Uploaded January 2019 | Updated September 2026, 13 hours ago
Yessssss, my favorite map for 5ers! Germany's expensive builds do quite a bit to prevent the early endings that ruin 5P games for a lot of veterans. Also nice to see Polar again, strong player i haven't gotten nearly enough games with.
Started off fantastically, getting the 10 with no 08 bought in a terrible early market. Amitss made the mistake of building 2 cities in red; again, i insist that a triple build is best when you're the first one going into the cheap red/blue area. Mastaba landed 09 + 13 real cheap, which became a powerhouse combo when the market kept stalling.
Unfortunately Mastaba bought 12 with 23 on deck..and dropped 18 for me & JVis to fight over. Ended up getting it quite cheap, and followed that up with a cheap 22 on the next turn. Stalled at 4 cities for a long time, and chose Hannover+Kassel as my cities since they gave me direct connections into all the cheapest parts of the map. They were extremely expensive in the short term but paid dividends later!
Originally i had planned to stay at the bottom until Step 2 began, then had to change plans after one particular auction. Amitss & i had both stalled at 4 cities and fought over the 21; it would allow the winner to stay bottom for a major build, so i ended up making Amitss pay close to $35 for it. The 28 came afterward for me and i bought it, which led me to build and run all of my plants together. Normally i hate ending a stall after waiting so long & allowing everyone else to build up money, but my wide-ranging connections here made it safe.
Meanwhile, Mastaba paid $40 each for the 25 & 26. He was stuck at an awkward number of cities during Step 1 that left him unable to use his green plant. JVis overpaid for the 20 and never quite recovered from that, particularly since 25 arrived immediately afterward. My thinking was that the green plants would do a lot more work on Germany than in other 5P games and we'd make it to the Step 3 auction...
The turn before the Step 3 auction was another huge one where i almost got nailed on a big play. I instantly bumped the 30 up to $60 since trash was so cheap, and only JVis took me up on that offer. Knew i'd be guaranteed a shot at the 32 or 31 afterward, so it was an easy pass for me. Never should've bid it that high in the first place, as i likely would've lost had i gotten stuck with it. Instead i got the 32 for under $40 with oil fairly cheap, a far better deal.
Turned out to be right about seeing the Step 3 auction, and i carefully bid on some 6-capacity plants before taking a more efficient 5-cap to reach 15 cities. Only Mastaba was able to match that number, but i won the money battle and the game!
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
Yessssss, my favorite map for 5ers! Germany's expensive builds do quite a bit to prevent the early endings that ruin 5P games for a lot of veterans. Also nice to see Polar again, strong player i haven't gotten nearly enough games with.
Started off fantastically, getting the 10 with no 08 bought in a terrible early market. Amitss made the mistake of building 2 cities in red; again, i insist that a triple build is best when you're the first one going into the cheap red/blue area. Mastaba landed 09 + 13 real cheap, which became a powerhouse combo when the market kept stalling.
Unfortunately Mastaba bought 12 with 23 on deck..and dropped 18 for me & JVis to fight over. Ended up getting it quite cheap, and followed that up with a cheap 22 on the next turn. Stalled at 4 cities for a long time, and chose Hannover+Kassel as my cities since they gave me direct connections into all the cheapest parts of the map. They were extremely expensive in the short term but paid dividends later!
Originally i had planned to stay at the bottom until Step 2 began, then had to change plans after one particular auction. Amitss & i had both stalled at 4 cities and fought over the 21; it would allow the winner to stay bottom for a major build, so i ended up making Amitss pay close to $35 for it. The 28 came afterward for me and i bought it, which led me to build and run all of my plants together. Normally i hate ending a stall after waiting so long & allowing everyone else to build up money, but my wide-ranging connections here made it safe.
Meanwhile, Mastaba paid $40 each for the 25 & 26. He was stuck at an awkward number of cities during Step 1 that left him unable to use his green plant. JVis overpaid for the 20 and never quite recovered from that, particularly since 25 arrived immediately afterward. My thinking was that the green plants would do a lot more work on Germany than in other 5P games and we'd make it to the Step 3 auction...
The turn before the Step 3 auction was another huge one where i almost got nailed on a big play. I instantly bumped the 30 up to $60 since trash was so cheap, and only JVis took me up on that offer. Knew i'd be guaranteed a shot at the 32 or 31 afterward, so it was an easy pass for me. Never should've bid it that high in the first place, as i likely would've lost had i gotten stuck with it. Instead i got the 32 for under $40 with oil fairly cheap, a far better deal.
Turned out to be right about seeing the Step 3 auction, and i carefully bid on some 6-capacity plants before taking a more efficient 5-cap to reach 15 cities. Only Mastaba was able to match that number, but i won the money battle and the game!
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
