Yeah, this happens. Also in plenty of games Step 3 never happens. It's a little weird.

Yeah, it's something that can happen from time to time, although usually with more players.

It does sound as though you all may have been buying too many plants but that's a general rookie mistake

One small piece of advice for you to take into the next game is to find a time when you can jump into a front position (remember that the last players get the benefits). Watch the resourse market and what people are buying and try and load up with two turns worth of resourses when they're cheap. Build just enough to give you a small lead that can be easily taken over. Then sit back for a turn without doing anything. It can be tough for a new player to do that as they will be tempted by the lovely new plants showing up but there will be more ahead.

The reason for doing this?

If you jump into the lead you will receive more money than the other players. Which you will double due to sitting on your hands in the next turn. You should go into the following turn with a sizable cash advantage. You will be able to pick up any plant you want.

However, picking the best time(s) to do this is a skill that comes with practice.

Also look at the plants you are buying. Replacing a '2' plant with a '3' will not pay you back a lot, if anything. So try and look for larger jumps. If they're not there then don't buy. And remember that if nobody buys from the market then the lowest plant is discarded.

Enjoy your future games.

If the Step 3 card came up in phase 5, then you did have a Step 2, but it lasted only that one phase. You should have restocked the fuel at Step 2 levels that run.

It's counterintuitive, but Step 2 does not have to occur. We've had cases where someone built their seventh city, we removed Plant 07 from the market, and that brought up the Step 3 card, while Phase 4 building was still going on. We've also had cases where the plant removed from the market at the end of Phase 4 when the step changes brought up the Step 3 card. Since step only changes at end of phase, Phase 4 was Step 1 and Phase 5 was Step 3, with no Step 2 at all.

The person who triggers Step 2 ends up building last in the next Phase 4. The beginning of Step 2 is often an opportunity to take some cheap cities, so the person who triggered Step 2 misses out on the bargains. Sometimes, everyone hangs back at 6 cites waiting for someone else to start Step 2. This is called The Stall. If longer people stall, the shorter Step 2 is.

And as previously mentioned, sometimes there is no Step 3. In the most extreme case, my friend Michelle built to 9 cities to trigger Step 2, and then on the very next build turn she built 8 more cites to end the game. She could only power 9 cities, but I was at 7 cities and Mike was at 5 cites, so she won. (Mike and I sure had some pretty plants, though.)

OK - thanks for the responses! It seems that we were just making rookie mistakes strategically (buying too many plants).

It still felt like the resource-buying lacked any real tension. There was little competition for resources, therefore they were always affordable and available, and we powered-up to the max most rounds. I assume that this improves with more players?

Having said that we enjoyed the game and will be trying it again next week.

Yes, but it also depends on what plants you each have. If in a three player game all three of you have a plant then you are going to see some serious resource competition for .

If however, one of you has mainly , one has and the other then resources will probably be cheap and plentiful.

This is how Fraser talks in real life too.