Power Grid Deluxe Board Game - Strategy & Economic Game for Adults & Families - Perfect for Game Nights & Group Gatherings

I knew I wanted to add Power Grid to my board game collection so I opted for this updated 10th anniversary version rather than the ever-popular original because of the new artwork, power plants, money tokens, and natural gas resources. I also was attracted to the idea of the new Trust 2-player game, which I will discuss momentarily.The components are all very sturdy feeling, and thankfully the money comes in quarter-sized chips rather than paper. The main problem I have with the money tokens are their denominations, which include 1s, 5s, 10s, and 50s. I would like to have 20s or 30s since breaking 50s introduces more room for mathematical error, but this is not a big issue. I like that the two sides of the game board are different than the original. One side is North America and the other is Europe. The new board is big enough to house the auction tracks on its pre-designed spaces, which are also new, but the game board reaches at least from edge to edge width-wise of our 27.5"x 60" card table. This means there is no player room along the edges, so we have been keeping our power plants on the board itself in areas that are blocked off from use.After two two-player games, I can honestly say that I really dislike the Trust variant, and I will probably never play with it again. It bothered me that the Trust never actually has any money. It simply gets all of its power plants, resources, and generator/cities for free. It just didn't feel thematic or smooth at all. The way the Trust player works is that until he runs out of generators in his supply, he gets a free generator every time a player buys and connects a new generator to their power grid. Because he only "buys" the 4th (and 6th in step 3) smallest power plants, they NEVER actually power all or even very many of his cities, but he still always occupies the 2nd place player position, which determines player order. He is only there to clear out the small power plants, occupy spaces, and drive the resource market up.Altogether, I like this game a lot, and I don't think the Trust variant or the money denominations should impact my rating since they are actually notable improvements over the original's 2-player game and paper money.I plan on trying out The Robots expansion with this version and comparing that experience with the way the Trust played out in our previous games. I will post an update with my thoughts.-----Update 1/19/2015-----While I hear the other Power Grid expansions are not supposed to be compatible with the Deluxe version, the Robots expansion does not have any version-specific elements, and it worked great during our games. My husband and I recently played a couple of two-player games that each had two robots. It is my opinion that I will never be using the Trust two-player variant ever again, and instead I will be incorporating the robots into our games as they offer a superior two-player experience. It adds a little more work on the human players' parts, but since we each had a robot to control, we found that everything went along pretty smoothly.Though we slightly lost both games to one robot or the other, it was challenging and fun. The second game was a three-way tie (human-human-robot) that came down to mere dollars, and had us retracing our final steps to defeat.Therefore, if you are looking to buy Power Grid Deluxe because you have heard the two-player variant is better than the original, I would still have to suggest you reconsider. There are a lot of reasons to buy this version over the other, and I don't regret my decision whatsoever, but I think my husband and I will consistently invite a robot to join our two-player games from now on (Besides, the expansion is only $10 and it fits in the Power Grid box).Gameplay:PowerGrid is about running your Utility company in competition with regional suppliers. You need to purchase plants and connection into various cities and then purchase fuel to power your plants to provide electricity to those cities. At the end of each turn, you collect money based on the number of cities that you can supply power to. Each board side has a different area of the world (North America and Europe comes with this set), and where you play will determine your strategy. It's competitive, and allows for players who are are behind somewhat to catch up at the end. On the last 4 person game, the winner and 2nd place were separated by just $2 (that's the third level of tiebreaker).Changes:This is a nice refresh to the power grid original game. Biggest change is replacement of garbage recycling with natural gas. Also, the fuel tokens have been updated to be more like icons (oil is now shaped like a drop, etc). The power plant deck is all new as well. Has a nice 2 players mode. Be advised that if you have the old game and extra boards, I'm not sure how compatible they would be with this new set. You might be able to use them, or maybe not.Arrived with all of the expected components, with the quality I expect from this manufacturer.This set is nice but it could have been better. If you own the original version, you don't need to get this "deluxe" update because it isn't really that much of an upgrade. The map of North America and Europe is larger and more brightly colored. It is somewhat better balanced in that players going first or second don't get an overwhelming advantage with the connection costs, but it's subtle more than eye popping. The power plants use natural gas instead of trash for a fuel but that is hardly a huge change. There are a few rules changes regarding power plant bidding and resource replenishment, but they do not amount to anything huge. The biggest downgrade is the money. Instead of using paper Monopoly style money, they use disks which are hard to handle and hard to read. We actually used the old paper money from the original set rather than the new disks. If you don't own Power Grid, then by all means this is a nice set to own. But you don't need to replace the original game with this new version. The subtle tweaks don't merit the investment.This game is great but I just have a few problems with it. First the game is not great with the full load of 6 players. The small details in buying and auctioning are tedious and I found that people were losing interest as others were taking their time planning their strategy. Also there is a point that you get to and you will realize that one person has won the game. It's usually at the end so not that big, but unlike a lot of other German