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There are a plethora of maps available for Power Grid but the Bremen/Manhattan map is one of the first I have had the chance to explore. The price of admission is around fifteen bucks and is simply a new map, a sheet of rules, and some resource distribution cards...and it is amazing what they accomplished with just these components.
What I was expecting in the expansion was something along the lines of the another game released the same year as Power Grid- Ticket To Ride. If you aren't familiar with Ticket To Ride Map expansions, they usually consist of one minor rules tweak to the core experience...and that's about it. In other words, nothing ground breaking or anything that changes how you approach the game. However, the Power Grid Map expansions can fundamentally change entire portions of the game.
For instance, Manhattan is all about being stacked up together and trying to get some elbow room to expand. As such, it executes better with more players. If you have less that five players, you will fill in a variety of open spaces/areas at the start of the game with the unused pieces. This swaps the full player count rush to expand with a more tactical expansion where you work around the filled spaces....while still rushing to get houses out. If you raised an eyebrow at me saying “Rushing to get houses out” then you know how this is counter intuitive to the typical strategies you'll find in the base Power Grid maps.
This is because connection costs have been removed entirely. Instead, the further uptown you move, the more expensive the building cost is and each area only has room for one house. You can only build on adjacent areas to where you are already established. This can be a bit confusing at first since adjacent doesn't include diagonals. You can spend 5 coins to skip over an area (called a transit move) which will be your only recourse when someone inevitably blocks you in. One final twist is that Manhattan stays in Phase one for the entire game, so the power plant market cycles differently.
On the literal flip side is Bremen. Connection costs are removed and replaced with a flat district cost...and some districts have a limited number of sites that you can build to. There are no nukes in Bremen, so the nuclear power plants and the Uranium are removed. Where Manhattan thrives with more players fighting over areas, Bremen plays well even if you only have three or four players. The lack of Nuclear Power Plants shifts the power (ha!) dynamic of coal, oil, and trash. Power Plants you would typically ignore suddenly become attractive when making your powering push later in the game.
The Bremen/Manhattan map pack is a low cost solution if you are looking to put the light back into the eyes of Power Grid players. It only takes a few minutes to explain the various differences and veteran players will slip right into playing but also be delighted by the tactics required to sync with the changes.
A review copy of this release was provided by the publisher. Therewillbe.games would like to thank them for their support.
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