Well,I am a little intimidated doing the first review of this old-new game, but here goes.

BRIEFLY Players take on the role of power companies. Each turn each player must purchase a power plant at auction. Plants vary as to type of fuel (coal, oil, garbage, nuke and wind, the latter costing no fuel)and degree of efficiency (how much power per unit of fuel). Players must buy fuel to power up their plants and the more players that are using the same type of fuel, the more it costs.

Players must also pay to "hook up" cities. Once the cities are hooked up, players can spend fuel units to have their plants power up their cities. The more cities you power up, the more money you get.

The game ends the in the round in which 17 cities (or more) are powered up; the victor is the player who powered up the most cities.

BITS AND BOARD: The bits representing fuel types and cities are nice. I also liked the board, though I can easily see how some might find its design annoying. One neat aspect is that the board has the USA on one side and Germany on the other. The cards seem durable and can be read easily, though the art work didn't take much energy.

DIFFICULTY This game is a bit difficult to learn, mainly because there is so much to it. The rules are really not that tough, but the sheer mass of actions and aspects which must be learned would be intimidating to kids or non-gamers.

THRILL LEVEL The auctions for the plants can be very interesting, especially when a prime wind powered plant comes up for purchase. Deciding how to spend limited funds among the choices of new plants, fuel and hooking up cities can be tense. Overall, though, not a particularly exciting game. Fun, but rare instances of intensity (except the rare hotly contested power plant auction).

BEST PART This game is obviously a labor of love by someone who knows the power industry well and knows game design even better. The mechanisms for auctioning plants and buying fuel appear to be brilliant simulations of real life energy economics and also make for fun game play.

MAIN GRIPE There is too much book keeping in this game, especially with fuel replenishment.

TIPS To liven up the game, bring along some cigars. Whenever someone fires up a garbage, coal or oil powered plant, blow smoke in his or her face, shouting "THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE DOING TO THE ENVIRONMENT, YOU HEARTLESS PLUTOCRAT." You might also insist on saying "Excellent" in the voice of the Simpson's Mr. Burns every time you win a power plant auction. If you combine these two tactics, you are almost guaranteed to either win or suffer a severe beating at the hands of the other players.

OVERALL A fun game, but the bookeeping (and set up) chores are daunting. Probably a much better game on BSW.