style board games you expect to be waiting till the final tally to tell who won. These are minor complaints but they do detract in a large game. If you are playing with 2-4 and maybe even just 5 then these problems are not as apparent and the game moves a lot better. In the end I would highly recommend but if you are wanting to include 6 all the time, then maybe try it at your local game store first. A must buy for 2-4 players though.A great success with the family and some close friends who enjoy board games. Played several times over the Xmas holidays with 3-4 players. One friend who belonged to a board games club at Uni has put it at the top of her current favourites list. Friends that are keen board games players whom we holidayed with at New Year had unbeknown to me bought the standard edition of Power Grid and I think in hindsight they wish they had bought the deluxe version because the board seems clearer and the pieces are a more meaningful shape. I was concerned that winning is determined only by the score in the last turn, however, it seems to wok OK.Poss one of then top 20 games everPower Grid es un juego sumamente completo y divertido. Fue el primero verdadero "eurogame" que compré, y hoy es uno de mis favoritos. Conozco pocos juegos cuya mecánica principal sea económica y de administración de recursos que tengan un tema tan atractivo (yo soy ingeniero, pero conozco mucha gente que no y les encanta este juego).En Power Grid, los jugadores toman el papel de presidentes de compañías de energía eléctrica. Estas compañías compiten entre sí por proporcionar energía a más ciudades. El juego consiste en 4 fases en cada turno:1. Subasta de plantas: Los jugadores comprarán plantas de energía de diferentes tipos (hay eólicas, nucleares, de gas natural, de carbón, petróleo e híbridas) todas las plantas son diferentes entre sí. Algunas son más eficientes que otras, mientras que otras son más poderosas. Pero claro, la eficiencia y potencia vienen con un costo elevado.2. Compra de recursos: Después de esto los jugadores comprar recursos para abastecer sus plantas y generar energía. En esta fase entra una mecánica económica de oferta-demanda muy interesante. Conforme se compra algún comodity (petróleo, gas, carbón, uranio), éste se encarece. Esto fuerza a los jugadores a buscar plantas de otros tipos para su compañía, particularmente las que menos existan en ese momento en juego, ya que ese recurso será menos solicitado y más barato.3. Construcción de generadores: Los jugadores construyen generadores en las ciudades distribuidas por el mapa para crear su red de abastecimiento eléctrico. En cada ciudad caben 3 generadores, por lo que es posible bloquear las rutas por las cuales tus oponentes se puedan expandir.4. Recaudación: Finalmente, las plantas consumen los recursos que requieran para alimentar las ciudades y se recolecta dinero en función del número de ciudades que se hayan abastecido.Algo que me encanta del juego es que los jugadores que menos generadores tengan construidos (van perdiendo), tienen ventajas en varias cosas, como por ejemplo comprar recursos antes que los demás (más baratos). Esto propicia que el juego se mantenga interesante incluso si vas perdiendo.Después de varias rondas, conforme los jugadores crecen, cuando algún jugador construye un número específico de generadores (dependiendo del número de jugadores) se convierte en la última ronda y el ganador es el jugador que más ciudades abastezca de electricidad ese turno.Conclusión:Ya lo mencioné, Power Grid es uno de mis juegos favoritos. Soy ingeniero, y me gustan los juegos de mesa. ¿Cómo no me va a gustar un juego de mesa que trate sobre construir plantas de energía? A pesar de mi sesgo ingenieril, créanme que todas las personas con las que he jugado este juego han hecho muy buenos comentarios. Si ya están más metidos en el hobby seguramente sabrán que es de los juegos mejor calificados en la famosa página Board Game Geek.Un par de cosas que criticaría del juego son:1. El dinero me parece de calidad mediocre en comparación del resto de los componentes del juego.2. Las reglas están MUY mal escritas. Son difíciles de seguir. Pero es un problema que se soluciona fácilmente, buscando algún video en YouTube de las reglas que además hay muchos muy buenos.Personalmente lo catalogaría como el juego IDEAL para migrar de juegos de mesa ligeros o tradicionales hacia los "eurogames" o juegos con una profundidad estratégica más alta y gratificante.¿Cómo califico los juegos y por qué?Únicamente califico un juego cuando lo he jugado varias veces y considero que entiendo bien la mecánica y el propósito de cada parte del juego. Muchas veces no es posible profundizar al nivel adecuado en un juego para calificarlo con sólo las primeras veces que lo juegas. Los pesos que asigno priorizan los factores que creo que un juego debe de tener para que:1. Sea divertido jugarlo – Mecánica del juego y "Replayability"2. Valga la pena comprarlo – "Replayability", componentes y arte3. Te haga sentir parte del juego – Tema y Arte"Replayability": le llamo así porque no encuentro una palabra similar en español que sea práctica de usar, pero básicamente se refiere a el valor que da un juego para que al jugarlo más y más, cada experiencia sea distinta y no se vuelva monótonoResumenJugadores – 2 a 6Duración – 1 a 2 horasComplejidad – AltaMecánica del juego (50%) – 5/5"Replayability" (20%) – 5/5Componentes (10%) – 4/5Tema (10%) – 4.5/5Arte (10%) – 4/5Total – 4.75/5After playing this game a few times now we all think it's extremely well designed. It has some rules that seem finicky at first but they really make the game play continue competitively and seem to mimic the real industry quite well for a board game.Aside from that, the real wooden pieces are a very nice touch. And each side of the playing board uses somewhat different rules, which is great for a change from time to time.The only negative I can think of is that the rules can be quite difficult to wrap your head around the first time. They are written in great detail but it means that are pretty long and they sentence syntax can be a bit convoluted.It's both math and strategy based which is great for adults, but younger children (it says 7+) may need some help.Overall it's a wonderful game and highly recommended.This version has upgraded wooden components, new power plants and a larger board. With all of North America and most of Europe on the opposite side. Good replayability since you don't use the whole board per game, you get to choose which sections are used. And then a whole new continent with slightly different rules.