Preface: I've committed myself to writing a 'first impression' session report for every 'new-to-me' game I play, then if feeling inclined to do so, follow up with a review. Please enjoy number 6 of the series.

Power Grid, the current number 2 on BGG, was sure to make for some high expectations. I know I couldn’t wait to give it a try.

The result of this impatience was that our first session of Power Grid, a 5-player game, started out a bit slow and confusing. This because, me not having taken the time to properly review the rules beforehand, we had to learn the rules from the rule book - and my copy says ‘Funkenschlag’ on the cover. Good thing there’s always BGG for translations, summaries, game-aids and whatnot!

Once the game got underway, there was another consequence of our newbieness – we had no clue what the different power plants were worth. I ended up overpaying a horrible plant needing way too much fuel, but since everyone was in the same boat, it didn’t really matter. Once everyone had a better understanding of the rules the speed of play picked up, and soon there was some intense competition both for the purchase of plants and for the cheapest connections. Also, people started to rue their initial city and early plant purchases. Ok, I admit; I started to rue my initial city and early purchases. Other realisations grew: the effects of the resource markets, the evolution of resource scarcity, the need for higher plant capacity (which calls for efficient buys) & higher connectivity. Before we knew it, we realised that a couple turns later the game would be over. We were wrong, actually; the game was over the next turn already. Whew! Even with the slow start, the game had flown past.

Post-game analysis revealed (read: made us newbies suspect) that at least one of the reasons for the winner’s victory was his getting a solid plant (long live green power!) for much too cheap quite early in the game. Another may have been that he started in one of the cheapest corners of the country connectivity-wise, and there’d been not enough competition at first. Everyone definitely wanted to play again, so that’s a very good sign. I can see how everyone having more expirience can dramatically improve the experience, so I’m eager for some more plays.

The only reasons Power Grid did not fully satisfy me were, strangely, thematic. I say strangely because in general I’m of the opinion that a well fleshed-out theme is merely a bonus, but not essential. Here, it bothered me a bit, even if the game beneath is solid. You need resources for your plants, and there’s a sort of supply-demand market in the game. The difference between nuclear & carbon based plants is that the resource the former needs is more expensive and scarcer than the latter. But, where are the consequences? That’s what I’m missing here: what happened to the nuclear waste? What happened to the consequences of spewing tons of trash into the atmosphere?

All that is no issue at all in this game - it’s all about the money. Just like in real life.

But hey - great game!