant and it was good for him.  The others never became available for purchase.  Well, the 2 city came up late, and it was far too little capacity at that point.

I think we definitely undervalued capacity and overvalued efficiency.  When I picked up my 2 oil-5 city plant (looking it up, this was plant #26), only one other player competed with me for it and I still got it for $40.  At the time we all thought I paid a hefty sum.  I just really wanted to replace my 1 capacity wind plant.  But looking back, I think it was worth much more than that.  It was a steal at $40.  My 4-city hybrid (#29) was also a great pick up.
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2012, 05:49:51 pm »
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Is there a rule for cycling out the lowest plant?  I think we might have missed that one.  I'm not sure though, because the player who owns the game/has experience with it was the one managing the available plants.  I know we cycled out the highest plant at the end of every turn.

If nobody buys a power plant in a round, then the lowest plant gets removed from the game and is replaced.
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eHalcyon

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #7 on: December 27, 2012, 07:06:32 pm »
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Is there a rule for cycling out the lowest plant?  I think we might have missed that one.  I'm not sure though, because the player who owns the game/has experience with it was the one managing the available plants.  I know we cycled out the highest plant at the end of every turn.

If nobody buys a power plant in a round, then the lowest plant gets removed from the game and is replaced.

Ah.  I don't think we had a round where nobody bought a plant, but I think there was once when a newbie bought a plant just to get a new one or something, since we didn't know about that rule.  I can't remember now.
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #8 on: December 27, 2012, 08:58:15 pm »
+2

I tend to find you don't want to have to replace plants too many times. 4 or 5 plants built over the course of the game, ideally. Which means, you want your 3rd plant to be a keeper - 5 power ideally but 4 is usually sufficient. The 20 (3 Coal>5 power) and 25 (2 Coal>5 power) are really good in this respect, but there are others that do the trick.

As for board position, what you play is basically the same as what you do in Gauntlet of Fools, you take the best place for you but if you take one that looks awesome now, someone else will come join you, take the best place relative to you, and you might be in the worst place on the board all of a sudden (I've included a little anecdote about this at the bottom of the post). Think carefully about where to start your network.

Turn order is something to be aware of, and play carefully. Always judge the advantage/disadvantage of going ahead in turn order, and this can sometimes affect how much you're willing to bid of a high numbered plant. Nudging yourself ahead is generally a bad thing, you get maybe 7 or 8 extra electros from powering 1 more city, but then lose all that and more with more expensive fuel and connections and worse bidding position. But powering up to 8 when everyone else is going to 5-6 can be very effective, now you produce ~16 electros more, and you're still only paying about 8-10 more in fuel and the like than if you'd stayed one or two places back.

Most games will hit a stall at some point, where nobody wants any plants in the market, or the next plant on the future market is so much better that nobody wants to risk buying a plant. At this point, you need to think carefully about your own position. Essentially, look at how much profit you make per turn compared to everyone else, and also, are your resources for you main plants sustainable? If you're in a position where you're making more money than anyone else because of power/resources, and/or your resources are being restocked faster than they're used, try to avoid pushing the step up or renewing the power plant market. If you're making less money, or your resources are getting more expensive, then try and push towards the 6/7/10 connections you need to start step 2, or buy a mediocre plant, to stop yourself falling further behind (but be very careful about that - if you buy a 30 cost plant you don't even use, then you were probably much worse off than just waiting it out. Connections are a much better way to push things forward).

Generally that's the strategic and tactical advice I can give. The game is quite reactive, and you can't plan too far ahead, unlike Dominion. You should be re-evaluating your position constantly, working out what's best for you now, not what was best for the plan you had earlier.

The promised anecdote about board position:
I had a game where it was obvious the two places left to go were in the north, and in the west (this was in Germany), and I was going second last. The East was slightly better, I could go just next to the other guy and cut off the nicer area for myself. The last player... then went right next to me and sandwiched me in (actually now I think about it this might have been a friend who's a user here, Celestial Chameleon... it was a little while ago so can't remember). The end result was all of us in that corner came in the bottom three, while the guy who went in the north early steamrolled ahead and won by about 4 cities powered.
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Kirian

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #9 on: December 27, 2012, 09:17:53 pm »
+3

I had a game where it was obvious the two places left to go were in the north, and in the west (this was in Germany), and I was going second last. The East was slightly better, I could go just next to the other guy and cut off the nicer area for myself. The last player... then went right next to me and sandwiched me in (actually now I think about it this might have been a friend who's a user here, Celestial Chameleon... it was a little while ago so can't remember). The end result was all of us in that corner came in the bottom three, while the guy who went in the north early steamrolled ahead and won by about 4 cities powered.

