At Ralph A's regular Thursday night gaming session in Norwalk, CT,
Mark, Tom, John P, Donna, and I set up a 5 player game of Power Grid on the Central Europe board, using the expansion Power Plant Deck by itself. We eliminated Western Poland from the map.

I was excited to try the Central Europe map, becuase my heritage is Slovak!

Mark took the 01 plant, went first in the building phase and built in Wien (which let him by trash at -1). Tom with plant 02 built nearby in Bratislava and Trnava (stealing my main Slovak cities!). With the 03 plant, I built in the two Polish cities with the "free" connection cost, Sosnowiec and Katowice, even though I could only power one plant. Donna followed up building in Budapest and a neighbor to the East, while John P built in Kosice and Risov on the Eastern map edge (which proved to be a tough choice).

On turn 2, Mark spread East and South to cut off Tom from easy pickings. Tom stood pat. Donna went north to Banska. I looked to move west into the ignored Czech reppublic and took Ostrava, and John P headed north into Krakow, as he was getting shut off down south.

During turn 3, Tom was powering with nuclear energy and a hybrid. John P had mainly oil plants. Donna had trash and nuclear. Mark had a small coal plant and a 5 production trash plant to take advantage of his Wien bonus. I had a small (1) hybrid, a small (1) wind, and an oil plant. A cut off Mark moved south and west into Austria more. Tom spent for 2 connections to bypass Mark to get to Necsneme in Hungary. I moved to Brno in the Czech Republic, and John continued moving up north into Poland.

Subsequent turns were tales of timing, resource costs, and flexibility.

As for flexibility, Mark always had the most flexible position on the board, never being blocked off. Tom had paid up once to cut across to Necsneme, but other than that had ample space to expand. John expanded through expensive, isolated Northern Poland. Donna was cut off early, and paid big to cut over into the Czech republic some. I had early cheap connections and great access to cheap 2nd stage connections, as I was near everyone else's cheap connections (in Wien Bratislava area, in Western Czech Republic, and in Poland)

As for resource costs, Tom competed with Donna early in the game for nuclear power, but had some hybrids and wind most of the rest of the way, so he fared OK, though he got caught paying up for coal/oil at some junctures. Mark competed with Donna, and at times others for trash, but his discount helped. He did well in his oil/coal purchasing.
John was all about oil most of the game, at times driving up prices for all and at times paying through the nose. Donna had trash and nuclear going most of the game, and had to compete with Tom and Mark for these at all points. I concentrated on getting low input or wind plants if possible. I got nuclear late in the game with only Tom having one nuke plant, so little competition there. I had a 5 production coal plant with 3 input for much of the game, but I judiciously bought up 2 turns worth when buying coal first and didn't have to buy when purchasing last. My last plant was a 6 wind plant, so basically my resource costs were the lowest.

The timing is really what won the game though. I had the most cities at six and went last in building/purchasing that next turn (which was OK since I didn't build or purchase!). Thus everyone passed me moving into 7, 8, or 9 cities pushing us into Stage 2. Thus I was first buying and building in Stage 2, loading up on cheap resources while connecting 5 cities with the money I had saved from the previous turn of not buying anything. At 11 cities, I was last in most phases the following turn-- Stage 3 came up, so Stage 2 had only lasted one turn. I once again stood pat while everyone else passed my 11 cities rushing toward a fast approaching game end. Once again I went from last to first in buying and building order, with all my money saved up from the previous turn of not building. On that last turn, I made 5 relatively cheap connections to get up to 16 cities.

I bought that 6 wind plant to go along with my 5 coal plant and 5 nuke plant to power 16 cities. Mark and Tom got to 15 cities each, with Tom winning the tiebreaker with 25 Euros to Mark's 2. Donna had the capacity to power 16 cities, but only had connections to 14. John powered 13 cities, as his money supply just wasn't enough to make connections.

In my mind, even though I did well in flexibility and resource management, it all boiled down to timing. I was lucky that Mark and Tom had enough competition to prevent them from taking advantage of their excellent board positions. I was lucky Donna's resource costs and connection costs kept her from connecting more. I was also lucky John expanded northward, keeping me from being tempted to do so. My access to other's cheap connection markets in stages 2 and 3 helped.

I like this Central Europe map. It had been a LONG time since I had played Power Grid, and the strategies seemed clearer upon reintroduction to the game. There are times when it pays to let the game flow to you without worrying what others do, and there are times when you have to set yourself up to make huge leaps. Also, as in all games, being cost conscious regarding input costs helps.

Mark and Tom seem convinced the new Power Plant deck is superior to the original, so I am going to take their word for it and play with it exclusively going forward. I value their opinions immensely. The new deck seemed good in this game (I would say the same even if I hadn't won). I have not purchased this mapboard yet, but am definitely going to soon.