Uploaded December 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Long time no see in 2ers, Stein! Our last one didn't go so well for him, and this one didn't either.
The 06 is clearly the best starting plant in Italy 2ers, as the slower pace of the early market gives it more time to make money. $7 is a sweet value for it, and i'd willingly pay $8. You once again get to see my "buy trash and not build on turn 1" tactic with this plant. Let's break it down below:
You make an extra $12 for powering 1 city compared to 0, and spend $5 for the trash (so a $7 profit). If you don't build, however, you get cheaper resources for your second plant. Far more importantly, the no-build will allow you to buy the 09 on turn 2 if your opponent gets a plant. That's a nice little combo with 06 to survive the early game, and well worth the short-term loss of money. You still need to buy trash on turn 1 if planning to no-build, as that will prevent your opponent from building 2 cities to start.
This game was about the plants falling near-perfectly for me. Duds coming after i get 13 & 20, 39 showing up on the last turn, etc. Probably would've given up the 20 after one more bid too, hah! Stein had a hilariously bad set of early plants, including all of 03-05 for turn-order purposes. Turns out that was probably a little too extreme...10 deserved a couple bids before passing and taking 04, at least.
The bidding on the 26 was a bit unusually high, given how close we were to Step 3 at that point. It was worth a lot to me because i needed to power a good number of cities without using the 20, and nothing else fit the bill quite like 26 did. Having two 5-cap plants also allowed me to grab another efficient 5 and still easily make it to 21 at the end, which was a huge advantage. 34 was amazing here!
There may have been a way for Stein to win, though: not building above me after i bought 34. The resulting power-plant market was horrible for the player stuck on top, as all the big plants would have their resources bought out. Had i been top that turn instead, i would've passed on plants altogether and hoped Stein couldn't end after buying a plant...still would've easily won if that happened, but he may have been able to end it then. Tough endgame!
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
Long time no see in 2ers, Stein! Our last one didn't go so well for him, and this one didn't either.
The 06 is clearly the best starting plant in Italy 2ers, as the slower pace of the early market gives it more time to make money. $7 is a sweet value for it, and i'd willingly pay $8. You once again get to see my "buy trash and not build on turn 1" tactic with this plant. Let's break it down below:
You make an extra $12 for powering 1 city compared to 0, and spend $5 for the trash (so a $7 profit). If you don't build, however, you get cheaper resources for your second plant. Far more importantly, the no-build will allow you to buy the 09 on turn 2 if your opponent gets a plant. That's a nice little combo with 06 to survive the early game, and well worth the short-term loss of money. You still need to buy trash on turn 1 if planning to no-build, as that will prevent your opponent from building 2 cities to start.
This game was about the plants falling near-perfectly for me. Duds coming after i get 13 & 20, 39 showing up on the last turn, etc. Probably would've given up the 20 after one more bid too, hah! Stein had a hilariously bad set of early plants, including all of 03-05 for turn-order purposes. Turns out that was probably a little too extreme...10 deserved a couple bids before passing and taking 04, at least.
The bidding on the 26 was a bit unusually high, given how close we were to Step 3 at that point. It was worth a lot to me because i needed to power a good number of cities without using the 20, and nothing else fit the bill quite like 26 did. Having two 5-cap plants also allowed me to grab another efficient 5 and still easily make it to 21 at the end, which was a huge advantage. 34 was amazing here!
There may have been a way for Stein to win, though: not building above me after i bought 34. The resulting power-plant market was horrible for the player stuck on top, as all the big plants would have their resources bought out. Had i been top that turn instead, i would've passed on plants altogether and hoped Stein couldn't end after buying a plant...still would've easily won if that happened, but he may have been able to end it then. Tough endgame!
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