Wait, wait, wait... you know Celestial Chameleon?  S/he is a real person and not a super-advanced AI??
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #10 on: December 27, 2012, 09:33:37 pm »
+3

I had a game where it was obvious the two places left to go were in the north, and in the west (this was in Germany), and I was going second last. The East was slightly better, I could go just next to the other guy and cut off the nicer area for myself. The last player... then went right next to me and sandwiched me in (actually now I think about it this might have been a friend who's a user here, Celestial Chameleon... it was a little while ago so can't remember). The end result was all of us in that corner came in the bottom three, while the guy who went in the north early steamrolled ahead and won by about 4 cities powered.

Wait, wait, wait... you know Celestial Chameleon?  S/he is a real person and not a super-advanced AI??

Tables, what are RL Dominion games with CC like? Based on his puzzle solutions, I would expect them to take about 2 hours but only last 5 or 6 turns. ;D
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #11 on: December 27, 2012, 09:41:01 pm »
0

I had a game where it was obvious the two places left to go were in the north, and in the west (this was in Germany), and I was going second last. The East was slightly better, I could go just next to the other guy and cut off the nicer area for myself. The last player... then went right next to me and sandwiched me in (actually now I think about it this might have been a friend who's a user here, Celestial Chameleon... it was a little while ago so can't remember). The end result was all of us in that corner came in the bottom three, while the guy who went in the north early steamrolled ahead and won by about 4 cities powered.

Wait, wait, wait... you know Celestial Chameleon?  S/he is a real person and not a super-advanced AI??

This.

And why haven't you mentioned this before?
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #12 on: December 27, 2012, 10:55:19 pm »
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I have actually mentioned it before... and really, maybe it shouldn't be so surprising. He was the one who set the 'most VPs in 4 turns question' which was his claim to fame - I made the thread, but then he came along and improved on his own answers, and later told me that it was him (I know him as another username online).

I've played Dominion with him. He's a good player, not amazing, probably about level 20-25 on Isotropic, but that was years ago. I seem to recall, we were the finalists of our uni society tournament, but we never actually got around to playing that final. We were pretty equally matched at the time, I think.
Finding these ridiculous solutions isn't directly related to dominion ability.  I remember him saying something about, what if you could stack your deck in Dominion, would he always win, and what he said was something like 'If I could have a pen and paper, then after about 30 minutes, my head would probably explode from considering the options, but after that, I could probably work it out'. So that's his secret for you all. Make some notes, draw a diagram of what's going on, and track carefully what happens.

Maybe someone should tell Shark_Bait. I hear he's quite curious about this mysterious fellow.
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shark_bait

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2013, 06:02:06 pm »
+1

Maybe someone should tell Shark_Bait. I hear he's quite curious about this mysterious fellow.

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That is my excitement about seeing this thread.  I randomly decided to read the Powergrid strategy thread because hey, it's a good game.  Kirian's good analysis and strategy points kept me enthralled in reading.  And then I see the bombshell!  Iso could go down now and I would be satisfied knowing that somewhere, someone knows that CC is a real living person.  :)
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2013, 04:06:48 pm »
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Going to be playing this tomorrow. I should familiarize myself with all your thoughts. The person I'm going to be playing with is the one that introduced me to Dominion (well, her family did, but it was through her anyway), and she's so very very very much smarter than I am. She's always kicked my butt in boardgames, and I would like to be able to at least (hopefully) hold my own here. :P

So while I read everything here, and all the rules, if anybody wants to give me extra tips, I would love to hear them!
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TOWN Wins: M3, M5, M6, M11, M17, M28, M32, M105, M108, M114, M118, M120, M122, DM1, DoM1, OZ2, RM45, RM47, RM48, RM49, RM55
TOWN Losses: M4, M7, M8, M9, M13, M14, M18, M31, M110, M111, M113, M117, M125, RM3, RM4, RM54
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #15 on: January 05, 2013, 04:43:35 pm »
+1

Throw her off her game with compliments and flowers. She won't be able to focus, and you'll win easily.
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #16 on: January 05, 2013, 07:28:48 pm »
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Kirian's good analysis and strategy points kept me enthralled in reading.

