Uploaded November 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Another 4er with Stein, another great performance from him! THIS is how you handle the 20, kids...
Started with Stein being given a 22 drop he shouldn't have had, but he realized that made it easier for him to use the 20 compared to others. With a good early green plant you can stay low in the turn order for a couple turns until you build up the money to build to 5-6 cities and get the most out of the 20.
Even then you'd like another plant to use during Step 1 instead of the 20, and Stein saw the opportunity with 16 + 22. That left him with no need for coal at all until Step 2. You can also achieve this with an efficient 4-capacity plant.
Meanwhile dsscott bought 31 early and did well managing that too. They just couldn't get another plant to use in place of 31 during Step 1, so they lost out in the money battle to Stein.
The endgame was quite interesting, though, with the top two players both ending up at 15 capacity. Scott had already built to 15 cities, and their plant tiebreaker meant Stein could build to 15 and stay below Scott in the turn order. Between that and the fact that Stein bought a ton of extra coal, Scott decided to end the game right then and there. My first impression was that this seemed wrong, but as i think about it more it was their only chance of winning. Stein had better turn order *and* higher capacity on his top 2 plants, so extending the game only favored him even further.
As for me, i kinda sacrificed myself in builds to hurt Stein but it didn't really work. Guess i was much better off sticking to my cheaper cities, though Stein did have a ton of open space. Maybe Scott should've started next to Stein...tough call.
If you'd like to learn more about Power Grid, please check my blog for strategy articles on each power plant as well as a guide to 2-player games:
maninmotiongoingnowhere.wordpress.com/power-grid-strategy-individual-plant-articles
Another 4er with Stein, another great performance from him! THIS is how you handle the 20, kids...
Started with Stein being given a 22 drop he shouldn't have had, but he realized that made it easier for him to use the 20 compared to others. With a good early green plant you can stay low in the turn order for a couple turns until you build up the money to build to 5-6 cities and get the most out of the 20.
Even then you'd like another plant to use during Step 1 instead of the 20, and Stein saw the opportunity with 16 + 22. That left him with no need for coal at all until Step 2. You can also achieve this with an efficient 4-capacity plant.
Meanwhile dsscott bought 31 early and did well managing that too. They just couldn't get another plant to use in place of 31 during Step 1, so they lost out in the money battle to Stein.
The endgame was quite interesting, though, with the top two players both ending up at 15 capacity. Scott had already built to 15 cities, and their plant tiebreaker meant Stein could build to 15 and stay below Scott in the turn order. Between that and the fact that Stein bought a ton of extra coal, Scott decided to end the game right then and there. My first impression was that this seemed wrong, but as i think about it more it was their only chance of winning. Stein had better turn order *and* higher capacity on his top 2 plants, so extending the game only favored him even further.
As for me, i kinda sacrificed myself in builds to hurt Stein but it didn't really work. Guess i was much better off sticking to my cheaper cities, though Stein did have a ton of open space. Maybe Scott should've started next to Stein...tough call.
If you'd like to learn more about Power Grid, please check my blog for strategy articles on each power plant as well as a guide to 2-player games:
maninmotiongoingnowhere.wordpress.com/power-grid-strategy-individual-plant-articles
