Flashback Friday - Power Grid - Love it or Hate It? Do you Still Play It?

I haven't played it much but I used to be dimissive of it because I judged it as a game with a terrible catch-up mechanism. Now I'm starting to see it as a game about maniupalating turn order and that might be a more fruitful angle.

Michael Barnes wrote: It’s one of the best economic games. I find it has a lot in common with the heavier train games but without the length and greater complexity.

It does. It used to be a crayon game and the power plant deck might be inspired by the 18XX series. They are a clear, but oblique influence.

Michael Barnes wrote: As far as the box goes, I love it. I love how purposefully,
Teutonically stoic it is and I love he green. I greatly prefer the chunky stylized art to the more recent edition.

The new art is terrible.

Legomancer wrote: I like PG a lot but it got ruined in my group by a savant player who memorized the power plant deck and thus would comment on the worthiness of each power plant as it came up. So much of the game is calculable, and people kind of soured on it. I think if you play from your gut and don't sit there and math everything out, it's fun, but it'a hard sell these days.

I can see that. Ultimately the game revolves around turn order and turn order mostly revolves around the power plant deck so when you have a good grasp on how much each plant is worth, the game might hit a wall.

There are very few games that I actively hate, and this is one of them (probably at the top). I will not play this game with you unless I owe you a big favor, or if I want you to owe me one...

Re: The cover. Imagine the guy was totally bald and named riff raff "Step up the reactor power three...more...triangles"

This is a game I'm willing to play with people at my skill level who aren't programmers.

I might have liked Power Grid a little more if they had stuck with the German name.