Aw, shucks.
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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #17 on: January 07, 2013, 12:59:10 am »
+1

Alright! Update!

I throughly enjoyed this. If there were a way (haven't looked yet) to do this in PBF, I would /in in a heartbeat (bidding might be slow).

We only got one game in, but that included teaching time for those who hadn't played or (like me) poured over the rules ahead of time. We had a full house of 6 players, all competent gamespeople, so the whole board was in play.

I drew lucky at the start of the game, going last in the first round of auctioning. While this would have potentially allowed me to pick up plant 13 uncontested, I opted for plant 10 at cost 13 - figuring Coal was cheap enough early, and powering two houses out of the gate was better than just 1 for free.

Unfortunately I fell into the "first time playing" trap of not realizing that when the player order got rearranged, I was no longer buying that cheap coal first. But as only a single person aside from myself ended up with a round 1 coal plant, it wasn't terrible.

From there I think I really got my big break. The first player to place their network went for the cheap North. The second player went to the cheap West. Third player went East, and fourth decided to "share" the West. This brought it up to me, and despite the higher connection costs, I felt my strongest chance would be to monopolize the South. The last person, who has played much PG, was only used to 5 players tops, so she avoided the South as well, opting to contest the North.

As the game went on, things happened about as you would expect. In round 2 I spent high to pick up plant 25 (which unfortunately left me unable to build a new house that round, AND took coal as well) - but being a 5 it stayed with me for the entire game. I was also able to get my first 6 relatively early, and grabbed my second right as we hit phase 2 - which meant I totaled 17 potential quite early and only bid to drive up prices.

I made a few counting mistakes that really cost me (especially late in the game). The most notable was when I had 10 houses, and the resources already stored for that turn. I bought out resources hoping to be able to build 3, then 4 houses to end the game - and left myself with 73 instead of 75, which is what I needed for 3 that turn. I could've EASILY waited to purchase the resources until the following turn.

As it turned out, I had 148 to spend the following turn, but I was able to jack up the price on the last two 6 plants because those people needed them to hit 17. I made my second big mistake when I thought that it took 17 POWERED houses to end the game,, instead of just 17 houses. I knew nobody could reach 17 powered, so I bought resources for an extra turn, leaving me 118. Of that, I spent 105 on 4 houses, giving me 16, with 13 left over.

One of the players more familiar with the game, who had 14 to start the turn but could only support 16 decided to spend everything to end it right there, when 16 was the highest score. So he built 3 houses, leaving him with 6 money.

The player who went last on that round also managed to get himself up to 16 in a do or die play, but had 8 leftover.

So in the end, I won on money, 13 to 8 to 6. ;D

Realistically, I should've had 17 powered plants that turn though, and won on points. It was nice having the entire south to myself as well, even if the connections were a little more expensive. I think by the time a lot of the people in contested areas paid for double-connection fees to "jump" an occupied city, it ended up working out about the same anyway.

Still, tons of fun, but I'm sad I won't get to play it again for some time. The girl that I went up to play it with lives on the other side of the country, and while I've known her for... 12? Years, I probably only see her once a year (often every-other). And it's mostly her and her family that enjoy gaming at the level I do (as I said before, it was through her family (indirectly through her) that I was introduced to Dominion last year at Christmas.).

I'll be looking to pick up a copy of this soon though, and maybe I'll be able to con some other friends into playing it. In the meantime, TABLES, figure out how to PBF the game!
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Faust has also been incredibly stubborn this game. In other news, it's hot in the summer, and water falls from the sky when it rains.


Mafia Record:
TOWN Wins: M3, M5, M6, M11, M17, M28, M32, M105, M108, M114, M118, M120, M122, DM1, DoM1, OZ2, RM45, RM47, RM48, RM49, RM55
TOWN Losses: M4, M7, M8, M9, M13, M14, M18, M31, M110, M111, M113, M117, M125, RM3, RM4, RM54
SCUM Wins: M2, M19, M23, M100, DM3, RM1, RM2, RM48, RM50
SCUM Losses: M15 (SK), M102 (Tr), OZ1, RM55

Total Wins: 30
Total Losses: 20

Drab Emordnilap

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #18 on: January 07, 2013, 03:58:48 am »
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We had a full house of 6 players, all competent gamespeople, so the whole board was in play.

I thought even with 6 players, you leave out out one area?
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Kirian

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #19 on: January 07, 2013, 08:30:26 am »
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We had a full house of 6 players, all competent gamespeople, so the whole board was in play.

I thought even with 6 players, you leave out out one area?

That is correct.  5 areas, only 15 cities to win instead of 17.
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Galzria

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #20 on: January 07, 2013, 11:12:43 am »
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We had a full house of 6 players, all competent gamespeople, so the whole board was in play.

I thought even with 6 players, you leave out out one area?

Huh, interesting. Well, like I said, the people that had played it before only played with 5 in the past. ;D
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Faust has also been incredibly stubborn this game. In other news, it's hot in the summer, and water falls from the sky when it rains.


Mafia Record:
TOWN Wins: M3, M5, M6, M11, M17, M28, M32, M105, M108, M114, M118, M120, M122, DM1, DoM1, OZ2, RM45, RM47, RM48, RM49, RM55
TOWN Losses: M4, M7, M8, M9, M13, M14, M18, M31, M110, M111, M113, M117, M125, RM3, RM4, RM54
SCUM Wins: M2, M19, M23, M100, DM3, RM1, RM2, RM48, RM50
SCUM Losses: M15 (SK), M102 (Tr), OZ1, RM55

Total Wins: 30
Total Losses: 20

DG

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #21 on: January 07, 2013, 12:08:42 pm »
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Powergrid can go badly wrong if you have wrong numbers of plants and areas so it's worth double checking the set up before you start. The finances go crazy as soon as you get bottlenecks where all the players can't or won't build.
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shark_bait

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #22 on: January 10, 2013, 05:06:49 pm »
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I throughly enjoyed this. If there were a way (haven't looked yet) to do this in PBF, I would /in in a heartbeat (bidding might be slow).

It wouldn't be "Real Power Grid" but you could do blind bidding.  Where for a given plant each player submits their maximum bid and whoever submits the highest maximum bid gets it for $1 more than the second highest bid.  This could speed up the bidding process and I have no idea how balanced it would be.
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Hello.  Name's Bruce.  It's all right.  I understand.  Why trust a shark, right?

Is quite curious - Who is the mystical "Celestial Chameleon"?

theory

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #23 on: January 10, 2013, 05:10:02 pm »
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I throughly enjoyed this. If there were a way (haven't looked yet) to do this in PBF, I would /in in a heartbeat (bidding might be slow).

It wouldn't be "Real Power Grid" but you could do blind bidding.  Where for a given plant each player submits their maximum bid and whoever submits the highest maximum bid gets it for $1 more than the second highest bid.  This could speed up the bidding process and I have no idea how balanced it would be.

I like this idea.  It's called a Vickrey auction and solves a lot of problems with blind, one-shot bidding.
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Kirian

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Re: Power Grid strategy
« Reply #24 on: January 10, 2013, 05:48:54 pm »
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I throughly enjoyed this. If there were a way (haven't looked yet) to do this in PBF, I would /in in a heartbeat (bidding might be slow).

It wouldn't be "Real Power Grid" but you could do blind bidding.  Where for a given plant each player submits their maximum bid and whoever submits the highest maximum bid gets it for $1 more than the second highest bid.  This could speed up the bidding process and I have no idea how balanced it would be.

I like this idea.  It's called a Vickrey auction and solves a lot of problems with blind, one-shot bidding.

Problematic.  The auction is such a key to the strategy of PG that this would make for a serious problem.  You might want to bluff someone into going higher than they otherwise might; it's risky but I've done it often.  (It's especially successful when two other players want the plant!)
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